The Photo Montage A photo montage is a collection of photographs arranged to tell some aspect of a life story. The photo montage is a celebration of life, whether it celebrates a birthday or anniversary, relives a family vacation, or evokes memories of a loved one gone. Photographs that have languished for years in old scrapbooks and albums can be shared with family members far and near when placed onto a DVD. Although often consisting entirely of still pictures, there are no rules regarding what a photo montage should be, and many we have helped create at VideOccasions have contained a mixture of still photos, slides and video material. Photo montages are usually accompanied by music, and may have narration added too. There are three options for creating a photo montage:

• Scan your photos to a CD. Put the scanned photos onto a CD as .jpg files and bring them to us at VideOccasions. We'll do the rest, calling you once a rough layout has been done so you can come in an finalize the project with us.

  As you save them, be sure to number each file like this: 001ourbaby.jpg, 002billy.jpg, etc. That way when we transfer the pictures to our computer they'll be in the correct order.

• Use PowerPoint™ If you're comfortable using PowerPoint™ you can do much of the work of creating a photo montage at home.
  • Scan your photos into your computer. Be sure to number them like this: 001ourbaby.jpg, 002billy.jpg, etc. Size each picture in PowerPoint™ so it fills the screen. Put appropriate transitions between each picture if you like. It's best not to add music, however; let us help you do that at VideOccasions.

  • Save your completed PowerPoint™ presentation using the "Pack and Go" option in the pull-down File menu. This is important as it saves all the fonts, files and instructions associated with your presentation.

  • Burn your PowerPoint™ presentation to a CD and bring it to VideOccasions where we'll add music and titles and transfer your project to DVD or video tape.

• Let VideOccasions create a photo montage with you or for you.
  • Bring us your pictures, discuss fonts, backgrounds and transitions with us, and leave the job for us to assemble. Or, you can stick around and help as we work on your project.

  • Once we've completed a "rough cut" we'll have you review the project and make any changes you feel necessary. Then we'll create a DVD or tape of the finished work.
If you find terms confusing, take a look at the Frequently Asked Questions sheet.

Steps in Creating a Photo Montage

There are four steps in creating a photo montage.
• Photographs and slides are captured onto tape or a CD, using a scanner or digital camera and copy stand.
• Transitions are created between each image.
• Titles, captions and music are added.
• After review by you, the finished project is output to DVD or tape.

---

Here's what you need to do before you start:
1. Talk to VideOccasions' staff at 425-641-4811 before you jump into your project. We can help from the start to make this an enjoyable and rewarding experience for you.

2. Sort the pictures and slides:
   • So they tell a visual story, like "Our trip to Yellowstone," or "Mother and Dad: Childhood, Courtship and the Early Years."
   • or Chronologically;
   • or by Subject matter.

3. Number each picture and slide, so that if you drop them, or get the story sequence confused while working with them, you can re-order them quickly. Use a pencil and write lightly. Don't, under any circumstances, use a ballpoint or felt tipped pen: the ink can bleed through or offset and ruin your pictures.

4. Put your slides into slide trays, in the correct order.

5. Decide what the center of interest is for each picture, and make notes.
   For example: your picture shows two children at play in a huge field of alfalfa. Does this photograph tell a story about
   • Grandpa's bumper crop of cattle fodder?
   • Cousins Billy and Sally playing together for the first time in the summer of 1947?

   If it's about alfalfa, you will probably want to frame the entire picture when you transfer it to video, so make a note of that. But if it's about the cousins, you'll want to make a note to zoom in for a close-up of the kids.

   The choices here are yours to make. You can actually make poorly composed photographs look like works of art, and sometimes even hide damaged portions of a picture.

6. Write down your titles and captions. You'll tend to be much more creative at home than while you're editing, and titles and captions will help you focus on the way the photo montage story will unfold.

7. Select the music that will accompany your photo montage. You can use music from tapes and CD's, even records. We have a library of royalty free music at VideOccasions that you can listen to, but we recommend you bring your own.

8. Select a label picture. Give some thought to what you'd like printed on the front of your DVD. We can print an appropriate picture and text directly onto the disc. Remember: You're working with a round object that has a hole in the center, so find a couple of pictures that lend themselves to this format.

9. Call VideOccasions to make an appointment, when you have everything ready. We'll reserve an editing room for you, where one of our staff will be on hand to help you make this a project everyone in the family will long remember.

10. Plan to make copies of your finished project at VideOccasions, so each member of the family, no matter where they are, can share these memories with a professionally created, beautifully illustrated DVD.

---

Costs

A Photo Montage of about 10 minutes in length, in which all the work -- capturing photos, organizing them and adding transitions, and creating a DVD has been done by VideOccasions' staff, will usually cost between $350 and $500. A photo montage in which you have done most of the work -- carefully organizing materials, scanning photographs, using PowerPoint™ -- can come in at considerably less. The cost really depends on what you've imagined and how long it takes to make your dream a reality.

Top of Page

© 1998 - 2007 VideOccasions and Jack Wolcott
Designed for VideOccasions by Jack Wolcott Last updated 10/17/07