If you want share photographs, a Flash Photoflow slideshow is the ideal way in which to do it. Wanting to share photographs is a natural thing, and it seems that whenever we visit friends there will always be a photo album brought out for display, or today it could be a mobile phone handed over for viewing stored images. For websites, a photo slideshow is a way of sharing photographs with a much wider audience, and if you enjoy sharing your photographic explorations with the world, or simply have a lot of friends, then this is an ideal solution.
As far as showing photographs off on a website is concerned, there are a number of possible alternatives, and the most commonly used is the thumbnail gallery. In this case, usually all, or a large selection of the pictures, are resized to a very small scale, and lined up in a large table. The visitor can then squint at each thumbnail, hazard a guess as to what it might be of, and then click the image to see it full scale.
As soon as they have clicked the image of course, what happens is that they are transferred to a separate page which displays this one image full size, and at this point the gallery of thumbnails has been left behind. If the photograph is of a high quality, interesting and captures the enthusiasm of the visitor, then they might be motivated enough to click the back button on their browser, wait for the thumbnail gallery to load up again, and then choose another to have a look at.
The problem with this type of method of showing photos is that, in the first instance, none of the images are displayed very clearly, so you're fighting a losing battle as far as interest is concerned already, then by taking the visitor away from the gallery having clicked on an image, you've now risked losing them entirely. What are the chances they'll be bothered to go back to your gallery and try another picture?
A Flash Photofow slideshow on the other hand solves these problems beautifully. There are many ways in which it can be implemented, but for example, imagine your visitor arriving at your gallery section and seeing an almost full size image. It's clear, they can see it fully and properly, with no distortion and no real reduction in size or quality. But after a few seconds, they see the image change, and another has taken its place. This second image is just as good quality, full size, and can be enjoyed. Because the image has changed, the visitor's interest has been kept for longer. Rather than showing unrecognisably small thumbnails, we have amazed the visitor with a full scale high quality picture.
Not only does this help to keep their enthusiasm, but it manages to achieve something else too, behind the scenes. Because whilst they were enjoying looking at the first picture or two, we were busy in the background downloading all of the other pictures in the gallery. Now that we have them all preloaded, the full gallery of pictures is available.
Once the visitor realises that the image has changed, and will keep on changing because this is a Flash slideshow, they can start exploring the slideshow themselves. Because all the pictures have been downloaded in advance, they can flip between photos quite easily. Perhaps a scroll bar has appeared at the bottom of the screen, and using this they can speed up, slow down or reverse the play of the slideshow. Or they may just choose to sit back and watch the show.
If you're sharing images with a family or group of friends, then a Flash photo slideshow is a perfect way of doing it, because everyone can gather round the screen and just let the pictures roll through the whole gallery. This is in contrast to a thumbnail gallery where everyone is squeezing in close to the screen to try to make out the pictures, with fingers prodding and poking suggesting the person with the mouse clicks on this one, or that one. A photo slideshow creates an effective means of presenting images clearly, and ensuring all images get a fair chance of being seen and enjoyed.
If you're using Flash to create your photo slideshow then even better, as this is capable of providing a very intuitive and effective interface, and able to preload all the images easily. It's also capable of including some other clever stuff, such as flipping images over each other to create the impression of flicking through an album, or wandering up and down a corridor or pictures hanging as works of art, or even a three dimensional feel to the whole show. Without doubt, an interactive Flash Photoflow slideshow will definitely improve the quality and accessibility of your audience, and ensure casual visitors stay longer and see more of what you have to offer.
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For more information on how to use a Flash page flipper, check out Flash Photoflow where you will out how to display your images in a professional manner.
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