There are 2 distinct pieces here that you’ll need to concentrate on.

1) Photography – is your photography good enough that someone would hire you to shoot an event and want ths type of product.

2) Video Editing/DVD Creation – this is a whole art/science in and of itself. if you want to do something more than just the cookie cutter layouts that come with DVD authoring packages for the consumer(and you will need to in order to have a successful business)…then you have a whole new world to explore.

Will you be offering print services aas well as the DVD creation? Where will you get the music? It has to be royalty free of you’ll have to have the permission of the artist to use it.

I have done this business before and trust me, there is a lot of work involved.

In photography, make sure you have the basics down and your compositions are good.

For DVD creation, you’ll need to understand the DVD standards for compression(both audio and video), resolution(there are more than 1), authoring standards….DVD writing formats(+/-/DL). Just like photography, there is a DVD creation workflow. How to take video or still images, create a movie or slideshow, then compress them into MPEG2 DVD standard video, then demux them into the proper elementary streams to be brought into DVD authoring software…then menu creation, VOB file creation….

See where I’m going with this?

This doesn’t even include packaging, getting the business setup and licensed(trust me…set up an LLC and get insurance), marketing and promotion…finding work…keeping work.

If you choose to do it nad have more specific questions, please feel free to email me and I’ll help with whatever I can.

Until then, learn everything you can about photography…then learn everything you can about DVD creation. A good place for that is a websire called

When you hve to ask a question like this, I must really question the wisdom of your considering a business for profit making DVD slide shows

Camera wise use what you have to start, but be prepared to spend a few thousand dollars for a professional level DSLR (Nikon or Canon).

You should have replaced your old computer when Windows XP was released. Do that now and get a lot of RAM, a Duo 2 processor and at least a 300GB hard drive and DVD burner. A good large (at least 20 inch) monitor will be important as you assemble the product.

I don’t know what the software will cost for producing professional level “scrapbooks”. Authoring and production software is rather expensive but I would guess if you budget for around $1,000 you should find a good one. Check with an imaging company and see what they use.

It is easy to make such a DVD with a DVD authoring tool such as Adobe Encore. Making a DVD using such a software is kind of like making a webpage. If you are familiar with webpages and design you should handle Encore. (On the Mac IMovie and Idvd are even easier to use.)
So you need a DVD authoring software and a DVD burner. Burners are dirt cheap these days. Software, not so cheap. In fact they are really expensive. The new version of Encore can also create Blu-Ray discs. It has features you´ll probably never use. A simpler, lighter, authoring tool should be available. I know there are even free ones but how well they work and how easy they are to use I can´t say.
You may also need an image processing tool for working with still photos.