For simple slide shows or adding photos to video content I do nothing. I use the raw .jpg files from my Olympus E-410.

For other productions I may want to build my own photos and I use a combination of Paint.Net and Gimp, depending on what I need to do. I use Paint.Net to disassemble photos and then Gimp to put them back together again. I save all modified files as .png for import to PD

If I need to zoom a photo I will generally just crop it in Paint.Net then import the cropped image for use in PD9

Hal

Edited to add:
When I first upload the photos to the computer, I use Gimp to fix/enhance all the photos.

Also, I do not concern myself with the aspect ratio. I normally use a background for all photos used in PD so no aspect changes are required. OS - Win11 Pro, Alienware R13, CPU - Intel Core I7-12700KF 12 CPUs), 16g DDR5 4400 RAM, Video - Geeforce RTX 3080ti 12g, PD11 & PD365
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With all of my photos whether to be used in PowerDirector, uploaded to the net or not I run them through Photoshop using the following steps.

1. Using a "curves" adjustment I make a very slight "S" curve which helps the photo pop.

2. Resize to the final image size.

3. Sharpen to taste.

The above allows me to get the last 10% of quality out of my photos.

Cheers

Robert2 S My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

I usually drag and drop them into the PD Library direct from My Pictures. If they need cropping or any other titivating I usually do that in Picasa and export back into My Pictures. If it is real serious stuff I use Photoshop or similar software.

Dafydd: Not being a pro or doing much in the way of fancy projects, I mostly rely on PD9's Photo Now to crop to correct aspect ratio and to Auto Correct photos, if needed. I also just use MS Paint for some tasks. I don't have any fancy photo editing software. I am mostly just converting home movies and people want them relatively true to the original so I have never ventured into learning how to PhotoShop stuff. I find using PD9 sufficiently challenging!

Have a great day.

Regards,
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I rename the photos appropriately for easy reference.

Since I produce my videos in 16:9, I try to crop my 4:3 photos to 16:9 to avoid PD9 from having to alter the pixels too much. I believe this helps preserve the resolution. I believe resolution is lost when PD9 takes a 4:3 photo and makes it 16:9. Not sure if PD9 crops it or stretches it.

My camera is permanently set for 16:9 photography from now on.

I also put the photos in a separate directory from the video so Thumbs Plus does not spend time and resources trying to render the video files also while viewing photos in the project.

Some image processing is carried out such as color adjustments.

I use the included PhotoNow only for quick-fixes, and I never seem to have resolution issues.
My biggest complaint is the inability to STRAIGHTEN an image or do more effective fixing.
I use Elements for anything that needs serious attention.
At this point in PD's developement it's a long-time-coming to dump PhotoNow for a more robust image editing plug-in.
Seriously.
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I do very little to my photos before importing into PD... except:

1. If I want my images to match project AR, I crop them first in an image editor. For batch work, I use Image Cropper, which does a great job with preset AR. Nothing is lost in translation. I use PhotoNow for cropping the occasional photo that needs matching. It does a decent job of that.

2. If I'm making things for my grand children, I'll give the stills some tweaks to lift them a bit (the photos, not the grand children!). This is not my regular practice though, unless they're old photos or scans that need some digital restoration.

3. I use other software for some things like collage construction or mosaics... where many images are used to construct another. PM Cranston & he might send you one!!!

Cheers - Tony




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Everything I do with photos (and sometimes titles/text) I do in Photoshop.
(Don't have Photo Now even installed)
When I decide what I will probably use in a video, I prepare the photos in
a subfolder to the folder I assemble stuff for my video.

If I should need a very quick fix to a snapshot, I use Faststone.

(Tip of another, free photo-editor: PhotoFiltre)



Nina
Just something.
https://www.petitpoisvideo.com

After I move them from my camera to a catch all folder using windows explorer off the SD card, I look at them all using infran view (free), delete the bad ones, and if I need to re size, crop, or simple color adjustments (also has auto adjust) I then suck them into PD as needed.

I NEVER use PD's built in photo fixes or anything. I leave Infranview running and if I need to change a photo I delete it out of PD and go back into Ivew to change it and then suck it back into PD.

Thanks Carl for reminding me that I also use paint.net too.

I have Photoshop but Ivew is much easier and quicker for most photo changes. You can put in text with Ivew but if I need fancy I still use Photoshop but normally just use a title in PD. That's what they are there for.

Infranview also has a plugin that will OCR text within a photo. Not the greatest but works most of the time.

Adden:

First stages of Alzheimer's is getting tough.....

Almost forgot (actually DID forget) thanks to Carl again....

When I want to do a quick screen capture (still shot) I use good old fashion print screen. Then paste it into Word 2007, then formatting the image to be behind test, I use the "shapes" module and text boxes and enter circles and arrows with a paragraph explaining each (talk about shades of Alice's Restaurant) then I just use the snippet tool (my most used graphic manipulation item) and snip what I need and save it as whatever and then I can insert it wherever it need to go. In the timeline or forum. Only takes a few seconds....

__________________________________________
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Hi,
Well I don't do much yet in the way of making a slide show, but for general purposes I import my photo's to Corel PhotoPaint X3 then adjust within that program (red-eye) then re0export using the jpg export with the 4:4:4 "0" compression algorithm. I found that the 4:4:4 algorithm gives the less fuzzy display when incorporated int PD9.
But I haven't done any serious 'Productions' in PD9 as of yet still learning the program functions.
Jim Intel i7-2600@3.4Gz Geforce 560ti-1GB Graphic accelerator, windows 7 Premium 12GB memory

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Thank you all for an excellent initial response.
Dafydd

Hi Dafydd

Here's what I do before importing to a sldeshow

1. Straighten, adjust contrast/colour and centre using Windows photo editor.

2. Crop to 16:9

Then import


Happing editing

Best Regards

Neil
CubbyHouseFilms
My Youtube Channel
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I use a combination of Paint.net, Irfanview and Photoshop Elements.

I resize, stretch and rotate the photos as needed before bringing into Powerdirector.

For demos, I add the notes and lines and boxes in Paint.net. Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

I may be a little late with this post, but I don't have anything to contribute anyway. I am just exploring the use of photos in videos and I have only made a few slide shows. Any improvements that CL makes in this area would be most welcome. Magic Motion styles are very impressive, especially for ilandscapes and ntegrating photo action and motion into a video.

Thus far, I have only used Picasa and paint.net before importing into PD9. I do have Elements, but have not progressed to the point that I felt a need for it.

Basically, I do nothing to images before importing them into PD9, but that is mostly because of ignorance and a lack of skill. Also, I still have a lot to learn about quality. So far, my videos are all in 16:9.

Pax Laptop PC, ASUS
Core i7 Q 720
Win 7, 64-bit
RAM 8GB DDR2
Graphics, NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M 1GB DDR5

Same as everyone above.

In addition to MS Paint and PhotoImpression, I primarily use Paint.net (free), for creating masks, transparent png backgrounds, color correction, effects, and to crop images to 16:9 using the... x 0.5625 formula.
(e.g. Take the width of an image and multiply by .5625 to find the proper height in order to create a cropped version of the image, with an aspect ratio of 16:9)
1920 x 0.5625 = 1080 <AR> 16:9
3360 x 0.5625 = 1890 <AR> 16:9

I have not experienced any of the degraded or poor resolution of images (once placed in the PD9 timelines), as has been reported by other members here in the forum.


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I open my photos in PhotoShop/GIMP and reduce them to the video resolution I will be using. Then I adjust color, balance, etc, if needed and save. Then I import into PD. It's more work, but I know they are exactly the way I want them, so PD doesn't have to do anything else to them. I might change the process if I used a lot of photos, but it is usually no more than 3 or 4 per video.

I have some custom lower thirds that I saved as transparent png's. I set them to the screen width so I just drop them in place. I found that it helps greatly with alignment. __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM

I use various programs, some post processing, while keeping the exif info as close to the orginal as possible.

Some cropping, but never more than 30% of the original photo at a maximum.

Lightroom, Photoshop, and Microsoft Digital Image Suite (stupid simple for quick edits and batch processing)

I use two other applications that are more flexible with still images. The end result gets imported into PD9 without any additional changes. Win 10, i7

Thank you everyone for your feedback.
Dafydd