Having an audience for your photography is of paramount importance. The best way to do this online is with a photography/audio slideshow.

JEA.org has a fantastic page with more reasons to do soundslides and step-by-step instructions on how to make one.

Here are some good examples of soundslide shows on technicianonline.com made in the past year:

Getting Started

You’ll need

• Your usual camera gear
• Audio recorder
• A decent microphone
• Headphones (recommended)
• A short attention span (no really! I’ll explain later)

We have all of this for you to check out when you need it.

On the job

• Be sure to ask for the name grade, and major of your interviewee.
• Pick someone to interview who is either important (ex: director) or is very involved (ex: sweaty student).
• Try to pick someone who is willing to talk and is comfortable with attention.
• Be thinking about intelligent, open-ended, and impartial questions beforehand.
  • However, it’s an interview so asking to expand or elaborate on an idea or subject is good.
• Be sure your interviewee starts with a complete sentence, don’t just answer the question.
• Using an external microphone is essential, the internal mic is awful.
• Use headphones and monitor the levels while recording to get consistent audio.
• Get background audio: Get the band playing, the chicken clucking, the crowd roaring, the cricket chirping: get anything and everything unique to the time and place you are showing.

Short attention span

Your viewers have it.

Keep people interested in your work:

1. Keep it short: aim for a minute or two total length.
2. Stay concise: it’s easier if you pick a specific focus and interview people about just that. (ex: how cold the water at this years polar plunge was)
3. Be a good photographer: find as many different angles, subjects, light, backgrounds, etc, as you can to keep your slideshow visually interesting.
4. Vary your zoom: tight then wide; rinse and repeat. Contrast between slides is very important.

Putting it together: Audio

1. Plug in your recorder, copy WMA files to your slushdrive forlder.
2. Convert WMA files to mp3 with EasyWMA.
3. Open with GarageBand
   1. Shoot for one minute long, not more than two minutes.
   2. Include your background audio
      1. Keep it background though!! Reduce that track’s volume before people speak (called ducking).
   3. Play some music: Not in your track, just compare your audio levels to music when using headphones. People watching your slideshow shouldn’t have to adjust their volume at all.

Putting it together: Photos

• Captions: Names, grades, majors, and that’s it.
• How many photos? Choose a number based on the length of your audio. Look to get around 5 seconds per slide.
• Again, alternate wide and tight shots: this draws your viewers in and is much more interesting.
• Color correct: You must color correct each photo first. Even if you just use CS4’s Auto Color you are far better off than if you hadn’t.

Putting it together: Title slide

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from doing screenshots of past slideshows it’s that having a visually appealing introduction slide is very very important.

• Make a new photoshop file 1024 x 760 72 pixels/inch
• Choose a (horizontal) slide from your slideshow with a background that is not distracting (lots of boek, a dark or a solid color).
  • Choose one with space for your text.
• Fill the entire frame with the photo.
• Include:
  • Name of event
  • Location of event
  • Date and time (or time-span)
  • technicianonline.com
  • ncsu.edu/sma
  • ©2009 N.C. State Student Media
• Save the PSD file
• Save a JPG copy for the slideshow.