Planning your photo montage...

We suggest that you follow this process in planning your photo montage and arranging your photos.

1. Select your theme - Tom and Mary's Wedding, Mom and Dad's 50th Wedding Anniversary, A Tribute to Grandma Anna, Tina's High School Graduation, etc.

2. Determine 'chapters' - these are subdivisions within the theme. For example, if the theme is Tom and Mary's Wedding, the corresponding chapters might be; a. Mary growing up, b. Tom growing up, c. Tom and mary Meet and Fall in Love.

3. Select a song to be background music for each chapter - This is normally the hardest part for most people. There are so many songs to choose from! Just select an appropriate song with nice lyrics and tune. The mood of the song will affect that part of the montage. You may certainly 'mix' songs within a montage and this often results in a better overall emotional affect! Your music selections may be on CD or on tape.

4.  Select photos for each chapter - Photos may be large or small, color or B&W, etc. Select about 10 photos for every minute's worth of music. So a three minute song should be accompanied by about 30 photos. If you deviate from this rate too much, your photos may be shown either too long or go by too quickly.

5. Determine titles and captions - Your montage will always include an opening and closing title. You may also choose to include other titles or captions over photos as well.

6. Determine how/where to utilize other media - You need not limit the montage to only photos. You may include video clips, clips from old 8mm  home movies, certificates, news clippings, etc. If these are inserted, they will use some of the time available in the accompanying song and thereby, may reduce the number of photos needed to be displayed in that chapter.

7. Number your source materials in the order that they should be used - Also, provide complete instructions as to titling, which songs are to accompany which photos, etc.