# Proshow Lightroom Plugin



## sonny_c (Nov 10, 2008)

Wowzers!

Photodex has a FREE plugin for ProShow!  This seems pretty damn awesome.  I've yet to play with it.  Hoping to get some time this week.  If anyone else has a chance...please let us know how it works.

http://www.photodex.com/eid8899/downloads/go_lrplugin.html


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## Victoria Bampton (Nov 10, 2008)

Here's the rest of the blurb... http://www.photodex.com/products/lrplugin

It'll be interesting to see how they've got it set up.  There is no plugin SDK for the slideshow module, so it must be an export plugin that will take metadata about the files and use that info in a ProShow slideshow.  I could certainly see that being a popular option!


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## Brad Snyder (Nov 10, 2008)

I tried a quick test first thing this AM, when the announcement email came in. With 4 random sample images, it worked seamlessly.  

I'll continue to fiddle as I get time....


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## Sean McCormack (Nov 11, 2008)

Hey Brad,
if you post a review, I'll edit the announcement on LRN to include a link.


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## Brad Snyder (Nov 11, 2008)

I''l try.


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## Rooeey (Nov 11, 2008)

I suppose us poor Mac users are out in the cold on this one.......


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## Sean McCormack (Nov 12, 2008)

We are indeed. But ProShow's always been PC only. 

You could of course run it under boot camp/ parallels /VM ware


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## Rooeey (Nov 12, 2008)

Sean McCormack said:


> We are indeed. But ProShow's always been PC only.
> 
> You could of course run it under boot camp/ parallels /VM ware



I will just stick to my imovie and put it out there on my mobileme account....

Thanks for thinking of it though..


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## OldMan (Nov 16, 2008)

*Location of pics a problem?*

It's a nice plug-in but very often when I select pictures in Lightroom and then export with the plug-in it says that pictures can't be found. I have to manually browse and tell ProShow the location.

Am I doing anything wrong or is this a problem with the plug-in?


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## johnbeardy (Nov 16, 2008)

"it says that pictures can't be found. I have to manually browse and tell ProShow the location."
What is "it"? The plug-in or ProShow? Tell ProShow or tell Lightroom?

It sounds like you've been moving files around in Explorer, so the LR plug-in doesn't know where they are. Look for  question marks on the files/folders and then point them to where the files now are, and in future try to move files / folders in Lightroom.


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## OldMan (Nov 16, 2008)

"It" means ProShow Gold or the plug-in (how can I tell?). Sorry if this was confusing but I think your conclusion is correct. Since I have been testing it is possible that I moved files outside of Lightroom by mistake. I made a new test tonight and made sure everything was imported and handled inside Lightroom and the plug-in worked perfectly.

However; I wonder why Lightroom could handle the files if I moved them around outside Lightroom?

Anyway; as far as I can see the plug-in works as expected if I handle the files correctly. Thanks for your time.


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## Brad Snyder (Nov 16, 2008)

OldMan said:


> However; I wonder why Lightroom could handle the files if I moved them around outside Lightroom?



LR was likely working with the existing 1:1 rendered previews if you hadn't attempted new Develop adjustments on those images.  Only the changed images or those lacking up to date preview renders would have resulted in the warning.


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## OldMan (Nov 16, 2008)

Thanks Brad. I am still a bit confused but since I most certainly did it the wrong way I assume that both Lightroom, ProShow and the plug-in works as expected. And your explanation makes sense.

All tests I have made tonight the correct way have been successful.

Thanks.


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## Brad Snyder (Nov 17, 2008)

Well, that's what's important.


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## jcherin (Nov 18, 2008)

I have been a ProShow believer for several years...and I jumped on the plug-in the moment I heard about it.

Pros: It showed me something I didn't know about ProShow -- that it has global text input available.

Cons: It is slower to use the plug-in than to first export your images and then load them into ProShow...a lot slower.

Usability:  I was very excited to be able to give my clients a ProShow of all their pictures WITH the file name on the image.  This works really well for me as I give my clients the final files as jpegs (I shoot in RAW).  

My testing process began with a completed wedding.  I waited for it to finish very expectantly...and when it did....oops.  The plug-in uses the original file name -- NOT the exported image name which is what I need my clients to see.

I was also not happy with the 'random' motions chosen by the plug-in as many of them were zooms from or to infinity (from nothing or to nothing).  It also took a long time.

I redid the same wedding from my exported/final images and even that took a long time as ProShow can handle but is not 'happy' with the huge jpeg files (3-5mg).

So I re-exported (from LR) the 'final' adjusted images to a new folder at a much smaller size (8''x6'') and ProShow worked great.  The random motions chosen doing it this way where much easier to adjust to make them work well and more of them didn't need any touch-up.

Conclusion: Since I love ProShow Gold and would recommend it to everyone that works (on a PC) with images (sorry mac), my workflow with it will be, to do a second export from LR of my final images, at a smaller size and then open ProShow and load them in using the global command to place the file name on the image (\f).  

For those interested in the ProShow settings I use -- I time the image to 4 seconds and the transitions (all fades) to 1.5 seconds.  I have adjust the file name to appear in the lower right corner as a "Grow Random" entrance and a "fade" exit.  I use Century Gothic with a drop shadow and it is size 12.  I find that this has an elegance that works and yet the size and motion do not interrupt or take away from the client watching the images.  When I can get the client to give me some audio, I will add it but I also will give it to them with no audio (and tell them to put their own music on while they watch).

Clients love this.

If you are interested in ProShow - they give you 15 days free usage.  I would suggest the middle level (GOLD) for everyone.  "Producer" is much higher priced and although it has some nice features, I would (as a video guy background) use a video editor at that level.  It is actually very complex.  GOLD is very reasonably priced and has been at the top of my personal list of software that does exceptionally well what it was designed to do.  I have probably sold 6' copies of it for them...!

jeffrey


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