Getting Started

8     Update your Windows Media Player to version 10 (or install from CD)

8     Download and install Photo Story 3 from Microsoft.com.

8   Gather your great digital photos, scanned stuff, multimedia images, etc… 

8   Key – Great pictures make a great Photo Story.  The converse is also true!

 

Nuts and Bolts:

8     Begin a new story

 

Window 1 - Import and arrange your pictures:

8     Import Pictures… (Up to 300, oh, my!)

8     Remove Black Borders

8     Edit (crop, rotate, auto fix – contrast, color, red eye)

8     Save and close the edit window.

8     Drag and drop pictures to arrange them in the story.

8     Next…

Window 2 – Add a title to your pictures

8     Click on the first picture you want to add text onto.  Type in your text.  Use the alignment and placement tools to place text.  Click the font button to change font, color, size, or style.

8     You can also use background files that you make in paint or find pre-made backgrounds in the Windows Sampler folder

8     Click on Effect: to select a filter.  Sepia is a nice effect for “antiquing” a shot.

8     By this time, you’ve done enough work that you should save your project.  Click on the button, name it, and put it where you can find it again (i.e., My Videos).

8     Next…

 

Window 3 - Narrate your pictures and customize motion

8     Just for fun, click on the Preview button and see what you have so far – pretty cool, huh!  Now you know what Motion Path means. (NOTE – The preview begins on the “active” picture.  So click on picture 1 to see the entire show.)

8     Click the Customize Motion button.  If you like what that shot does, move on to the next picture by clicking on the arrow.  You can set the start and end path positions and set the timing for that picture.  While in this window, you may click on the transition tab and customize your transitions.  Save and Close that window.

8     Preview again to see what you have now.  Anything you did that you don’t like can easily be changed.

8     If you want to add narration, this is where you do it.  Test and configure your mic with the mic button, then use the red dot to start recording.

8     Next…

 

Window 4 – Add background music

8     Quite simply, you can select music from your music files or create music.

8     If you select music, a bar across the top of the pictures will show the length of the music.  If you have more pictures than music, you can move to other pictures and add more music if you choose.

8     If you create music, it will start and end with your story.

8     Preview to be sure your show is just like you want it.  You can use the back arrows to go back to any part of the story and make changes.

8     Might as well do another Save Project.

8     Next…

Window 5 – Save your story

8     Look at your options and choose one (probably the first one).

8   The file name will be the same as your project name or you can change it.  The file being created is a movie file that will play back in your Media Player.

8   Next – View your story.

 

Final Note – Once the movie is made, to make changes, open the project file, make your changes, and make another movie or replace the first one.

 

 

Bright Ideas:

8     Family picture fun

8     Teaching presentation tool

8     Student presentation tool (Native Americans, sea life, cell division etc.)

8     Class project

8     Put Photo Stories on the server so all can access them

8     Email the movie to a friend, relative, colleague

8     Put several Photo Stories on a CD or DVD as a gift

8     Digital Picture stories

8     Photo Journals for labs, trips, etc.

8     Instructional Videos

8     Short Stories using student illustrations

8     Assessment for science labs

8     Field trip

8     End of year program

8     Digital scrapbooks of student’s lives

8     Internet photo projects: collect pictures about a topic. Save the pictures in a computer file. They can then be put in Photo Story with music, narration and words.

8     Story Illustrations: Illustrate a story and take a digital picture of each page (no words). Put the pictures in Photo Story and add music, words and narration. 

8     Illustrate and explain how to complete a process: Either use student drawn illustrations or take pictures of a process (cell division, scientific method, steps of how to bake a cake).

How to Create Backgrounds for Titles/Text in Photo Story 3

Open Microsoft Paint

-A new file automatically opens with the default image settings
-For a background in Photo Story you probably want the dimensions to be 800x600 so go to:
--> Image
--> Attributes and change the width and height. Be sure pixels are selected.
Click OK.

-Then start designing by using the tools palette. If you want a solid color then select the ink well tool, choose the desired color and simply click inside the large solid area.

- Your creation is only limited by your imagination at this point.

Remember... this is a background for text, do not make it too busy.

Saving your file:
-Click on:
-File
-Save
-Choose your location
-Give the file a name
-Change the file type to a .jpeg (.jpg)
-Click Save

Saving music to use in your project

• First make sure that you own the CD or have legally downloaded your music
• Open up CD with Microsoft Media Player 10
• Click Rip and uncheck the songs that you do not want to rip
• Click Rip, by default your music is saved to “My Music”
• You may at this point want to move your music to your project folder