How to Get the Most from Your Photo Montage Slide Shows
by Stuart Sweetow of Audio Visual Consultants
Photo Montage slide shows are a wonderful way to preserve your family history. You may choose a simple photo montage with your favorite music, or you can have a more robust montage with “camera” movements, narration, titles and home video clips. Call to view some Photo Montages we have produced for other clients to get ideas of the different approaches to this video.
Rates
Rate is $4.50 per photo print or $2.50 per digital file from disc, $90 minimum. We usually plan on using one song per 20-25 photos. Client provides the music, preferably on a CD. Additional songs, titles, narration, video clips and changes are billed at the $120/hr editing rate, in ¼ hour increments. When you meet with our editor, he will estimate the total fee. A 50% deposit is required when you place your order.
Preparing Photos
Give us your digital photos as jpgs or another photo file and let us know the order of them. If you provide photo prints, please number each photo, using ballpoint pen in corner on the back side of the photo. If we have to number photos, we charge an additional 50 cents per photo. For digital files, please give us a list of their numbers in the sequence you want them.
Cropping
Cropping means enlarging a portion of the photo to focus on the main subject. We usually crop for the main subject, but please let us know if you want us keep all photos full size (no cropping). Otherwise, we will use our discretion to crop photos to the subject. If you want specific cropping, indicate which photo numbers you want cropped and provide a description or a drawing on a page of paper. If you want specific cropping after we have scanned in that photo, there will be an additional charge.
Vertical Photos
Please keep in mind that television sets are horizontal. Vertical photos will appear smaller on your TV screen than horizontal photos, and they will have black bars on either side on the TV screen. If you wish us to crop the vertical photos to fit a horizontal TV screen format, let us know if we can cut off the bottom or the top or try to crop to center.
Music
Please provide music on CD. We accept cassettes, but there will be a charge if we have to search for a song or edit the music. We try to make the photos change to beats of music, but can’t guarantee that will be the case. If you want to add more music than one song per 20 photos, that is chargeable at $120/hour editing rate in ¼ hour increments. We sometimes shorten or lengthen a song with cross fades, if possible, but may have to charge for edit time to do that.
Deadlines
Since we customize Photo Montages, they take 5-10 working days, depending on our workload. If you have a special event, do call us; we sometimes can get Photo Montages completed in less time. We will call you when the montage is ready to set up an appointment for you to view it. If you can come in and view it very soon after we call you, there may be time to make changes before your event.
Changes
Client changes billed at our editing rate of $130/hr, with a ¼ hour minimum. For scanning new photos, rate is $4.50 per photo to scan plus editing time to add to the DVD or videotape. Replacing photos takes less time, usually, than adding or subtracting photos. We will charge for a second meeting if you want to make changes. If changes are due to our error, no charge to client.
DVDs and CD Copies
Included in the price is the Photo Montage on a DVD. A second DVD copy is $9.95. In addition to your DVD, we can create a picture CD of your photos. Please inquire about pricing.
