• quickly upload your digital photos and videos
• choose background music
• add captions/text to the images
• decide what type of transitions you prefer (the way in which one photo changes to the next photo)
• enhance the presentation with themes

OneTrueMedia.com As easy as 1, 2, 3, OneTrueMedia offers web-based technology to combine photos and video. Here are the three steps: upload your images and/or videos through their fast, easy uploader choose a style (select special effects, themes, captions, and music) share it by email or post it to your web site (Facebook, MySpace, etc.) OneTrueMedia offers a limited free service for producing short, shareable videos. The free service is limited to 100 mb in uploads per month. The expanded paid subscription service is currently $24.95 per year, which supports longer videos, saving videos to DVD, and more uploads. File types supported by both services include mpg, mp4, mpeg, mov, avi, wmv, 3gp, jpg, and jpeg. Pros and Cons Pros: The images load quickly, and it is easy to rearrange or add/delete images for a video. OneTrueMedia has several methods for controlling the transition/motion/zoom for each individual image, which enhances the degree of customization. You can add text slides (great for titles, credits, etc.). You can choose more than one song for a video, and indicate where you want each song to begin playing. The free themes are jazzy and fun and would add a great deal of pizazz to any slide show. Cons: The number of themes is limited on the free account and it can be somewhat difficult to find one that fits the mood of your photos/videos. Some themes have specific captions or enhancements that may not apply to your particular image set.

Animoto.com Animoto creates "Fast automatic videos from your pictures."[need citation] Simply upload images (or transfer them from your on-line photo storage site) and arrange them, add text slides if you want (great for titles, credits, etc.), select the music, and then Animoto does the work. In just a few minutes, your unique video creation is ready to view. The "slideshows" feature offers more complex transitions.[than?] One click, and you can email the video or add it to your Twitter, Facebook, or MySpace. Your video creations are saved in your Animoto account. The site is easily navigated and provides useful information (i.e., the number of photos to select, how to arrange/rearrange them, etc.). Animoto allows you to make an unlimited number of free 30-second videos (12-15 images). An "All-Access-Pass" available with a subscription ($30 per year) allows you to make an unlimited number of full-length videos. Pros and Cons Pros: Animoto has a special section for educators to help teachers create classroom/educational image videos to "bring your lessons to life." Several samples are available. Teachers must apply by entering name, school, grades, taught, etc. Animoto has to approve your free application for you to use their extended educational services. Cons: On the down side, I had difficulty finding music that I liked from the selections they offered. You can upload your own music, but you are reminded to observe proper copyright law in using music without permission.

Photobucket.com Photobucket offers a one-stop for image/video storage, organization, and sharing. Tags can be added to your stored photos to help you sort and locate your objects later. You can set your photo albums for public or private viewing. A stats feature lets you know how many people are viewing your photos and which were the most viewed photos in your albums. Photobucket also provides a good image editor, a slide show builder, and video making. Photobucket offers both free and pro subscription accounts. The free account gives you access to all services, but limits you to 1 gb of storage. The free account includes advertisements. The pro account costs $3.95 per month or $39.95 per year. Pro accounts receive 10 gb of storage, have no ads, and permit more/longer videos and slide shows. A chart displaying the differences between the free account and the pro account is provided by Photobucket. Pros and Cons Pros: One of the biggest advantages of Photobucket is that you can use the site to store all of your images and videos. That makes them readily available for creating special presentations from selections of your choice. The image editor is another advantage that lets you edit or enhance the individual images.

Using Microsoft Office Picture Manager* to Compress Photos

• Locate your saved image on your computer
• Right Click your mouse
• Select "open with"
• From drop down menu, select "Microsoft Office Picture Manager"
• Window opens with your image in view
• Select "Edit Pictures" button from the toolbar (a side bar menu opens)
• Select "Compress Picture"

*Help information for Microsoft Picture Manager: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HP010017211033.aspx

Windows Movie Maker* included in Windows upload images, video, and audio/music add text add narration detailed time line to sync the timing of audio and visual video files can be split into audio and visual, so some of the video can be replaced with other images even while the audio continues (i.e., narration can continue from an interview video, but instead of continuing to watch the interview, you still HEAR the interview but begin to see a variety of still images). Quick 'how to': upload the video file; drag it to the video line then drag it a second time to the audio line; shorten the video line and insert images. *Help with Movie Maker: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/create/default.mspx

iMovie included on the Mac excellent introductory tutorial (http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/ Get to know iMovie) combines images, video, audio/music