Dane brought up a good point this morning that is definitely worth mentioning...and I'd love it if everyone would post up their thoughts and comments here on the forum so that we can all join in on the conversations.

When automating 3 or 4 actions into one effect it will take a little while to apply (especially the ones that include blurs). The actual speed is dependant on your processor, RAM, and which effect you chose... but no matter what it will always seem slower even though it's actually more than twice as fast. The reason it seems like you're waiting is because when it's automated you're not doing anything! ...except maybe grabbing a quick bite to eat in between effects!

So remember that even if you're applying action after action manually you still have to wait as well as juggle around with all the different shortcuts...but you just don't notice it because you're busy doing it! A similar example would be if you sat for 20 minutes and watched Photoshop export RAW files to Jpegs. It would seem like it was taking forever, but how many times have we sat for hours and worked in Photoshop and not even realized how many hours had passed because we were actively involved in the process.

I've found that the minimum amount of time (once in the editing process) I'd spend on each file was one minute and sometimes when I was doing something fancy like the "Dress Magic" or "LB" it was up to 2 minutes. Now, with Showit™, the most amount of time I ever spend on an image is one minute!

So if we say that on average it saves me 30 seconds per picture (it usually saves more than that) and I'm running a slideshow with 50 images in it then I've just saved myself at least 25 minutes! That's enough time to eat (if you didn't eat while the effects were being applied like I recommend) or add another 25 images into your show!

Share your thoughts!

Nice!!! Very helpful DJ. We need to spread the word on this.

I agree!

I get to use show it at a wedding for the first time tonight! I am very excited! I will be doing just that! I had the honor of working with Dane and I was able to see his workflow a little so that is an extra plus for me. The desk is awesome!! I am so excited to use it more and give you more feedback on it!

I can't wait to hear what you think when you're more up close and personal Sara. I also can't wait to post those pictures of you!!

YEA! post'em up!!!!!

David, you mentioned in your tutorial about how run ShowIt that Bridge would be saving thumbnails to a particular folder... Will it do this with RAW files as well? If so, how does this work? The reason I ask is that our camera does not shoot in both RAW and JPEG at the same time, and we are shooting a RAW workflow. Because of this issue, we haven't tried slideshows yet because of the time involved in converting RAW images to JPEG and THEN doing all of the work it takes to put a slideshow together on top of that.

What's your take?

Good question. Because of the size of RAW files I would suggest using Bridge to process out the files you want to use in the show as a small (screen sized) jpeg and then run Showit on those files.

As you know the processing time on RAW files is significant but I imagine you could select and process during dinner (45 - 60 minutes) and then speed through Showit in 10 minutes or so and still have the show up after the main events or possibly even right after dinner depending on how long they eat for.

I want showIT. How much is it and when will it be out. Also, I plan on running reception slideshows soon, should I just use my 15 inch powerbook or should I wait until I purchase a big monitor?

Your 15inch Powerbook will be great and Showit has a cool new feature that allows you to select how many effects are visible per page so it's easy to use on all sizes of computer screens! I think it'll be ready to go tonight so stay tuned!!!

wow! Showit sounds great! I normally use Adobe After Effects but this seems REALLY easy and user-friendly!

When my wife shoots weddings I usually come along and do the slide show, and show it (he he he) on our 15in powerbook. It works great! The 17in is the way to go, in my opinion, if you are starting from scratch or looking for an upgrade. I have seen a slide show done on a 23in screen, and it was a bit over kill. Stole too much of the show from the rest fo the wedding I thought.

I'm excited to use showit at an actual wedding. The last slide show I did showit wasn't done and I kept thinking to myself, "This would be so much easier if I had finished that dang program!"