After spending several days scanning, downloading, sizing and designing a photo gallery, as meager as it is, it seems only logical to examine it. The gallery on my blog consists of 10 pictures of dead or dying people. It adds depth and understanding to my blog, which is on covering and photographing death and tragedy.
Those who know the technology can see I converted a PowerPoint slideshow into a QuickTime movie. I did this by building a slideshow in PowerPoint, setting the transition time and using a PowerPoint tool to convert the slideshow to QuickTime. (Ohh, the glory of technology.) The photographs advance after 10 seconds without the need for a next button. While this works pretty slick, it could be a drawback if the user wants to stop on a particular photograph. It's important to note that this movie format where the user cannot stop on a photograph makes it harder for someone to download the photo to their computer -€“ an important issue for media organizations that like to protect their product.
The photos, which are both haunting and iconic, are the predominate element of each slide. Each photo has a title that helps the viewer understand what the picture is. Also, words beneath or to the side of the photo help explain what the story is behind the photograph. I also added the source of the photo and, in some cases the photographer's name, below each picture.
While the design is very basic, I think the gallery gives the viewer a very good sense of the topic at hand as the slideshow progresses. There is no color, except for the color photographs. The text is Times and is not always consistent in size. Compared to The New York Times galleries mine seems unprofessional. The New York Times uses different software than QuickTime, which adds to the professional look of its galleries. The Times has the user advance the gallery with a next button. The MSNBC.com photo gallery also gives the user control through a next button. MSNBC.com also does not use QuickTime. MSNBC.com has fade outs and fade ins between photos, which lends an artistic feel to the gallery. The galleries have less copy than mine does, and they are still able to get the theme and feeling of the photographs across to the viewer.
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