I decided to post this under "Marketing" because I think this is a way to market ourselves.

Well, I finally did it. My first slideshow at the reception. I have been wanting to try if for a while, and always was leary of trying it. My concerns were that I wouldn't have time to pull it off, the pictures wouldn't be edited the way I wanted....

So, this weekend I thought I would give it a try. I set it up in the morning before I left for the wedding. I made a folder on my desktop and labled it "Slideshow". I set my screen saver to play the images from that folder. I put a couple test pictures in there to test it out. I also put in an image of my Logo.

Well, let me start by saying it wasn't super easy. DJ and Becker make it look soooooo easy. I think it wasn't as easy for me because I don't have the duo card holder to shoot jpeg +Raw on separate cards. Here is how I did it...
1. My assistant started downloading cards as we took them out of the camera. We did most of the pictures before the ceremony, and by the time the ceremony started, we had all the cards prior loaded.
2. We drove to an alternate location for a few pictures. My assistant drove, so I could start looking at them to pick out the ones for the slideshow. I had them all picked out by the time we got to the alternate location.
3. After the alternate location, we drove to the reception, but it was really close, so we didn't have time to do much more.
4. As soon as I got to the reception, my assistant started taking detail shots (I did not really like missing this. I trusted him, but I like to get my own too.) While he was doing detail shots, I downloaded the ceremony, and the images from the alternate location. Then I picked out about 10 more images from those two things, and spent about 10-15 minutes doing some quick adjustments in ACR. I ran them through image processor, and sent them to the "Slideshow" folder on my desktop. I quick choked down dinner, while the computer processed them to the new folder.

Then, when dinner was just finishing, I set my computer up on a table in the corner. I was wondering if it was worth being so rushed and trying to hurry up and do this....

Let me tell you it was! EVERYONE LOVED IT! I got rave reviews! It was just like on Beckers blog. Everyone was talking about it! It was fun seeing everyone gathering around to see it. The bride and groom loved it. So, I decided I would try to do this at every wedding from now on! It was worth it!

Great job!!! I bet it was stressful, but how cool is it to see the results of that extra bit of hard work.

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for letting us know how it went Kari! We have our first slideshow in a few weeks and it does seem a bit daunting! We got some moo cards to hand out too, so we are excited to actually get some traffic to our pickpic gallery!

I am hoping to give a slideshow a try at a wedding soon! Thanks for your opinions about the process.

Congrats! I wonder how photographers manage slideshows without having the duo JPG and RAW card holders. It sounds like you had a good plan in place. Thanks so much for sharing.

Excellent! I started doing that in the spring and the response has been incredible. I picked up decent projector and screen and have been showing it quite large with computer stereo speakers. My bookings have definitely increased. I highly recommend getting the projector!
Stuart

Stoked you gave it a try Doesn't the response make it so wonderful?

One thing that we do that makes it super easy is we shoot RAW + small JPG onto the same CF card all day on our 5D's. Then, we hook 4 card readers together (through a USB hub) and grab 4 cards at a time worth of small jpgs only via PhotoMechanic. This takes a total of about 5 minutes.

Pick through favorites in PM, drop favorites in Lightroom for a little preset action, and done. Start to finish, no more than about 30 minutes

kari,
just a suggestion from what i do...i just pick about 20 pictures from the beginning of the day (prep, portraits, maybe some from the ceremony) and then process. it is a lot of work but don't feel like you have to get a sampling from every photo moment.

but i know how you feel about missing photos and trusting your assistant...i like to shoot it all too!

i love doing the slideshows... it makes such a big impact on guests!

i know its a lot of hard work when your camera is not set up to be that easy.. but if you shoot in raw and jpeg and just seperate them in folders when you upload them.. quickly adjust the jpegs and throw them in the show it makes a pretty decent show.. then you give them the gold when you get them all done and looking sharp!

they wont notice if it looks that much different from the slideshow.. most of the time they are intoxicated anyways.. your just going for the ooohs and ahhhs effect.


way to go!

Try using Lightroom, selectign your picks and filtering to see only them. Use presets for some finishing to the images, and press CTRL-Enter to run a slide show. Takes about 10-15 minutes the way Lauren Wright showed me.

Thanks for all your tips! I'll have to play a little more with it!

Stuart... I can't belive you project it! It was hard enough to get the slideshow going... let alone projection too! They must love that!


Megan, how are you selecting your jpeg and RAW files to separate them?

One more observation... I don't think it would be any quicker to use the jpegs over the RAW, the quickness would be in the download. Once the files are in the computer, it is just as easy to run a few adjustments on the RAW files as it is to Run them on the jpegs.... then start the slideshow.

Mark, I like your idea about doing it in LR. I'll have to give that a try.

Photo Mechanic can be used to only copy the non-RAW files from your memory cards... makes things so much easier.

We just sort by file type. It puts all the JPEGs together and all the RAW together. Then it's an easy click on the JPEG at the top, shift-click on the the JPEG on the bottom, and then drag to the hard drive. Once the JPEGs are all copied, we let MediaPro build a catalog (which is pretty fast). While the catalog is building, we download the RAW files (for backup). Image selection happens while RAW files are downloading.

Once images are selected, I export from MediaPro, downsizing to 1500px. Downsized files are brought into Bridge. Photoshop to run Showit Effects on Bridge images. Select all "effected" images and put into the slideshow folder on the desktop.

We have a couple more steps (downsizing and stuff) because we use an old, slow, iBook G4/1GHz.

I shoot RAW and just use LR to do the slideshow. My assistant takes care of the downloading and selecting the images. I don't even do any editing to them. Once they have the images they want filtered you just click on the slideshow tab and you're ready to go. It's super easy to do this way and I don't have to spend time editing when I should be shooting. There's always music playing anyway, so I don't worry about using show-it during reception slideshows.

Keep it simple!

Good job. I can't beleive everyone isn't doing this yet. I'm with Lisa, keep it simple.

My way: I shoot Raw + JPEG import them to zoom browser, the canon upplied software, 3 star a bunch I like while I'm eatig dinner and have my assistant be o the alert for shots, but usually everyone is eating, if I'm not doe, she will go shoot toasts or whatever they do right after dinner, this is also my breaktime, but I donn't tell her that, though I think she knows. In zoombrowser I reveal just the 3 star images by deselecting the 1 and 2 star buttons, selct all the 3's and hit slide show and I'm done in about 10 minutes. Don't edit, it's not worth it. I used to then I stopped to see if there was a difference and nobody cared, I still get tons of compliments.

BTW, for those interested, I may ot be using a laptop at all anymore. I found a backup drive that will play slideshows. I may just take a nice monitor and hook up the back up drive to it. This drive has folders where you can copy and paste favorites. Still working on that dream. We'll see.

For those who do slideshows, do you worry about the safety of your laptop? Someone stealing it? Or do you strategically place it away from the exits and somewhere you can keep an eye on it? I assume as long as there's a crowd around the location you put the laptop, it must still be there. That's what I worry about, someone snatchin' and grabbin'. Also, I assume you plug it in to run the slideshow, and don't run on battery... Do you ask the event planner or reception site for a table beforehand, or do you just wing it and find someplace to put the computer?

Hey Chris! I have worried about the safety of ALL my equipment different ways a different times as we all have. My assistant and I are watching it all the time. Usually we can't place it anywhere strategic to exits, but the place where we can actually get an outlet. So yes, I plug in. As for tables, I try and get one from the venue, they're usually cool about it. If for some reason that's a no go, in my truck I have a 50' extension cord and a table I made that breaks down. Hmm, maybe I should post my table. It's nothing great but it usually works well. It's made of pipe threaded at both ends, a 24" round which I stained, a female receiver on the underside of the top round..... forget it. If I get time later I'll post it. I don't want to thread jack too much.

Mark... feel free to thread jack!

I did plug in, because I used up a lot of my battery to download and select and do the quick edits. I just found a table by a plug. It will be interesting as I do this more how it goes!

Yeah, I do worry tons about my laptop, especially since I've switched from PC to Mac. At one wedding this year I just about had a heart attack when I noticed someone had left their glass right by my computer.

It's my assistant's job to keep an eye on it while I'm shooting, but because I'm so anal about stuff I'm always checking up on it as well. My couple's all know I'm going to do one and they usually mention it to the venue, and I also ask them to seat me next to an outlet during dinner whenever possible, so we can work on the slideshow. All of the venue's have been very cooperative about helping us find a place to put it that's out of the way and near an outlet, or they give us an extention cord. I keep meaning to buy one but haven't done it yet.

I do have a PC notebook I'm not using nowadays, and I'm considering using that for slideshows instead...I just have to install LR on it. That way I won't have to kill the guest who spills their drink all over my Macbook Pro.

I only shoot in RAW so, it's a little slow downloading. I also use LR and create a collection with the engagement session photos and then add what I can from early photos of the wedding day. Just did one on Saturday and it worked great - lots of attention. My assistant downloads the cards, "picks" them in LR and then adds them to my collection. We click SLIDESHOW and go -

For those concerned about security.. consider using the Kensington Security hole your laptop most probably has: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensington_Security_Slot

It's not 100% secure (for the well-prepared klepto) but it'd be the route I'd take.

Heck even the macbooks have the hole.

Jonathan

We use a security cable. It's sometimes hard to find something to secure it to, but it works. Get one with a combination that you can set. You really don't want to lose the key before you leave.

so where is your video of all of all of the reactions?

Glad it went well...I will try it at my next wedding.



Hmm...how big is the screen you project it to? I think I like the idea of keeping it on a lap top or small monitor. I wouldn't want the bride and groom to think I was trying to draw all of the attention to myself. I believe David Jay and Becker both do it on laptops for this reason...hmmm...if it works for you, than more power to ya!

Funny.... I kept saying I wish I could video it like Becker did!

Anyone hook up their laptop to an LCD monitor instead of showing it on the laptop screen, just to get the laptop out of the way and have it look cleaner?

I am a bit confused why you struggle with time. I have been showing slide shows at receptions for ages. Take last weeks wedding. Firstly I pursuade when ever possible them to do speeches at the start of the meal so I can shoot them and leave. the marriage is at 1pm so the meal is usually 4pmish this then leaves me at least 3 hours to download all my cards which are shot in raw into lightroom make a collection delete the ones I don't want out of the collection. I usually aim for about 75 left. Quickley go though them to correct any exposure issues then export to a folder as jpegs. Choose the odd one or two to open in photshop and do somthing fancy. Then open proshow and create a slideshow which I then save as an executable then go into the reception hall. Which by this time will being set up. Set up the projector screen which is a good 6ft use a venue table to set up the projecter and laptop and start running a preprepared promotional slideshow about us. This runs untill the venue is full and then when I feel the time is right switch to the wedding show and watch the reaction. Take more photos first dance etc and after the first show has looped a few times create a new one of the reception itself.

Steve, I'm surprised that you said you run a promotional video about yourself on a 6ft screen... that seems a little shameless and I would HATE HATE HATE my photographer, or any vendor, doing that at my wedding. I have paid the photographer enough money to not have them go out and put up some public service announcement. Doing a subdued, out of the way slideshow seems to be as "out there" as we should be, not a blatant advertisement for ourselves.

I was surprised to read that, too. Putting my business cards out next to the slideshow makes me feel a little weird sometimes.

Agreed. The slideshow is an awesome marketing tool for yourself, but it should never feel like you are marketing yourself... it should feel like you're doing an awesome favor to the b&g by showing their pictures at their wedding.

We must run our days differently. The only time I am not shooting is when I am in the car driving, or during the meal.

or peeing really fast with the camera still over your shoulder!?

oh wait, that's me....

ha ha, no I don't ever feel like I have any "down time" or breaks, even when second shooting.

Kate

I generally don't shoot anything during the dinner, unless someone pops up for an impromptu toast. No one wants to get caught with a mouthful of dry chicken and green beans. I think I'll definitely try this for the first time at my next wedding!

sorry i emailed that response whilst sat in the car on my blackberry, the slideshow about us consists of about 4 slides they have faded background images of wedding type things such as champagne, flowers etc, the words on the slides state, that
Love & Bride Photographers are at this event,
they are the ones dressed in black with huge cameras
please feel free to ask them to take you and your families photograph
they don't bite
much (which obviously comes on at the very end and pulses)
this is shameless promotion but also breaks the ice with guests who we find then do come up and feel free to ask us to take their photos.
we also show one at the end after our first dance slideshow that states that
Love & Bride Photographers are leaving in a few minutes
so this is your last chance to have your picture taken
We would like to thank you all for your patience in having your photographs taken today
you have been great and we have been
WOW
everyone gets a laugh and at the last three weddings we have recieved a round of applause.
You see I would never consider putting out business cards on a table if I was the employing you I would not be best pleased, what we do is have little fridge magnets made up with a picture of the bride and groom on and the words congratulations to Bob and Dorris and the date of their wedding and in faded lettering at the bottom our website address again everyone loves them and we end up with an advert on everyones refrigerator for ever. But leave out business cards too tacky for us. But I guess do what ever works for you.
Sorry if it offends your sensibilities but its working a treat for us.
steve

hi Kari, I just dont understand what you would find to shoot, surely you dont photograph people eating? and having photographed them all day preparations ceremony formals bride and groom alone shots then speeches, what is left to shoot until the evening reception start? I guess you are right we do run our days differently but I always and I mean always (I do about 30 weddings a year) end up with the time between 4.3pm and 7.30pm free
Steve

Hi Jeremy,
I do use an 80" screen but it is not what you think. I arrange with the bride, groom and dj a time toward the end of dinner before the first dance to do the show. I do not run it over and over again and take attention away from the bride and groom. I choose about 40 images from the getting ready, ceremony, and bride and groom tweeks and set it up in story form (template) with music. After being introduced I say a few words and then it runs for 3 - 4 minutes. Usually not a dry eye in the house, and I get many compliments without being intrusive. That's it - done. My logo is shown once in the beginning and once at the end. Then my laptop screen and projector goes away. While it is promotional, it is still tasteful and about my clients - not about me.
Stuart

Oh ok...so you make it like a fun thing for the bride and groom? cool. I thought you set up a huge projector screen and had it playing the whole time...that would be annoying. As long as the B and G are cool with it before hand and feel that it is for them and not yourself, than I think it is great.

Steve, where does one find a tutorial on your faded lettering web address technique? That sounds fascinating.

Daniel, I think he means that when he creates the slide that has his contact info on it, he just reduces the opacity of his website name so it's not so bold... just something you do in photoshop

I have a love/hate relationship with doing slideshows...

We do them (and love them) because we feel so much more connected to everyone at the end of the night. We always find ourselves engaging in conversations with guests who turn into clients themselves, because of the slideshow. They would ignore us if we didn't do the slideshow. It really blows people away. Especially the bridal party, haha.

The hate side: set up/tear down etc etc etc. (We use a mac mini and 20" monitor, and we bring our own table.)

We include it with every package, but 2 weekends ago the couple requested to not have it. We noticed a BIG difference. The only guests to approach us were the four incredibly drunk bros who kept wanting us to take their picture.

In my opinion, the pros outweigh the cons.

+1 I shoot RAW, load them into lightroom, quickly skim through and 5 star the ones I want to use, then star filter them. If any little adjustments are needed on those pics, I do something quick, and tah dah press slideshow and ready to go. I have only had positive feedback from doing this! Takes a total of 10 mins, which I usually do sitting in some corner at the reception hall, while everyone gets seated for dinner.
To copy the photos off my cards, I often set it up before leaving one site and this way it does all the work for me, en-route. Saves TONS of time at the other end. Make sure your business cards (or moo cards) are placed in plain sight by the computer. I have a little black card holder that makes it look more profesh then having them in a pile or spread out.

Hi Steve,
No, I don't photograph people eating, but my day usually goes like this...
We go to the church, and do the pictures. Last Satruday, the Wedding was at 4:00. We did most of the pictures before the wedding. The ceremony got done, the bride and groom greated the guests. While the bride and groom greated the guests, we took a few pictures, then went to put the camera bag and Tripod in the car. We then headed out to the front of the church to get the bride and groom send off. The sent off at 5:20. The reception Started at 6:00. We had to stop at a second location for a few more pictures of the Bride and Groom before the reception, which was 20 minutes away from the church.

We got to the reception exacatly at 6:00. I entered, and photographed the Bride and Groom and wedding party as they were coming in. They went to the head table, and did toasts and prayer. That is when I finished the slide show while my assistant was getting the detail shots at the reception. I didn't eat a salad or bread, because I was making the slideshow. Then I started to eat. Before I was done eating, the bride and groom were going to cut the cake.

So, I NEVER have time inbetween the ceremony and reception. Around here the Reception is always imediately following the ceremony. The only time it is not, is when the bride and groom don't see eachother before the ceremony, and have to do all the pictures after the ceremony. Durring dinner I try to get some detail shots, or set up my off camera flash for the dance floor. And of course I never photograph people eating!

me either-- I was talking about the same time frame as Kari...where you eat at the same time as the head table, and by the time you finish, they are cutting the cake while everyone else eats...this is pretty commonplace from my limited experience.

Kari, maybe your assistant can be trained to set up a LR slideshow while you continue shooting instead? I guess this would only work if you use the same few assistants all the time...

Kate

Hi Kate,
Yes, I know he can. I had him download the cards. Being that we never did this before, he was aprehensive about picking out the images. I asked him to do it, but he was worried he would pick out the wrong images. Maybe next time he will feel a little more comfortalbe....

Man you guys are lucky to have such a fast-moving reception! Around here, the bride and groom always have to go around to every table and talk to everyone after dinner and before they do anything else. Sometimes it's a good hour of down time because they're just standing there talking. I usually send my assistant out while they're doing that in case something hilarious happens or he can catch a great expression or something, but usually it's a whole lot of nothing but people standing there.

Yah, agree with Alyssa, never heard of the B+G cutting the cake while people were still eating. usually the B+G eat, then go greet guests for an hour, then you do first dances, some open dancing, and THEN cake.

My $0.02

I use my MacBook with an external LCD monitor. Great in moderately bright places. I have a pair of Acer 19" that I got on sale for $140 each. Easy to carry and set up, leaves the laptop out of sight in my bag below the table provided by the venue, which I put near the DJ or the bar. Then I use the table where the monitor is to display my cards with the proofing site url on them. I make sure the cards have an engagement image of the couple on them, because usually then they take the card.

When I can't get an outlet nearby, that is when the Vagabond II comes in. Battery and inverter in one, runs the laptop and LCD for hours.

I have been doing shows of the E session, but wanting to add the ceremony. My e-Sessions run 50-100 keeper images, or about a 10 minute show. I use lightroom or Proshow gold for the show and have my logo on the images in the bottom right.

Most of the time, this is the first time the couple has seen the E session, and they go nuts for it. Lots of nice buzz.

Ah I see your point now, thanks I dont envy you it makes mine sound positively relaxed in comparison. Re the cake cutting, before the couple sit down for a meal, I always drag (strenuously persuade) them into the dinning area on their own and do a fake cake cutting, just me and them, takes about two minutes. That way when they do it for real, I am not fighting with other guests for the shot and usually just take shots of the guests shooting them. This means that the cake cutting shot is already to go into the slideshow. again works a treat.
steve

Isn't it funny how things run differently in different parts of the country?

or different sides of the Atlantic

Or different parts of the universe?




Ok, I am just getting silly now!