Hi everybody~

I'm pretty new to the forum and just learned about showit a few weeks ago.

I have a question and apologize if I could have found the answer somewhere else, but I am just learning how to navigate this thing. So, how long does it actually take to create the show for the reception? Do you hire an extra assistant to sort, edit, convert, and create the slideshow, or do you just take a quick break and do it yourself? How much time are we talking here?

I'm trying to figure out if we should charge for the slideshows, or if we could "eat" the related expeses and in exchange for using it as an inexpensive marketing tool (as DJ says he did to help build his business).

Thanks for any info you can share.

I don't use ShowIt Web for my reception slideshow. I just select 10-20 top photos, put them in a folder on my desktop and then set that folder to run a slideshow. No music. On a Mac, it's really really easy to do.

As for when to do it, I do everything by myself and find that the time during dinner is when I can make it happen. It took me a couple of trial runs at home to figure it out. Sit down with a set of raw photos and time yourself. You'll find what works and what doesn't. You'll also learn to do your post-processing faster each time.

Long time no see

do it during dinner, no one wants pictures of them stuff their faces.
Maybe since you both are shooting together you can switch between you 2 and have one import and select a few images, and 1 edit them. That way you both can take a small break and eat or whatever.

Showit Web works, but all you really need is the windows or mac slideshow viewer constantly running.

It helps to shoot RAW + s Jpeg. You just download the s jpeg and leave the RAW alone (much faster this way and you don't need full rez images for this).

I know you aren't getting new cameras anytime soon, but just a fun fact, the 1d2n and new 1d3 allow dual write capabilities, so you can write the RAW images to CF and the jpegs to a SD card, then just download the SD card and the CF are safe.

DJ's other product Showit effects comes into play here. It allows for quick editing in Photoshop by the push of a button and you can add your own actions to it besides his.
The best part is that when you get home, you can instantly apply as the same settings you did to the jpeg to th RAW without having to re edit.

Thanks for reponding Beth & Corey! Anybody else that uses showit have a "system" down?

I have a second shooter come with, and at the start of the reception he takes everything so far and drops it in Lightroom. We shoot in Raw + jpeg. There he does flags and sorts, add some quick developing, and exports to a folder with a image001.jpg file name. He does a showit show with a timed template and show it with a full screen flash viewer (stand alone viewer from Adobe, I can not remember the one we use for PC, PM / email me if you want it). It works amazing, the timed templates really set it above the powerpoint shows that allot of couples are doing. I think a full screen viewing option is in the works for Showit, and that will save us a step and make it very nice for this.

I don't use Showit sorry, but this is how I did it singlehandedly (the slideshow thing that is)

I set the laptop up with 15 or so of the engagement shots before the ceremony and set the slide show running. Then I took the shots of the couple etc, and while everyone was eating I quick edited another 20 or so images of the day and added them to the same folder and just set the good old windows slideshow running again - the music from the reception was my backdrop

done and done, and it's nice to wander past to get the Ooooohs and Aaaaaahs and OH MY LORD, You made me look fat!!

So, do you bite your tongue when they say you "made" them look fat!

Thanks for your responses everybody! We're still discerning whether or not Showit is the right program for us, but hearing how you manage things is helpful.

Airika

I like the idea of slideshows at weddings and the great exposure it can give your business. But I would be looking over my shoulder all night hopeing someone doesn't walk off with my $2400 Mac. Or spill a drink on it. Or some 2 year old knock it off the table. And that laptop is my only computer, so I would be dead with out it. Are there any other options besides using my laptop to show slideshows? Any one burn a quick DVD and show it on a mini DVD player?
Keith

I pay my second Photographer / Slide show person $250 per wedding. I than don't have to worry about me getting hurt or the laptop walking off, and the slideshow photos get processed because he has the time to do it. Well worth the cost.

ShowIt Web - not for receptions. 100% fantastic for your website and for clients to share with their friends and family. I could stare for hours at a set of wedding photos and be bored with them. But once I see them set to the music and transitions, I'm totally in love and excited with them again. But I never use ShowIt Web at a reception. #1 - you don't want music playing with your slideshow. #2 - it adds time to your process, which isn't necessary. Just set your folder to show the contained files as a screensaver slideshow.

ShowIt Effects & DJ's Brilliant settings are 100% worth the money for my reception slideshow process.

Every now and then (not often though) I'll find myself not totally rushed driving to the reception, therefore have the laptop set up in the passenger seat downloading the images while I'm driving to the reception. But the majority of the time, it's typically a 4 course meal and plenty of time for me to do this. It literally takes me 15 minutes to do this! Just make sure you are using a card reader or have your 2nd camera ready in case you need to shoot something while downloading to the computer.

As for something happening to your $2,400 laptop - that's why you have insurance!!

Yea Showit Web is for web slideshows after the wedding but right there at the wedding I do this:

1. download small JPEGs ( 3 minutes )
2. sort out my favorite 30-50 ( 10 minutes )
3. add color correction and special effects using Showit Effects ( 10 minutes )
4. run screen saver slideshow

Watch as everyone gets super excited and tells everyone about you! You definitely don't need an assistant and I've done over a 100 slideshows all by myself and never once had anyone try and sneak off with the computer or spill anything one it so no worries there either.

Rock on!
DJ

We run our as a screensaver like so many other people.

We have our laptop on an iCurve laptop stand. It looks nice and angles the laptop so people can't put their laptop on it. We also have a laptop lock that we usually hook around the leg of the table or something. Makes both of us a lot less stressed about theft and damage. We also put it far enough back that it is unlikely to be knocked off.

Well, since this seems to be thread more on how to do a slideshow at a reception, I'll add our method... for those that have Photoshop Lightroom: (Special thanks to Swan for the Methodology)

Works great if you're photographing in raw.

Download the cards to the laptop through the day. No need for small jpgs. Just import through LR's interface.

When we get to reception, take about 15 minutes during the dinner to get caught up on dowloading cards. While they are downloading, just scroll through thumbnails. Highlight the ones you like and hit P (Pick) which puts a flag on that image.

When we think we've got enough for a show (about 100 images), set view to show just flagged images. Go to Develop Module (D Key) and run a quick preset to most images. These can range from contrast/saturation bumps to BW and Sepia conversions.

Go to Slideshow Mode, select our premade template (background color, logo display, slide duration) and hit play. You do not have to export the images. Lightroom is using the previews of the images.

Lightroom is awesome, it rocks, and I have no connection to Adobe.

Then, when we start to edit after the wedding, we've already got 100 cool images slelcted and tweaked, which can immediately be exported and used in a ShowIt Web (or other software) slideshow.

Lightroom looks promising for this. Our laptop hit the bricks before saturday's wedding so we didn't get to try it out, but I set up a folder on the desktop for my wife to download the S JPEGS into, and set up Lightroom to autoo import anything that goes into the folder and apply a global preset. The you just have a preset made for the slideshow for sizing, text, logo, background etc and it good to go. Should be very easy if you don't get to heavy into on site editing.

Lightroom is a great tool (mostly for automating post production) - does lightroom do the zoom and fades in their slideshows or is it just presenting a static image?

I guess the other downside about using Lightroom for an on-site slideshow is that you can't put all the special effects on the images without still using Photoshop/Bridge so I like to just keep it simple and use the one program... also the screen saver option doesn't require any resizing or anything because it just rolls as soon as the images are in there.

Again, I love Lightroom for post production but wouldn't really suggest it for on-site slideshows because you can't put all the cool effects on the pictures and it requires extra software.

Hi David,

LR definately isn't ShowIt when it comes to slideshows. No Ken Burns effects (yet... with Adobe, you just never know.)

And, besides, Swan told me to use LR.

I've found that since I use LR for editing, it's nice not to have to switch to other software just to run a show at the reception. However, ShowIt will work fine, with cool zoominess.

I'm just not sure that making images move in front of a bunch of drunks is a good idea. Never know when the intoxicated best man might fall over sideways while watching a slide move across the screen.

A serious question: What method do you use to make the images fill the screen? Is there an upper limit on how large you can make the show? I usually get a "Caution" message with ver 2.0 ShowIt web whenever I try to go beyond 500 pixels wide. I haven't played with trying to make the show fill up a 15 inch MacBook Pro full screen?

I think DJ is more talkign about using Bridge/PS with Showit effects, so that you can do some more powerful editing. I guess that part is more up to persona taste.

IIRC DJ doesn't use showit web but rather the screensaver slideshow program built into the mac software.

I do think that Adobe has a lot of room for improvement in the slideshow module, and that it has the most to gain of any of the modules. Only time will tell.

Troy - I think you misunderstood - I don't suggest using Showit Web for on-site slideshows that's why I said I use the screen saver option which has the zooms and fades.


DJ

Ahhhhhh! To each their own.

I think that with Swan on the LR beta team, they'll get it caught up in short order.