Live Portrait Brings Prints to Life (Figuratively Speaking)

A picture, as we all know, is worth a thousand words. A new service dubbed Live Portrait uses augmented reality to bring that cliche to life.

Live Portrait lets portrait photographers embed video clips into printed photos. These videos “come to life” only when a viewer holds their smartphone up to the print and opens up the Live Portrait app. The app uses the phone’s camera and image recognition software to trigger the appropriate video when the phone hovers over the portrait.

The video below gives you a flavor of how it works.

The idea, a Live Portrait spokesperson told us, is to add more value to the printed image. The Live Portrait option gives portrait photographers the chance to sell more prints or up-sell customers on an embedded video.

Photographers using the service group the video clips with the corresponding photos via Live Portrait’s online portal. They are charged based on the length of the video, which tends to vary between $6-$40, the spokesperson said. Videos can’t exceed 3 minutes in length.

Live Portrait charges $6 for a 15 second clip and says that photographers are usually charging their customers about $25-$30 to have videos added to their portraits.

The video clips are “live” for three years, at which point the customer will receive an email asking them to renew their clip at a cost of about $5 (the cost will vary based on the length of renewal). Photographers will get a portion of these renewal fees as well, Live Portrait told us, as well as retain 100 percent ownership over the clips.

It’s an interesting idea to keep prints relevant, although you can also imagine the novelty wearing off rather quickly. What do you think?