Slideshow Question

jacobsphotographers · May 20, 2010

We are looking at offering a slideshow dvd of pictures for weddings that we are shooting. We have had request for a cd of jpegs, but we we make a lot of our money off of our prints. Would making a slideshow dvd keep them my clients from printing them off at wal-mart for 3 cents a piece? If not, is there a way to make the pictures low resolution so they cannot be printed? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Jacobs Photographers

Big Mike · May 20, 2010

There are some protections you can work into a slideshow, preventing people from extracting the images. But the reality is that if they can display it on the screen, it can be captured.

You really don't need a whole lot of resolution for regular TV display. Even HDTV is low res compared to most full sized photos, so you can certainly use lower resolution files for the slideshow. But the problem is that if people are going to steal them anyway, they probably would try to print the low res files. And then blame you when they don't look so good.

My philosophy is that if I'm going to give a client the files, they get the best quality files...but they have to pay for them.
So if your clients are asking to have the files on CD, charge them at least as much as you would make on print sales...and don't forget to tell/show them the difference between wal-mart and a good quality lab.

IgsEMT · May 20, 2010

Change in trend... thats what I've noticed today vs 10yrs ago when was shooting film. Back then, 500 proofs for a 6hr wedding was MORE then enough. From those 100-200 went into the album and everyone was happy.
Today, for a 6hr wedding, clients want 1000s of frames and want them on Cd/DVD with printable rights.
I personally was fighting that for a while but it only led to decrease in work, thus was forced to switch to digital high res proofs (if I'm not going to do it, someone else will and probably for cheaper).
I'd rather do the prints for clients my self, b/c I know quality will be better, but if they want to print at 5-6cents/4x6 and happy with whites being blue/pink, I can't stop the insanity. With every disk, I give printed release form in which in bold I do emphasize that I'm not responsible for quality of the images other then what my lab gives.
Slideshows - not sure which one you meant but I offer clients montages, actually working on 2 now. I do charge for it b/c it does take a lot of time to beat-match every picture but it also adds a little flavor to the package. I use Premiere CS3. On average, 3min montage takes about 3-4 hrs and everything is perfect. By perfect, I mean images are processed and ready to go, I have the song/melody that I'll be using and no distractions. Often, while creating these, I get hit with ideas and change things around completely.
But for pricing, depends on your skills level, keep in mind that 1min montage = 1-2hrs of work (sometimes more, sometimes less).
LOW RES - you can definitely batch resize your images in programs like LightRoom, ACDSee.
But kind of going back to the trend above - b/c I don't print proofs anymore, I was able to eliminate that $ from my pricing. Plus b/c of the lower price, I was able to enter a different budget bracket - the ones where your get family/friends going on forums saying "my best friend can't afford a photographer for his wedding, what setting should I use on my D700?"

I hate the fact that I can't give more work to my lab. But at the same time, I really try to push for albums on every package thus make money there as well AND give my lab work.
Good Luck

cfphoto · May 21, 2010

Are there any good slideshow progs out there you'd reccomend/stay away from?

LokiZ · May 21, 2010

When beat matching I would go with a video editing software as Igsemt stated. I use Pinnacle Studio and am in the process of moving to studioHD you can get their starter for $50 US and their top package for studioHD runs $129 US (a middle of the raod costs $99 and there are upgrades available later if you wish to grow). I have also heard good things about Vegas by Sony as well. Both are a little less then the Adobe family but work just fine. Studio and Premiere have a similar work flow and learning curve from my experience.

Also on a 52 inch 1080p widescreen display you want at least an image that is 1920 X 1080 minimum or you can see quality issues. (1440 X 1080 if you are doing 4:3 ratio slide shows)

Grabbing frames from DVD format can be a little more tricky then pulling the image off of the screen, for example print screen won't work (at least on XP) but with patience and the right software which not everyone has, it can be done at the resolution the video uses. As stated above hardly quality but those who don't want to pay does that really matter?