October 2009 Newsletter

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Welcome to the Photo to Movie Newsletter

October 2009

Welcome to the October 2009 edition of the Photo to Movie newsletter!

In this newsletter:

  • Photo to Movie 4.2.7 (Snow Leopard Release)
  • Halloween for Kids -- Slideshow Tips
  • Special Deals Mailing List
  • User Profiles
  • Photo to Movie Facebook Group
  • Newsletter Archive
  • Notices

Photo to Movie 4.2.7 (Snow Leopard Release)

IMPORTANT

Please update to Photo to Movie 4.2.7 (Mac OS), especially if you're using Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard).

LQ Graphics is pleased to announce the release of Photo to Movie 4.2.7 (Mac OS). This is a minor but crucial patch, following version 4.2.6 in our efforts to make Photo to Movie more stable for Snow Leopard.

  • Fixed more crashes in Snow Leopard, particularly with portrait-oriented images.
  • Fixed minor problem with low-resolution preview during scrubbing portrait images.
  • Fixed media browser to work more consistently.

If you’d like to report a bug, please email us at software@lqgraphics.com. Stay tuned for more news about patches and upcoming new releases of Photo to Movie.

Halloween for Kids -- Slideshow Tips

Halloween is a classic American kid's holiday, full of mischief, dress-up, and candy. In recent years, however, this night of fun has spread much more; both to adults, and to other countries. We love Halloween, and as such we'd like to offer suggestions on how to use Photo to Movie to spook up your Halloween, whether you're a parent, a child, or a fun-loving adult.

Halloween is one of the most popular holidays for kids, a chance for them to do exciting, out of the ordinary activities with full parental approval. That kind of enthusiasm always makes for a great show. And you can harness it also in the creation of the show--get your kids involved in taking the pictures and putting the slideshow together on Photo to Movie.

It's yet another way for you to share the fun and games with your kids, creating good family memories even as you record them. Preparations start well before the actual day, and this gives you plenty of time and opportunity to take pictures. There are several ways to organize your slideshow, as we've written about in past newsletters. However you do it, though, be sure to take great pictures and have fun.

  • Costumes Start with the first trips to the store to get costumes--if you're anything like most families, your kids will go through several ideas about their costumes, tempered only by practicality and your budget. Get shots of them trying on different outfits, or just having fun in the seasonal Halloween superstores that spring up.
  • Pumpkins Next, the pumpkins: whether you grow your own or buy them at a pumpkin patch, this is a fine chance to get both Halloween--and fall season--pictures. You can throw a small pumpkin carving parties, inviting just a few of their children's good friends. Be sure to get pictures of each kid carving, and all of them posing together at the end with their jack o' lanterns.
  • Trick or Treating Do we even need to mention trick or treating? While taking photographs in low-light conditions can be tricky, a number of guides and how-tos can be found on the web, and modern digital cameras often have sophisticated automatic settings that take the guess-work out. As ever, getting a bit of practice before the main event is surely helpful.
  • More Photos If you prefer that your children not go trick-or-treating or if you participate in any other activities, then bring a camera along with you and snap away.
  • Candy Counting And that would be the end, right? Not quite; after the kids come home, laden with candy, it's guaranteed you'll have more opportunities to get great Halloween-themed pictures. Kids love candy--they love counting their haul, organizing it, trading pieces with each other, deciding what piece to eat and when (again, tempered by your parental oversight.)
  • Halloween Stories Another idea, good for younger kids, is to create a slideshow picture-book to help them get into the Halloween mood: ghosts and goblins abound at this time of year, and you can find a great number of pictures and sound effects on the web. Try making a story about your child and their adventures on Halloween night. Or you can create your own version of the classic Great Pumpkin story, featured in so many Charlie Brown cartoons and comic strips over the years.
  • Answering the Door If you stay home to pass out candy, you can take pictures of all the kids who come to trick or treat. Make sure you ask their parents' permission, of course, if they are along. You can add this to your main slideshow, or make a quick one as a side-project, and post it online for the whole neighborhood to see.

That's about it! As always, if you like our ideas, and put any of them into effect, send us an email with a link to your finished video. We love seeing them, and love sharing them with our readers.

Special Deals Mailing List

Due to numerous requests, LQ Graphics now has a special mailing list for special deals, offers, and discounts on LQ Graphics products and 3rd party products.

This is a great way to SAVE MONEY on software. We're negotiating with several other companies to offer special DISCOUNTS to our customers on their products. We expect the first special offer to be available in early December -- SIGN UP NOW.

This special deals mailing list is opt-in only. You must click on the link below and check the appropriate box to be included.

Sign Up for Discounts

Submit Your User Profile

LQ Graphics would like to call for volunteers for a series of user profiles to be featured in upcoming newsletters. What creative, ingenious uses for Photo to Movie have you found? What kind of cool job or hobby do you have, in which you use Photo to Movie or Motion Pictures? We've had some great submissions from last month, but we're still looking for more.

Basically, if you're using Photo to Movie for something fun or interesting, we'd like to profile you. Our readers and users love our user profiles and use them to provide ideas for their own slideshows.

To get started, we need a brief email from you with your name, where you live, and your story. Detail is good, but we'll do the interviews later., so you don't need to tell us everything up front. Also, if you have links to movies you made--that relate to your story, of course--with Photo to Movie, please include those as well.

Email this to us at software@lqgraphics.com, and if we like your story, we'll get in touch and feature you in an upcoming newsletter.

Photo to Movie Facebook Group

As a place for further discussion of tips and techniques, video samples, support, feature discussions, and more, we host the Photo to Movie Group on Facebook. It's a great group so check it out and get in touch with other Photo to Movie users for tips, samples, and help.

Visit the group home page by clicking on this link:

Photo to Movie Facebook Group

Newsletter Archive

All of our previous newsletters are available on our website. Check them out for tips, news, and information items.

Browse through the Photo to Movie newsletter archive

Notices

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LQ Graphics, Inc., 7172 Regional Street #297, Dublin, CA 94568