Posted by photonovice on October 30th, 2007
I have been testing recently a few tools that help photographers displaying their photos on the Web in slideshows in a creative way.
Flickr slideshow
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The first one that I still use most of the time due to its simplicity is the traditional Flickr slideshow. All you need to do is organizing your photos into sets or collections, or just tagging them after uploading them onto Flickr and sending the View as a slideshow link of the set or tag to your friends or clients.
Pros:
- easy to use
- on-line tool, no need for installing anything
- it’s free assuming that you do not pay for your Pro account on Flickr
Cons:
- you have to upload your pictures to Flickr (you do it anyway, don’t you
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- no background sound/music can be used
- only one type of transition between the pictures is available
- you may need a Pro account for $24.95 USD per year in case of hitting the monthly bandwidth, file size or other limitations of your free account
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SimpleViewer
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Simpleviewer is a quite mature flash slideshow application from Airtight Interactive. Detailed configuration instructions are available in case you need some help on the relatively simple customization and configuration.
Pros:
- free
- stylish
- on-line tool, no need for installing anything
- customizable (colors and layatouts)
- no need to upload your pictures to any photosharing site
Cons:
- no sound (or at least I could not find how to add it)
- you have to store your images with the “application” on your Web server
Comment: there is an independent “fork” development called FlickrViewer originally developed by Mark Sweeting and then updated for the newer version of SimpleViewer by Dustin Senos that makes it possible to show pictures stored on Flickr in the SimpleViewer way
It is worth to keep an eye on Airtight; I’ve just come across their really awesome TiltViewer. It rocks, man. |
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Jumpcut
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Update: Jumpcut is closing on June 15, 2009 as “part of the ongoing prioritization efforts at Yahoo!”
Jumpcut is a video publishing site with a full featured on-line video and slideshow editing tool. You can upload your images to your repository or Jumpcut can suck your photos from Flickr. (Both belong to Yahoo! and your Flickr and Jumpcut accounts can be linked theoretically – I could not do that). The Web 2.0 slideshow editor does not require anything else than your browser and is amazingly simple to use.
Pros:
- free
- on-line tool, no need for installing anything
- customizable transitions between images
- background sound feature
- very well designed slideshow editor
Cons:
- your stuff is stored on Jumpcut
- Jumpcut seems to be full with adult material today which might not be desired for your reputation
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SoundSlides
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The feature list of SoundSlides is comparable with Jumpcut with two important differences:
- it has an off-line slideshow designer tool, and
- you can publish your slideshow wherever you want
Pros:
- customizable transitions between images and backround colors
- background sound feature
Cons:
- you have to install the software on your computer (available for Windows and Mac)
- the slideshow editor is a bit awkward when you are adjusting the timeline of your show
- not free: costs $39.95 USD
SoundSlides Plus: $69.95 USD
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Animoto
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Animoto is a special kind of animal: when you upload your images (or let Animoto transfer them from your Flickr account) and select or upload your music Animoto analyses both the pictures and sound and creates a unique clip of differently transitioned images. Transitions and timeline is chosen automatically and cannot be overwritten. However you might click on Remix to create a new clip which is going to be different.
Pros:
- free (for a 30 second clip)
- really easy to use
- on-line tool, no need for installing anything
- background sound feature
Cons:
- you do not know how the result will look like
- your stuff is stored on Animoto
- 30 minutes is just too short
Comment: full length video feature:
one video: $3 USD,
all-access pass for a year: $30 USD
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 at 11:23 pm and is filed under photography, tools & techniques.
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October 31st, 2007 at 8:13 am
5 Slideshow Tools For Your Photos…
I have been testing recently a few tools that help photographers displaying their photos on the Web in slideshows in a creative way.
Flickr Slideshow, SimpleViewer, Jumpcut, Animoto and SoundSlides are included….
November 1st, 2007 at 3:39 pm
I’ve been beta testing SlideRocket. This is going to be a really sweet app for photographers once it’s released to the general public.
November 3rd, 2007 at 5:09 am
[...] 5 Slideshow Tools For Your Photos photonovice.net Pros and cons of five different slideshow utilities for displaying your images. [...]
November 4th, 2007 at 11:33 am
[...] Auf photonovice findest Du 5 Slideshow Tools für Deine Fotos. [...]
November 9th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
[...] Source and Read More: Photonovice [...]
November 20th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
Good article. I was looking for an alternative to Flash Slideshow Maker (which I’m still using) because of the annoying last image on the show (the one promoting the software).
December 9th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
I made a slideshow maker called “jtvmaker” too. It has both online maker and standalone generator. It could produce javascript slideshow page, slideshow applet, slideshow app, slideshow server. Fade, wipe and Ken-burns transitions are implemented.
You can download or try it on my blog: http://slideplay.blogspot.com
December 9th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
Sun finally improve its java tech. A new j2se may be released early 2008, the infamous browser hangs due to applet loading will finally go away.