Is iPhoto the program I need?

Question

I've have just posted a version of this in the iMovie forum, and they suggested I go to the iPhoto forum. Here is what I want to do:
1. Prepare a presentation of member's photos (slides, prints, digital) for a camera club. The presentation will consist of, say, 200 images and last about 30 minutes.
2. The time that each image is on the screen will vary from about 6 seconds to 10 seconds.
3. I only ever want to use a simple dissolve (2-5 seconds) between images. Fancy wipes are not needed.
4. Sound-editing facilities within the software would be useful but not necessary – although I will need the ability to incorporate stereo sound within the package. What I mean is: I can separately generate the soundtrack as a stereo aiff file in Garageband or Sound Studio so it is timed exactly to match the presentation, and when everything is finished I can import it into the image software.
5. Image quality is the most important aspect. Thus, my first step in a particular presentation will be to determine the native resolution of the digital projector. Then all images will be scanned, cropped and resampled in Photoshop to exactly this resolution so that there is no other scaling performed during the presentation.
6. Following on from (5), I want the ability to have variable-size image formats. i.e. for a particular presentation I may want to exactly match the projectors capabilities, say 1024 x 768 so the images will be sampled to that size; but for the next show the projector may have 1680 x 1050 resolution. High Definition format (1920 x 1080), is a particularly important feature because I will want to burn presentations to BluRay eventually, and standardize on that format.
7. In the future, once the presentation is finished, I imagine I will burn it to BluRay then play it back on a BluRay player connected to a HD digital projector via a HDMI cable. Until those items become readily available, what is the best way, today, of getting a presentation out of iPhoto and onto a screen? Does it involve something like: take along my iBook, connect it via the analog video-out port to the projector (accepting the loss of quality by doing so), and press play?
8. Is there any way of making the iPhoto presentation universal so that I can burn it to a data DVD and play it from any computer?
Is iPhoto up to all of the above, or would another program suit me better?

Answer 1

Guy
iPhoto is not the app for this job. It has a handy slideshow feature, it's not a presentation software.
Have a look at iMovie, PhotoToMovie or Final Cut Express.
For points 1,2,3 all of them will do this
For 4, only FCE has built-in sound editing. However, I'm not sure you need it. Both the other two will allow you to fade-in, fade-out and cross fade between soundtracks.
For point 5: Rather more complicated that that, I'm afraid. All of the above will generate movies. Regardless of the input images it's the output from the applications that will decide this.
6. In conjunction with QuickTime Pro, FCE and PhotoToMovie will output to HD.
I think your best bet is to build your slideshow in FCE or PhotoToMovie, output to suit the projector size.
You can burn the movie to a data dvd using the Finder.
Regards
TD