Learning to improve your audio slideshow

Hopefully from checking out our past offerings you will see that there are some great audio slideshows to choose from that can truly enrich and inform. From Human Planet to The Melton Times you will find a wide range of fascinating slideshows and our own little analysis of what’s going on in them.

But I really think that the key to gaining a greater understanding of the audio slideshow is to actually create your own. A while back in one of our first ever posts I gave it a shot, using some photos and audio from a day I spent out at the student protests in London to create a very basic audio slideshow. I can’t say it was a riproaring success, but what I can tell you is that every slideshow I have seen since has been informed by my own efforts earlier in the year. You get an insight into the process and my experiences in analysing audio slideshows have been all the richer for it.

So firstly, let me implore you to have a go. Just go out to a Spring festival, car-boot sale or whatever with a camera and recorder and see what you can find. Chat to some people, take a few photos and chuck them onto Soundslides (which you can get free) when you get home. It doesn’t have to be great, just try, and below I’ve got some advice for you as you embark and hopefully evolve as a audio slideshow maker.

Think what natural sound you might put to this image? ©connect.in.com

Now, I’m no expert in audio slideshow production, I’m a novice just like you may well be. So to help, I’ve had a scout around various sites and have to credit Colin Mulvany and Mindy McAdams for the ideas behind my amalgamated advice. What I can say for starters is try and get to images and audio yourself. Even without various copyright issues of using other people’s images and audio, you can’t own the audio slideshow in a more emotional way, and the chances are it will all the poorer for it.

On that note, when you do head out, try and get images close-up, far away and at a medium distance to add variety to your slideshow. Mix the tightness of shots in the sequences of your slideshow and even using the same image close-up and far away can work really well.

When it comes to the sounds in your piece, try and set the scene with some opening natural sound that can transport the audience into your images. Taking The Guardian’s Belize slideshow for example, the sound of the lapping waves transports us to the islands straight away and it’s a simple but effective trick.

So make sure you gather plenty of this natural sound and use it under interviews or voiceover. And speaking of the interviews, try to conduct them in quiet areas and add things like lapping waves later – you can always lay these tracks underneath, but you can’t take them away from interviews if you haven’t pre-thought the atmosphere you want. Most importantly though, give great attention to your audio. It’s easy to get preoccupied with the images and just use the sound to cut through the silence, but beware of ruining great photos with badly cut or distracting audio.

What would be the next shot in this sequence? A close-up of someone offering a candle perhaps? © Kwok Pui Lan

Music can be a real help to an audio slideshow, or a total hindrance. If you’re going to use it then it must accentuate the piece and not simply paper over the cracks in your audio. It’s best used to illustrate a cultural aspect of your slideshow or when an event has actually involved music that you have recorded. With all these sounds it’s important to weave them into your piece, employing them to break up your interviewees and create a varied and interesting three minute piece, rather than wallpapering a two minute interview.

On the visual side, you have to make sure your pictures work with the audio. If you’re watching the TV and someone talks about a carnival then you expect to see a carnival. Audio slideshows are no different – the pictures must inform the audio and vice versa. Try to sequence your slides as well, as a link between slides works much better than a seemingly random assortment of images. And give each slide time to breathe, with 4-6 seconds the norm, although you should do whatever feels most fitting to the piece.

But finally, and most importantly, learn to break the rules. As you move on in your experience of audio slideshow making, you’ll find yourself doing things that totally go against what you would have done first time around and yet feel natural.

That’s progress though and you may well find that the more rules you’re breaking, the better you’ll be getting!