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No doubt, like many others, you have a large, if not vast, collection of photos and videos taking up valuable storage space on your computer.  While these images are a great aid to your memory, they can also be put to more productive use by being amalgamated into a visual and audio experience that could be enjoyed by friends and family.  This task could be carried out with a software product such as PHOTOSTORY Deluxe from MAGIX.

Those of you who are familiar with MAGIX’s range of products will not be surprised to hear that this latest version of PHOTOSTORY Deluxe comes with various bonus items which can be included as part of the installation routine.  Along with the main PHOTOSTORY Deluxe software, you can select from items that include Music Maker (originally released as a standalone product), MAGIX Magazine and Tutorial videos.  A certain amount of time will need to be set aside for the installation as the PHOTOSTORY Deluxe software ate up the best part of 45 minutes when taking up residence on my work system.

In order to gain access to the full functionality of the PHOTOSTORY Deluxe software, you will need to activate the product.  This process requires the entry of a provided 31-character serial number and an Internet connection to complete the process.  Details will be added to your MAGIX account or you will be given the opportunity to create a new account if one does not exist.

See also: Graphic software

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PHOTODTORY Deluxe gives you a choice of options when starting the software.  You can opt for a new project, empty or previously started project or a tutorial.  The latter gives you a choice of narrated tutorials covering an introduction to the project and specific topics such as Beat-based editing, movie templates and Shot match as you learn more about using snap markers to mark changes in music, transform your content into a film plus transfer colour and tonal values between images.

The easiest way to dip your toes into this software is through the use of a wizard available when creating a new slideshow.  This wizard will guide you through the process of selecting content from various sources, either from those suggested common locations or those of your own choosing using standard Windows protocols.  Background music can be added from pre-defines categories such as Chill Out, House, Jazz, Lounge, Rock Pop and Classic.  You could, of course, take a more personalised approach and chosen from any of your own music collection.  A random selection of effects will be automatically added and you can view the results in a player.  At this point you can make the decision to start again or, more likely, indulge in some manual editing.

Editing tasks involve working in the program’s main interface which is divided into Monitor, Media Pool and Arranger areas with appropriate menu and tool bar options.  The slideshow currently under construction will be placed in the Arranger area in, by default, Storyboard mode.  You can change the order of the individual slides, add a text intro plus adjust elements of timing and intensity issues. 

There is also an option to switch to a timeline mode which opens up more features such as adding additional items from the Media Pool.  These items can be optimised and animated before being dragged and dropped into the slideshow.  You can also apply transitions and picture-in-picture elements plus record your own commentary to add to the slideshow.

Once satisfied with the slideshow and the effects you have added, you can move on and save the results either in a file or burned to appropriate media ready for viewing on different devices including mobile units.  PHOTOSTORY Deluxe offers support for a range of formats.  When importing media there is support for HEVC/H.265P, MPEG1/2/4, MOV, WMV, WAV, MP3 and OGG amongst other.  There is also support for working with Blu-ray, DVD and AVCHD export formats.

PHOTOSTORY Deluxe is a well design product offering a range of easy to use features that include camera panning, zooms and rotation amongst its 1,500+ effects.  As this version of the product has reached its 15^th birthday, MAGIX has bundled a coupon with the software which allows you to take advantage of free effects up to a value of £44.95.  This 62-bit software requires a 2GHz processor with 2GB of RAM with 2GB of hard disk space running Windows 7 and later.  MAGIX has priced this latest version at £47.99.

http://www.magix.com/gb/photostory-on-cd-dvd/