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
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