orrie smith Loc: Kansas

it would all be subjective to the attention span of the viewers. some would stay interested for an hour or more, some would get bored in 30 seconds. so, I guess the question is impossible to answer.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

Non profit's have a little more wiggle room. Technically your correct, but, if he is showing it to the girl scouts and is not charging money, I doubt if the local law enforcement officials or copyright officials would care, REALLY. I know many groups that are non profit that do it. I agree with your statement however.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

You can't go wrong with TED talks. "Technology, Entertainment, Design."

j.collinst

Never more than 20 minutes.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

It all depends on the intended audience. If they are Civil War buffs you may need 40 minutes to a hour. If they are just a random group that represent the general population without any special interest in the Civil War, then 5 minutes may be too long. Think of the length as a tailor would the fitting of an expensive suit.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

10 min.

Whoops

You lose most people within 10 minutes, statistically. Keep each slide to approximately 10 seconds have the music lag at the end, so you need to time audio to slide duration

Have a few trusted people you won't take offense from their comments, have them critique duration and slides. You don't want the "yawner" affect to take over

Remember its your opinion. You need to place yourself in the audience's eyes/ears. That's the difficult part

peterg Loc: Santa Rosa, CA

Depends on the subject and audience. For mine, I first pick the music, which is about 3 minutes long. Then, compose a slide show to fit the music. At the end of the show, I want the audience to want more, not less.

jmizera Loc: Austin Texas

I've done dozens of still image montage pieces on video. Basically slideshows with modest animation. Anything over 15 minutes is too long. Period.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

As an old Multi-Image* slide show producer (8-years an AMI member) and as a video training content producer, I can tell you that the sweet spot for maximum show length is around 12 minutes. SHORTER is even better.

At about half an hour, unless the subject matter is VERY compelling, and the imagery changes rapidly, you have lost about half the audience. Beyond 45 minutes, you've lost 80% to nearly all of them.

Actually, the average person gets bored with a single visual if it doesn't change within seven seconds. Changing images every two to four seconds keeps the brain on high alert.

Producer Ken Burns' works on PBS are great examples of how to keep people's attention on streams of still images for extended periods, using video. But without an avid interest in the subject matter, it takes an iron butt and a cup of coffee to endure an hour of any of them!

*Multi-Image was the simultaneous projection of MULTIPLE slide images in synchronization with a high fidelity sound track. It was popular for corporate meetings, workshops, and museum exhibits from about 1968 to 1993. Its heyday was the early to mid-1980s.

The techniques of Multi-Image live on in television advertising. Two FINE examples are current Rooms To Go furniture store ads, and the ad for the new Apple TV. Both convey a HUGE amount of information in a short time.

WayneL Loc: Baltimore Md

I use to take a lot of slides at Bike Week in Daytona and put on a slide show every year. I had hundreds to show and it would last about 1 1/2 - 2 hours. I think I held each slide 2-3 seconds some longer if more interesting. I guess it all comes down to how interesting the subject matter is.

revhen Loc: By the beautiful Hudson

Interesting, exciting, informative narration helps hold attention longer.

caganaudie

20-30 minutes is good. Check FAQ on this site http://www.photodex.com/ We use Proshow for all our shows. Using 5 sec. per photo = 300 photos in 22 minutes or 3 sec per photo 300 photos in 13 minutes.

bdk Loc: Sanibel Fl.

I taught a course on navigation, my slide show ran 5 minutes with a break where I spoke then 5 more minutes.
Of course navigation is a very boring subject and even I was bored with 10 minutes of pics.

seahawk505 Loc: Albuquerque, New Mexico

Try for 4-5 seconds per slide. To keep it moving and more interesting, use a dissolve transition (the fancier ones tends to be distracting). A soundtrack is essential to keep interest as well. You might also experiment with using the "Ken Burns effect" - it's available on Mac Photo slide shows and others. It can be overdone (too much movement), but can also be effective. Recommend 15-18 minutes max.