Best way for Slideshow DVD

Question

I am rookie user of all iLife software on my computer. I have a dilemma I was hoping someone here might be able to help me with...
My fiance put me in charge of putting together the slideshow for our wedding reception. The DJ told me that it has to be in DVD format. I would like to do in three sections; one of me, one of her, and one of us together.
-I need each of the sections to have a different song.
-I need to be able to play the sections in succession. I do not want to have to go back to the main menu to click the next section every time.
-I need to have an introductory slide before each section (ie. Him, Her, Them or something to that extent).
If someone could guide me through this process it would be greatly appreciated. I tried using iDVD already. It worked great for one section, but I need to put together something that looks somewhat professional (250+ people will see this) and can't go back to the menu to click on each section of the slideshow.
- JoshuaThomas

Answer 1

Welcome to the forums!
There are many ways to produce slide shows using iPhoto, iMovie or iDVD, but they all have one thing in common: they reduce the quality of the photos to that of a movie still frame and sometimes limit the number of photos you can use.
If what you want is what I want, namely to be able to use high resolution photos (even 300 dpi tiff files), to pan and zoom individual photos, use a variety of transitions, to add and edit music or commentary, place text exactly where you want it, and to end up with a DVD that looks good on both your Mac and a TV - in other words end up with and end result that does not look like an old fashioned slide show from a projector - you may be interested in how I do it. You don't have to do it my way, but the following may be food for thought!
Firstly you need proper software to assemble the photos, decide on the duration of each, the transitions you want to use, and how to pan and zoom individual photos where required, and add proper titles. For this I use Photo to Movie. You can read about what it can do on their website:
http://www.lqgraphics.com/software/phototomovie.php
(Other users here use the alternative FotoMagico: http://www.boinx.com/fotomagico/homevspro/ which you may prefer - I have no experience with it.)
Neither of these are freeware, but are worth the investment if you are going to do a lot of slide shows. Read about them in detail, then decide which one you feel is best suited to your needs.
Once you have timed and arranged and manipulated the photos to your liking in Photo to Movie, it exports the file to iMovie 6 as a DV stream. You can add music in Photo to Movie, but I prefer doing this in iMovie where it is easier to edit. You can now further edit the slide show in iMovie just as you would a movie, then send it to iDVD 7, or Toast, for burning.
You will be pleasantly surprised at how professional the results can be!