I think there is a hapy medium between "super fancy transitions and special effects in a slide show presentation" and just the right amount of pleasant transitions to make an effective slide show presentation. I guess what I am trying to say is the slide show can put the focus on all the fancy transitions, etc, etc and lose track of the actual subject presented in the photographs. Too much of a good thing is sometimes too much. For example if you are advertising a super new sports car then all the super fancy special effects and transitiions would seem to fit the "super zoom ...wow look at this" type of presentation. But if you are creating a slide show with people then the essense of the presentation is the people. (My thoughts only...don't know that I am right...just thinking about what is the purpose of the slide show....to advertise what the slide show can do or focus on the subject of the slide show).

There are a number of good and very good companies out there offering slideshow/video software and some have okay offerings and some have great options for creating a more involved Hollywood style slide show.

We recently had our first child, a beautiful little girl. I have been taking photos almost daily but always do a special monthly session with the same sort of shots to mark her growth. She will be ten months old on the 22nd of this month and once she turns one I will create a "One Year in the Life of Anna" video slide show. I will also create a beautiful coffee table book, recording her first year on earth which will become a family heirloom to be passed on through the generations. For now though, this is the video slide show I have created because I did not want to wait any longer to put something together or it would be too much work....
http://video214.com/play/wkPn1TyLgxJYNcwbDqnSRA/s/dark

Obviously for some the simple image up, image fade away will be sufficient. When I started making slide shows I thought that simple thing was fantastic. There is plenty of free software out there for that sort of show. But then I wanted to do something more because anyone could do the simple thing I first did.

Such a simple non-moving image show does not set you apart from other photographers. Yes of course you also need to have the talent and expertise to created exceptional images to go with the slide show, otherwise all you have is a shiny lump of crap, if you get my meaning.

The slide show software alone will only wow the audience with the transitions and movement but soon they will realize the photography is crap, but now it is just shiny crap. I say this to make us all wake up and concentrate on the photography first and the presentation secondly.

Practice lighting and posing techniques on your own family, they don't have to be smiling, just use them as object to perfect your skill level. Then go after the presentation side with slide show software.

For the money, I have not found a better company for creating slide shows, than ProShow, whether it be the Gold or the Producer version. Both will suffice for an elegant knock your socks off video slide show, it is just that Producer offers even more if you are prepared to invest the time to use all or even just part of its features.

As with Photoshop, at first it is amazing to be able to lighten or darken or intensify the colours in an image. But then you want to do more and it takes time because there is a learning curve. The same with a slide show programme, be it ProShow Gold, Producer or another company. If you invest the time to learn it you can create video slide shows that will blow away your competition.

If you also have exceptional photography skills then those two combinations will mean you have no equal in your area and people will pay to have their photos displayed in such a way like they may only see on TV. I suppose it all depends on what you wish to put into the project because you can only get out of it, the time and effort you put into it.

In my opinion it is worth every penny of my time and effort and of course money to be able to create slide shows for people that they can not find anywhere else. And of course for my own personal images of my family and my landscape images I take while on holiday. I can sit and watch my slides shows several times over and not get bored. Unlike my first efforts with the simple free software programmes. Those first efforts now bore me to tears, almost.

The other thing to consider is offering your services to the public to create slide shows from their images. Of course sometimes all you will be doing is shining up the crap, but if they liked the crap before, they will love the way you just made their crap shiny, so you are still on to a win-win situation here. Just my personal feeling on slide shows and the programmes that are out there to produce them.