Summary: Photo Story is available as a free download from the Microsoft website. According to the software maker, “Photo Story helps you to create exciting video stories by adding panning and zooming effects to your pictures. Use Photo Story to record narration for your pictures, and add titles and background musicto your story. You can also share your story in a variety of ways. Overall, I was a little underwhelmed by Photo Story. The process is fairly straightforward, with options to edit photos, set panning and zooming on photos, add effects, add music and record narration. Recording narration was easy,but editing and creative choices seem a little limited. I used my Samson CO1U microphone. There were a few issues in getting the program to recognize my microphone, but after a few tweaks (!) it worked. The output of Photo Story leaves us trapped inside Microsoft-land - WMV. Luckily there is a freeware application that can help us - Jodix Jodix can easily convert a variety of different media formats into an iPod compatible format. For podcasters working with software limited to exporting to Windows Media formats, this is an essential piece of software.
