Same-day slideshows at weddings are no longer a new concept, the trend became popular about 8-9 years ago. Typically, a wedding photographer would shoot and download images during down times – often during the reception – and would quickly pick 50-100 images, quick edit them while the guests were eating dinner, set up a laptop or computer monitor somewhere guests could see it, but in an unobtrusive location and show a slideshow of the images from the wedding day. The clients were ecstatic, the guests were wowed, and it provided a great marketing tool for you and your company.
If you don’t do same-day slideshows at your weddings, here are some reasons to consider adding this powerful tool.
1. It’s An Opportunity to Under Promise and Over Deliver
The impact of a same-day slideshow is even more powerful if you don’t tell your clients it’s something you will do. They won’t be expecting it so it gives you an opportunity to surprise and delight them, and you’ll leave them wondering how you had the time to take amazing photographs with them all day, set up a beautiful same-day slideshow, and still have time to breathe.
2. It Creates Instant Gratification
In addition to choosing pictures of the couple to include in the slideshow, make sure to include some images of the VIP’s such as the wedding party family member, the wedding party itself, and special moments with them from throughout the day. The mother of the bride or bridesmaids seeing themselves included in the images makes them feel a part of something incredibly special.
Remember when you used to go to camp and at the end of the week, everyone gathered to watch the camp video. You’d be glued to the screen waiting to see pictures of you and your friends. It’s kind of like that.
3. It Creates Excitement
During the wedding day, everyone is taking pictures and putting it all over social media. They are excited, they tag and hashtag like crazy that day. But weeks later, by the time you deliver those images, that excitement has already faded. A same-day slideshow allows you to create excitement at the moment and amaze family and friends at the high-quality images you produced, blowing everyone’s iPhone images out of the water. Plus, you can upload them to social media that night when you get home and are backing up your images, but more on that later.
4. It’s An Instant Marketing Tool
Some photographers put their laptop with the same-day slideshow running on a loop during the reception, and then place their business cards next to it. This is an instant marketing tool. Not only are you wowing everyone on the spot, but you’re also showing off your work. All throughout the day you’ve been wowing them with your amazing service, your creative vision, your work ethic, and now this unexpected surprise, and everyone will be raving about you, your work, and how you managed to pull off beautiful images and a slideshow on the spot.
[REWIND:Â CREATE RAVING CLIENTS WITH THIS 20-MINUTE WEDDING SLIDESHOW WORKFLOW]
5. Makes Workflow Faster
When you set up a same-day slideshow, your teasers and tone-setters are completed before you even get home, making your workflow that much quicker after the wedding day.
While shooting, you are aiming to get the settings right in camera so you won’t be doing much, if any adjustment to the images while you put together the slideshow. You won’t have a lot of editing time during the reception, so be hyperaware throughout the wedding day to make sure your settings are on point.
When it comes time to cull and edit after the wedding day, your images will be more consistent right off the bat; You’ll have ready-made images to email off to the client and send to the wedding vendors before the night is even over. You can share these images immediately on social media and can tag everyone while the excitement is still palpable.
How Do You Even Have Time To Do a Same-Day Slideshow??!
A wedding day is a marathon event where photographers are on their feet all day, everywhere at once, so you may be wondering how there’s even time to create a slideshow at all. We actually have gotten it down to a 5-step, 20-minute process, which you can read more about in this article. We filter the images and let Animoto do the rest. In minutes, we have a quality, customized, stylized video complete with transitions and music.
You can learn more about same-day slideshows, how to pull them off and a lot more in our Wedding Workshop Part One, available with the SLR Lounge Premium Subscription here and our store here.
DISCOUNT
As Animoto is a service we choose to incorporate and one with which we’ve enjoyed much time-saving and success, we’ve worked with them to secure a discount on Animoto Professional for the SLR Lounge community. To access, please click here.
