Create Gorgeous Slideshows with FotoMagico 4
With FotoMagico 4, you can create impressive, gorgeous slideshows that look professionally put together, even if you're an amateur computer user. The app is so intuitive and simple to use that you can open it up and create a complex photo show within a half an hour.
It does come with a demo slideshow that you'll want to open up and check out to see all of the impressive things that it can do.
This app is the perfect solution for professional and aspiring photographers. You can whip up amazing slideshows of your photos for clients with no hassle at all, and then share them in a variety of ways.
When you open the app, you can choose to design a slideshow to display on your laptop screen, computer monitor, projector, or television. Slideshows can be developed in HD and will use every available pixel of your projector if you choose that route. There are several different aspect ratios available, and when using a TV, you can opt for 720p or 1080p.
This app is designed to connect with photo apps like Aperture and iPhoto. I keep my photos in Aperture on my laptop, so it pulled them up. Unfortunately I had some trouble using my Aperture photos within the app, but it also pulled up the folders where my photos were located, so I was able to grab photos from the folders to insert into my slideshow. The photos in my folders were carefully organized by the app with thumbnails, so I had no problems even though I couldn't access Aperture.
Creating a slideshow with FotoMagico 4 was incredibly simple. I went into this review thinking I would have to spend serious time going over instructions and directions since I don't make a lot of slideshows, but that was not the case.
The app uses a storyboard to help you organize your work. Creating a slideshow is as easy as dragging photos into place on the board in the order that you would like to display them. Deleting and rearranging photos was an equally easy task, also done by dragging the photos to a different spot or dragging them out completely.
FotoMagico 4 allows for some complex designs within your slideshows. You can add text, background music, and multiple photos to a single slide. Slides can also be timed to play along with the music, and doing all of this in my slideshow was effortless. I loved being able to layer my photos to create unique layouts on each slide, which made for a very visually appealing and interesting slideshow in the end.
This app does well with all kinds of photos, including panoramas. It's able to pan over such photos, and they all looked amazing. FotoMagico 4 is perfect for wedding setups, vacation displays, portrait work, and more.
When your photos are in place, you can access the timeline which allows you to decide just how long each photo should be displayed before the slideshow moves on. You can select any length that you would like, allowing you to flash through a series of photos quickly, or linger on a particularly interesting photo. Varying the speeds between photos is another great way to make a dynamic slideshow.
In addition to changing the time that photos are displayed, you can also select unique transitions. There are quite a few different transition options, from classics like dissolve and fade to fun 3-D options. I loved the effect of varying my transitions based on which photos I had added to my slideshow.
As you add photos to the slideshow, you can rotate and zoom in to create unique looks. Photos can be manipulated in a variety of ways, which allows you to get the exact design and mood that you're looking for.
When your slideshow is complete, you can share your work on YouTube, the iPad, the iPhone, or the Apple TV, or create a DVD, save in Quicktime, or save in the app's built-in file format.
I thought this was a fantastic app for creating slideshows. It's easy and it churns out professional looking work. My only complaint was that I experienced some crashes on my Retina MacBook Pro until I deleted and reinstalled the software, but after that, it was smooth sailing.
Priced at $99, FotoMagico 4 is an expensive app, but it's well worth the price if you're a photographer that wants to show off your work or a home photo enthusiast that loves to share photos of family and vacations.
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