Wedding photographer's engagement sneak-peek reel: $0.10 each on Sume

A photographer can turn 8 delivered engagement photos into a 24-second vertical sneak-peek reel for $0.10 of render time on Sume, with one $0.125 music bed generated once and reused. Ten couples is $1.125 in total (read 2026-10-03). The only part that scales per couple is the Timeline render.

Calendar hook: if your inbox fills with engagement-session requests after Thanksgiving (November 26, 2026), a reel that goes out the same week as the gallery gives the couple something to share while the full set is still being edited. The cost is small enough that the real constraint is your consent and delivery process, not the budget.

The recipe

Import the 8 approved photos so they have media.sume.com URLs, since Timeline accepts only Sume-hosted media. Then submit one Timeline 1.0 render with audio.mode set to silence and duration_seconds 24, eight video[] slots of 3 seconds each, and a fade transition on every slot after the first. Stills are held as static frames, so the motion is the cut and the fade, nothing more.

The default output is 1080 by 1920. For landscape photos set fit to blur on the slot so the picture sits whole on a blurred copy of itself instead of being cropped; the default cover would cut heads off a wide shot. Add the music bed as soundtrack with loop on, so a bed shorter or longer than 24 seconds still fits the reel.

Run POST /v1/timeline-1.0/plan first. It is unbilled and returns the billable minutes and an estimate, so a mistyped duration shows up before it costs anything.

What stays with you

Pick the 8 frames yourself and keep the order consistent: wide establishing shot first, the strongest portrait last. A tool can assemble the reel, but it cannot know which frame the couple will love. Do not run a face-changing or retouching step on client photos for a promotional reel without their agreement, and get written permission to post the images, since your contract may cover delivery but not advertising.

A new couple costs $0.10 because the music bed is already made. If a couple asks for a second cut with different order, that is another $0.10 render. Scaling to a year of 40 sessions is $4.00 in renders plus the bed, or $4.125 (read 2026-10-03). Check the live price in GET /v1/catalog before you budget a year.

Budget and checks before you start

Before the first batch, run one couple end to end and watch it on a phone, not a monitor. Check that faces sit clear of the caption-safe margins of a vertical story, that the first photo works as a thumbnail, and that the fades are not so long that a 3-second slot feels like a blur. Then write down the slot order as a template so every later couple takes five minutes of your time.

The money is not the risk here, the schedule is. A reel promised for the same week as the gallery is a small habit that clients remember, so decide your turnaround before you offer it, and keep the plan call handy so you can quote a price for any custom length.