Music & Photography

I still haven't totally finished piecing together my portfolio do-over.  

One thing that has been helping me decide what to keep and what to switch out, besides viewing them taped to a door,  is watching them in slideshow form. I also add music that I think fits the mood of the style. The first few times I viewed them this way there was always one that jumped out as being slightly away from the style I want. This helped me narrow down my choices enough to find what works well and what doesn't. 

Where music and photography are concerned, I'm not a big fan of auto-play music on any website. Not only does it slow the load time, but if I really don't like the music it forces me to stop looking at the content. That's not good if you're trying to sell something. My general rule is if I can't find the "off" button in 3 seconds or less, I go somewhere else. AND..it's because I don't like the music that I'm not able to feel the mood that's trying to be portrayed. The photos may not make me feel the same way that the artist thinks I should feel by including music. In those instances, music should be avoided.

I think if you're creating a slideshow for a client, or creating a commercial, music would be more appropriate. Many photographers use Animoto for creating these kind of slideshows. I played around with their free version recently…I didn't like any of their templates and couldn't find any music that I thought would be right. Judging from what's available on their free account, it probably is not for me. I've never really explored creating slideshows so it might be something fun to experiment with.