Why, you might ask?

Because a lady asked me to put together a photo montage for her. She inquired about it a few months back and then called every 2 to 3 weeks trying to get some insight about what will make it easy to put it together (she'll be out of town for the next 6 weeks and needs it when she returns). It's going to be a pretty lengthy photo video but this lady is organized like you wouldn't believe!

The songs she wants are all in order on a CD. Sweet!
The pictures to each song are on a seperate CD and NUMBERED! There's no question as to what order they go in!
She also provided a script as well! 'These pictures go with this song, cut out the first 10 seconds of this song, etc.'

Absolutely perfect!

The video is to play during the rehearsal dinner and will be about 30-45 minutes long. I don't think guests will be expected to watch the whole thing... it'll play in the background while everyone is mingling, eating, drinking, etc.

So why is my place in Heaven reserved?

I dare you to ask how many pictures there are.

I DARE YOU.

six hundred

I never turn down a dare!!!

How many!?

ONE THOUSAND, SIX HUNDRED FIFTY PHOTOS.

And I hate a LOT of the music in this sucker...

ONE THOUSAND, SIX HUNDRED FIFTY PHOTOS.

Of what? Timelapse of the kids growing up?

Ha ha - each picture will be on the screen for 1.6 seconds!

So is the lady already gone on her 6 week trip?

Reminds me of the days I used to be a wedding dance DJ. A bride sent me a list of songs that must be played during their dance. Pages and pages of songs. Enough music for a dozen wedding dances...

I have pictures of the mom's eye when she was 20 something since her child was a sparkle in there. I even have pictures of fertilization as well.

KIDDING!

1,650... 1,650... 1,650... 1,650... 1,650... 1,650... 1,650... 1,650... 1,650...

Am I on crack?

The saving grace is that there's no 'fun stuff' to do with the photos. No 'Ken Burns' type of movement or anything... just lay the pictures & music down, make all the pictures the same length and that's it.

I just can't get over 1,650... 1,650... 1,650... 1,650... 1,650... 1,650... 1,650... 1,650...

Does a grand seem fair?

I can't begin to imagine, how 1600 pics would look like in your time line. That is a lot!!!!!! At 3 sec per pic, you are looking at 80 minutes.

A grand seems fair, hopefully she numbered it correctly. lol

Does a grand seem fair?To be fair, you really need to tell this lady that there is no way you can make a *good* slideshow out of 1,650 photos. She really needs to cut back at least 75%. At 5 seconds per picture, this slideshow is 2.5 hours.

I'm breaking each song into its own timeline then butting them back together on the DVD.
Some songs have 50 pictures, a few have ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY.

Only 2 or 3 songs have dissolves and some motion, everything else is just a picture and cutting to another picture. Nothing fancy.

I figured a grand seemed fair for all that.

Does a grand seem fair?

I don't know how you usually price your photo montages but ours are $200 for 60 pictures. That's roughly $5,500 if you extrapolate it out for your 1650 picture job.

If you had to scan all these pics I'd say just pass her along to someone else, but since there's no scanning involved $1000 - $1500 doesn't sound bad for some mindless work. If you're simply expected to cross dissolve those bad boys it can't take all that long to do... right... maybe... unless your computer starts billowing smoke.

On second thought maybe enough to cover a shiny new computer and still make a little profit would be nice.

Do you have some easy to use automated software?


Oh and Blake, is it pronounced with an "umpty"?

Ethan, please stop what you're doing as I am about to get busy.

My photo montages run $150 for 40 photos, but I'm looking at bumping the # of pictures up a bit.

Glad to know the grand isn't out of line. Another day or two and I should be done!

Ethan, please stop what you're doing as I am about to get busy.

That almost sounds mean. You're just upset cause I found out about the Burger King bathroom.

And yes, you're about to get very busy.

Like someone else, I'm confused by the math here. Are you seriously cramming 1,650 images into 45 minutes or less ... at 1.6 seconds of screen-time per image ... maybe only 1 second of screen-time once you factor in dissolves? One second per image is not enough time .. heck .. two seconds is not enough time.

This whole process can be automated if you use After Effects. You can even have the pictures blur in and out with some slight movement. You could probably finish the whole project in under an hour. :)

Like someone else, I'm confused by the math here. Are you seriously cramming 1,650 images into 45 minutes or less ... at 1.6 seconds of screen-time per image ... maybe only 1 second of screen-time once you factor in dissolves? One second per image is not enough time .. heck .. two seconds is not enough time.

I agree. I really can't see following through with this project under these parameters. Your client probably doesn't understand how fast the images will fly by and will be quite disappointed in the final product.

It's our job as the "experts" to educate our clients, and quite often that means not blindly following their instructions.

You asked if $1,000 was "fair" - it's completely unfair for you to take her $1,000 and give her exactly what she asked for.

If I were in your shoes, I'd create the montage for one of the songs you mentioned that has 170 images. Let her see how bad that will look, then she will understand she needs to cull this collection down to about 400 images.

I agree. I really can't see following through with this project under these parameters. Your client probably doesn't understand how fast the images will fly by and will be quite disappointed in the final product.

It's our job as the "experts" to educate our clients, and quite often that means not blindly following their instructions.

You asked if $1,000 was "fair" - it's completely unfair for you to take her $1,000 and give her exactly what she asked for.

If I were in your shoes, I'd create the montage for one of the songs you mentioned that has 170 images. Let her see how bad that will look, then she will understand she needs to cull this collection down to about 400 images.

The customer is always..... well, almost always.... ok so in our field it's pretty close to never really, but if they're paying and it's what they want and you show them and they don't care then take the cash, do the edit and let the chips fall where they may.

Months ago on the phone I tried to tell her that a picture should be on screen anywhere from 3 to 5 seconds. A minimum of 3 seconds!

She says she HAS to have all these pictures in.

I sat this lady down today in my living room and showed her a typical montage and explained the work that goes in to making the pictures 'move you' with the music, the movement, etc.

I tried to tell her that picking the best 1,200 pictures would help... but she HAS to have all of them.

ALL OF THEM.

Yes... all 1,650 pictures. Otherwise someone will have their feelings hurt.

So... $1,000 bucks for $1,650 pictures set to the music she chooses... Heck, that's 0.006 cents per picture!

What a bargain!

It may be reserved but you still need to finish the project before you can actually get in...

Good point...

This can really go to the weirdest wedding jobs hall of fame or some sort... :)

Santo

I can't wait till she asks him to swap the 132nd pic for the 781st, and change the transition somewhere about 32 minutes in but she's not sure quite where.

Or better yet, leave just one picture out and see if she notices.

Wow, I get about $1000 for 100 picture montages. And you're getting the same for 1650. Although as you said, really no creative editing, just putting it in.

I tried to tell her that picking the best 1,200 pictures would help... but she HAS to have all of them.Well, you tried and sometimes that's all we can do. In the end, she's the one writing the check.

Are you going to drop these individually on the timeline? It would be great if you had some automated way to do it.

Wow, I get about $1000 for 100 picture montages. And you're getting the same for 1650. Although as you said, really no creative editing, just putting it in.

$1000 for a 100 picture montage is pretty nice. I'm sure location has something to do with that. NY is slightly more affluent than Louisiana.

I personally hate doing these things and don't even try to sell them. I should jack my price up to your range to dissuade people from doing them.

$1000 for 100 pictures..??

I'm thinking to switch profession to be slideshow specialist now..

maybe "cinematic wedding slideshow" as the company name...

500 pictures a week and I'm good.

:P

Santo

I'm using Final Cut... and the nice thing is once I import the pictures, I drag a marquee and lay them on the timeline all at once.

Then I lay down the music... then drag another marquee around all the pictures on the timeline, change their length (2 seconds to 1 second 21 frames or whatever) until it closely matches the length of the song... and BOOM! DONE!

I wonder if I were to put a picture of me in as a baby if anyone would notice... ;)

I wonder if I were to put a picture of me in as a baby if anyone would notice... ;)

When you start talking about inserting random photos Fight Club comes to mind...

A bit tongue in cheek - Treat the images as if they are MJPEG frames and render it as a DVD. At 30 fps, the running time will be just under a minute - far less boring that way! Of course you won't see much because every thing is going by so fast - but that's probably good. I sure that anyone who has to endure watching this compendium of boredom will appreciate your "artistic" brevity.

compendium of boredom

Actually that's the best description I can imagine for this thing. Made me laugh, thanks.

In fact I think he should add "compendium of boredom" as an order option on his website.

FYI... after photo 927, there is a wet bar at my reserved place in heaven...

This entire thread is hilarious, made my day, your nightmare! Photos eat up system resources, don't even want to know how the render will go. God himself will meet you at the gates, haha :)

When all is said and done, it's your name going on the montage. Anyone should be able to watch a well done montage and have it keep their interest. No matter what you do, even family members will tune it out long before it's over. It's not always about the money and the customer is not always right. You're the professional.

Actually, I'm not putting my name anywhere on the sucker. I'm handing her four DVDs when it's done. Just like she wants.

The original quote was $4,500 for that many pictures. But she couldn't afford that and a grand was the best she could do. So I came down $3,500 and also came down off of my creativity as well. No dissolves, wipes, movement, etc.

It's EXACTLY what she wants. And as the professional, I'm giving her what she wants.

You're giving her what she wants but what do you get out of it? It's not going to be something you'll be proud of, It's taking all your creativity out of the equation and you're doing it for pennies. Not every job is worth taking. Sometimes you just need to say no.

You're giving her what she wants but what do you get out of it? It's not going to be something you'll be proud of, It's taking all your creativity out of the equation and you're doing it for pennies. Not every job is worth taking. Sometimes you just need to say no.

I don't know ... I could do this in about 2 hours. AND I could do Ken Burns too. That is why I purchased VASST Ultimate S Pro. :-) But US Pro throws some very odd movements every once and a while, so I usually have to correct most of the movements.

But the boredom might cause me to poke my eyes out.

As far as customer vs reputation... I think he is doing the right thing. Do the job, take the money, leave your name off of it. If she is so proud of it, let her refer people. And then he can take a few minutes when he talks to the referrals and explain the non-standard nature of this work.

If she is so proud of it, let her refer people.

Just think how much fun Blake will have when he gets a reputation for being good at these behemoth montages. Maybe we can help him come up with a good tag line for his web site that highlights this specialty.

You're giving her what she wants but what do you get out of it? It's not going to be something you'll be proud of, It's taking all your creativity out of the equation and you're doing it for pennies. Not every job is worth taking. Sometimes you just need to say no.

I'm getting a thousand bucks out of it. Started on Monday, finish tonight. A few hours each night and I'm done.

Creativity? I'd love to be creative. But my creativity is something she doesn't want nor can afford. So should I sacrifice income because I can't be creative on ONE project?

Yes, I'm doing it for pennies. 165 pennies per picture, actually. That's one heckuva deal. And if this lady hadn't been so organized and made this task easy to put together, I probably would have turned it down.

I'm not scanning 1,650 pictures and picking the order they go in!

What a waste of money.. what is the point of syncing it up to music during cocktail hour? Better to just hook up an Apple TV or laptop and play the slideshow from that..

Blake, I'm not trying to tell you how to run your business. If you're happy doing it, then that's what works for you. I was just adding my own personal feeling about those types of situations and clients.

So how did it look? Better than you expected? Worse?

I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around it.

I'd probably do it, given the disclaimers Blake has made about how fast it will seem. That's a lot of pictures. Sad thing is, after four or five minutes of people being polite and watching the slideshow, they're going to tune it out and it's going to become a background shenanigan really quickly.

I don't know how it is in a lot of urban areas, but in less populated areas like mine, you have to try to take every job that comes at you. That means taking jobs you don't necessarily like, and very often doing jobs for much less than you would want to because you have to get the client before they look elsewhere. So much of my business is based on referrals and repeat customers, I try to never shun a potential new customer.

Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

Glad she didn't cross the river.

The first thought that came to my mind was to scale the pix and show four up at a time (or more with some pix), displaying each quad for about 4 seconds. For the occasional choice pix, I'd do a full scale zoom-in for another 3-4 seconds (perhaps with a Ken Burns effect).

I suspect your client would be more than happy to select say "the top 50" photos for special highlight. Anyway, just a thought...

Lotsa luck,

Michael

Hey Rob, no problem and I do appreciate your two cents!

The montage doesn't look 'bad.' Obviously it's not the way I'd like a montage to look. I think it's boring.

But I also have to keep in mind that this is for HER FAMILY, not mine... and just seeing the pictures to the music she selected will probably have everyone 'oohing & ahhing' and such.

I am in agreeance with how this play out at the rehearsal dinner. After 5-8 minutes, I'm sure people will be like, 'Can I eat now? How much longer is this thing? Will it look rude if I get up and grab a drink?'

And those are the things I told her about 3 months ago... but to no avail!

I applaud you Blake. You took a job that was not your cup of tea and gave a client what she wanted. I have had clients before that made requests that were counter to what I would choose or recommend and I told them so but at the end of the day, they are your client and if you offer your advice and they choose to ignore it then you have done what you can. After that it is our job to deliver the client's vision or at least an approximation of it. Good work tackling a complicated project and making a tidy profit.

Thanks Bryan! Mosey on down to Alabama I'll buy the first round! Heck, I'll tell you about pictures 289 thru 926 and how I inserted one of my baby pics into the montage!

Blake- I just might take you up on that beverage offer and let you regal me with your tale.

Please tell me your are joking about the insert though, and remember that these forums are massively indexed on google so anything said here will likely be read by a client at some point...

I couldn't muster up the energy to find a pic of me or anything else to throw in there.

Would be funny though!

I just finished an approximately 27 minute montage with 176 photos and I am still trying to wrap my head around the scope of your project. What was the approximate view time for each photo in the end?