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High school sweethearts, photographers, and educators based in Minneapolis, MN

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How to Make a Same Day Slideshow FAST

photographer educating on how to make a same day slideshow fast

Today, we are talking about how to make a same day slideshow fast! Tia walks you through what a same day slideshow is, how to create them, and how same day slideshows are a HUGE marketing tactic for us! What is a Same Day Slideshow? So first, what is it and how do we make […]

Today, we are talking about how to make a same day slideshow fast! Tia walks you through what a same day slideshow is, how to create them, and how same day slideshows are a HUGE marketing tactic for us!

What is a Same Day Slideshow?

So first, what is it and how do we make a same day slideshow fast? What it means for us, is that on a wedding day we edit a handful of photos. Typically for us, that’s about 25. We import them, we edit them, and we present them to our couple on their wedding day.

Typically, the couple wants to see them and they also want to show their parents, they want to show the bridal party. It’s amazing and it’s a HUGE way to over deliver for our couples. It’s a surprise for our couples, they have no clue. Unless they know someone else that we’ve done it for or they’ve been in a wedding where we’ve done it for someone else. But they still don’t know when it’s coming or what it’s going to look like.

How do we pull it off?

So, it’s a little tricky to pull off, even with two of us. Know that it’s always my husband and I shooting together, so we can always cover different areas. We can cover different areas of the reception or cocktail hour, but it’s still tricky to do.

We also don’t do it at every single wedding. I would say we do it at about 90% of weddings. Some weddings run behind or things happen during cocktail hour that we need to do and we’re not able to make it happen. That’s also why we always have it as a surprise. Just in case things go awry during the wedding day and we can’t make it happen.

So how do we make it happen? Step 1!

The first step to make same day slideshows fast is that we make covers pre-wedding day. We make these in Canva and we present our same day slideshows on an Ipad, so we make the covers beforehand. The first cover introduces the wedding day and the last cover at the end says congratulations.

The reason that we made covers in the first place is that a) it makes it look a little more professional. Also b) our couples would get to the end and they don’t know how many photos are there. They don’t know how long we went into the day with the same day slideshow and they’ll be swiping a couple of times and they realize that’s the end. We don’t want any disappointment associated with it. Like “oh, that’s all?” Or “oh shoot, I’m already at the end?”. So instead we wanted to create cover that says congratulations so they know they’re at the end!

Step 2!

The second step to make same day slideshows fast is that on the wedding day while we shoot, we rate the images. With the Canon R5, it’s on the top left corner. We press the rate button and we do this throughout the day. Anytime we have downtime, so maybe that’s after portraits and one of us is driving to the ceremony location. The person who’s not driving will go on the cameras and they will generally know what we’re looking for.

We actually wrote down at one point, we want three couples portraits, we want four wedding party photos, two bridesmaids, two groomsmen. So we know generally what we’re looking for and it’s front of mind because we’ve just taken them. We know like, “oh I know this one was so awesome”, or “I know this went really well.” So we’ll just scroll through quickly, we’ll rate them one star. 

Step 3!

We do this third step during cocktail hour. I photograph cocktail hour. So I photograph the guests mingling, I get a ton of candids, and what we call grip and grins, like aunts with their arms wrapped around each other smiling at the camera. Cam then photographs the reception set up. After, he is open to do whatever during the rest of cocktail hour. That only takes maybe 5-15 minutes, so during the rest of cocktail hour, he then imports. 

We plug in the camera and then we use the Canon software to import. That’s different than our normal process. Normally, we use the cards and that imports quickly to the photo mechanic and/or Lightroom. Instead, the reason we do this is because when we use that rating system, when we go to import, it is able to only import the images one star or higher. 

Now the first time we did a same day slideshow, I remember this so vividly. We tried to import everything and then flag on our computer. First of all, don’t try to import everything because that takes freaking forever. But then trying to go through on our computer was so much harder than just finding what we think is best.

Know that your same day slideshow images do not need to be the absolute best. Yes, we’re trying to hit those but every once in a while we’ll go to do their blog and we’ll realize like oh shoot, these are the images we want as their cover image and they weren’t even in the same day slideshow images. But we are trying to hit that as much as possible. So that’s how we import and Cam does that during cocktail hour. 

Additionally, then he edits the images. He quickly applies a preset, we’re not doing any sort of fancy editing and then he’ll crop or straighten wherever that’s needed. He’ll then export and run them through jpegmini. Because we have all apple products, this makes it clutch for doing a same day slideshow. We bring our MacBook Pro to wedding days for him to do all of this on. Then he’s just able to airdrop to the iPad. We then have folders step up, which we did this when we made the same day slideshow covers. We’ll have a folder like “Campbell Wedding” and it will have the front and back cover on there. He then puts the photos that he just airdropped in the folder and then there’s a full folder for Campbell Wedding. 

Ideal Scenario

Then, our ideal scenario for how to make a same day slideshow fast is that we present it to them at dinner. We wait until after they’ve gotten their first course, so typically a salad. When they’re starting to wrap up their salads, since they were served first, the rest of the reception still might not have even been served yet. So we will go up and say surprise! We have some images ready for you. It’s kind of nerve-racking but we found that’s the best time to not really interrupt them from anything else. It’s not going to prevent them from doing anything. They’re going to talk about it, they’re going to talk with their bridal party, as they would be if they were just sitting there eating. 

We used to present it on the dance floor and every once in a while that still happens if we can’t get it done early. And I didn’t necessarily love that because it felt like it was pulling them away. It’s quick, it only takes like 5 minutes, but it still felt like it was pulling them away from something they wanted to be doing. While a LARGE majority of our couples are pumped out of their minds to see the photos, I still didn’t want to feel like I was the cause of pulling them away from something. So we love it at dinner. We also love it at dinner because they’re around their wedding party. 

The Best Feeling On Earth

Here is the best feeling on earth. It is so rewarding because – I feel emotional about it – 9 times out of 10, they start scrolling through their photos and their maid of honor asks what it is, or they start showing their maid of honor. We have had situations where they are literally showing their entire harvest table like LOOK AT THIS YOU GUYS! And these people are in the photos, they’re in the wedding party or the ceremony photos so they want to see it too and they cheer their friends on.

You will hear like eruptions. You will have situations where the bride and groom are looking and then their friends, their moms, their aunts are behind them also looking. We’ve also had a scenario on the dance floor where they’re holding it up and scrolling it for people. It is literally the best and like pure joy for them.

A Culture of Instant Gratification

We live in a culture where instant gratification is very present. And we could be like oh that sucks, I can’t believe all of these generations like instant gratification. Or we could cater to that. Yeah, people love instant gratification. What can we do for instant gratification?

It is a hit. Typically what happens is we’ve built relationships throughout the day with wedding party members and maybe there’s a bridesmaid, let’s say her name is Lauren. And I get really close to Lauren and we’re just vibing throughout the day. I just can’t wait until Lauren gets engaged. The same day slideshow, I feel often is where we seal the deal. Where Lauren thinks to herself, “oh my gosh, I want that on my wedding day.” “Wow look at how amazing those photos are.” People get to see the end result of something they were in earlier in the day. And then a year and a half from then, three years from then, Lauren typically ends up in our inbox inquiring. 

So it’s a huge seal the deal concept for us. So let us know what questions you have. I know that this is a little bit of a complicated concept, like how can I transfer that to my business and make it work for me. Especially if I only have one person or a second shooter, anything like that. So let’s chat about it! Drop them in the comments! 

Are You Loving This Business-Minded Content?

So if you’re loving this business minded content, here’s the deal! Our business course is currently open. The doors are freaking open for you. But, it closes at 11:30pm tonight, central time. That is the last chance for you to get in the course. We would love to have you there! We would love to have you going through the entire business course with a community of like-minded photographers and entrepreneurs. But the thing is, you’ve gotta make it happen today. The doors close, tonight! 

So I’m going to leave the link in our description so you can check it out and see if it’s a good fit for you. You’ve probably already heard us chatting about this but again, if you’re watching this live, go check it out now and see if it’s a good fit for you! We only open these doors at a limited time basis and so if you’re not watching this live, sign up for the waitlist and then you’ll be notified when we open the doors again! 

Until next time, bye! 

© Cameron & Tia 

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