This is an interesting forum but I am also amused by it. The new tec is something that we/you/me are interested in and to different degrees of interest.
If you have online proofing and reordering of prints and your final product to the happy couple is a wedding album then you can still use film. Your wedding lens selection does not have to include a 70-200mm zoom either.
I have been to thousands of weddings and I know other photographers who have used the basic 35, 50, 85/105mm lens combinations over the years for thousands of weddings. I have even experimented with Macros as well as 20mm wides and 18mm zooms.
Are you going to make any more money from it? Are your customers going to pay for your idea of increased image quality? You can say to yourself that you need this or that new tec but your perceived increase in image quality cannot always be seen by the customer and they may not be willing to pay for it.
If you like new tec, good for you. An artist uses his/her tools to produce the results that they desire. It takes a lot of cash to see if that new lens/monitor/body will pay for itself and give you what you think you are paying for.
I am sure that many of us, myself included, have spent our money because somebody else hyped it up to us and once we owned it, we were disappointed or we felt that it was over hyped and did not fit our personal artistic style or did not make us any additional income.
Interesting thoughts to ponder. Early adapters are another forum.
My daughter got married in Las Vegas this week! I am in Australia so I felt a bit ripped off but they wanted to do it before returning home from working in Europe. I watched the ceremony live on my computer from the Chapel's website. There was only them plus the celebrant plus a photographer who was annoying because he was oblivious to my video view and kept getting in the way but oh well the photos look pretty good actually.Looks like he was using a canon 70-200 f/4 lens (how close do they focus?) he was pretty close for such a long lens.There were photos up within an hour that you could order on-line as well as copies of the video. I am just amazed that such a thing is possible. I think people here in country Australia are a bit slow to take up the digital world. My dance orders from my website come in so slow after the dance festival. Some people here have no idea about the internet. I know we all have to adapt to the new world but it can take a toll on your wallet trying to get all the latest technology. It's no good lamenting about the past good old days when your film camera was "current" for 10 years. I agree with previous poster who said that we can end up thinking we need the latest equipment or we are no good. This is a reason why these forums are bad in a way. You can end up just reading and wishing you had the latets camera etc instead of getting out and taking photos with what you've got. I just bought a 40D and wonder maybe I should have got a 5D? See, I am a victim already!
Brian Lingle wrote:
Just displayed some photos on the TV by plugging a usb drive into it. Images looked ok but slow loading. Not as good as from the computer and no option for running a slide show. Do most HD tv's have usb ports?
no, but thy do have HDMI, and there are DVI or VGA to HDMI adapters. Some also have memory card slots.
seanbolton wrote:
Currently I supply DVD slideshows in standard DVD format and I don't see many clients with HD players in their living room yet (Blu-Ray or HD). I think it is another year or so before HD players start to become the norm,
I find the DVD slideshow is extremely popular with clients. A 20-30 minute slideshow which is well editted and set to good music is very effective.
If you don't mind offering more detail, do you tend to have a standard type of slideshow and if so, what is it? Do you fit each picture to the screen size? Do you show multiple pictures simultaneously? Do you zoom/move the pictures? Do you use one translation or a different one for each new picture? Do you time to specific events in the music, or just the match the pace?
I have the same approach to my slideshows and my basic rules are ;
1. resize and sharpen photos to 1200x800, a good general size for panning and zooming. ProShow resizes very nicely and keeps everything sharp for DVD.
2. No multiple photos, or general gimmicks, like funky fades.
3. Each photo is shown for about 6 seconds with a 1 second cross fade transistion. (some photos I extend the duration, key shots and big groups).
4. I use pan and zoom on ALL photos. This adds greatly to the overall effect. I used to do static slideshows, but now pan/zoom is a must. I zoom in more than I zoom out.
5. I try to keep the pace of the slideshow even, that means the zoom/pan speed is consistent throughout the slideshow so the overall show 'flows' nicely.
6. I try to sync the photo's to the music where I can, but generally it is just about choosing an appropriate backing track to each section of the wedding. Sometimes if it works I deliberately sync a transition to a moment in the music, but I don't make a big effort on this.
7. What I aiming for is a storybook feel with a good flow to the photographs with a consistent style to the fades, pans and zooms. This works the best. Avoid throwing in gimmicky effects. Too many of these and the whole slideshow starts to look inconsistent.
I want a classic, timeless feel, as far as that is possible. It is possible to go crazy with overlays, fancy transitions and fades, sound effects, etc but I find for me anyway, it is easy to go to far and end up with a gimmicky slideshow.
BarnDog wrote:
The other side of the coin of this is that the technology is at some point leveling the playing field in that the minimum requirement to enter this industry has gotten quite low. You do not need a medium format film system to be considered a "pro" photographer. If you think about the cost of starting a wedding photography business today vs. 15 years ago it is astounding how cheap it is to get going with a professional look. $800 camera, $1000 in lenses, $200 in web presence, $1000 in computer / software. So this encourages the market to be saturated, thereby driving prices down to compete while costs are increasing due to the changing technology. Hopefully, since this is a service based industry and is in the artistic realm, price will not be quantified by tangible product delivery but more by the intangible skill of the artist.
well , i do tend to agree with what you said, but then again, I was thinking " if I were a painter today, the barrier of entry is virtually non-existence.....how much does it cost for paints, brush and canvas.......but yet, these artist are selling Millions per piece....Have you been to an auction lately for chinese artist ? I mean its enough to get me painting again
I have the same approach to my slideshows and my basic rules are ;
1. resize and sharpen photos to 1200x800, a good general size for panning and zooming. ProShow resizes very nicely and keeps everything sharp for DVD.
2. No multiple photos, or general gimmicks, like funky fades.
3. Each photo is shown for about 6 seconds with a 1 second cross fade transistion. (some photos I extend the duration, key shots and big groups).
4. I use pan and zoom on ALL photos. This adds greatly to the overall effect. I used to do static slideshows, but now pan/zoom is a must. I zoom in more than I zoom out.
5. I try to keep the pace of the slideshow even, that means the zoom/pan speed is consistent throughout the slideshow so the overall show 'flows' nicely.
I want a classic, timeless feel, as far as that is possible. It is possible to go crazy with overlays, fancy transitions and fades, sound effects, etc but I find for me anyway, it is easy to go to far and end up with a gimmicky slideshow....Show more →
I have done a fair number that generally follow most of your description (minus the music and motion), I recently started doing a bit more - pan/zoom/cut in time with music, and sometimes using multiple pictures at once (or rapid succession). Trying to match up everything is certainly more time consuming and it is easy to go overboard, but I think the most common mistake involves trying to use every single transition offered, rather than a simple cut/dissolve/cross fade with one or two fancy transitions.
invalid2 wrote:
[I think the most common mistake involves trying to use every single transition offered, rather than a simple cut/dissolve/cross fade with one or two fancy transitions.
I agree. Keep to a consistent approach with maybe the odd special effect when it adds something to the slideshow. Simple crossfade is the best IMHO.
! Yeah, you could end up with some outrageous stuff and bloopers that you'd ordinarily edit. On the other hand, it would be a great service for relatives who have poor health or other reasons that they can't travel to the wedding.
You could even set up an interactive webcast with 2-way video, so they could feel closer with the family during part of the reception. My gf does that w her daughter all the time.
! Yeah, you could end up with some outrageous stuff and bloopers that you'd ordinarily edit. On the other hand, it would be a great service for relatives who have poor health or other reasons that they can't travel to the wedding.