Picture Slideshows....take a cue from TV

My daughter 'graduated' from middle school today. During the ceremony, a group of ambitious students put together a 60-75 slides, using Microsoft PowerPoint, documenting their 8th grade year. PowerPoint and other slideshow making programs give us great flexibility in putting together our pictures like never before.

Does anyone use the old slide projectors anymore?

These students had a minimum slide time of 20 seconds and some slides were on screen for almost 30 seconds. Needless to say, the impact of the program was dramatically reduced because of the extremely long time the audience had to stare at the same picture. The students also put the slideshow to music. Being of the video and Internet age, I would have thought these students would have questioned the length of slides, but I also expected their tech teacher to point it out as they were putting it together. The kids showed some gumption in doing the slideshow, so I have no fault with them at all...I just wish the teachers would have helped guide them.

Today's slideshow lasted almost a full thirty minutes...for only 60-75 slides! Take a cue from TV and movie producers...if an image is on-screen more than three seconds, the audiences mind and attention will wander.

The key is getting your audience to want to see the slideshow again because their interest was piqued and they were entertained. At most, the slideshow I watched today should have been five minutes. We can process images very quickly in our minds, and we can also quickly lose our interest as well. Resist the urge to keep Aunt Martha waving to the cruise ship on the screen for more than 3-4 seconds. If there is a little text to read, extend the slide to no more than 6-7 seconds.

Search our site for 'slideshow', and you will find many tips and links to programs that can help you create a slideshow your audience will rave about rather than sleep through.

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