Wedding slide show ??

pillman · May 5, 2009

Have been anointed to put this together using old prints up to present
day digital captures. Suggestions appreciated as to best way to
do this. Am very good at Photoshop ( cs3 ) yet do not see a slide
show creator. Which software should I consider bying etc. Need to
be able to add music choices also.( others have used power point)
Thanks for your time..
Bill

Darren Troy C · May 5, 2009

Hands down....Photodex Proshow Producer. You'll never look back!

pillman · May 5, 2009

thanks will look at it now..
$250 is that right.. ouch
This would be used by me -- ONCE

OK Just saw Pro Show Gold $69
You get what you pay for..
What do you think ?

sherijohnson · May 5, 2009

pillman wrote:

thanks will look at it now..
$250 is that right.. ouch
This would be used by me -- ONCE

OK Just saw Pro Show Gold $69
You get what you pay for..
What do you think ?

a lot of people do slide shows with power point (non photographer people)

pillman · May 5, 2009

You are right.. cheap
Any one comment about pro show gold

zoomer · May 5, 2009

Pro show gold is what you want. That is what most people use.
Very easy to use, does a good job.

pillman · May 5, 2009

Hoping to hear that, thanks

Scott_Quier · May 6, 2009

I have and use MemoriesOnTV 4. I had this recommended to me by Shay Stephens a couple of years ago. A quite nice program. You can download a full-featured trial (it just watermarks the product). Give it a whirl and see if you don't like it.

As a result of my association with Operation: Love Reunited, I've also had the opportunity to use animoto to produce slide shows. You can view a short video I put together for a client here.

Jeff_Milo · May 6, 2009

Do you use a Mac or PC? If a PC I also recommend Memories on TV. Unfortunatly it does not work on the Mac. For the Mac I recommend FotoMagico. Both are very easy to use and burn to DVD. FotoMagico will even burn to Blu-ray.

pillman · May 7, 2009

Thanks all; trying out Pro Show - amazing what
you can create.

arpboy · May 7, 2009

Pro Show is Excellent.

pillman wrote:

Thanks all; trying out Pro Show - amazing what
you can create.

I use ProShow Producer - terrific package. I've done web, direct shows, shows to DVD. It can also do Blu-Ray with HD.

I agree it's overkill for what you want. The Gold should cover you.

That said, it's a truly TERRIFIC application.

-Richard

pillman · May 7, 2009

That looks awesome - $69 vs $250 - enough said. Yet if you
need it you need it.. Gold is blowing me away at all it will do.
Meets my needs for this wedding slide show Im been blessed with..
Looks professional. Thanks

elizabeth_Luna · May 7, 2009

pillman wrote:

That looks awesome - $69 vs $250 - enough said. Yet if you
need it you need it.. Gold is blowing me away at all it will do.
Meets my needs for this wedding slide show Im been blessed with..
Looks professional. Thanks

Have you seen Photo Story 3 for Windows? It's free and you can add music :

pillman · July 12, 2009

Ok, wedding over. Slide Show used at rehearsal
Dinner. Got a standing ovation at end. Therefore,
Pro Show Gold was awesome. Used 180 slides and
music I chose. Great software FYI.

Scott_Quier · July 12, 2009

It's great when a plan comes together, isn't it?

Do you, by any chance have it uploaded so we can take a peak at it?

bdcolen · July 12, 2009

pillman wrote:

Thanks all; trying out Pro Show - amazing what
you can create.

Before you commit, check out Soundslides Pro.

pillman · July 12, 2009

Sorry, stored on DVD, needed space on hard drive. Just wanted
to endorse their product, awesome at $65

barnyard · July 12, 2009

pillman wrote:

Ok, wedding over. Slide Show used at rehearsal
Dinner. Got a standing ovation at end. Therefore,
Pro Show Gold was awesome. Used 180 slides and
music I chose. Great software FYI.

I used to do slideshows (using real slides) when I did weddings. I know that yours is over, but I have some tips based on my experience (did over 100 shows over 8 years).

I would limit the slides to 100ish. Do not go longer then 7-8 minutes. Alternate between the bride and the groom, that keeps everyone interested and watching. I used to lay out my shows with 6-8 'blanks.' I filled them with wedding day images (in my day, I used Polaroid instant slide film and had a processor that I carried.)

Instead of fading or wiping between images, dissolve. Add images that are shot for the dissolve. It is easy to imply motion with 3 images with dissolves between them.

To me, fades and wipes reaks of amatuerism. No one does dissolves. Easy way to set yourself apart.

A well done slideshow is a powerful marketing tool. If I played a slideshow at a wedding, I knew that I would book 3 weddings the next week from guests of that wedding. Guaranteed.

We also always played out shows right before dinner and we only played them once. Before dinner, you have EVERYONE'S attention. People will watch in silence, then applaud at the end.

A well done show, will have the bride, groom and their families in tears.

I'm getting goose bumps typing this......

Tom B

pillman · July 12, 2009

Thanks for advice. Tears came from me as to the many hours it took me
to accomplish. Had to learn software initially. This show went from
infancy to current of bride and groom. Was shown after dinner.(before
good advice). Software has choice of hundreds of transistions to use.
Also music could be added anywhere, even locked on one slide for time
I selected for special effect etc..Show ran 22 minutes and that was
long enough. Everyone enjoyed and many asked for copies.
Only negative was having to use pics of family members that had to be
scanned etc.(quality down).. Look forward to blu ray prices coming
down as software has option to burn blu ray. Quality obviously much
better than outdated DVD.
Now question:
What could one charge for this service ?

barnyard · July 12, 2009

pillman wrote:

What could one charge for this service ?

10 years ago, we included it with a $2,000 wedding package and sold 10-12 of those a year. We figured it was about a $400 value then. We provided the bride and groom with a VHS tape and copies for their parents (this was pre DVD days.)

We included 2-4 sessions where we did more current photos of the bride and groom. Those were the ones that were staged to use the dissolve to imply motion. We also used those sessions to plan the wedding day photography. Their desires and the schedule that would be needed to obtain the photos that they wanted. As an aside, we found that our slideshow weddings also had the best wedding day photography and the highest sales.

When we planned out shows, we used 2 songs that we owned the rights to. The 1st song featured all the growing up photos, the 2nd song featured the couple together and included the 6-8 wedding day images.

Caterers and wedding halls knew our slideshows and our schedule for playing them and they all worked with us. I considered it critical to get it done before the meal. I LOVED introducing them. It gave me a chance to thank the couple for photographing them and I told the guests that this was the couple's gift to them, as a thank you for sharing their day.

Bonnie knew my ques and turned the lights down so that it was dark, when I hit 'play.'

During the interview, I would tell the bride and groom how the show would play out: 1st, there would be the giggles and pointing at the 'growing up' photos; then the silence of the staged photos with the dissolved, implied motion; finally, the 1st of the wedding day photos, a gasp from the crowd, followed by whispers, "I think that's from today, yes, it is from today." The last 2 would be dissolves of the couple looking at each other, then dissolving into a kiss, then fade to black.

Ovation, followed by hugs and kisses.

We tried to keep it under 10 minutes usually closer to 8.

The hardest show was for a couple whose brother was killed in the line of duty 8 months before the wedding but after they had booked their wedding.

We did photograph weddings where couples did not want to pay for our show and tried their own. At every one of them, people would come up to us and say, "There is no way you did that, did you?????"

From those shows, we were able to reaffirm that we were doing things correctly. If the show ran too long, people started talking and walking around, same would happen if the photos were shown in groups of the bride, then the groom. We saw one show, where by the end, no one was watching, not even the bride and groom, it was just too tedious. That was sad.

If I were to do them today, I would follow the same guidelines, but with digital and I would include really short (like 10-15 second) video clips. Preferably matching clips from the bride and groom (graduation, 1st communion, that kind of thing.)

Interestingly, I believe that the digital version would be waaaay more work than the analog (real slides) version.

Tom B

barnyard · July 12, 2009

If I were to do it today. I would only photograph couples that included the slideshow. I would also value it at $5-600.

Tom B

pillman · July 12, 2009

Process for me next time would go much faster as this was family
and tweaked and tweaked it.. Was thinking alot more mula.. They
hired a pro. photographer paying him around 3 grand which did not
include any pics. His pics went for $8 for 4x6 and up.. ( don't
blame him though- get what you can). Some pics ( deceased) of course
would have to be scanned from old stock and quality in show understood.
I created many graphics in CS3 which made it special. Thanks for all
your suggestions here.
Bill

barnyard · July 12, 2009

Hard to say what you could really get.....

I sold my studio 7 years ago. My pricing reflects my memory from 7 years ago.

Tom B

98olds · July 12, 2009

barnyard wrote:

10 years ago, we included it with a $2,000 wedding package and sold 10-12 of those a year. We figured it was about a $400 value then. We provided the bride and groom with a VHS tape and copies for their parents (this was pre DVD days.)

We included 2-4 sessions where we did more current photos of the bride and groom. Those were the ones that were staged to use the dissolve to imply motion. We also used those sessions to plan the wedding day photography. Their desires and the schedule that would be needed to obtain the photos that they wanted. As an aside, we found that our slideshow weddings also had the best wedding day photography and the highest sales.

When we planned out shows, we used 2 songs that we owned the rights to. The 1st song featured all the growing up photos, the 2nd song featured the couple together and included the 6-8 wedding day images.

Caterers and wedding halls knew our slideshows and our schedule for playing them and they all worked with us. I considered it critical to get it done before the meal. I LOVED introducing them. It gave me a chance to thank the couple for photographing them and I told the guests that this was the couple's gift to them, as a thank you for sharing their day.

Bonnie knew my ques and turned the lights down so that it was dark, when I hit 'play.'

During the interview, I would tell the bride and groom how the show would play out: 1st, there would be the giggles and pointing at the 'growing up' photos; then the silence of the staged photos with the dissolved, implied motion; finally, the 1st of the wedding day photos, a gasp from the crowd, followed by whispers, "I think that's from today, yes, it is from today." The last 2 would be dissolves of the couple looking at each other, then dissolving into a kiss, then fade to black.

Ovation, followed by hugs and kisses.

We tried to keep it under 10 minutes usually closer to 8.

The hardest show was for a couple whose brother was killed in the line of duty 8 months before the wedding but after they had booked their wedding.

We did photograph weddings where couples did not want to pay for our show and tried their own. At every one of them, people would come up to us and say, "There is no way you did that, did you?????"

From those shows, we were able to reaffirm that we were doing things correctly. If the show ran too long, people started talking and walking around, same would happen if the photos were shown in groups of the bride, then the groom. We saw one show, where by the end, no one was watching, not even the bride and groom, it was just too tedious. That was sad.

If I were to do them today, I would follow the same guidelines, but with digital and I would include really short (like 10-15 second) video clips. Preferably matching clips from the bride and groom (graduation, 1st communion, that kind of thing.)

Interestingly, I believe that the digital version would be waaaay more work than the analog (real slides) version.

Tom B

I make slideshows for all my clients... Ive used everything from PoweerPoint to Roxio DVD Creator, and Now i'm also using Photo Story 3, All of which I would recommend.

AnimotoBecky · October 26, 2009

Nice! We love Tonee and what Operation Love is doing. We have a OpLove video featured on our Animoto for a Cause site:

animoto.com/cause

Glad to hear you're working with them!

Scott_Quier wrote:

I have and use MemoriesOnTV 4. I had this recommended to me by Shay Stephens a couple of years ago. A quite nice program. You can download a full-featured trial (it just watermarks the product). Give it a whirl and see if you don't like it.

As a result of my association with Operation: Love Reunited, I've also had the opportunity to use animoto to produce slide shows. You can view a short video I put together for a client here.

Shima · October 26, 2009

AnimotoBecky wrote:

Nice! We love Tonee and what Operation Love is doing. We have a OpLove video featured on our Animoto for a Cause site:

animoto.com/cause

Glad to hear you're working with them!

I've been using Animoto since the Chicago SMUG featured it last week and REALLY loving it. Highly recommend! Especially love the feature that you can do stills AND video in one. Super cool, and very impressive!

Wedding slide show ??

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