Digital Focus: Make a CD Slide Show

Use your PC, OS, and CD-RW to make a slick slide show.

Dave Johnson

Feature: Slide Shows Made Easy

My cousin recently stopped by for a visit after spending a few weeks in China. She brought several dozen images that chronicled her voyage through the ancient and picturesque country. Thirty years ago, she might have showed the photos with a slide projector or a photo album. Liz had a much more modern solution: She connected her laptop to my television and let Windows XP change the pictures automatically while she narrated the slides from the comfort of the couch.

Windows XP Makes It So

You may not expect something as genuinely useful as an automated slide show to be a standard part of Windows, but it is--in Windows XP, that is. I've written before about how useful Windows XP is for digital photographers; this is yet another reason to upgrade if you haven't already. Believe it or not, Microsoft makes it so easy to create slide shows from your digital photos that you can have one up and running minutes after transferring pictures from your camera to your PC.

You create your slide show by simply clicking a link in the task pane of whatever folder you've copied your pictures to on the hard disk. Try this: Copy images to a new folder on your hard disk. Open the folder and look on the task pane, the column of links that lines the left side of the folder. Since Windows automatically figures out that the folder is full of pictures, it places picture tasks at the top of the pane. The first item you'll see is "View as a Slide Show." Click it, and Windows launches a full-screen slide show of the images, automatically advancing slides once every five seconds.

Once the slide show starts, you'll see a small navigation control at the top right corner of the screen. If you don't see it, just wiggle your mouse and the control will appear. You can use that navigation bar to pause or step through slides manually.

Viewing Your Slide Show

That's all well and good, but you may not keep your PC near your TV. What if you want to show your slide show in the living room? You can do what my cousin Liz did: She burned the slides onto a CD-R, then put the disc in a notebook and connected it to my TV. This is also easy, assuming you have a CD-RW drive in your PC. If you do, just stick a blank CD-R into the drive and wait a few movements. In the picture folder, click "Copy all items to CD" and let Windows do its magic.

When you place that CD-R in another Windows XP computer, you can run a slide show just as if the images were still on the hard disk. What if you place the disc in a computer that isn't running XP? Not a problem--you can still view the pictures, though you won't be able to play a slide show. Either way, it's a great way to share pictures with friends and family.

What if you don't have Windows XP? You can still make your own slide shows, but you'll need to invest in special software. Two of the best programs for this task are Sonic's MyDVD and Ulead's DVD Picture Show.

Dave's Favorites: Portable Image Storage With the EZDigiMagic DM220

Unless you love hearing the jingle-jangle of a dozen memory cards in your pocket, you've probably run out of memory while taking pictures away from home--or at least worried that it might happen. Even if memory cards were as easy to find while on vacation as 35mm film (and, to be honest, it's getting that way), buying more CompactFlash or Secure Digital cards while you travel is not a very satisfying solution.

That's where the EZDigiMagic DM220 comes in. This portable CD recorder is designed to back up photos while you travel, freeing up your memory cards for more pictures. It writes to CD-R and CD-RW media and accommodates CompactFlash, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, Secure Digital, and SmartMedia memory cards. Using it is simple: Just insert a disc and a card, then press the big Copy button on top of the drive.

I used the EZDigiMagic on a few outdoor photo expeditions, and loved the results. The drive supports multisession recording, so you can keep adding memory cards to a CD-R until it's full. On the disc, each memory card gets its own sequentially numbered folder with the images from that card only. This makes it easy to manage your pictures when you get home.

The EZDigiMagic comes with an AC adapter and a four-cell battery pack (batteries not included); you can buy an optional car adapter as well. The device is rather bulky, measuring 1.75 inches high and almost 8 inches long--that's kind of big if you're trying to travel light. However, I really love the EZDigiMagic's ability to record to CD. I've tried using portable hard drive-based devices like Delkin's EFilm PicturePad, but I've been concerned that the hard disks are too fragile to trust to once-in-a-lifetime travel photos. A CD-R is more or less indestructible, as long as you keep it safely tucked away in its jewel case out of direct sunlight.

Priced at $295, the EZDigiMagic is a worthy investment if you take lots of pictures on the go.

Q&A: How Do I Use Colored Filters With a Digital Camera?

I was hoping to get some special effects by shooting pictures with a colored filter and colored gels. But no matter what I do, it seems that the digital camera "corrects" for any color I put in front of the lens. Is there any way to use colored filters with a digital camera?

--Dennis Weissman, Secaucus, New Jersey

This reminds me of a problem I used to have with film photography, Dennis. When I used filters and special exposures with print film, the guy developing my film would always corrects my photos to some photographic norm, eliminating anything I did setting up the shot. My solution was to shoot exclusively on slide film because the developing process involves no human intervention.

Thankfully, you've got a similar solution for your problem. Unlike film, which is engineered to respond properly to a specific color temperature (like outdoor or tungsten light), a digital camera's sensor can vary its response by altering the white balance. That's usually a good thing--but it's a problem for you since it's erasing the effects you're trying to get with special filters. There's an easy fix: Adjust this setting manually. Follow the procedure in your camera's manual to set the white balance for your specific shooting situation, then apply the filters. Remember to reset the white balance to automatic when you're done.

Hot Pic of the Week

Get published, get famous! Each week, we select our favorite reader-submitted photo based on creativity, originality and technique. Every month, the best of the weekly winners gets a prize valued at between $15 and $50.

Here's how to enter: Send us your photograph in JPEG format, at a resolution no higher than 640 by 480 pixels. Entries at higher resolutions will be immediately disqualified. If necessary, use an image editing program to reduce the file size of your image before e-mailing it to us. Include the title of your photo along with a short description and how you photographed it. Don't forget to send your name, e-mail address, and postal address. Before entering, please read the full description of the contest rules and regulations.

This week's Hot Pic: "Giving Up," by Dan Brandenburg, Lexington, Kentucky

Dan writes about this week's winning photo: "In my spare time, I often ride around, looking for interesting things to photograph. I was exploring the countryside just last week when I saw smoke in the distance. I traveled a twisted maze of rural Kentucky backroads until I found a small-town fire department battling a blaze. After several minutes, the firemen decided to merely control the fire rather than put it out--the house was lost."

We want your feedback! Send your comments, questions, and suggestions about the newsletter itself to comments@bydavejohnson.com. If you have a question that you'd like to see answered in the weekly Q&A, send it to question@bydavejohnson.com.

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