1) Know Your Audience - Knowing who your intended audience is an obvious, but sometimes overlooked step in the process of developing your slide show. For instance, if you're showing your slide show at your wedding, perhaps you'll want to include some pictures of the guests, and not just pictures of you and your fiancé.
2) Shorter is sometimes better - After you've determined who your intended audience is you can start to get an idea as to how many pictures you'll want to include in your slide show. We've found that video montages that are between 8 - 12 minutes in length are ideal for a wedding. This usually works out to about 3 songs and 75-100 pictures.
3) Choose a Variety of Photographs - Even though you may love all the pictures of your hubby, the audience may not want to sit through all the pictures of him. Instead of showing 10 pictures of him, perhaps choose the best 2 or 3. Using a variety of photographs can keep your audiences' interest.
4) Give some thought to music - Choose music that has meaning to you, music whose lyrics go well with the pictures. Also pay attention to how long the music you're choosing is. If you're only showing 30 pictures, you might not want to choose a 8 minute song.
5)Add transitions to your slide shows - Transitions such as fade in/fade out, dissolve, and image peel are also an effective way to move from one photograph to the next. Be careful not to get too carried away with transitions as they too many of them can distract from the overall slide show.
Finally [and most importantly] test, test, test for timing, clarity and overall liking! Make sure you have a back up copy for the day in case one won't play on the intended device.
