Best Way to Present a Series of Photos

[CatherineA]

I was watching a family of crows and shot a series of photos that tell a story when viewed from the start to the end. I have been trying to think of a creative way of presenting these photos. It seems trickier when the value of each photo is diminished unless it is read as a building block. I could print them out in a comic book format but I wondered there were any other ideas.

Thank you

[xpatUSA]

Out of interest, how many photos, how many crows and what briefly is the story?

[CatherineA]

Out of interest, how many photos, how many crows and what briefly is the story?

Hi Ted, I have about a hundred photos which I will whittle down but I’m not yet sure to how many - maybe 30, probably fewer. I have mom and dad enjoying a pretty sunset on a roof top when Junior 1 come in for a wobbly landing - overshoots, skids and settles. Then Junior 2 comes in for a landing and lands on top its sibling. They squawk, wobble, settle, then simultaneously turn to their parents to beg for food. I can see that they are juveniles but they are the same size as their parents - it makes me smile and think of gangly adolescents.

I used to volunteer at a wild bird rescue organization and the crows were so smart and had such strong family bonds.

[Manfred M]

Catherine - You don't ask questions that are easy to answer...

The first question you need to answer is deciding on the format that you are planning to use; a series of images displayed electronically, a physical book, a website, etc. That decision will drive some of the image sequencing decisions.

The second question will be how do you want to arrange the images. There is no consensus here other than chronological order is probably not a good choice.

Breaking things into themes is a fairly common approach. Parents together, birds taking off, birds landing, birds feeding, etc would be one approach. Within the theme a traditional approach is to start with a wide "establishing shot" that gives the viewer an overview, before delving into close up shots.

The most common way of sequencing the images, even in the digital world is to make a small print (2" x 3" is a size I like working with). Anyone who is at all good at this process does it this way and not on a computer screen. Start by laying them out on a large table and start your cull that way. As a first step, do a "go / no go" cull and remove images that are similar, not good enough or not interesting enough and put the rejects aside (you many need to pull some of the shots in again later on in the process). Break these into themes and then start putting them into order, working on one theme at a time (often images will be suitable for more than one theme).

Often in sequencing images, we start with a fairly wide shot to set the "theme". Feature films and movies use this technique and the first shot is referred to as the "establishing shot". Each theme / sub theme should have an establishing shot.The more detailed shots shot be put into order. Just leave them out and come back to them over time (this can take days and in some cases even weeks). Sometimes you will go back to the reject pile and bring a picture back in because it is needed for the story. Sometimes a great shot will get pulled out because it does not fit with the story you are trying to tell.

Show the sequences to friends and family for comments. More eyes and feedback is very useful. The process (like any design process) is iterative and it does take time to pull everything together.

I hope this makes sense...

[CatherineA]

Catherine - You don't ask questions that are easy to answer...

The first question you need to answer is deciding on the format that you are planning to use; a series of images displayed electronically, a physical book, a website, etc. That decision will drive some of the image sequencing decisions.

The second question will be how do you want to arrange the images. There is no consensus here other than chronological order is probably not a good choice.

Breaking things into themes is a fairly common approach. Parents together, birds taking off, birds landing, birds feeding, etc would be one approach. Within the theme a traditional approach is to start with a wide "establishing shot" that gives the viewer an overview, before delving into close up shots.

The most common way of sequencing the images, even in the digital world is to make a small print (2" x 3" is a size I like working with). Anyone who is at all good at this process does it this way and not on a computer screen. Start by laying them out on a large table and start your cull that way. As a first step, do a "go / no go" cull and remove images that are similar, not good enough or not interesting enough and put the rejects aside (you many need to pull some of the shots in again later on in the process). Break these into themes and then start putting them into order, working on one theme at a time (often images will be suitable for more than one theme).

Often in sequencing images, we start with a fairly wide shot to set the "theme". Feature films and movies use this technique and the first shot is referred to as the "establishing shot". Each theme / sub theme should have an establishing shot.The more detailed shots shot be put into order. Just leave them out and come back to them over time (this can take days and in some cases even weeks). Sometimes you will go back to the reject pile and bring a picture back in because it is needed for the story. Sometimes a great shot will get pulled out because it does not fit with the story you are trying to tell.

Show the sequences to friends and family for comments. More eyes and feedback is very useful. The process (like any design process) is iterative and it does take time to pull everything together.

I hope this makes sense...

Thank you Manfred, that is great. I will go back to the Experimental Farm and get at least one establishing shot. I will have to think about how to get more than one or two now that these crows have long gone. You have given me a great structure to use to try to tell this little story.

I have another project in mind that will involve a sequence of shots and for that one I would like to package the story the way the AV group at the camera club did. I didn’t work with them, I just liked their work. I am sure that it would involve taking the same foundational steps that you just laid out so I’ve learned for that one too!

[Tronhard]

Hi Catherine:

If you intend to show the images electronically - as a show and tell presentation, I am wondering what software you have to present with.
For what it's worth, I have posted a thread (Creating Slide Shows to Music with PowerPoint) showing how I create a PowerPoint Show (with music, but that's optional). If you access the link to one of my presentations, you will need to be patient - it seems to have quite a latency. I use the same technique for some of my training classes and they have up to 300 images per show.

[William W]

Best Way to Present a Series of Photos

The "best way", you'll know, when you see it. Much depends on the story you want to tell. The options already presented in the above responses are all class choices. There are more options, not just the additional one which I present.

***

Learning from Neil Ambrose (one of the four Photographers mentioned in my Bio), was invaluable to raising the bar of my story telling output. I have refined what I learned from Neil and use it today, specifically for a Montage Format, one image, (typically) Print Presentation.

A "one image only" might or might not be the vehicle you choose to use for your birds - However the root of what I produce now is in this Master Lesson of 2009, (link below) and some private discussions later, with Neil.

Though this Lesson is directed at Wedding Reportage, the message and techniques are adaptable to many genres, provided there is a story to 'report'. Frankly, I never used these reportage techniques or presentations for any of my Wedding shoots. I have used them often for Sports Photography, and nowadays I use the same techniques for my private collections comprising Family and Building Architecture.

I hope you find this read interesting and potentially useful.

LINK to Master Lesson - Reportage Photography

Here are two samples of Montage Presentation, both of the same Subjects, two different, but related stories:


5 Training Daze - (reportage on the backstory of a national swimming squad)


Medley Relay - (reportage on an event where records were broken)

WW

All Images © AJ Group Pty Ltd Aust 1996~2021 WMW 1965~1996

[xpatUSA]

The "best way", you'll know, when you see it.

Here are two samples of Montage Presentation ... <snip>

Thanks for those, Bill.

I did wonder about a montage for the crows but arbitrarily decided not to suggest it.

I do a lot of building work-in-progress shots where quality is not of the essence and I might try a montage for the current project although of course a sequence of pics is equally if not more effective ...

[DanK]

Much depends on the story you want to tell.

I don't do this often, but IMHO, that's the necessary starting point.

I'll give the examples of two photo books I created. One was a record of the first year of a child's life. In that case, the order for most photos was obvious: sequential. The other question was what photos to use out of sequence, in particular, for covers.

Another book I created was essentially a sampler of macro photos. In that case, there was no obvious sequence, temporal or otherwise. I merely wanted to display a variety and to arrange them in an attractive manner. For example, I wanted the photos facing each other to make an attractive display together.

Re printing hard copy: it depends on what works for you. I've gone through this in my work: I hate reviewing long documents on screen, but I have colleagues who prefer it. In my case, I've used printed thumbnails to do a first selection of images to include, but I arranged them in software. that allowed me not only to sequence them, but to experiment with sizes and positions at the same time. Whatever works for you.

[CatherineA]

[QUOTE=Tronhard;766830]Hi Catherine:

If you intend to show the images electronically - as a show and tell presentation, I am wondering what software you have to present with.
For what it's worth, I have posted a thread (Creating Slide Shows to Music with PowerPoint) showing how I create a PowerPoint Show (with music, but that's optional). If you access the link to one of my presentations, you will need to be patient - it seems to have quite a latency. I use the same technique for some of my training classes and they have up to 300 images per show.[/QUOTE

Hi Trev, thank you very much. That’s is really helpful to me. I hadn’t yet thought of what software to use and PowerPoint is nice and accessible so an excellent place for to start.

I watched your tribute to your magnificent partner Hilary. I am so sorry for your loss; what an incredible person to have shared so much of your life with.

[CatherineA]

The "best way", you'll know, when you see it. Much depends on the story you want to tell. The options already presented in the above responses are all class choices. There are more options, not just the additional one which I present.

***

Learning from Neil Ambrose (one of the four Photographers mentioned in my Bio), was invaluable to raising the bar of my story telling output. I have refined what I learned from Neil and use it today, specifically for a Montage Format, one image, (typically) Print Presentation.

A "one image only" might or might not be the vehicle you choose to use for your birds - However the root of what I produce now is in this Master Lesson of 2009, (link below) and some private discussions later, with Neil.

Though this Lesson is directed at Wedding Reportage, the message and techniques are adaptable to many genres, provided there is a story to 'report'. Frankly, I never used these reportage techniques or presentations for any of my Wedding shoots. I have used them often for Sports Photography, and nowadays I use the same techniques for my private collections comprising Family and Building Architecture.

I hope you find this read interesting and potentially useful.

LINK to Master Lesson - Reportage Photography

Hi Bill, Thank you very much for the information, ideas and your examples. The lesson on Wedding Reportage is helpful for all visual story telling and it also gave me an insight into how "on" a wedding photographer must be all day long. And I am sure that is true whether the photographer follows a reportage framework or not.

Neil Ambrose refers to two ways of interacting with people when telling the story: as a participant or as an observer. That made me think that I have never even considered being a participant when I have my camera with me. I think it would be a good future project to try and put myself on the line in a photographic story and not just hide in the observer role. But, in this case, the crows are safe from me invading their nest or story

[CatherineA]

I don't do this often, but IMHO, that's the necessary starting point.

I'll give the examples of two photo books I created. One was a record of the first year of a child's life. In that case, the order for most photos was obvious: sequential. The other question was what photos to use out of sequence, in particular, for covers.

Another book I created was essentially a sampler of macro photos. In that case, there was no obvious sequence, temporal or otherwise. I merely wanted to display a variety and to arrange them in an attractive manner. For example, I wanted the photos facing each other to make an attractive display together.

Re printing hard copy: it depends on what works for you. I've gone through this in my work: I hate reviewing long documents on screen, but I have colleagues who prefer it. In my case, I've used printed thumbnails to do a first selection of images to include, but I arranged them in software. that allowed me not only to sequence them, but to experiment with sizes and positions at the same time. Whatever works for you.

Thank you Dan. I like your approach of printing hard copies first and then, after the whittling, arranging them on screen. In my case, I think wanting to start with hard copies is related to my vintage ...