I first blogged about my same day slideshow process about two years ago, and since then my process has changed a bit, so I thought I would share an update! Since buying a 5D Mark III, doing slideshows is easier than ever. I can literally do a slideshow from start to finish in about six minutes flat. Which, for me, is important because I like to actually EAT during dinner time 😉

The key to being able to do it so fast?? Utilizing the SD card slot!! I have my camera set to record RAW files to my CF card and simultaneously record jpegs of everything I shoot that day on a 32gb SD card. The SD card is primarily a backup in case that something goes horribly wrong with my CF cards, but it’s also a great way to make the same day slideshow an even easier process than ever.

Instead of having to hook up each of my CF cards to my card reader and do a quick cull of a few images from each portion of the day, I now just stick my SD card into the computer and ALL of the images from the day so far are on it. Since they’re jpegs, they load super quickly and I’m able to use PhotoMechanic to pick out 10-15 images to transfer to my laptop.

Since they are JPEGS, I don’t technically have to color correct them, BUT I usually do. That still only takes a minute or so because I have my editing pretty much down pat.

At that point, you can either do your slideshow in Lightroom, or you can export them and use iPhoto or another software. I export and use iPhoto!

Doing this serves more purposes than just sharing the images with our clients…it also means that I don’t have to stay up late once I leave a wedding to cull, edit, export, etc for my social media sneak peeks! I also use one of these images for my Monday sneak peeks blog post!

One of the important keys to the same day slideshow is surprise…I never talk to the couple about it before I do it. Of course, I run the risk they’ll read about it here, but chances are, with how crazy wedding planning gets, they may not be thinking of it on the wedding day. I don’t talk about it because I want them to be an ADDED BONUS rather than something that’s included. If you tell all of your secrets and include everything you plan to do, you don’t give yourself any room to exceed expectations! So keeping the slideshow on the DL if possible is another key to making them successful, from my experience 🙂

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