Wedding slideshow

[Imagine]

OK - probably over complicating things in my usual way :daft:

I've got a wedding in a couple of week's time where they're wanting guests to provide photos of the day to display on my 50" LCD
It's got various inputs etc., but I'm planning on hooking up a small laptop (Windows) to run any photos that are donated of the happy couple.

The big question is....how to get the guest's stuff onto the laptop in the first place?
OK - SD cards from cameras are easy, and in many cases phones as well. What about those ever popular fruit flavoured devices though? From my own bitter experience of getting photos off of my own gadgets with a certain fruit on the back, you can't just connect them to a PC these days very easily and grab them from the phone/pad.

I did think about them uploading to a web thing such as Flikr or similar or even emailing them to me, but network access there is flaky to say the least.

Is anyone else doing this, and if so.....how?

[yourdj]

Get a screen that accepts Pen drives.
Get them to dropbox the images. Don't email that will take ages and use up quota).
Use iMovie or similar to make an interactive sort of show, so its not just images.
save it to the drive and turn on the TV on the day - job done. :)

If not then look at using your own devices - I just don't trust "I will bring it on the night" from experience.
There are some excellent media reader players out there for £20 or so. Much better than hooking up a laptop.

I use a 42 inch bravia - only cost about £200 some years back.

17218

[Marc J]

I'd use a Raspberry Pi running OpenELEC, with the photos on a USB stick. It'd take power from the TV's USB and display through HDMI. You can control it with a remote (any Windows Media remote) or from your phone (if both on the same network).

Or a Chromecast with a slideshow app on a phone / tablet, to photos in Dropbox or stored locally...

It really should be very easy, and inexpensive.

[Excalibur]

Excellent advice Toby, but sadly it doesn't appear to address any of the questions raised by the OP.
He states " photos on the day ", so unless he has a time machine, guests can't Dropbox them to him the day before.

Can people bluetooth them to you? That's way beyond my ken. :daft: Can they connect these fruit based efforts to a stick directly, and transfer them that way? :confused: Presumably, there's a cable for that.

[DazzyD]

I'd use a Raspberry Pi running OpenELEC, with the photos on a USB stick. It'd take power from the TV's USB and display through HDMI. You can control it with a remote (any Windows Media remote) or from your phone (if both on the same network).

Or a Chromecast with a slideshow app on a phone / tablet, to photos in Dropbox or stored locally...

It really should be very easy, and inexpensive.

The Pi, to me, would be the best option but wouldn't be so good for anyone who has no idea of the very basics of computing - the hardware side - as they require setting up and installing when you get them. And they use linux-based OSs so might be a bit off-putting for those only with Windows experience.

As for the Google Chromecast, I would rule this out straightaway. You would need to create an an-hoc network connection to connect the Chromecast to. As a Chromecast user (have been for ages!), I know they can be a bit tricky to set up and configure so it might not be best to do this directly prior to the gig. Once they're set up they're fantastic but getting them working in the first place is the tricky bit.


Excellent advice Toby, but sadly it doesn't appear to address any of the questions raised by the OP.
He states " photos on the day ", so unless he has a time machine, guests can't Dropbox them to him the day before.

Can people bluetooth them to you? That's way beyond my ken. :daft: Can they connect these fruit based efforts to a stick directly, and transfer them that way? :confused: Presumably, there's a cable for that.

I was thinkin about Toby's comments and, as no-one (prior to you) had picked up on this I thought I must have misunderstood. Unless, of course, what Toby is really suggesting is premaking a slideshow that uses images from a designated folder and the pictures can be copied on the fly and on the day to that folder. That's a potential option! ;)

[Marc J]

The Pi, to me, would be the best option but wouldn't be so good for anyone who has no idea of the very basics of computing - the hardware side - as they require setting up and installing when you get them. And they use linux-based OSs so might be a bit off-putting for those only with Windows experience.

A decent SD card with OpenELEC preinstalled is only £6 (http://thepihut.com/products/kodi-preinstalled-sd-card). But if you want to do it yourself the best instructions for Windows users are perhaps https://www.squirrelhosting.co.uk/hosting-blog/hosting-blog-info.php?id=9 (but get the Diskimage from http://openelec.tv/get-openelec).


As for the Google Chromecast, I would rule this out straightaway. You would need to create an an-hoc network connection to connect the Chromecast to. As a Chromecast user (have been for ages!), I know they can be a bit tricky to set up and configure so it might not be best to do this directly prior to the gig. Once they're set up they're fantastic but getting them working in the first place is the tricky bit.

Create your own personal network using something like this (http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DTPYRTI/) or this (http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00I4UQ0AC/) (this 2nd one should work well with a Pi as well, as you can wire it to the Pi - no need for a USB WiFi adaptor). Set it up before you go (so your phone and / or tablet and / or Pi and / or Chromecast are all on the same network) and you should be good to go.

None of which answers the OP of how to get the day's photos to whatever device you use in the first place! Sorry....

EDIT: If you do go down the Raspberry Pi route and don't want to network it (get the images on a USB stick), this remote works well: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003ZV3J72/

[yourdj]

No it is me not reading the thread properly, although it was not totally clear :p

I would personally enrol the help of a bridesmaid to get the images off SD cards using a set point and a multi format reader.
i would get them to announce it in the speeches and get one person to go round and ask people and the other to get the images onto one stick.

as for phones and suchlike I assume Blutooth would work well for phones & similar devices.??
Everyone is on Facebook, but the quality is pretty crap, when uploaded, so one drive on a free network may be the way forward??

So in short I can't really help. :)

[Shakermaker Promotions]

I couldn't do anything like this because I think I'd need someone else with me to take care of it all.
Couldn't you just create a Flickr account and give everyone the log in details and get them to upload to it and take what you need from there?

[rth_discos]

Is this one of those things that sounds like a great, but in reality is going to create a headache.

There's so many unknowns here. You're relying on guests getting photos to you. I fear with the fast paced nature of a wedding day, there won't be many times to be able to explain to the guests what's happening, and how to get the photos to you.

As an alternative idea for the bride, how about talking to the photographer to see if a number of images can be be taken off the SD card and displayed? Or designate a guest to be the "on the day photographer" for these candid shots. You then have only 1 SD card to worry about.

Otherwise, I would keep it really simple - get a MMS inbound text service setup, where guests simply text the image to you to a keyword. Or if you don't want to spend (pass cost on to client), how about getting guests to WhatsApp images to you? You can use the WhatsApp web app to easily put them on the laptop.

But do you have a spare 45-60 minutes to do all these during the day itself?

[yourdj]

As an alternative idea for the bride, how about talking to the photographer to see if a number of images can be be taken off the SD card and displayed? Or designate a guest to be the "on the day photographer" for these candid shots. You then have only 1 SD card to worry about.

Otherwise, I would keep it really simple - get a MMS inbound text service setup, where guests simply text the image to you to a keyword. Or if you don't want to spend (pass cost on to client), how about getting guests to WhatsApp images to you? You can use the WhatsApp web app to easily put them on the laptop.

But do you have a spare 45-60 minutes to do all these during the day itself?

Cant see a decent photographer giving up images on a large screen on the day. I have seen a few do this but after over 900 weddings thats not many. :) I find the people who mainly do studio work like this, but most decent wedding specialists have always objected to it as they have not got time to edit the images.

Personally I would supply the screen and leave it up to the wedding party to get and organise the images.
That combined with a short set up time could lead to problems. The main thing is you have music and lighting.

I would then offer assistance to put them on a slideshow of some sort but only after they have been collected.

[Nakatomi]

If there was internet access, just set up a one off instagram account for it.

Or wait for me to develop my next project idea ;-)

[Imagine]

OK - lots of ideas there (sorry for the delay...I've actually been with the B&G today).

There's plenty of time on the day for me to deal with compiling stuff (they start eating at 16:30....I'm not actually "needed" until 20:30) although the sooner the images are available the better.

The interweb idea may/may not work....it's a bit of a signal not-spot depending on where you are. As for setting up my own network....doable but then you need to educate people on how to connect (remember, their DNS settings won't know where to look!).

What we've agreed is that I'll supply the telly and a laptop (it's an old battered one which is no longer used, other than for the occasions I've previously done pre-compiled photos). They'll control the rest (they're not even sure if anyone's going to take any images and pass them on at the moment so I've asked them to provide some photos of them in the past, i.e. growing up, early dates etc. just so there's something on the screen).

Two weeks from the wedding and there's still a lot of unresolved stuff (mainly between them and the venue)....I know what I'm supposed to be doing :)

[Marc J]

The interweb idea may/may not work....it's a bit of a signal not-spot depending on where you are. As for setting up my own network....doable but then you need to educate people on how to connect (remember, their DNS settings won't know where to look!).

My own network idea was purely to control the Raspberry Pi from your phone if you wanted to do that, or for the Chromecast and whatever device your using to send photos to it to be on the same network. I wasn't suggesting that guests connect to it.

You'd still then (only) have the problem of getting images to a USB stick (in the case of the Pi) or a phone / tablet (for the Chromecast).

[DJ Jules]

I'll have to dig around again to find out how they did it, but I went to a 30th Birthday party a while ago where they hooked up an iPad to a Projector and then asked guests to send photos they were taking on the night (or already had on their phones) to the screen using Bluetooth. The iPad was running some app that accepted the transfers and then automatically slipped them into the slideshow.

I'll try and find out what it was. It might be helpful, or I might be another person who didn't read the OP properly ;)

Julian

[Andy P]

Apple users can just email you the photos - simples

[Imagine]

I'll have to dig around again to find out how they did it, but I went to a 30th Birthday party a while ago where they hooked up an iPad to a Projector and then asked guests to send photos they were taking on the night (or already had on their phones) to the screen using Bluetooth. The iPad was running some app that accepted the transfers and then automatically slipped them into the slideshow.

I'll try and find out what it was. It might be helpful, or I might be another person who didn't read the OP properly ;)

Julian

Julian - you're spot on with the requirements there :)

If you can find/remember what it was they did, it'd be really appreciated

[DJ Jules]

Julian - you're spot on with the requirements there :)

If you can find/remember what it was they did, it'd be really appreciated

I've had a quick look through the App store and I can't see which App they used. I'm pretty sure I asked the guy what he was using after the night though, I'll try and find the email later.

Julian