Breeze Viewer is a simple standalone utility for monitoring the contents of a folder and displaying JPEG images in a slideshow. New images added to the folder are automatically added to the slideshow after a preset "stable time". Breeze Viewer displays the images as a full screen slideshow with a black background and an optional caption showing the image filename. It can be setup to display the newest image only or to run a slideshow of all the images in the folder being monitored.
Breeze Viewer is aimed primarily at event photographers who want to display a rolling slideshow of images added to a folder. Here are a few suggestions of how it might be used:
| 1. | To display images as they are downloaded from a camera or memory card using our Downloader Pro software. Simply select the download folder as the folder to monitor and Breeze Viewer will display the images as they are downloaded. Set the stable time to at least 2 seconds to allow enough time for the images to be downloaded before attempting to display them. |
| 2. | The same as above but use BreezeBrowser Pro to select which images are to be displayed. Downloader Pro could be setup to download the images to the incoming folder, e.g. C:\Incoming, and Breeze Viewer setup to view the selects folder, e.g. C:\Incoming\Selects. Then use BreezeBrowser Pro to view the images and copy the best shots to the selects folder for display. This setup could be used on a single PC with two monitors: one monitor would be visible to the guests/clients with Breeze Viewer running on it and the other would used by the operator to select the images with BreezeBrowser Pro. |
| 3. | In conjunction with our photo booth software (NKRemote for Nikon digital SLRs, DSLR Remote Pro for Canon EOS cameras or PSRemote for Canon PowerShot cameras). The main photo booth screens would be displayed to the users in the photo booth using one monitor and a second monitor could be placed outside the booth running Breeze Viewer to display the images. The individual shots could be displayed by monitoring the main images folder for the photo booth or, if the "print and JPEG copy" output option is selected in the photo booth software, it could display the finished strips. |
The following dialog is displayed when Breeze Viewer is run:
First select the folder to be monitored for images. When new images are found in the folder being monitored they are added to the slideshow and images deleted from the folder are removed from the slideshow.
Select "Show caption" to display the full pathname of each image in the top left corner of the screen. When this is not selected all that is displayed is the image on a black background.
The transition between images can be set to one of the following:
"None" - images are displayed instantly
"Vertical slide" - the next image slides down from the top of the screen and pushes the current image off the bottom
"Diagonal slide" - the next image slides down from the top, right of the screen and pushes the current image off the bottom, left
"Horizontal slide" - the next image slides down from the right of the screen and pushes the current image off the left
"Fade to black" - the current image fades to black then the screen fades from black to the next image
"Dissolve" - the current image dissolves into the next image
"Flip" - the screen flips like turning a playing card to hide the current image and reveal the next image
"Cube" - the screen rotates like a cube to hide the current image and reveal the next image
Select "Sharpen image" and the sharpening amount to sharpen the displayed images. This uses the same HQ sharpening method as BreezeBrowser Pro. The default setting
The "stable time" is the number of seconds the file size must stay the same before the image is displayed by Breeze Viewer. This can be set to a low value such as 2 seconds if the images are simply being copied into the folder from another folder on the disk. A longer value is useful if the images are being transferred by FTP from a remote computer where network delays may cause the transfer to pause for several seconds. This will prevent Breeze Viewer from trying to display an image which has only been partially transferred from the remote computer.
Select "Enable slideshow" and a suitable interval to display all the images in the folder in a continuous loop.
Select "Display images in random order" to display each image in a random order. To ensure each image is displayed this works in a similar way to shuffling a deck of cards then dealing each card in turn before shuffling again and repeating the process. You can also select the option to "Display new files next" when "Display images in random order" is selected. This will ensure that new files added to the folder are displayed as the next image rather than in random order.
Normally images are automatically rotated using the rotation value read from the EXIF Orientation tag in the image shooting data. Uncheck the "Auto rotate JPEGs using EXIF Oirentation data" option to display images without rotation.
Press the "Run" button to start the viewer using the current settings. On a dual monitor system drag the settings dialog to the monitor you wish to display the images on before pressing the "Run" button. If the "Auto run" option is selected Breeze Viewer will automatically start running the slideshow using the saved settings when it starts up.
Press the "Esc" key to exit the slideshow and return to the settings dialog.