Digital Projector display - do you do anything special to your photos?

Overread · Nov 12, 2014

So quick question as I've never done it before and won't have a chance to trial and error things. Has anyone here done projector display of digital photos on a digital projector and if so what did you do to prepare your shots? Any differences to how you typically prepare them for web display?

As I said I won't have any trial and error time nor practice time nor calibration setup so I won't be able to test and tweak as needed on the day. So just some rough and ready tips.

shmne · Nov 12, 2014

Seriously depends on the projector and how the images are being displayed.

Projectors display in RGB by emitting light much like your monitor, so the results are almost always identical. What changes the result though is how good of a reflective material the projector is hitting!

My best suggestion is making 100% sure whatever setup you'll be using is compatible (the software through to the hardware). as long as it is all set properly you are good to go.

dennybeall · Nov 12, 2014

If you have access to one of the new digital smart TVs you could pop the pics into an mp4 movie with Movie Maker, put it on a thumb drive and show it on the TV. That would give you another view other than the pc monitor. Some of them will let you connect directly and show jpgs.

bratkinson · Nov 13, 2014

Several times per year, I put together a 3-5 minute 'show' from various church events I've photographed the prior week. We have a permanently mounted overhead digital projector that is used during services and various presentations.

It's likely our projector/screen/too-bright environment that causes everything to look overexposed by about 2 stops when shown. I crank up the saturation and vibrance in Lightroom and they still look washed out. The good news is that the congregation isn't overly critical. Some presentations are from amateurs with point-and-shoot cameras, so just about anything is satisfactory.

Like a photographer going to a new venue, probably the best idea is to put together a handful of images and show them using the same software at that venue. Then decide how to tweak your images or not from there.

goooner · Nov 13, 2014

Hi, I do have extensive experience with beamers and presentations, not so much with showing photos on them. If you have a mac make sure you have the vga/hdmi converter so you can connect with the beamer. At our institution they only have the very dated VGA connector, and many new laptops don't have a VGA out port anymore. If the hardware is there, I guess taking your pictures on a stick saved as Jpegs would probably be ok. I would put hem all in a PDF as well, as you never know what software will be on their computer.

Ambient light is very important for perceived image quality. The darker the room, the better the pictures will look. Full HD beamers makes things look great as well, if you have a HDMI connection. I think I exporting from lightroom in 100%Jpeg sharpened for screen should get the job done. If you are promoting your business you might want to take along some prints you have lying around, just to show the quality of the work without the technical limitations.

The_Traveler · Nov 13, 2014

Resize your pictures to the native resolution of the projector.
Using lr, rename and number slides (Make collection, sort, then use slide show and export as JPEG)so that correct order is natural
Send slides ahead to load on the computer and carry at least two separate copies of the presentation on separate flash drives.
Intersperse terrific pictures with ordinary ones to give the audience time to relax.
If you are speaking with show, use fewer slides.

runnah · Nov 13, 2014

The_Traveler said:
Resize your pictures to the native resolution of the projector.

Using lr, rename and number slides (Make collection, sort, then use slide show and export as JPEG)so that correct order is natural

Send slides ahead to load on the computer and carry at least two separate copies of the presentation on separate flash drives.

Intersperse terrific pictures with ordinary ones to give the audience time to relax.

If you are speaking with show, use fewer slides.

Do not forget to use the "whoosh" sound effect for each transition

runnah · Nov 13, 2014

I normally do nothing. Half the time the projector bulb is old and dim, the surface is crappy and no matter what I do the images will still look like ****. Projectors are just a bad way of displaying images.

That being said I did get the chance to display a powerpoint with some of my images on one of the new style movie projectors and that looked nice.

W.Y.Photo · Nov 13, 2014

If you don't have a chance to test the images on the projector beforehand I'd just edit them how you would for web (expecting them to be viewed on a multitude of differently calibrated monitors) and hope for the best.

If you get a chance to use the projector before though then why not edit them on the projector? That would ensure the best quality..

Overread · Nov 15, 2014

Thanks for the advice all! Didn't get any chance to ask about its resolution (didn't even know they had one as such). So I ended up just going with my standard display size for the net which filled the screen pretty well (didn't activate slideshow mode because that doesn't like colourspaces at all it seems).

Thankfully one saving grace is that whilst not a single computer screen on site is calibrated (and thus make all my photos look over-exposed) the projectors are calibrated so my shots displayed pretty darn well (all things considered).