There are some very good free slideshow software programs that you can use with excellent results.




Most of us have accumulated hundreds if not thousands photos throughout the years… many of them are stored on our computers. One cool way to share them with others is to make slideshows. Either post them on the web or burn them on DVD and let the family and friends watch them on TV.





There are four free slideshow software programs that I highly recommend:

1. Microsoft Photo Story 3
2. DVD slideshow GUI
3. Picasa3 and Picasa Web Albums
4. SmileBox Slideshows





Animoto is one of those sites that are a lot of fun. They do all the special effects....and make you look very professional!

This can be free slideshow software or you can also upgrade to paid versions. You can do short clips for free and longer clips for $3.00 each.

If you've ever had the problem of uploading to YouTube and the quality being poor, Animoto can help. For $5.00, you can download your video in hi resolution and then upload it to YouTube. (You can download it without this feature for free.) I did some testing with various YouTube uploads, and Animoto was the best. This is particularly true of movies that are made with lower resolution photos.

To create your movie/slideshow, just upload your photos. They suggest around 8 to 12 photos for longer movies. You can also create text to be inserted periodically. If you have one or two photos that you feel are special in the group, you can choose to highlight these, and Animoto will "feature" them.


Microsoft Photo Story 3

My first recommendation if you have Windows XP is Photo Story 3. It's a perfect tool and a must have for all who love digital photography. Photo Story 3 is one of the best slideshow software programs to create your own stories and make wonderful slideshows.

You can add effects like black and white, sepia, water color, panning, zooming, flipping, etc, as well as music, titles and your own voice to narrate your photo stories. Yet the best part of it is that you can choose to email it, save it on your Smartphone, Pocket PC, or Portable Media Player. You can also simply burn it on DVD.

To Download: Photo Story 3


DVD Slideshow GUI

DVD slideshow GUI is very simple yet powerful photo slideshow software to make slideshows from videos and images. The interface is very simple and you'll be able to master it in very short time. The program has quite a number of transitions (220 in total), with the option to create your own.

With this free slideshow software, your images can be zoomed in or out, panned, rotated, flipped, etc. It has some pre-defined animations that you can use. You can import MP3 or WAV sound files. The audio will loop with your images until the slideshow ends. When you're done editing you can save or export your file to a wide range of file formats: DVD folder, ISO image (for burning on DVDs), MPG, AVI, FLV, etc.

To burn your slideshow on DVD you can use either Nero or a freeware such as ImgBurn or CDBurnerXP.

To Download: DVD Slideshow GUI

imgBurn


Picasa 3

Google Picasa 3 is very well known as a photo organizer and photo editor program, but it is also a free slideshow software program. You can make wonderful slideshows and burn them on DVD by using the movie maker button. You can also use transitions, add music and like the other two, add text to your images. It's very simple and very easy to use. When you're done making your slideshow movie, Picasa usually saves the file in My Pictures/Picasa/Movies. You can now burn the file into DVD using either Nero or ImgBurn or CDBurnerXP.

To Download: Picasa 3

You can also make slideshows directly from your Albums on Picasa Web Albums (sample shown at the top of the page).


SmileBox Slideshows

If you don't like to install any slideshow software on your computer, then you can try Smilebox slideshows; you can create slideshows for free online. There are hundreds of themes, and much like Photo Story, DVD Slideshow GUI and Picasa 3 you can add transition text, music and many other photo effects.

It's a very easy way to share your slideshow with others via email, blog or simply burn to DVD. You can also easily upload your slideshows to Facebook and MSpace.

Link: Smilebox Slideshows

Enjoy and have fun doing your slideshows!