Today’s Question: I am currently using Lightroom 6. I have just returned from a Photo Safari and would like to create a slideshow using the Lightroom Slideshow Module. I see that I can have an Intro Screen and an Ending Screen, but what I would like to have is blank slides with text, spread randomly throughout the slideshow to separate different locations of the safari. Is there a way to create blank slides with text from within the Lightroom Slideshow Module?
Tim’s Quick Answer: There isn’t a native way to create blank title slides in Lightroom’s Slideshow module (other than the Intro Screen and Ending Screen options). However, you can easily create empty images to use as the basis of title slides.
More Detail: What I have done for this purpose is to create blank images using Photoshop and then import those blank images into Lightroom to use as title slides. I generally create black, middle gray, and white slides, and size them based on the intended output size. For example, I often create slideshows at a high definition (HD) output size of 1280×720 pixels, so those are the dimensions I would use for the blank title slides.
Once you have created these images and saved them in a folder, you can import the images into Lightroom. Then add the desired blank title slide to a Collection in Lightroom that contains the images you want to use in the slideshow. You can then arrange the images in the desired order, with the blank slide positioned where you want the first title. Then create a new Virtual Copy of that blank slide for each title you want in your slideshow, arranging each title into the desired position. Then add the applicable title text to each of those images, such as by using a metadata field for this purpose.
In concept you could also capture a black frame on the camera, and apply an extreme Exposure adjustment to make sure that the images is pure black (or whatever color you desire). But I’ve found it can be helpful to create my own custom blank title slides so that I can exercise a bit more control over the specific look of those slides. For example, in some cases I might create blank title images with a texture or other graphic element included.