9 Tips for Creating a Great Video / Photo Montage
Creating a captivating Photo/Video montage that you can enjoy for years to come is not difficult, but by taking a few steps prior to having one created for you can go along way. Here are some hints that we use at McKinnon Video Productions while creating our Video / Photo Montages.
1.Know Your Audience
Knowing who your intended audience is obvious, but sometimes an overlooked step in the process of developing your Photo/Video montage. For instance, if you’re showing your montage at your wedding reception, perhaps you’ll want to include some pictures of the guests, and not just pictures of you and your fianc'ee.
2. Shorter is Sometimes Better
After you’ve determined who your intended audience is you can start to get an idea as to how many pictures you’ll want to include in your Photo/Video montage. We’ve found that Photo montages that are between 8 – 10 minutes in length are ideal for wedding receptions. Given that the average song is about 3.5 minutes long, this usually works out to about 3 songs, and 60 - 75 pictures. 20-25 pictures per song usually times out pretty close; displayed for 8-10 seconds each. While you can certainly display more photos and or video during your montage, you want to be careful not to subject your guests to an extremely long show. Some people have elected to develop two or more montages. One that is their “personal” montage. And another for their “reception” montage that will be shown during the big event. McKinnon Video Productions can help you determine the correct length, and pacing of the Photo/Video montage to keep your audiences attention.
3. Choose Quality Photographs
While recent advances in digital photo restoration have allowed torn and poorly developed photographs to be brought back to life, there is only so much that the software can do. Pictures that look great printed (correct lighting, framing, developed properly) will also look great while scanned. Pictures that are extremely dark or grainy, while perhaps improved somewhat, will still not appear the best. McKinnon Video Productions reviews each photograph that is scanned and optimizes it to be viewed on a television or projector at its highest possible quality.
4. Choose a Variety of Photographs
Even though you may love all the pictures of your dog Rusty, you’re audience may not want to sit through all the pictures of him. Instead of showing 10 pictures of ole’ Rusty, perhaps choose the best two or three. Using a variety of photographs can keep your audience's interest.
5. Landscape pictures show better than Portrait pictures
Given the 4:3 aspect ratio of a standard television monitors, photographs that are in landscape mode (horizontal) as opposed to portrait mode (vertical) show better on a TV. While portrait photographs certainly can and should be used, you should be aware that there will typically be a black border that appears on each side of the photograph. It’s best to use these sparingly throughout the slide show and not clump them all together. If your project will be produced in a 16:9 aspect ratio (wide screen), the black border syndrom will be even worse.
NOT AN ISSUE WITH MOTION.
At McKinnon Video Productions, we use motion software that creates the illusion of a video camera slowly panning, or zooming in or out of your photo. This is an extremely helpful tool to use to virtually eliminate the black borders of portrait pictures. SEE AN EXAMPLE We also offer a Motion Mosaic ending to photo montages, and other videos. With advanced software, we are able to create a mosiac using all of your photos from your project, which are what create the pixels that make the mosiac. Coupled with the motion effect, it's pretty cool.
6. Give some thought to music
Choose music that has meaning to you, music whose lyrics go well with the pictures. Also pay attention to how long the music you’re choosing is. McKinnon Video Productions can help you with your music selection to make sure your music length matches the number of pictures you have to create a smooth flowing montage. We can also cross-fade songs on the fly to change the mood of your project, or if you choose to create a medley, we can fade out of one song, into the next.If you don't allow enough time for each photo to display, and flow with the music, then it can become very "choppy" and fast paced. (Not fun to watch)
7. Add short video clips
Do you have any home videos sitting around gathering dust? You can mix video clips into your photo montage. The video clips can help break up the montage and is a great way to keep your audiences interest. McKinnon Video Productions is able to incorporate video clips into our montages. We can also manipulate video clips to run in variable motion. (Slow - Fast ) This can dramatically enhance a photomontage. We can also transfer those classic 8mm reels of film that your Parents, or Grandparents had. Those are priceless!
8. Add transitions to your Montage
Transitions such as fade in/fade out, dissolve, and image peel are also an effective way to move from one photograph to the next, McKinnon Video Productions adds a dissolve effect as a standard transition, but also inserts special effects transitions between every fifth or sixth photo to accentuate picture attributes. Tons of special effects are available however, for emotional montages, keeping it simple with subtle effects works best. For upbeat and zany montages, lots of special effects would be recommended.
9. Test! Test! Test!
If you’re planning on showing your Photo/Video montage at an event like a wedding reception, try and test ALL the equipment prior to your guest’s arrival. Make sure the Multi-Media Projector or Television, DVD Player or Laptop, and sound are all working properly.
Make sure the type of DVD disc you're playing, will be compatible with the DVD equipment (This is a MUST!) Laptops often cannot process the DVD media fast enough to produce a solid display, and the on-screen picture is "Jerky". We recommend playing a DVD disc in a DVD player.
But also keep in mind some older DVD players will not play "Minus R" media formats (the most common recordable discs), other won't play " Plus R" media formats. So without fail, always check for compatibility. If necessary, buy a $30 DVD player. The cheaper ones will play just about any type of disc, and work very well.
Creating a captivating Photo/Video Montage can be done successfully with keeping a few of these tips in mind. Pictures that are preserved to DVD can be enjoyed for many years to come. Partnering with an experienced company like McKinnon Video Productions can help create a Montage you'll cherish for many years to come.