How to Take Pictures for a Moving Slideshow

Picture-taking used to be a bit more straightforward.  The point of taking a picture was to have a fixed image worthy of framing.  The casual photographer would try to fill the frame with the point of interest and little more. And that was great.

Emphasis on the WAS.

With high resolution digital pictures, there is so much more that can be done.  Sure, if your thumb snuck into the picture, that can be cropped out.  But I’m talking about far more than that.  Pictures in a digital slideshow can move.  If you captured a sweeping vista, I can make the vantage point sweep through the picture.  If multiple people are laughing in a delightful interaction, I can focus on one at time or move the audience through the scene in an infinite number of ways. I can reveal an event, and then a child’s reaction.  Or vice versa.

But it’s a challenge to make the pictures move, when there’s no where to move them. Or to zoom in when the close-up is already close.  What makes a beautiful photo for framing only makes a great stationary image. A great image for a moving slideshow has much to be explored.

So, when you take your digital pictures, snap away without worrying about the perfect framing of your image. You’re recording your memories, so record what you see.  And when it comes time to turn those memories into a DVD, choose pictures that tell the story.  Because sometimes the story isn’t what was front and center when you snapped the picture.