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Wedding Slideshows. We have all seen them. They are the video photo montages couples play at their rehearsal dinners or more often, wedding receptions. They are a great way for the happy couple to share their history together with their guests. Every slideshow is different, however the most common type shows the bride and groom from early childhood through their time together dating. Some slideshows have your guests laughing, while others can bring them tears of joy. The very best slideshows can do both!
How do these couples get all of those photos put together into a wonderful and emotional slideshow set to music and burned to DVD to be played and enjoyed at their reception? They go one of two ways. They hire a professional company to handle it for them. Or they go the do-it-yourself route. Let’s examine what it takes to create a compelling and professional looking slideshow you can be proud of. To create the perfect wedding slideshow you will first need to take an inventory of all of the items you will need.
You will need the following materials:
1. 75-100 High Quality Pictures
2. Video Clips (if available)
3. Music Selection
4. A computer (Macs are made for this sort of thing)
5. Editing Software (Keynote, iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, and Power Point are a few examples)
6. Time & Creative Energy
7. DVD burning software
If you do not have all of the above items, no need to worry. Most of these things can be purchased for a relatively small amount of money. Except for the computer of course!
The first thing you will need is 75-100 high quality pictures. Why 75-100 pictures? Because that will bring your slide show in at about 8-12 minutes. And according to http://www.dvdphotographs.com, “We’ve found that video montages that are between 8 ? 12 minutes in length are ideal for wedding receptions. This usually works out to about 3 songs and 75-100 pictures.” Whenever possible, try and use high quality photographs. Expect that this slideshow will be played on a very large television or projector and any blurriness or imperfections will be very noticeable to your audience.
The music choices you make for your slideshow are extremely important. Music invokes emotion so be mindful of what direction you would like to take your guests. Do you want an upbeat slideshow or a slowed down photo montage? The music will set the tone. But what music is best? Try and pick songs that are meaningful to the bride and groom and their families. For song ideas perfect for wedding slideshows, www.wedding-music-help.com has a great list.
You are going to need a computer. And you are going to need to choose some type of editing software to create your slideshow. Macs come with Keynote (apple’s version of power point) and iMovie. Both are great for creating visually stunning slideshows. PC users will find that Windows Movie maker or power Point are great programs for making slideshows.
Once you find the editing software that works best, you are ready to put in some time to get this slideshow right! Arrange your pictures in a logical order to give the feel of “telling a story”, the story of the bride and groom. Hopefully you have some short video clips to mix in with the pictures. This provides a great change of pace for the audience and when used correctly, can add a whole new dimension to the finished product. Play with slow-motion and visual effect to provide a fun and romantic feel to the project.
Once you are happy with the final product, it is time to burn it to a DVD. Mac users use iDVD and Windows users have a variety of software options to accomplish this. Test! Test! Test! I cannot stress this enough. Make absolutely certain you go to the event venue and test run the slideshow on the exact equipment you will be using for the actual event. Any technical difficulties should be discovered BEFORE the big day!
Good luck and have fun!
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Source by Brandon L Carter
