My mission with this blog is the same as my mission with ShootZilla. Help you grow as photographers and business owners while keeping a healthy work-life balance. So I’ll try to add as much value as I can, collect the best articles that can help you and not be tirelessly long in my blogs! Let me know if I do not live up to this mission… I’m only human, so I’m very good at forgetting things or making mistakes ;-).
The first topic here is the wedding slideshow! Some also call it the same-day slideshow.
What is a wedding slideshow
Basically, on the day of the wedding, you carve out some time during dinner (usually) to prepare a slideshow of the wedding images you shot during the day. Then you present the slideshow during the after-dinner reception or party.
Benefit same-day wedding slideshows
In a nutshell, same-day slideshows will give you heaps of new wedding bookings after each wedding because:
- it’s great exposure in a friendly way (don’t think Beamer & spotlight style, think laptop or even iPad in a corner style)
- wedding guests SEE your images and will now have the chance to recommend you to their friends who are getting married
- a way to break the ice for a lot of wedding guests to connect with you and tell you how amazing your images are (hey, who doesn’t want that!)
- a way to hand out your business card that is not a business card, but a service telling the guests when the images will be on the blog or available elsewhere
Is it hard to incorporate a same-day wedding slideshow?
If you are a single shooter photographer, you too can do same-day slideshows. Don’t sweat it, Chamonix put together an excellent article on how to manage this task in the 30 minutes that you have during wedding dinners. She also has great tips on what images to choose for your slideshow!
We (at All my lovin’ wedding photography) offer same-day slideshows as well when the couple requests it. So for us, it’s always an exception to our regular workflow since not all couples have the wish for it. To make sure, I don’t forget anything when a couple wants a wedding slideshow I created a special workflow in ShootZilla.
I will share my workflow with you here, so you can also use it when you are managing your tasks elsewhere. If you are using ShootZilla, you will see this workflow in the workflow templates. Having a system and task-list for doing slideshows is awesome because now when I have a couple of weddings with same-day slideshows coming up, ShootZilla groups the task of creating the event cards for me!
Workflow for wedding slideshows
- Four weeks before the wedding
create event cards with an image of the couple on it (f.e. from a previous engagement shoot)
make copies for approx. 40% of the guests - One day before the wedding
charge laptop batteries
bring laptop power cable
bring laptop extender for beamer in case couple wants to use a beamer
bring card reader
set cameras to shoot images in raw + jpeg - One day before the wedding
create wedding slideshow folder on your laptop
create empty LR Catalogue for the wedding
choose or create slideshow settings
import your logo slide in this LR Catalogue - At the wedding
pick 30 images, import in LR Catalogue
run a preset that you always use
start slideshow
find a good spot for your laptop
stack event cards with it
invite bride & groom for a first look
have a camera ready!
Hope you liked the first blog, let me know if you did or didn’t!
It’s a great idea! Maybe when I get my new laptop I’ll practise at one of my future weddings… bonus for the couple, right?
One question though, how do you present the slideshow? Do you do it on a beamer or on the laptop?
If you do it on a beamer, is there always one regulalry available, or do you have to organize it with the venue beforehand? If they don’t have one (e.g., it’s an outside wedding under a tent), what are the other options?
Also, when would you do it? Do you make a time in the schedule with your B&G beforehand?
Hey Nadine!
Definitely try it. I like the slideshow to be very unintrusive, so I play it on my laptop somewhere on a table in the reception or party area. I always give the couple the heads up beforehand, and only offer it when we are also shooting dinner and party. Dinner is an excellent time to get the slideshow done. But you need to be able to select quickly (shoot jpegs + raw) and not be a perfectionist otherwise it will take you way too long. If you have a second shooter you have more time, of course, since you know the speeches are monitored and covered!
After dinner, give your couple the first look of the slideshow (if possible) and capture those excited looks!
Have fun with it!