One of iPhoto’s more basic “taken for granted” features is its ability to make a slideshow of your photos. Over time, iPhoto has gained a few more transitions to make the slideshows look a bit more interesting, but the idea hasn’t really changed: you see one photo full screen, followed by a transition to the next photo full screen, then the next one, etc. But what if you want more from your slideshows, something that would really wow the audience, or maybe something that would make them think that you’ve gone WAY over the top? Enter PhotoPresenter.

When you first open PhotoPresenter, it’s easy to mistake it for iPhoto. PhotoPresenter displays your iPhoto library exactly the same as iPhoto does, with the same interface. All your albums and folders on the side, including the Last Roll/Last 12 months bit, and it even includes your books and slideshows on the side. But beyond your photos, and thumbnail-size slider, that’s pretty much where the iPhoto imitation ends and the PhotoPresenter creativity begins.

PhotoPresenter comes with two “kinds” of slideshow: a Standard Slideshow and an Animated Slideshow. The Standard Slideshow is similar to iPhoto’s own slideshow controls, with the exception that the only options for transitions are Dissolve, Fade Through Black, and None. But the real power behind PhotoPresenter is in the Animated Slideshow. When you choose Animated Slideshow, a sheet comes down with a preview and a list of slideshow options. Full screen is similar to iPhoto’s slideshows (and identical to the Standard Slideshow in PhotoPresenter), and a Ken Burns option allows you to apply a bit of that iPhoto Ken Burns effect to your slides.

But now let’s get onto the good stuff. Again, PhotoPresenter is mostly a visual experience that you have to see to believe, but I’ll try to describe some of the slideshows that come with it. Album is a slideshow that takes a desk-like background and has your photos move in and out on different directions of the desk looking like standard prints of your photos. Break Up is similar to the new Confetti transition of Keynote ‘08, which has photos break up into pieces and fly away as new photos come in behind them. There’s one called Pixie Dust, which is similar to a standard slideshow except that moving the mouse causes pixie dust to move around from the mouse. Scatter drops Polaroid-style photos randomly on an apparent “surface”. One of my favorites is Aquarium, which shows a little ocean environment, dropping photos down there until they float back up to the surface. It even comes complete with bubbles and swimming fish! There’s also some ones which imitate the Cover Flow interface, the Apple TV intro and its screen savers, and even an imitation of the “City Skyscrapers” iPod ad that used to run back in 2006! And there’s also a whole lot more which you really have to see to believe–and make you marvel at whatever genius wrote this thing.

If you want to sprinkle a little more imagination into your photo slideshows, or even if you want to impress yourself with how cool these slideshows look on your computer, give PhotoPresenter a try.

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Tags: Apple Design Award, effects, iPhoto, photos, presentations, review, slideshow, Software