iPhoto '08: The Missing Manual

chapter 13: idvd slideshows 319

chapter

13

L

et’s face it. Most of the methods iPhoto gives you to show off your prize

photos are geek techniques like sending them by email, posting them on a Web

page, turning them into a desktop picture, and so on. All of these methods

involve making your audience sit, hunched and uncomfortable, around a computer

screen.

Now imagine seating them instead in front of the big-screen TV in the family room,

turning down the lights, cranking up the surround sound, and grabbing the DVD

remote to show off the latest family photos.

You can do it. Thanks to iDVD (part of the iLife package), you can create DVD-based

slideshows from your photo collection, complete with soundtracks and navigational

menus and screens just like the DVDs you rent from Blockbuster.

This chapter covers the basics of how to bring your photos from iPhoto to iDVD and

how to customize, preview, and burn your slideshows once you’ve exported them to

iDVD.

The iDVD Slideshow

You don’t actually need iPhoto to create a slideshow in iDVD. By itself, iDVD has all

the tools you need to create interactive DVDs that include movies and soundtracks

as well as slideshows.

But using iPhoto can save you a lot of time and trouble. You can use iPhoto to preview,

edit, and organize all your photos into albums. Then, once your photos are arranged

into neatly organized albums, one click hands them off to iDVD, which converts

iDVD Slideshows

320 iphoto ’08: the missing manual

them into a DVD-readable format. iDVD also hooks up all the navigational links and

menus needed to present the show.

Creating an iDVD Slideshow

Creating a DVD of your own photos entails choosing the photos that you’ve orga-

nized in iPhoto, selecting a theme, building menus, and configuring the settings that

determine how your slideshow will look and operate. Finally, you can preview the

entire DVD (without actually burning a disc) to test navigation, pacing, and other

settings. When the whole thing looks right, you burn the final disc.

You can begin in either of two ways: from iPhoto or from iDVD. The following pages

walk you through both methods.

Starting in iPhoto

By beginning your odyssey in iPhoto, you can save a few steps.

1.Selectthephotosyouwanttoturnintoaslideshow.

You can select a freely chosen batch of individual photos (see the selection tricks

on page 114) or you can click almost anything in the Source list—like an album,

smart album, Last 12 Months icon, or whatever.

If you select a slideshow icon, you’ll commit the entire slideshow, complete with

transition effects and music (Chapter 8), to DVD. (Once it’s in iDVD, however,

you won’t be able to make changes to the slides or music.)

You can even select multiple albums in the Source list at once. If you want to include

an entire Event in the slideshow, click Events and then click the Event thumbnail.

Either way, you can’t have more than 99 photos in a slideshow.

Tip: Remember that any photos that aren’t in a 4:3 aspect ratio will wind up flanked by black bars when

displayed on a standard TV set.

The iDVD Slideshow

Figure 13-1:

If you don’t see an iDVD

button at the bottom of the

iPhoto window, you can

trigger the command by

choosing Send to iDVD from

the Share menu.

Or, if you’d rather install an

iDVD button at the bottom

of the window for quicker

access, choose ShareÆShow

in ToolbarÆSend to iDVD.