Finding various ways to market your wedding photography business can help you stay top of mind and increase the amount of bookings you receive each year. Because there are so many things you can do to market your business, it can be helpful to hear about what works for your peers in the industry. Today Vanessa Joy is back with her next guest post to share 5 steps to creating a same-day slideshow for your clients to showcase your work and attract ideal clients.
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Same-Day Slideshows were originally meant to be a form of marketing during the wedding that’s aimed toward the reception guests. As a side effect, it wows the bride and groom as well, but the primary benefit is being able to show off your work to their friends and family and essentially advertise for free. It is an incredibly effective marketing method that advertises to the guests in a relevant manner while they’re on the emotional high of the wedding. In fact, I would go as far as to say the same-day slideshow is one of the best marketing tools out there, and one that doesn’t cost us a thing.
I often teach my same-day edit process. It’s a little bit intense though, including making a same-day album, uploading pictures to Facebook, almost finishing my blog post and having the images ready to submit to publications. If you want to see my checklist for getting all of that done, click here.
However, same-day edits don’t need to be that complicated, and shouldn’t be if you’re just starting out. You can do just 10% of that process and still gain incredible brand recognition that will result in leads and bookings down the road. I can’t tell you how many inquiries I receive that tell me they, or their friend, or even their mom saw my pictures at a wedding. This method works.
If you’re ready to reap the rewards from the same-day slideshow, you can give it a try in just 5 easy steps. It won’t take time away from doing your job, especially if you have a second shooter or assistant. It’s not that hard to do at all. Take these and implement them at your next wedding and you’ll never want to miss doing a slideshow again.
1. Take the Right Pictures
There are three types of pictures you need to take for a successful same-day slideshow. The first is obvious; you need to take pictures of the bride and groom to tell their story. It’s their day and that’s why you were hired, so at no point should you slack off on that end of things.
Secondly, take pictures of the guests. When you show pictures, trust me, everyone is secretly hoping to see himself or herself, especially the bridal party. Think about every time you’ve ever been in a group picture. Who do you look for when you see the image for the first time? Yourself. Don’t worry; everyone else does the same thing. Try to grab a few candid shots of guests and include pictures of the bridal party and you’ll have them even more interested in your work than they would be if there were only pictures of the bride and groom.
Third, make sure you take pictures of the details. Shoes, dress, rings, cake, invitation, centerpieces – everything. You might not put too many of these pictures in the actual slideshow, but they’re a must-have for submitting to publications after the wedding and great for adding color and detail to the album design. It’s also most likely an expectation of your clients to take a lot of detail photos. They worked hard on each and every one of those before the wedding and they’ll want to remember them afterward.
2. Copy Memory Card Pictures
I shoot with the Canon 1DX (lower version of the Canon 1DXII) so I have dual card slots. Ideally, you’d shoot RAW for the main pictures and jpgs for your same-day-edit pictures because the jpgs will be faster to work with on the spot. If you don’t have that capability, it’s not the end of the world. It’ll just take a little bit more time for your laptop to handle the larger RAW files than the jpgs.
During the cocktail hour or the beginning of the reception, I sit down with my SD card plugged into my laptop and use Photo Mechanic to quickly select the pictures I’d like to use for the slideshow. I normally end up using about 60-80 photos, but that’s really not necessary for just the slideshow. If this is your first time trying this, 10-20 pictures will do just fine. Knowing how fast you are at editing will also help you determine how many pictures you should use in your same-day edit. When you’ve chosen the images, just copy them onto your hard drive.
Related: How can you keep your gear safe in dangerous conditions?
3. Edit Your Pictures – Quickly
The next step is a bit subjective depending on how you edit and your personal style. If you like editing in Photoshop, use Photoshop. If you like editing in Lightroom, use Lightroom. If I have the time, I like to use both, balance exposure and color in Lightroom and then throw them through a few of my favorite actions in Photoshop to finish them off and give them my style that well represents my brand.
Once you work on a few of you photos for the slideshow, don’t forget to take advantage of wedding photographer editing services, like ShootDotEdit, to edit the rest of your images and deliver them with your unique photography style for clients.
4. Add Your Logo
Every time you display your photos your logo absolutely needs to be attached to them for branding purposes. If the viewer doesn’t know who took the photos, there’s really no point to showing them at all.
Since by this point you’re probably nearing dinnertime, you need a fast way to add your logo and arrange the photos nicely. I use Blog Stomp (if you like it, use the code VANESSAJOY20 for 20% off), which is the easiest and fastest way to do this, and I’ll show you just how fast it can be in the video at the end. To top it off, Blog Stomp can integrate with your blog and Facebook Fan Page to upload your finished images right to the sites from the program. Not a necessary step in this process, but it’s an easy step to add to get Monday’s work started sooner.
5. Display with Your Business Card
There’s only one step left and it’s the best part! Show off your pictures and wow everyone who sees them by setting up either your laptop or a digital picture frame on a cocktail table with your business cards nearby. If you happen to have taken engagement pictures of the bride and groom, putting those photos on your business cards is an extra special touch. Then, just watch people “wow” and “awww” over your photos of the day. You’ll have crowds of people watching and telling other people all about it in no time.
If you choose to use your laptop to display the pictures, you have more options as to how they’re displayed. If you have access to the internet, you could easily make an Animoto slideshow which will make your slideshow look even more polished. If you don’t have Animoto, use code VANESSA2018 for 20% off new subscriptions. If not, or if you just want to keep it simple, you can use the LR slideshow feature or the same in Finder. Whatever you choose, just be sure to place the table in a well-trafficked area, just not anywhere obtrusive or in the way of guests or staff.
That’s it! If you think these 5 easy steps seem too good to be true, take a look at this video to see a little more about the process or check out the online full-day workshop here to see it live in action.
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When you create a same-day slideshow for your wedding photography clients, you showcase more of your work with a large audience. What are other techniques you can use to attract and book more clients to your business this year? Download our Guide to Marketing for Wedding Photographers to discover expert tips and techniques from industry leaders!
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