Effortless and Beautiful Slideshows With Pixellu SmartSlides

Pixellu released SmartAlbums about two years ago, and it was a game changer for wedding photographers. Creating albums was made easy and affordable, even for those who don’t know a thing about design. They are back with a new product this year and aim to change the game again. This time, they bring a slideshow solution called SmartSlides. I had the chance to access the beta in its early stage and wanted to give you a first impression. Wedding photographers, be sure to read this article. You may find a new product to sell while not doing much more work!

Simple and Refined Interface

Pixellu was founded by two photographers, and their team is mostly composed of photographers as well. It may not seem like a big deal, but I believe it is. It means they have the hands-on experience with what we do on the field and how we work with our customers. Thus their products are made to answer needs we have and not introduce more steps or issues in our workflow.

When opening SmartSlides for the first time, we can tell it was designed with the same principle in mind as SmartAlbums. The interface is incredibly easy to navigate, and there isn’t any fluff. The features you need are there, the ones you don’t are nowhere to be found. Plus, it’s a web app. So no installation is required, and it works on either Mac, PC, or even Linux. Simply use your favorite browser and get to work.

Creating a Slideshow

Making your first slideshow is a breeze. As shown in the above screenshot, there is a big plus button that you click on and then follow the instruction. Pixellu told me the average time to create a slideshow from start to finish is about 12 minutes for first-time users on the beta version. This duration includes the whole process, from uploading images, choosing the song(s), and then sharing the result. It’s extremely quick.

When creating a slideshow, you’ll be first prompted to give it a name. At the same step, you can customize the URL, add a password, and type in the date of the event.

Once the name is defined, you can upload your pictures. Drag and drop your images on the plus button showing on your screen and you are done. Better yet, you can already start picking your music while the pictures are loading which means no unnecessary wait in front of your screen.

Pressing continue while your photos are uploading will take you to the music choice. There are 35 great songs — with more coming very soon — divided into seven categories, making the music choice easy as well. Each track can be used commercially, so no need to pay any additional fee or anything. It seems like the guys at Pixellu wanted to offer an easy, all-inclusive solution, and that’s exactly what they did. Though, if you want to add your own music, the option is available, just make sure that you have the required music rights if you want to use and sell your slideshow.

The slideshow is now almost ready. The new screen gives us a couple of additional options. The first, and probably most important to most people will be the time per slide. It’s set accordingly to the music. However, you can cut the song if you’d like to make it shorter, or you can add another song to make the duration of the slides longer. If you go for an additional track, you’ll then be able to choose how many pictures you want per track or if you’d like to spread them evenly. The other option available is the transition effect. Make a choice between a hard cut, dip to background, or the standard cross-fade. You can also adjust the transition duration. Finally, should you wish to reorder your images, this is the time to do it.

Et voilà! Your slideshow is ready to use. Click the Preview button, and the last choice you’ll be offered with will be the theme. The theme is kind of a landing page. It’s the way people will see the slideshow before they click play. There are a few options available, all being simple yet beautiful.

Sharing a Slideshow

As you can see, the design process is extraordinarily straightforward. But what about sharing? It’s just as self-explanatory. You can either share the direct link or copy/paste the code to embed it on your website. It doesn’t require Flash or any particular plugin. The slideshow uses only HTML5 to display, so anyone with a recent web browser will be able to watch it. The other benefit of a pure HTML5 system is that the image quality won’t be crushed and thus your pictures won’t suffer. I’m sure many of you have experienced other similar systems that rely on Flash, only to discover that the final quality is not so great.

One thing that is currently missing in the beta but that is coming in the very near future is downloads for slideshows. Being able to have a video file is fantastic. Then you can upload it to YouTube for SEO purposes, add it to your packages or sell it "à la carte," or have it on your phone to show your work even when you don’t have any network.

Pricing

Three different subscriptions exist: 

• Starter (can store up to 10 slideshows) - $8/month as an annual plan or $12/month as a month-to-month plan
• Pro (up to 200 slideshows) - $16/month as a yearly plan or $24/month as a month-to-month plan
• Studio (up to 1,000 slideshows) - $32/month as a yearly plan or $48/month as a month-to-month plan

The Pro will be the obvious choice for most photographers. If you are one of them, you may be interested in the launch sale Pixellu is running. Sign up before February 15 and get the Pro plan for $12/month instead of $16/month. I was told this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

What I Liked

• Ease of use
• Image quality maintained
• Music choice

What Could Be Improved

• Download feature was missing during the beta trial but is coming shortly
• A WordPress plugin to make the integration on photographers’ websites even easier could be great (although the embed code works just fine and is a simple copy/paste)

Overall, SmartSlides is very efficient and easy to use. I can see myself relying on it this upcoming season to offer slideshows to my brides and grooms and improve my visibility with wedding excerpts on YouTube. No matter if you are a wedding, portrait, family, or newborn photographer, SmartSlides is worth the try, and I’m sure clients will love the resulting product.

For more information and to try it yourself, head over to Pixellu's website.