How are you finding your slideshow galleries? Feeling a little frustrated and want to shake things up? This article will hopefully give you the vehicle to share your images the way you always dreamed. Ever better though, let’s find a way to set your Photography Small Business apart from everyone else in your area or city.

So, slideshows? They’re great right? If you’re starting a small business in photography, you’re probably looking at other photography business to see how they are working online. Or, perhaps you’ve been running your photography home business for a long time and you’re looking to change some things and create a buzz around your work. It’s time to read below!

How often though do you quickly lose interest when clicking through a portfolio? Sure you can sit back and watch a slideshow but they can be pretty bland. I’ll give you an example. When I was on my vacation in April this year, I was subjected to some slideshow DVDs  that my girlfriend’s great uncle had made using his photography.  Yes, there is an 85 year old great uncle out there making slideshow DVDs with iPhoto and his digital camera (You now have no excuses why you are not creating something more interesting than an 85 year old when it comes to your photography business).  These DVDs included music as the images transitioned across the TV.   He sends them to family to watch and show what he is up to these days.  They are pretty well received and I was impressed with the idea of taking his images offline like this and making that connection with family.

Animoto And your Photography Home Business

The slideshow sparked my interest becasue I knew that I could create videos that were much more current and able to capture the viewers attention. I started thinking about relating this to a photography business. It brought up my memory of Animoto.  I could create some pretty interesting slideshows with my photography! I had made a few test videos in the past and posted them on this blog; however, I lost that content when everything crashed a while ago.  I still have the 30 second videos in my Animoto profile though. You may have heard of Animoto already or this might be something very new to you.   I mentioned the company in my last posting – “Digital Era – Do more with your digital photos,”  but I couldn’t fully get into it.  Hopefully you followed the initial link in that post and checked it out.  I’ll go over what I love about it and what I hope it can do for photography and small businesses.

What is Animoto?

That’s right! Animoto is the end of slideshows.  You can forget about those slideshows your saw yesterday.  They are officially dead.  Seriously, go back and try and find it and you’ll realize it’s gone.  You can upload your images, or import them from popular photo hosting websites like Flickr.  Pick the music from their long list, or upload music you have the rights to and Animoto does the rest.  I’ll let Animoto Explain:

The heart of Animoto is its newly developed Cinematic Artificial Intelligence technology that thinks like an actual director and editor. It analyzes and combines user-selected images and music with the same sophisticated post-production skills and techniques that are used in television & film.

- Animoto

Cinematic Artificial Intelligence technology? AWESOME! It might take you 10 minutes to make a video that will blow everyone away.   Once your video is fully rendered, Animoto sends you an e-mail to let you know.  There is a big benefit here that you may not be aware of yet.  Animoto is rendering your video, not your computer.  This is a web application and they are doing all of the hardwork, not you! You computer still runs quick, allowing you to focus on some other work or activities while Animoto makes your kick ass video.   While it was rending my video of Las Vegas, I went into Photoshop and continued to edit images from a photoshoot with no system lag.  I have heard of videographers say their computer is useless while it renders a video for them. They could be working on something much larger, but it’s still pretty cool to know that Animoto isn’t taking over your computer usage.

Photography Video Creation

I took some screenshots while creating the video above.  All it took was a few click’s and processing time.  I am expecting one of those commercials on TV that show a 3 year old creating a dynamic slideshow online.  Animoto does an unbelievable job at turning this complex technology into a web application that is so easy to use.

Just before getting into the screen shots, I wanted to go over a tip from Animoto about image size that will save you time.
Most of us probably think that you need to upload your highest resolution image files; however, you do not.  Animoto recommends free software for Mac and PC.  DroPic for Mac and VSO Image Resizer for PC.  Hear it from Animoto:

We recommend a size of no less than 640×426 (about 50kb per image), and no more than 1024×768 (about 100kb per image).  If you plan to make videos for DVD or to download onto your computer, it’s best to upload images that are at least 1024×768–but still, no need for pics more than 1 or 2 mega pixels.

You aren’t sacrificing any quality at all and you’re saving a lot of time.  My first ever video was 30seconds and it took forever at full 300DPI.  Waste of time when there is no benefit.

With that information presented, take a look at these screenshots moving through the video creation process:

I admit, I was sad to see SmugMug here.  I love their competitor, Zenfolio, much more.  But I realized that I upload files to flickr that are in resolution range that work for Animoto videos, so my images from Zenfolio would be much too large anyways.

The last screenshot shows Animoto producing your slideshow killer photography video. You don’t have to stay on this screen.  If you leave the screen, nothing is going to happen to your video.  Animoto will take care of everything and you’ll be blown away when you receive their e-mail notification.  Animoto will e-mail you to let you know the video is fully pimped out and ready for you to show off.

This is the screen after your video is finished.  You can share, remix, edit, export out to YouTube or get the code to embed the video like I did on my blog. The 1 click remix will send the video back into the Animoto artificial intelligence and come out with a completely different video.  No two videos are ever the same.  I hope you’re starting to notice some of the possibilities with Animoto, not even just for photography.  If you do the Hi-Res Upgrade, it does cost money unless you sign up for a professional or business plan.  I plan to use these videos as products as I develop my own photography business.   I will have DVD Quality downloads and physical DVDs.  The point is to share these images and videos with others.   I also plan to use the videos for promotion and marketing.  You should get a sense of that from the Las Vegas Video of mine.

Enhance You Blog with Video

I’ve read countless times that inserting a main image with each article will drastically improve it.  We all love pictures because they break up those huge blocks of text. Step out of the Dark Ages, get over the death of the slideshow, and look to Animoto for your ballin’ blog article improvement.  I am expecting to see a lot, and I mean a lot, more blogs utilizing these soon.  If you follow my blog here, you’ll be seeing a lot more of these videos.

Blow people away with your Work

If you haven’t already noticed, I love this application. I think it’s going to help me blow people away.  I know that other photographers are using Animoto to increase their sales and gain interest in their work.  What I found fascinating, being that I am an iPhone users, is the iPhone app for Animoto.  I watched my Las Vegas video on it and I was amazed.  It seriously felt like a movie trailer.  I envision the ability to show a video of your amazing photography, or promoting your business, to be an opportunity you can’t ignore.  People often stop to ask you questions about what you’re taking pictures for and you can instantly show them what you are capable of doing right away.  You can play these videos on your iPhone or via DVD at trade shows.  I am excited for social events where you’re asked about what you’re doing these days or what you do for a living.  The ability to pull out my iPhone and say, “Well let me show you!”   I am pretty sure it will intrigue the person. If a photographer showed me something like this, and their photography was great – I’d set up a meeting right away.  Blow them Away! Be Incredible!

My Challenge For You

Go over to to Animoto and sign up to create your first video.  Come back here and post it into the comments (I think that is possible).  If not, send it to me by e-mail ([email protected]).  I’ll create a post of the videos if they cannot be added to the comments.  I’m just interested in seeing what you can create with this application.  If you decide to sign up for another of the plans let me know too because we can be contacts (or friends) on their website.  Check it out and let’s display our photography with kick ass video from now on!