As advised by my tutor, I have made a separate post for the links to my final images for Assignment 5, used by online music site Indulge-Sound. I have used website TinyURL.com to shorten the long url links.
This post is purely to link viewers directly to the photo galleries to view the images as they were intended as in the brief for Assignment 5.
The photos of Controlled Collapse are shown at http://tinyurl.com/j7zva7p
The photos of Protafield are shown at http://tinyurl.com/zjamc8s
The photos of Combichrist are shown at http://tinyurl.com/he2v3uk
Tuesday, 19 January 2016
Assignment 6 - Google Hangout discussion with tutor
I finally managed to get to the bottom of what the 'Assignment 6' was all about and it is a video message discussion with my tutor to discuss the course and any concerns that I have going in to assessment and Level 3.
Our 20 minute conversation turned into an approximate two hour discussion but it was good to get feedback and to highlight my concerns for my progression in this course. The main notes I made through the meeting are outlined below.
Our 20 minute conversation turned into an approximate two hour discussion but it was good to get feedback and to highlight my concerns for my progression in this course. The main notes I made through the meeting are outlined below.
- Digital copies of text
My tutor advised me to watch the format of the written work I was submitting. I have been using Open Office creating an .ODT format and my tutor explained how this may be difficult for other users to read, should they be using alternative software. He advised using Rich text format instead but he also advised submitting work physically where possible.
- Grammar
- Proof Reading
These are obvious when it comes to written work but my tutor emphasised them, explaining that at assessment, the assessors will mark down if you have an excellent essay which is badly written in regards to grammar. He suggested to always proof read everything before it is sent.
- Endnote for referencing
- TinyURL to downsize long weblinks
These websites were offered as a help by my tutor as he felt they could help me when it comes to referencing in Level 3 and to possibly help with my assessment submission.
As I am interested predominantly in gig photography, I was conversing with my tutor on focussing more on the genre for Level 3. He was supportive in this and offered some themes I could possibly think about to work with for Photography 3: Body of Work;
- Ethics of band
- Community of musicians
- work with specific venue
- show work through photo galleries or use Instagram as a way of exhibiting my work.
- try to create something different to make you standout from the rest.
In regards to this assessment submission, my tutor offered the following pointers;
- use TinyURL for assignment 5 links
- post assignment 5 links in a separate blog post
- make a contents page and an introduction for the physical work I am sending in
- have separate folders for final prints and supporting work
- name & student number on all prints and also assign each print with a number eg.print 1 of 6
- make sure everything is clearly labelled
Wednesday, 11 November 2015
Assignment 5 Tutor Feedback
I am thrilled with this feedback and will address some of the points made by my tutor within this feedback now that the main body of work is over.
I am delighted that my tutor felt this assignment is a good end to this module. I will admit, it has been difficult along the way but I do feel that I have progressed since last years other level 2 module. The last module was particularly difficult for me and I appeared to struggle with the jump from level 1 to level 2. Thankfully, my tutors for both level 2 modules have been fantastic in helping me along the way and offering me guidance to help me to progress through the course.
My tutor offered a lot of considerations regarding working as a music photographer in the future. But as much as I love music photography and this is definitely the genre I would work within, should I plan a career in photography, I don't have any plans to start a career yet. I have a young family and so its not something that I am thinking about anytime in the near future.
My tutor said that I didn't mention money in my submission notes. But this is a subject that I covered extensively in the previous exercise Develop a publishing plan and I didn't feel I needed to readdress this in my assignment submission. As stated in that exercise, most of the independent music websites are exactly what my tutor later goes on to suggest that I do; a blog or website set up by someone who loves music and wants to review gigs and cds and tell music news to other music lovers. But running a blog and covering all the gigs, music releases and news is difficult and possibly too much for a single person, so therefore they 'intern' or advertise for other people to help (or contribute) but obviously they don't make any money from it, so they cant pay their contributors but instead can get the free cds or free gig access in return for them contributing their time, reviews and photos, etc, to their site. Unless you actually work for a recognised publication(s), it's unlikely you will get paid for doing this. The other aspect is that they will expect full exclusivity and most sites I have worked with, or researched, ask that the photos can only go online on their site for the first two weeks and even after that MUST have their 'tag' on it connecting them back to their website. So this is why money isn't brought into the equation at this time and wont be until I get to the level where I can work for a recognised, big name website/publication.
But as with the next pointer from my tutor, the main fact is getting my name out there and I am always working at doing that when I produce photos of gigs. One of the bands in this submission extensively shared my photos from this gig and each one had my name watermarked on it so I had a lot of feedback from other fans and band members. This is something that I fully intend on continuing through social media such as Facebook and Instagram.
This brought my tutor to the fact that I had submitted prints to him for this assignment. My main reason for doing this is purely because the notes tell us to. When we first get our introductory email from our tutor, we are asked to send prints for each assignment from assignment 2 onwards, so I felt I needed to send them to him for this reason. But also, as I had submitted prints as a magazine mock up for assignment 3, I did want to show prints to show progression, had these photos been printed in a publication as opposed to in online format. I feel that there was definite progression and my tutor agreed that they were fine pictorially and technically so I took that as a successful choice. But I do not intend to submit prints for the final assessment of this assignment. I agree with my tutor when he says they are unnecessary. As I submit for assessment online, and with the changes made to the criteria for submitting digitally for assessment, I would much prefer the assessors to use the links to the websites as a submission because that was the brief of the assignment, to be used in an online publication, so I feel it important for them to see the images in the format they were intended.
Then my feedback goes on to explore more about social media and to be honest, these photos were shared on my Facebook account the following day from the gig so that is something that I do and I always share to the band pages too to try to get my name noticed. However, as I have already stated in the previously noted exercise and above, if you do officially contribute to an online website, you are not allowed to put them anywhere online until they have been on their site for at least two weeks, so it really depends on whether I continue to establish myself as me or whether I get experience working with a website. Either way, my name is getting out there in some shape or form.
I do follow a lot of people who do this for a living. Some are established and work for bands and established publications, others work for independent sites. Most of them are photographers I have mentioned within this learning log. But starting my own music blog is something that I really don't have the time to do right about now. And not something that I want to do at this moment in time either. We have to remember that photography is just a hobby for me at the moment and I'm not sure I ever would pursue this type of career. But if I was to, then this is definitely the route I would go down.
The feedback then goes on to discuss a short video slideshow that I had attached to my tutors email. It was the first one I had ever attempted and so I am happy for the feedback, should I ever use one again.
There is no further assignment so I got a bit confused as to what I was meant to have completed by mid November but I have taken it to mean to get my blog and printed submissions ready and finalised. I have sent my tutor an email outlining my concerns and so I hope to hear back from him soon.
Tuesday, 15 September 2015
ASSIGNMENT 5: COVERING AN EVENT
Brief
The brief of this assignment was to plan and photograph an event, to produce a varied portfolio of images of a standard that could be published by an online music website.
The Event
I have selected to photograph the music event of American band Combichrist, with support from Protafield and Controlled Collapse, at the Bristol date of their August 2015 UK tour at The Fleece.
Undertaking the photography
First selection
Second selection
Here are the second selection of images which I will also be emailing to the online independent music websites, should they require them.
Publishing Images
I managed to have the images ready to email to possible online publications by the following day and decided to work down my list of rock and metal music websites from my planning stages. I selected six images I felt were good enough to attach to the email for the sites to get an idea of the style of my images. I didn't want to email all the sites at once incase, best case scenario, more than one replied wanting to use them and then I would have to let down all but one. But in the end this is pretty much what I had to do because as the days went by, I was worried that I would have to wait too long for each to reply and then it would've been months later that my images were published and sites would've been less likely to use them. I emailed the first site on August 13th and had a reply the following day declining on the grounds that it wasn't really the type of band they would cover, even though they had before.
So I emailed the next two sites the same day. And heard nothing in return. The next day I emailed another two sites, then another two the day after that and so on until I had emailed them all. Three sites out of them all, not including the first I have mentioned, replied saying they would publish them if I could write a review of the gig too. I wasn't happy to do that and by this point the gig was a few weeks gone so I couldn't remember a lot about it to be able to, so they were a no. But then Indulge-Sound replied and said that they were happy to publish them on their site, as they were, without a review. The email from them asked me to send the high resolution photographs over so I sent the first and second selects plus a couple more and they picked the ones they wanted to use. The images were online two days later.
You can find my images at Indulge-Sound.com at the following links;
Controlled Collapse photos can be found at: http://indulge-sound.com/2015/09/07/photos-controlled-collapse-the-fleece-bristol-12th-august-2015/
Protafield photos can be found at: http://indulge-sound.com/2015/09/07/photos-protafield-the-fleece-bristol-12th-august-2015/
Combichrist photos can be found at: http://indulge-sound.com/2015/09/07/photos-combichrist-the-fleece-bristol-12th-august-2015/
The brief of this assignment was to plan and photograph an event, to produce a varied portfolio of images of a standard that could be published by an online music website.
The Event
I have selected to photograph the music event of American band Combichrist, with support from Protafield and Controlled Collapse, at the Bristol date of their August 2015 UK tour at The Fleece.
Undertaking the photography
The gig was to take place on a
Wednesday evening at popular venue, The Fleece, in the centre of
Bristol. The gig was one of only three UK dates on the tour and I was
expecting it to be busy. My main pointers to focus on before arriving
at the venue were to remember the variety of shots that I was hoping
to get on my provisional shot list and to attempt to keep the shots
as clear as possible, despite the difficult factors of the venue
layout as well as the difficulties with low lighting and possible
crowding of fans near the stage. My main priorities were to capture
as many clear and diverse photographs of the bands as possible
without too much interference and, if possible, try to capture the
overall atmosphere of the gig with regards to the music and the
audience.
After a delayed start, the photography
went rather smoothly, following a few initial technical problems. The
first band to take the stage were Polish band Controlled Collapse,
followed by Welsh band Protafield and then American headliners
Combichrist. I maintained a central position in front of the stage,
not directly at the front but as close as my 50mm static lens would
allow me. Movement was impossible due to the amount of people in the
venue but I found that the front men did enough moving about around
the stage to allow for the diverse shots I was hoping for.
Unfortunately, the lens and the lighting snuffed out any shots I
hoped for of the crowd but with the thought in mind that these
photographs would hopefully be published onto an independent music
website, the main focus was to photograph the bands themselves.
However, I did venture to the back of the room once I was confident I
had taken a sufficient amount of close up shots, to take a number of
photographs of the stage from the back, attempting to capture some of
the audience reactions to the band while they were on stage.
It was important for me to get the
images processed and ready for distribution as early as possible
following the gig, to make them more desirable to those websites who
had no one covering that event and who would be interested in
publishing them for the fans who hadn't made it to one of the three
shows. I did most of the work the following day. I started by
uploading all 484 photos that I had taken into one folder and then
separating the different bands into separate folders. I added the
initial metadata and then captioned the photos in each of the bands
folders.
After sorting through my images and
rejecting the images that were out of focus, had too much motion
blurring, were blown out with light or far too dark, I was left with
a comfortable 87 photos. I processed my favourite ones as my first
selects then picked out a further selection of second selects. My main focus through the process of planning and executing the photography for this assignment was to aim to have the photos published on an independent music website so I had to make sure that the selected images would be suitable and clear enough for that purpose. The images I chose were all processed to be clear and sharp enough yet still representative of the event itself.
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Kuba Sawicki of Controlled Collapse
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Wojciech Król of Controlled Collapse
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Wojciech Król fo Controlled Collapse
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Marek Smolski of Controlled Collapse
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Paulina Lewek of Controlled Collapse
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| Jayce Lewis of Protafield |
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| Jack Slade of Protafield |
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| Jayce Lewis of Protafield |
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| Nikki Trash of Protafield |
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| Martin Thompson of Protafield |
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| Jayce Lewis of Protafield |
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Andy LaPlegua of Combichrist
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Brent Ashley of Combichrist
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Joe Letz of Combichrist
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| Brent Ashley of Combichrist |
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| Andy LaPlegua of Combichrist |
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Eric13 of Combichrist
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| Andy LaPlegua of Combichrist |
Second selection
Here are the second selection of images which I will also be emailing to the online independent music websites, should they require them.
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| Paulina Lewek of Controlled Collapse |
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| Wojciech Król of Controlled Collapse |
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| Jayce Lewis of Protafield |
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| Martin Thompson of Protafield |
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| Jayce Lewis of Protafield |
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| Nikki Trash of Protafield |
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| Nikki Trash of Protafield |
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| Nikki Trash of Protafield |
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| Jayce Lewis of Protafield |
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| Martin Thompson of Protafield |
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| Andy LaPlegua of Combichrist |
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| Andy LaPlegua of Combichrist |
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| Brent Ashley of Combichrist |
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| Brent Ashley of Combichrist |
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| Eric13 of Combichrist |
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| Eric13 of Combichrist |
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| Brent Ashley of Combichrist |
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| Joe Letz of Combichrist |
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| Combichrist - Final song |
I managed to have the images ready to email to possible online publications by the following day and decided to work down my list of rock and metal music websites from my planning stages. I selected six images I felt were good enough to attach to the email for the sites to get an idea of the style of my images. I didn't want to email all the sites at once incase, best case scenario, more than one replied wanting to use them and then I would have to let down all but one. But in the end this is pretty much what I had to do because as the days went by, I was worried that I would have to wait too long for each to reply and then it would've been months later that my images were published and sites would've been less likely to use them. I emailed the first site on August 13th and had a reply the following day declining on the grounds that it wasn't really the type of band they would cover, even though they had before.
So I emailed the next two sites the same day. And heard nothing in return. The next day I emailed another two sites, then another two the day after that and so on until I had emailed them all. Three sites out of them all, not including the first I have mentioned, replied saying they would publish them if I could write a review of the gig too. I wasn't happy to do that and by this point the gig was a few weeks gone so I couldn't remember a lot about it to be able to, so they were a no. But then Indulge-Sound replied and said that they were happy to publish them on their site, as they were, without a review. The email from them asked me to send the high resolution photographs over so I sent the first and second selects plus a couple more and they picked the ones they wanted to use. The images were online two days later.
You can find my images at Indulge-Sound.com at the following links;
Controlled Collapse photos can be found at: http://indulge-sound.com/2015/09/07/photos-controlled-collapse-the-fleece-bristol-12th-august-2015/
Conclusion
I am pleased with how smoothly this assignment went, despite the earlier panic about not having an upcoming gig to photograph. I think that my earlier experience of shooting events for publishing on online music publications has really helped me with this assignment as I know the kind of images I was hoping to get that wold hopefully be desirable to these kind of sites. The final images have met the brief, as they have actually been published online and I am truly happy with the outcome.
However, there will always be my own slight criticisms towards my own work. The fact that I don't have to best equipment always plays on my mind and I feel it can come through in my images due to the need for high ISO settings and bright lenses. But then the equipment would be fine in a bigger venue with the space in front of stage, like when you're in the photo pit, as well as lots more light than you get in a smaller venue. So it really is a catch 22 situation.
Working to the tight deadlines wasn't really an issue as I always like to upload and process my images as soon as I can anyway but it did get me thinking about professional photographers. I know at festivals they have press rooms for the photographers to go and upload their images throughout the day between bands to meet the magazine deadlines. I cant imagine that being an easy factor for them, but deadlines are something that most photographers, of all genres, have to deal with and so it's good to get the practice in now.
Monday, 14 September 2015
Exercise: Develop a publishing plan
Selling my photos is not something that I am comfortable doing at this stage and I'm not sure I ever will want to. It's not why I take photos, it's not why I started this photography degree and it's not something that I am comfortable doing.
By way of undertaking this exercise, I wanted to write down the general processes for photographers like me who want their images published on a music website in the rock and metal genre.
A few years ago, I interned as a photographer for a music website so I am familiar with the processes. At the time, I was in level 1 of this degree pathway and really wanted to get my gig photos seen. A lot of these independent music sites are always looking for contributors whether it be writing articles, reviewing bands or reviewing/photographing bands. I was lucky enough, after sending a small portfolio in, to be selected to intern for one.
Unfortunately, interning took up a lot of time that I already didn't have much of. Even though I was interning as a photographer, every intern was required to post news articles on a weekly basis, set to a certain template and I found I was doing more of this than actually photographing gigs. Eventually, due to this, I had to give it up, which was crushing to me but necessary at the time as I didn't feel like I was doing any photography.
But the word intern is key here. These independent sites don't have budgets or payrolls but they need people to contribute or "work" for them without paying them anything. The norm is that you contribute to the sites and in return they will arrange passes to get you free access to the gigs you are reviewing/photographing or give you loads of free CDs for you to review, normally before they are on sale.
So this is why I wont be selling my photographs but I will attempt to contact some websites following the gig to see if any are interested in publishing my photos. Most of the music sites I follow are still looking for contributors and so these might be the ones to contact first. But there is no harm in trying them all. They should all have an email to contact them or some even have contributor sections showing you who to contact and the email to do that. It would be unrealistic for me to contact more high profile music magazines as they have their own teams of paid photographers so it is better to search for independent sites who are looking for people to contribute.
Some of the sites I will try are:
By way of undertaking this exercise, I wanted to write down the general processes for photographers like me who want their images published on a music website in the rock and metal genre.
A few years ago, I interned as a photographer for a music website so I am familiar with the processes. At the time, I was in level 1 of this degree pathway and really wanted to get my gig photos seen. A lot of these independent music sites are always looking for contributors whether it be writing articles, reviewing bands or reviewing/photographing bands. I was lucky enough, after sending a small portfolio in, to be selected to intern for one.
Unfortunately, interning took up a lot of time that I already didn't have much of. Even though I was interning as a photographer, every intern was required to post news articles on a weekly basis, set to a certain template and I found I was doing more of this than actually photographing gigs. Eventually, due to this, I had to give it up, which was crushing to me but necessary at the time as I didn't feel like I was doing any photography.
But the word intern is key here. These independent sites don't have budgets or payrolls but they need people to contribute or "work" for them without paying them anything. The norm is that you contribute to the sites and in return they will arrange passes to get you free access to the gigs you are reviewing/photographing or give you loads of free CDs for you to review, normally before they are on sale.
So this is why I wont be selling my photographs but I will attempt to contact some websites following the gig to see if any are interested in publishing my photos. Most of the music sites I follow are still looking for contributors and so these might be the ones to contact first. But there is no harm in trying them all. They should all have an email to contact them or some even have contributor sections showing you who to contact and the email to do that. It would be unrealistic for me to contact more high profile music magazines as they have their own teams of paid photographers so it is better to search for independent sites who are looking for people to contribute.
Some of the sites I will try are:
- The Alt-Entertainer
- Planet Mosh
- RAMzine
- Indulge-Sound
- Get Your Rock Out
- Reflections of Darkness
- Hit The Floor/MOSH
- Bristol Live Magazine
Exercise: A written plan
Is it feasible?
My tutor has suggested that I cover a gig again as the event for this assignment. Considering my time frame between assignments, I really have to work to something local and without too much access difficulty. I need to cover a small event, but not unknown. As I said, from having my notes for the final assignment date to the deadline is only six weeks so my first point is to look for any bigger band gigs throughout August, possibly in the first few days of September.
The course notes state we should attempt to publish our results so ideally, I want a slightly bigger band that would be more desirable for music related websites to publish as the smaller local bands will have a significantly smaller fanbase.
Luckily, I have found a gig in Bristol, in a familiar venue, for a well known band called Combichrist, with support from bands Protafield and Controlled Collapse. So this is what I am aiming to cover for my event. Most higher profile bands will usually tour around October time so I am lucky to have found this gig and hopefully be able to gain access and cover it.
Permissions and access
I have photographed quite a few bands at this venue before. Each time I have emailed the venue beforehand and they have responded to confirm that DSLR cameras are allowed into the venue. In preparation for this event, with the band being slightly more well known, I once again emailed the venue, The Fleece, to ask if there would be any problems with me bringing along my DSLR camera to the gig. I had a response from the Fleece saying that I needed to contact the event promoter. They were also kind enough to CC in his email address for me.
I then emailed the promoter, explaining who I was and what I was hoping to do and then asking if I could take my camera along. I had a reply granting me access with my DSLR camera so I now have to required permission to take my camera along and shoot the gig.
Site Reconnaissance
The Fleece is a difficult venue to shoot in and I know this because I have photographed a few bands there on different occasions. The floor to ceiling pillars all around the venue cause problems viewing the stage depending on where you are stood. There is no photo pit so you have to take shots from the crowd, which is increasingly difficult with the pillars and if its overly crowded. If I were to stand directly at the front, I would be leaning on the stage and the artists would be directly above me as there in no space between the crowd and the stage. My best bet is to stand in the centre of the venue if possible, to get a head on view of the stage between the two most forefront pillars, and then, depending on how busy it is, move around to get side views as well. I really cant guess beforehand how busy it will be but as it's a more well known band within the music genre and they only have three UK gigs on this tour, I would assume it will be full. So this will limit movement around the venue but also limit my view of the stage. All I can do is aim for a spot where I can get the best overall view of the stage and judge the rest when I get in there.
I am also weary of the lighting inside these smaller venues and as with any gig, I cant foresee what kind of lighting set up they will use. I will check at the time for lighting sequences and am planning on taking my brightest lens, a f1.8 50mm, to cover myself as much as I can and try to get as many shots as I can, to give myself more choice when making my final selections.
Provisional shots
To be clear, I have only been granted access to take my camera to the event and I will have no backstage access or any access to sound checks to photograph any behind the scenes shots at all. All my shots will be of the actual show itself.
I do have a few shots that I know I need to get to make them more desirable to publishers.
My tutor has suggested that I cover a gig again as the event for this assignment. Considering my time frame between assignments, I really have to work to something local and without too much access difficulty. I need to cover a small event, but not unknown. As I said, from having my notes for the final assignment date to the deadline is only six weeks so my first point is to look for any bigger band gigs throughout August, possibly in the first few days of September.
The course notes state we should attempt to publish our results so ideally, I want a slightly bigger band that would be more desirable for music related websites to publish as the smaller local bands will have a significantly smaller fanbase.
Luckily, I have found a gig in Bristol, in a familiar venue, for a well known band called Combichrist, with support from bands Protafield and Controlled Collapse. So this is what I am aiming to cover for my event. Most higher profile bands will usually tour around October time so I am lucky to have found this gig and hopefully be able to gain access and cover it.
Permissions and access
I have photographed quite a few bands at this venue before. Each time I have emailed the venue beforehand and they have responded to confirm that DSLR cameras are allowed into the venue. In preparation for this event, with the band being slightly more well known, I once again emailed the venue, The Fleece, to ask if there would be any problems with me bringing along my DSLR camera to the gig. I had a response from the Fleece saying that I needed to contact the event promoter. They were also kind enough to CC in his email address for me.
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| email correspondence with The Fleece for event access |
I then emailed the promoter, explaining who I was and what I was hoping to do and then asking if I could take my camera along. I had a reply granting me access with my DSLR camera so I now have to required permission to take my camera along and shoot the gig.
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| email correspondence with the event promoter for event access |
Site Reconnaissance
The Fleece is a difficult venue to shoot in and I know this because I have photographed a few bands there on different occasions. The floor to ceiling pillars all around the venue cause problems viewing the stage depending on where you are stood. There is no photo pit so you have to take shots from the crowd, which is increasingly difficult with the pillars and if its overly crowded. If I were to stand directly at the front, I would be leaning on the stage and the artists would be directly above me as there in no space between the crowd and the stage. My best bet is to stand in the centre of the venue if possible, to get a head on view of the stage between the two most forefront pillars, and then, depending on how busy it is, move around to get side views as well. I really cant guess beforehand how busy it will be but as it's a more well known band within the music genre and they only have three UK gigs on this tour, I would assume it will be full. So this will limit movement around the venue but also limit my view of the stage. All I can do is aim for a spot where I can get the best overall view of the stage and judge the rest when I get in there.
I am also weary of the lighting inside these smaller venues and as with any gig, I cant foresee what kind of lighting set up they will use. I will check at the time for lighting sequences and am planning on taking my brightest lens, a f1.8 50mm, to cover myself as much as I can and try to get as many shots as I can, to give myself more choice when making my final selections.
Provisional shots
To be clear, I have only been granted access to take my camera to the event and I will have no backstage access or any access to sound checks to photograph any behind the scenes shots at all. All my shots will be of the actual show itself.
I do have a few shots that I know I need to get to make them more desirable to publishers.
- Photos of each individual bands performances, not just the headliner
- diverse shots of each front man of each band
- close up shots of faces. any distinctive face wear or make up?
- possibly shots of the band members interacting with the crowd, if at all
- shots of all other bands members
- crowd reaction shots /overall atmosphere of the gig
All the above shots need to be captured in as much variety as possible to capture different expressions and poses. I need to be able to get images as clear as possible without movement blur. I am very aware that I don't have a selection of lenses to work with and I only have a basic entry level Canon 1000D but I need to work with what I have, as best I can.
Exercise: Research and analyse web slideshows
To undertake this exercise, I initially looked at the sites listed in the course and then extended to a Google search on magazine sites with slideshows. The sites with the better slideshows on, that I looked at, are listed as references below.
All the sites that I looked at had manual slideshows as opposed to having them run automatically.
Essentially, I found that the different sites all presented their slideshows in the same way. They mostly have one larger image with arrows to navigate between photographs. These arrows can be placed in various positions on the page; either side of the main image, above/underneath the image or even off the the right side of the page away from the image. Each site offers a small caption under each picture explaining the details of who or where the photo was taken and when, along with the photo credit to the photographer.
The slideshows are all similar in that they feature one large image per page, however each site has a different format for the remaining collection of photos. Some don't show them at all, so the viewer sees the photos in a set sequence, then the viewer purely focuses on the image and doesn't know what image will come next. Most slideshows will at least show a counter of what number the photo is over how many there are in the collection. Another site had the image and it's caption, but above the image was a line of selectable numbers, which corresponded to the other photos in the collection, which highlighted the number of the photo that you were on but also allowed you to hover over the numbers. This then flashed up a thumbnail size image of the image corresponding to that number. Lastly, foodandwine.com had a similar set up to the example above except instead of numbers, they had the rest of the images in the collection lined up under the larger image. This then allowed you to select which image you wanted and highlighted the photo of the page you were on.
In each of these examples, some slideshows offered more choice to the viewer than others. Uk.reuters.com had the larger image with just the navigational arrows and this offered the least choice to the viewer. Similarly, the slideshows at nytimes.com and news.nationalgeographic.com had the same set up with a slightly different page layout but yet, I had to view each image in the order the designer set them out so that they were in a sequence. But I found this allowed me to be more focused on each image without being distracted to choose different ones. Telegraph.co.uk had the numbers above the photo gives the viewer the option to not only see the thumbnail version of each image without navigating through them all, but you can also select each photo, so it gives the viewer the choice to just load up the pages/photos that they want to view. This is the same as the foodandwine.com site with each image shown underneath.
I think viewer choice is a good thing depending on what the slideshow is representing. On foodandwine.com, each slideshow was showing a different group of foods/drinks. I chose the salsa slideshow, showing a number of different salsas, one recipe per page. In this respect, the viewer was able to look at the thumbnail versions to the one they found they liked the look of the most and then they can click on to load the one they want the recipe for or just look through them all to choose the nicest one. The same choice is offered on telegraph.co.uk. The viewer can choose which images they want to load, although I don't see how it is really necessary in the instance of showing the week in photos, unless of course there is content that some may find disturbing and viewer discretion has been advised.
If a photographer has a specific sequence they want the images to be seen in or, as on nytimes.com, the images were of an event, then I don't think that viewer choice is necessary here and therefore a slideshow as on uk.reuters.com, nytimes.com and news.nationalgeographic.com, with a larger image with/without navigational arrows (depending on whether the site wants an auto or manual navigation, is sufficient.
One failing that I encountered were adverts. Most of my example sites had a slightly smaller image with room for a small, square-shaped advert on the the side, above/below the navigational arrows. The advert was obviously there but not too distracting, although it would be better without it with a full page image instead. Uk.reuters.com has that. Nice full page image to focus on. But to fit the adverts in, it actually includes them into the slideshow, so that every 6th photo is an advert that you have to wait 4 seconds to skip it. This is very distracting and off-putting to the viewer.
If I was conducting a slideshow for one of these sites I would choose to include what most have done. A larger photograph with the caption and navigational buttons off to the side, with space underneath for a small advert, without it being too distracting and without it having to be included in the slideshow itself. I also would not include the option for viewers to view the smaller versions of the remaining photos. I would keep them in a set sequence that the viewer had to navigate through so that they saw each photo individually and couldn't skip through any.
Saying that, I do think that the slideshow on foodandwine.com was very effective as it was the only site with this exact feature to be able to see all the images without hovering over the numbers etc, and it works very well for this type of content. The others were all so similar. I really liked the full page layout on uk.reuters.com but the mid slideshow adverts let it down. I would say that I think the news.nationalgeographic.com and the nytimes.com slideshows were the best ones.
References:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/theweekinpictures/11858449/The-week-in-pictures-September-11-2015.html?frame=3436855
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2015/09/12/t-magazine/scenes-from-givenchys-raucous-afterparty/s/12tmag-altgivenchy-slide-XWUL.html
http://www.foodandwine.com/slideshows/salsa/
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150911-september-11-pictures-gallery-rememberance/#/01sept11gallery.ngsversion.1441978939877.jpg
http://uk.reuters.com/news/picture/photos-of-the-week?articleId=UKRTSIOT
All the sites that I looked at had manual slideshows as opposed to having them run automatically.
Essentially, I found that the different sites all presented their slideshows in the same way. They mostly have one larger image with arrows to navigate between photographs. These arrows can be placed in various positions on the page; either side of the main image, above/underneath the image or even off the the right side of the page away from the image. Each site offers a small caption under each picture explaining the details of who or where the photo was taken and when, along with the photo credit to the photographer.
The slideshows are all similar in that they feature one large image per page, however each site has a different format for the remaining collection of photos. Some don't show them at all, so the viewer sees the photos in a set sequence, then the viewer purely focuses on the image and doesn't know what image will come next. Most slideshows will at least show a counter of what number the photo is over how many there are in the collection. Another site had the image and it's caption, but above the image was a line of selectable numbers, which corresponded to the other photos in the collection, which highlighted the number of the photo that you were on but also allowed you to hover over the numbers. This then flashed up a thumbnail size image of the image corresponding to that number. Lastly, foodandwine.com had a similar set up to the example above except instead of numbers, they had the rest of the images in the collection lined up under the larger image. This then allowed you to select which image you wanted and highlighted the photo of the page you were on.
In each of these examples, some slideshows offered more choice to the viewer than others. Uk.reuters.com had the larger image with just the navigational arrows and this offered the least choice to the viewer. Similarly, the slideshows at nytimes.com and news.nationalgeographic.com had the same set up with a slightly different page layout but yet, I had to view each image in the order the designer set them out so that they were in a sequence. But I found this allowed me to be more focused on each image without being distracted to choose different ones. Telegraph.co.uk had the numbers above the photo gives the viewer the option to not only see the thumbnail version of each image without navigating through them all, but you can also select each photo, so it gives the viewer the choice to just load up the pages/photos that they want to view. This is the same as the foodandwine.com site with each image shown underneath.
I think viewer choice is a good thing depending on what the slideshow is representing. On foodandwine.com, each slideshow was showing a different group of foods/drinks. I chose the salsa slideshow, showing a number of different salsas, one recipe per page. In this respect, the viewer was able to look at the thumbnail versions to the one they found they liked the look of the most and then they can click on to load the one they want the recipe for or just look through them all to choose the nicest one. The same choice is offered on telegraph.co.uk. The viewer can choose which images they want to load, although I don't see how it is really necessary in the instance of showing the week in photos, unless of course there is content that some may find disturbing and viewer discretion has been advised.
If a photographer has a specific sequence they want the images to be seen in or, as on nytimes.com, the images were of an event, then I don't think that viewer choice is necessary here and therefore a slideshow as on uk.reuters.com, nytimes.com and news.nationalgeographic.com, with a larger image with/without navigational arrows (depending on whether the site wants an auto or manual navigation, is sufficient.
One failing that I encountered were adverts. Most of my example sites had a slightly smaller image with room for a small, square-shaped advert on the the side, above/below the navigational arrows. The advert was obviously there but not too distracting, although it would be better without it with a full page image instead. Uk.reuters.com has that. Nice full page image to focus on. But to fit the adverts in, it actually includes them into the slideshow, so that every 6th photo is an advert that you have to wait 4 seconds to skip it. This is very distracting and off-putting to the viewer.
If I was conducting a slideshow for one of these sites I would choose to include what most have done. A larger photograph with the caption and navigational buttons off to the side, with space underneath for a small advert, without it being too distracting and without it having to be included in the slideshow itself. I also would not include the option for viewers to view the smaller versions of the remaining photos. I would keep them in a set sequence that the viewer had to navigate through so that they saw each photo individually and couldn't skip through any.
Saying that, I do think that the slideshow on foodandwine.com was very effective as it was the only site with this exact feature to be able to see all the images without hovering over the numbers etc, and it works very well for this type of content. The others were all so similar. I really liked the full page layout on uk.reuters.com but the mid slideshow adverts let it down. I would say that I think the news.nationalgeographic.com and the nytimes.com slideshows were the best ones.
References:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/theweekinpictures/11858449/The-week-in-pictures-September-11-2015.html?frame=3436855
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2015/09/12/t-magazine/scenes-from-givenchys-raucous-afterparty/s/12tmag-altgivenchy-slide-XWUL.html
http://www.foodandwine.com/slideshows/salsa/
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150911-september-11-pictures-gallery-rememberance/#/01sept11gallery.ngsversion.1441978939877.jpg
http://uk.reuters.com/news/picture/photos-of-the-week?articleId=UKRTSIOT
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