Picture story text- style and location

[Rasputin]

I had a few questions to people reading and creating picture stories . I have been experimenting with the text options and am trying to find what is easiest for people to understand and that has a consistent flow. I noticed Tim W. uses bold text on top . I used to do plain text . Bill uses text on the bottom of the pictures with regular text .

The reason i am asking is there is a very wonderful influx of stories right now and would like to ask the readers what they prefer and or what is easiest to read / understand ? Actually there are so many picture stories going right now i have a hard time keeping up with the adventures. I find myself not wanting to post comments in the middle of a story . So thank you to all who are painstakingly entertaining us

PS: i have never attempted a poll so my apologies if it is all screwy 

[Tim_w]

Hello Rasputin 

Great idea ! Its a difficult one to answer to be honest and i dont know how to explain why i go to the top of the picture instead of below. I think its because i tend to look at the top first before going on to the picture below, it shows me what is being said before seeing the picture. I tend to use bold text to define the 'story' text as opposed to my none story related rambilngs at the start. I guess it also highlights what is being said a bit better than the normal font. I know when i am using different colours i have to make them bold to stand out more but that's probably just my screen or my eyes and others may find it irritating .
I wouldnt worry about coming in with a reply half way through someone posting a story. I tend to post place holders now so that it doesn't disrupt the flow. These are spaces for replys that i will be filling myself. If anyone comes in they take a vacant one at the end and not half way through the story. If i see a new thread i won't reply to it if the thread creater is still viewing it, so i dont pop in and disrupt their flow. I wait untill i am sure they have finished before going in. Chances are when i have finished a story off i leave a little thank you at the end to show i am done.
I hope this helps, like i say i am willing to change for whatever the majority prefer.

Tim 

[Bill Blackhurst]

Excellent idea regarding this poll Rasputin  ! I have noticed the differences too! It will be interesting to see what everyones preference is! Depending on the out come I will be changing my caption position & type to what the majority likes! I always figured it was easier for people to read it @ the bottom of the picture due to habit, & how I read captions under the pictures in magazines, & newspaper articles  . Plus you have brought another important issue up about bold or regular type. This should be interesting!

[Gepetto]

I have to agree with Bill, I am used to reading the captions under pictures in books and magazines. It also allows me to scroll down through the picture and then read the caption.




Gepetto

[playmofire]

I prefer the text below the photo for the same reasons as Gepetto and Bill.   Another option is to have the text on the photo itself.

A problem I find where the photo is "incorporated" into the post full size, is that often some of the photo is out of sight until you get to the bottom of the post and can use the horizontal scroll bar.

[Rasputin]

Gordon , When i load pictures i have many options to resize
640 x 480 ( message boards )
800 x 600 ( 15 inch monitors )
1024 x 768 ( 17 inch monitors )
1280 x 1024 ( 19 inch monitors )
1600 x 1200 ( 21 inch monitors )
optimize without resizing

I usually use the 15 inch or 17 inch (if there is a lot of details) Check here for size diffrences

what size monitor i guess is a different question that may need to be asked .
The "having to scroll over " situation is annoying to me sometimes if it is a large post so i would also like to know what size is optimum for people ? 

[Tim_w]

Hello Rasputin ,

As for picture sizes i tend to go 640 x 480 all the time now. It doesn't mention monitor size but 640 x 480 tends to be suitable for all, even those on 15". I am not sure if anyone has any problems with scrolling across the screen when they are trying to view my pictures though. It would be interesting to know if anyone does have this problem with mine.
I have a 17" monitor myself and i do have problems with pictures set at 1024 x 768. This means i do have to scroll across the screen to view them properly. I have only just realised whilst writing this what it means when it says suitable for displaying on a 17" monitor. I think this is referring to you viewing it on a 17" monitor using a picture viewer, for example looking at it after you have taken it off the camera. When it comes to message boards and forums there is the border's to contend with, which reduce the amount of space on the screen for the picture.

I hope this helps...

Tim 

[Little Jo]

Maybe I'm a bit to generel (or even maybe to restricutive) in my considerations not only referring to photo stories posted in a forum but also installed on Web pages ... anyway my thoughts about:

I personally distinguish between two types of photo stories (at least those I make): the "real" photo stories (according to my understanding) and the illustrative or documentative one.

The first type does not need any caption because everything is included within the photo itself e.g. in a comic book style with speach bubbles (e.g. cf. here). Arrangement is quite simple because you can post photos one after another (either on one page all or in a squence of pages, each single on one page).
This is the one I prefer because everything is compact and it's quite clear who is speaking an acting. I also like each photo to be presented on one page because you are not mislead for a preview by a simple scroll. Possible drawback: if during setup you do not have in mind where the bubbles later will be, there might be some details of the photo hidden; but if you are thinking before on the storyline and the setup this can be avoid quite easily.

For the second type -- illustrative/documentative photo story -- I use captions below like (as already said) in books. Reason for me is, that at this kind of photo story the picture itself stands in the foreground (e.g. cf. here), i.e. it could stand for itself and the viewer only get's some additional information by the caption, so it is not important if he reads it or not (e.g. because he/she imagines by viewing the pics his/her own interpretation or "story").

(For me it's quite "exhausting" to read photo stories where photos' content only differ slightly and you have to read a large paragraph of text below or on top of the photo to understand the picture -- in my eyes this is less a photo story but more a -- for sure also a good -- general story with illustrative photos where the text stands in the foreground; making a photo story I try to avoid this)

About the scale of the photos I use 580 x 387 pixels for presentation. This results from my general homepage layout and the fixed photo relation of 3:2. I think this size (round about) is still big enough to see all details but also can be integrated quite well into a homepage or to be posted in a forum. Because we are speaking about a photo story, in case there is the need to focus on any detail within this photo you easily can add another photo with exactly this detail view, so there is no need for a higher resolution.

The original photos I always shot with the highest camera resolution (and afterwards scale it down to the presentation format). Big advantage with this is that you can crop quite easily or even focus on some details without re-shooting the photo again. And if you have to do some retouching this is quite esaier in higher resolution photos and becomes after rescaling more invisible than when doing so directly in the presentation format.
Apart from more disk space (what those days isn't really exepensive anymore) I see no disadvantage in using highest resolution.

Pesonally I do not like to scroll (in the sense of scrolling down a page) when reading a photo story; I just want to "turn a page" or at least have the single pics be arranged like in a comic book. So personally I like a gallery-styled presentation where each photo is presented on one page and by click you move to the next picture.
Anyway, in a forum environment such an presentation is actually a littel bit difficult.

Refering to what Tim_W said about posting comments inbetween still posting the photo story, maybe it might be an option to post photo stories in the PlaymoFriends gallery: opening for each single story a new folder; navigation between pics can be done via the navigation; you can add captions; photos will be scaled/shown in a reasonable size automatically; continuing the story is still possible by adding photos and no comments will inbetween. Presenting the story would be in that way, that you post your pics in the gallery unhurriedly just as you like and just open a thread with a reference/hyperlink to the story. So comments would be on one place separated from the story itself. Just an idea ...

[Tim_w]

Hello Everyone ,

It seems as though everyone has different ways of making photo stories and in my humble opinion none of these are wrong. There are going to be people who like it done one way and those who like it done another, you can't please everyone all the time. What i can say for certain is that photo stories done in any way take a lot of time to complete. I can usually spend a couple of hours in the garden taking pictures and setting up different scenes. Then another couple of hours trying to sort out the pictures i need or feel are needed to get the story across and in what order they need to go. Then on top of that i have to add any text to the story to bulk it out or explain whats going on. This has to be thought through, it doesn't just happen by magic. You need to sit down and work out what needs to be said and how to say it.
I don't happen to have much knowledge of taking pictures. Infact i just stick the camera on macro function and get them in focus and snap away. I am not the worlds best writer either. A lot of what i learned went out the window when i left school and that wasn't much to start with anyway. If people don't like what i do then that is perfectly OK with me, but i don't think its fair to start picking deeper holes in anyones work. At the end of the day its content for the forum, it makes this place worth visiting. I try my best to make my aspect of the hobby informative for all. If changing the text style and the way i place it on my pictures keeps people happy then i will do it without any problem.

Kindest Regards  Tim

[Bill Blackhurst]

Hello everyone!
I am going to agree with Tim_W in this matter. The task of setting up the scenes, making the individual pictures, choosing the final photos, arranging the photo's order, writing a text to go with the story, trying to make it interesting for everyones tastes, being as factual in subjects as possible, takes much time, & dedication! Especially when you're like me, not very computer suave! I don't know anything about speech bubbles, or how to consider nonfiction or fiction story types, I just like to do the photo stories in the fashion that I have learned with the help of Rasputin, & the kind reviews from faithful readers like; Tim_W, Gepetto, Rasputin, Playmofire, Firechief, Martin Milner, Abbot Hamilton, to name just a few, have given me inspiration to do more! The original questions that were asked was, where to place the text, & whether bold or plain text is preferred! Anything else may require me to sign up, & go to computer classes to learn more ways of doing projects, & then it seems like a job, not a hobby! As I noted earlier in the thread, I would like to know the majority's preferences as the text position, & type so I can make it easier for inspirational readers to enjoy. Those are the only subjects that I can easily change. BTW Tim, your projects are "spot on"  !
Bill