Photo Story 3

From Longview ISD Technology Wiki

Current revision as of 20:29, 11 February 2013

General Purpose

Photo Story 3 is freeware from Microsoft which runs on Windows XP and 2007 computers. This software will pan and zoom over still images. By adding titles, narration, and background music, it is possible to create digital stories.

Photo Story 3 consists of 6 steps:

1. Import and arrange pictures.

2. Edit and crop pictures

3. Add titles

4. Add narration and/or background music.

5. Add transitions and custom motion.

6. Save and share digital story.

Import and Arrange Pictures

Creating A Project

1. Create a folder in your H drive or on the hard drive of the computer where you are working where all images, music files, and the project will be stored.

2. Click the Start button and select Photo Story 3. You may need to click all programs in order to find it on the list.

3. Select Begin a new story and click the Next button.

Importing Pictures

1. Click the Import Pictures button and navigate to the picture's location.

2. Move the slider at the top right to adjust the size of the thumbnails.

3. Double-click the picture you want to use. This will import the picture into Photo Story.

Selecting Multiple Image

1. Hold down the Ctrl key and click the thumbnail images you want to include in your Photo Story.

2. Click the OK button to import the pictures into the timeline.

3. You can always import more pictures at any time as you create your story.

Arranging Images

1. Click and hold an image and then drag it to the new location to move the image from one location to another on the timeline.

2. You can also use the arrow keys to the right of the timeline to move a selected picture to a new location.

Save the Project

You must save a project for your story to be able to edit it later. You can save the project for your story at any time while working on the story. Projects created by using Photo Story 3 for Windows must use a .wp3 file name extension.

1. Beneath the timeline, you will see a Save Project button. Click this button once.

2. Navigate to the correct folder. If you are at school, navigate to your H drive and save the project there. By default, the project for your story is saved in your My Videos folder.

3. Type in the desired name of the project.

4. Click the Save button.

Crop and Edit Pictures

General Cropping Information

• Photo Story 3 works best with images taken in landscape format. If changing the orientation of a picture is required, you should rotate the image before cropping it.
• You can edit your pictures by cropping the picture to keep only the portion that you want to use. Photo Story automatically adjusts the width or height to maintain a 4:3 aspect ratio for the picture.
• If you use a very small area of the image, the resulting picture may be blurry.
• You can also crop your pictures by right-clicking a picture in the film strip, pointing to Edit, and then clicking Crop. Then follow the steps in the next section.
• Cropping a picture does not affect the original picture.
• Clearing the crop check box removes the cropping for the selected picture.
• Clicking the reset button in the edit pictures dialog box discards all edits of the selected picture made on all of the tabs in the edit pictures dialog box.
• You can edit your pictures on any page in Photo Story on which the film strip appears by right-clicking a picture, pointing to edit, and then clicking the option you want.

Cropping Images

1. On the Import and arrange your pictures page, click an image.

2. Then, click the Edit button found beneath the preview image.

3. Click the Rotate and Crop tab.

4. Select the Crop check box.

5. A rectangle with handles appears on the image.

6. To resize the rectangle, point to a side or corner. When the cursor changes to a double-headed arrow, drag the handle.

7. To move the entire rectangle, point to the center of the rectangle. When the cursor changes into a 4-headed arrow, drag the rectangle to the image area you want to keep.

8. Click Save.

9. To crop another image, click the Go to Next Picture button or the Go to Previous Picture button until you reach the image you want to edit.

10. Repeat steps 6 – 9 until you have cropped all images that you want to change.

11. When you are done cropping, click close to close the Edit Pictures dialog box.

Removing Black Borders

If any images do not have a 4:3 aspect ratio, Photo Story displays the Remove black borders button on the Import and arrange your pictures page.

1. On the Import and arrange your pictures page, click Remove black borders.

2. In the Removing Black Borders dialog box, review the pictures in the Before and After boxes.

3. If you want to use the automatically cropped image shown in the After box in your story, click Yes.

4. If you want to crop the picture differently, in the Before box, drag a handle of the rectangle to the area of the picture that you want to appear and then click Yes.

5. If you do not want to use the cropped picture shown in the After box and you want to move to the next picture in your story, click No.

6. Repeat previous steps for each image, or click Yes to all to use the automatically cropped pictures without previewing them.

7. Save the project at any time while working on it by clicking the Save Project button. In the Save As dialog box, type a name for the project. You must use Save Project to be able to edit it later.

General Editing Tools

In the Import and Arrange Your Pictures title section, note the editing tools found below the preview screen.

• Correct color levels
• Correct red eye
• Rotate counterclockwise
• Rotate clockwise
• More editing tools

Correcting Color Levels

1. Click the correct color levels button.

2. Note that the correct color levels button is now blue. It is now on for this picture.

3. If you like how the picture now appears, leave the button on.

4. If you don’t like how the picture appears, click the button again to turn it off.

Correcting Red Eye

1. Click the picture on the timeline where you need to correct red eye.

2. Click the correct red eye button.

3. Note that the correct red eye button is now blue. The tool is now turned on.

4. If you like how the picture now appears, leave the button on.

5. If you don’t like how the picture appears, click the button again to turn it off.

Rotating Images

1. Photo Story 3 works best with images taken in a landscape mode.

2. Click rotate or rotate clockwise to correct orientation of image.

Editing Images

1. Click the edit button to make other changes your images.

2. Rotate and crop

3. Auto Fix

• Correct Contrast
• Correct Color Levels
• Correct Red Eye

4. Add Effect

5. Click the green clockwise or counterclockwise arrow to change the orientation of the image.

6. Under the auto fix tab, click the radio button beside the different auto fixes to turn the corrections on or off.

Adding Effects

1. Click the Add Effect tab.

1. Click the black arrow to the right of effect to see the possible effects.

1. Click the effect you want to use.

4. Select Apply the selected effect to all of the pictures in your story, if you want that effect on every slide.

5. Click save.

6. If you are using a different effect on each slide, click save after you change the effect on each slide.

7. Use the arrows to navigate to different slides.

8. Click save project to save all your editing changes to the project file.

Add Effects and Titles to Pictures

By default, when you add a title to a picture, the picture is static. No motion, or panning and zooming effects are applied to pictures with titles. To add panning and zooming effects to pictures with titles, you must customize the motion for the picture. For more information about customizing motion, see customizing motion.

You can also apply effects to pictures that change the appearance of the picture. For example, you might want to apply the Black and White effect to every picture that introduces a new section of your story. Using an effect can also make a title on a picture stand out more.

The title can have a maximum of 1,024 characters. The text wraps in the picture preview area. If you want to manually control which text appears on each line, separate lines by pressing the ENTER key.

You can edit your pictures on any page in Photo Story on which the film strip appears by right-clicking a picture, pointing to Edit, and then clicking the option you want.

1. On the Add a title to your pictures page, click a picture on the filmstrip, and then type the title.

2. If you want to change the appearance or location of the title, do the following:

a. To change the font, click the Select Font button, and then select the font type, style, size, effects, color, and script you want to use.

b. To change the horizontal alignment of the text, click the Align Left button, Center Horizontally button, or Align Right button.

c. To move the title up or down on the page, click the Align Top button, Center Vertically button, or Align Bottom button. By default, the title appears in the center of the picture.

3. As you make changes, you can view them in the Preview area on the left side of the page.

4. Click Next. If you want to return to the previous page, click Back.

5. You can click next without adding titles to any of your pictures.

Transitions and Customizing Motion

Adding Transitions

By default, transitions are inserted between pictures in your story. You can specify the number of seconds a transition will display or you can let Photo Story set the duration automatically.

1. On the narrate your pictures and customize motion page, click the picture for which you want to select a transition, and then click customize motion.

2. Click the transition tab.

3. If necessary, select the start current picture using a transition check box.

4. In the transitions box, click a transition.

5. If you want to specify the number of seconds the transition will be displayed when your story is played, select the number of seconds to display the transition option, and then type or select the number of seconds you want the transition to display.

6. Click save to save the motion and duration changes you made.

7. To preview your story with the transitions, click preview.

8. When you are done selecting transitions for the pictures in your story, click close.

Customizing Motion

1. On the narrate your pictures and customize motion page, click the picture for which you want to specify the motion, and then click customize motion tab.

2. In the customize motion dialog box, select the specify start and end position of motion check box. A rectangle with handles appears on the picture in the start position and end position boxes.

3. In the start position box, do one or both of the following:

a. To resize the rectangle, point to a side or corner of the rectangle. When the cursor changes into a double-headed arrow, drag the handle.

b. To move the whole rectangle, point to the center of the rectangle. When the cursor changes into a four-headed arrow, drag the rectangle to the area of the picture that you want to receive focus when the picture first appears in your story.

4. In the end position box, repeat the previous 3a and 3b steps.

5. If you want the motion for the selected picture to start where the motion for the previous picture ended, select the set start position to be the same as end position of the previous picture check box.

6. Moving the rectangles clears the check box.

7. If this picture does not have narration and you want to specify the number of seconds it will be displayed when your story is played, select the number of seconds to display the picture option, and then type or select the number of seconds you want the picture to display.

8. Click save to save the motion and duration changes you made.

9. To preview the panning and zooming effects, click preview. When you are done customizing the panning and zooming motion for the pictures in your story, click close.

Narration and Background Music

Microphone

1. Configure your microphone to ensure that your sound card can record sounds and that your microphone and speaker volumes are set the way you want them.

2. Click the configure microphone and set recording volume button on the narrate your pictures and customize motion page to adjust the volume setting on your speakers or adjust the recording volume for your microphone.

3. In addition, click the configure microphone and set recording volume button if you need to correct any microphone-related issues.

4. Many computers have built-in microphones, but the sound quality recorded by this type of microphone may vary from microphone to microphone and from session to session, depending on other sounds in the room.

5. If no microphone is installed on your computer and you attempt to record narration, Photo Story may record static noise instead.

6. If your microphone is accidentally unplugged before you start recording narration for your story, Photo Story might not be able to detect that the microphone has been unplugged and will not display an error message.

Narration

1. To begin recording narration for a picture, click the picture, click the Record Narration button (red dot), and then begin speaking into your microphone.

2. You can type notes for each picture to aid your memory as you narrate.

3. Photo Story captures the narration individually for each picture and displays the length of the narration for the picture on the right side of the delete narration button. You can record up to five minutes of narration for each picture.

4. To narrate the next picture in the film strip, click the picture on the filmstrip at the bottom and then begin speaking again.

5. To narrate a picture that is not the next picture in order in the film strip, click that picture, and then begin speaking.

6. To specify the number of seconds that a picture without narration will appear in the clip, click that picture in the film strip, and then click customize motion.

To delete the narration, click that picture in the film strip, and then click the delete narration button. You can then record the narration again.

7. To stop narrating a picture, click the stop recording button. If you do not select a different picture, you can press the record narration button again to continue the narration for that picture.

8. To preview your story, click preview.

9. Click next.

10. Each picture that has narration, edits, or other options specified will appear dimmed in the film strip. A narration symbol is displayed in the lower-left corner of pictures that include narration. An effects symbol is displayed in the lower-right corner of pictures for which you customized the motion. Pictures with narration or customized durations also show the length of time a picture will be displayed when the final story is played.

11. You can proceed to the next Photo Story page without recording narration or customizing motion for one or more of your pictures. Photo Story generates the panning and zooming effects automatically for these pictures. By default, each of the pictures appears for five seconds when you play the story.

12. Deleting the narration from a picture may change the length of time the picture is to be displayed.

Background Music

You can add background music that plays during your story. A different piece of music can play for each picture or for a group of pictures. You can add as many pieces of music to a story as there are pictures in the story. You can add multiple songs from your computer or my music folder to your story. You can add as many songs as there are pictures in your story and Photo Story plays each song for as long as the picture is displayed in your story.

Pay close attention to copy right laws. The picture you select is the anchor image, and indicates where you want the music to start playing. The anchor image is indicated by a musical note displayed beneath the picture in the film strip.

The music you select plays until one of the following events occurs:

• The music ends.
• An anchor image that specifies a new piece of music be played is encountered.
• The story ends.

You can replace a piece of music for an anchor image by selecting a different piece of music or by dragging a music file onto the anchor image in the film strip. If the anchor image is deleted from the story, the music and any other customizations associated with the anchor image are also deleted from the story. When you add background music to your story, a music strip appears above the film strip. The music strip displays the name of each piece of music that is added to your video story. The music strip is color-coded for each piece of music in the story. Photo story automatically adjusts the amount of time a piece of music will play in your story when any of the following occurs:

• A picture is added to a group of pictures.

• A picture is deleted from a group of pictures.
• A picture is moved to a different place in the story.
• Another piece of music is added to the story.
• The story ends.

For example, suppose that a piece of music is long enough to play while four pictures are displayed in your story. If you select another piece of music to play starting at the third picture in the original group of pictures, the first piece of music will automatically stop playing when the third picture is displayed in your story. If you select a piece of music that is shorter than the picture duration in your story, the music will end before the picture is completely displayed. If you want background music to play for the entire picture duration, you can do one of the following:

• Reduce the picture duration.
• Reduce the amount of narration.
• Select a longer piece of music.

If you select a piece of music that is shorter than the duration of a group of pictures in your story, the music will end before the group of pictures is completely displayed. If you want background music to play while all the pictures in the group are displayed, you can do the following:

• If you specified duration for the pictures, reduce the amount of time each picture in the group is displayed.
• If you narrated some or all of the pictures, reduce the amount of narration for the group of pictures.
• Loop the piece of music by adding it to the picture in the group where it ended
• Select a longer piece of music.

Notes The Add background music page also enables you to display information about a selected piece of music, set the volume for a piece of music, and preview your story.

1. Only one piece of music can play for a selected picture or anchor image.

2. On the add background music page, click a picture. Click select music.

3. In the open dialog box, locate the music you want to add, and then click open. The music file can be in Windows Media Audio (WMA), MP3, or WAV format.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you have selected all the music that you want to play with your story.

5. Click preview to play your story. Your entire story plays, starting at the selected picture, complete with the narration, title pages, and any background music you added.

6. If you need to adjust the volume of a piece of background music in your story, select the anchor image, and then move the volume slider on the add background music page.

7. You can also change the music in your story by right-clicking a picture on the film strip on the add background music page, pointing to music, and clicking select, create, or delete.

Saving for a Purpose and Rendering Movie

Saving the Project

1. Click the save project button.

2. Navigate to the location where you want the project saved.

3. Use the scroll bar on the left to find the desired location.

4. Type in an appropriate file name.

5. Save as type should be Photo Story 3 Project Files (*.wp3).

6. Click save. The following window appears.

7. Click yes if you want it replaced. The project is saved over the top of the previous project that had the same name.

8. You must save a project for your story to be able to edit it later.

9. By default, the project for your story is saved in your my videos folder on the hard drive of the computer.

Saving for a Purpose

1. Choose the appropriate purpose for your presentation. In most cases, choose save your story for playback on your computer.

2. Next, you must specify the location and file name of your story. This is where the wmv (movie) file will be saved when the movie is rendered. Click the browse button and navigate to the desired location.

3. Under quality settings, click settings if you want to particular changes.

Rendering the Movie

1. When you click the next button. The program renders the project into a movie file(wmv).

2. It will move through several steps where it builds the movie. Be patient!!! It could take several minutes for the movie to render. The more pictures, narration, and background music you have the longer it takes to render.

3. After the computer completes the rendering, you will see the following screen. You may view your story, create another story, save the project, or exit.