hey y'all.  i'm beginning to offer portrait videos in my product line.  take a look and let me know if you have any suggestions.  i have a senior sample posted in my blog but i'm in the process of making a sample of a child's session and also a wedding..  the one i posted is a "short" video - just over a minute long.  i'll build a longer video with my next session now that i have an idea of what i'm trying to accomplish.  these are mp4 files that can be uploaded to myspace pages, ipods, etc.  they are also DVD quality that can be projected or viewed on a TV.

go to www.bonberphotographics.com and click on "blog" in the upper right.  you'll see the post with the video screen.  just click on the play button.

i appreciate any comments.

bonnie 

That's pretty neat!  Kinda like a fancy slideshow. 

I was expecting it to be a video someone shot while you were shooting senior portraits.  A friend from photo school hired a company to photograph her shooting a wedding and has it on her website...really cool!

thanks for looking JE,  i'm glad it's not a video of me working!  someone just gave me a bunch of pics of me photographing a wedding and i look very HOT and not at all graceful.

but that IS an idea.  in fact, it's a really GOOD idea.  i could make up a video of pics of me taking pics during a portrait session and make it look like it all happens in a couple of minutes!!!!  haha  my 18 year old son has no idea why i would need longer than 30 seconds to take his picture.

thanks for the idea! 

That is a cool video.  I think the seniors would love it!

Nice! I like it. 

I had thought about buying that program, but don't you have to pay for it every year? I think the video is great, and seniors would love it.

 the commercial license is a $250 commitment per year.  that gives you the right to use the videos commercially - for advertising, selling to clients etc. you also get unlimited full-length downloads.

even if i just sell a few of them, it's paid for itself and i will use it for advertising.    but i expect it might be a popular product. 

 That's pretty cool! Since you asked for feedback, some of the jumpiness of the pictures wasn't my favorite, I'd prefer a smoother transition. Can you adjust all that type of stuff and the song if you want? If you did give to seniors it would be a great way for them to get lots of pictures and you wouldn't have to worry about them getting high res versions from it printed on their own. BTW I love your site, what awesome work you have.

hey kim.  thanks for looking!  making these videos is an interesting exercise for me because i have NO control over the video itself.  it's all computer generated.  so my perfectionist, control freak self would LOVE to go in and tweak all the details but i CAN'T.  and since i CAN'T, it's very liberating to just look at it and say ok it's DONE.

i can tell the computer program to mix another version and see if i like it better.  i don't lose the old one - it just adds a new version to my library.

i can change the order of the photographs, tell the program to spotlight particular photographs but that's about it. 

the only music i can (or would) use is royalty free so i am limited in that way.  i am working on getting some music from a band i photographed this past year but since they all just moved to college it's been a slow process.  and of course i have searched the internet near and far for good royalty free music.

thanks very much for looking at the site and for your suggestions and kind words.

bonnie 

Bonnie, I like the Animoto videos. I'm not sure about the swing music in the urban scene, but I'm pretty sure the program picks the music. Another local photog uses them for all of her seniors and I love them and would love to use them, but don't want to seem like a copycat. I vote yes! 

 hey devan.

you DO get to pick the music.  but my choices are a little bit limited at the moment.  i would like to have some fun "top 40" kind of songs but that's not happening right now.  animoto told me they were working on expanding their music library.  you can also upload your own royalty free, legal music...if you can find something to buy that you LIKE.  so far, the best vocal music i've found to buy is on triplescoopmusic.com but their best stuff is geared for weddings.

i know one thing, if i were 20 years younger, i'd have a cottage industry going just writing/recording songs for photographers...songs about growing up, families, forever love, etc.  if i could sell enough of them at $50 a pop i could buy some new camera toys!!!!  

haha.

does the photographer over by you using animoto have any examples on her website?  send me her link if she does - i'd like to take a peek. 

Yeah she does, I will e-mail it to you. 

I'd have to agree with Kim that the jumpiness might be an issue.  Also, to me, the images aren't displayed long enough to really enjoy them.  Is that something you can control?  Not sure I COULD tolerate a program that didn't give me any more control than this one seems to.

Photos look nice.  And you chose a very pretty subject to try this out on.  Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 they are getting ready to introduce some tempo controls but right now the speed of the images goes with the speed of the music.  so i can pick some slower music to see each image longer if that's the look i want.

i like the images going fast - it's not intended to be something that you linger over - that's what the nice flushmount albums are for! 

but i appreciate hearing everyone's opinions so i can get an idea of what a cross section of people think about the product. 

 I really like the Speed of it and the "jumpiness" of it.......it was for a senior and it fits it perfectly! If it were a wedding though I think I may want it a little slower, but still a great concept!!!!

I think I'll try it out....

Jen

That is SOOOOO cool.  Something new to obsess about.  Is there a trial version?

 I just made a short 30 second one it was free....it was easy to imbed on myspace or blogger.....make sure you resize your pics before you do it...I used fastone resizer and sized them to 800 on the long size and it worked good!

Jen

hey leigh - watch out!  animoto can be addicting.  when i was first introduced to animoto i did it for a whole day!!!!

yes, there's sort of a trial version - you can make as many 30 second, low resolution videos  that you want - for FREE.  as a consumer, you can make longer, DVD quality videos for $5 each.

BUT if you are a professional, you need to buy the commercial license so that you can use and sell your videos.   on the animoto site, click on HELP and you'll find all the answers.  it's very thorough.  

I was just over there!!  I can really see the seniors going for this on their myspace sites.  I wouldn't even know what to charge for that!!