Large Image Auto Slide Shows – The Evolving Tour of Choice

November 4, 2007
By: Larry Lohrman
Author's Website: http://photographyforrealestate.net/

The slide show above (Click here or on the image above to view) is an example of the kind of tour I’m seeing more and more in upper-end marketing. This particular example is technically tour and a property site since it has it’s own URL. The important aspect of this kind of slide show tour is the image size and the fact that you don’t have to “do anything” to get the tour to display. Once you get to the site/tour it just runs itself. Of coarse great images play a big part in making this kind of tour knock-out marketing.

There are several technology trends that are making this form of tour practical:

Broadband penetration is high in US homes (FCC data shows US broadband connections surged 61% in 2006) so displaying large images quickly is not an issue anymore.
Peoples’ expectations are increasing – More and more people are sitting in their living room watching movies on 40″, 50″ and 60″ plasma displays so it takes more to impress them in a home tour.
Flash 9, which was introduced late in 2006 is now very high performance. It’s capable of displaying large and even full screen images fast. Although, the example above is not Flash based, it’s javascript powered.

So how do you create a slide show like the one above? There are a number of alternatives:

If you have your own site and are into hacking your own HTML you can get the basic javascript slide show code from a site like this one and adapt it to your site. Or you could use one of the free Flash slide shows like simpleviewer and adapt it to your site.
A little simpler alternative is you could use the Lightroom Web feature that takes care of all the details of building a slide show and uploading it to your site.
Or if you want someone else to do all the geeky stuff and host the tour www.buildatour.com is an inexpensive turn-key alternative. All you have to do is supply the photos and upload them and you get a large Flash slide show that is fast and automatic.

As I said at the beginning you see more and more of these type of tours. As the competition for eyeballs increases it’s going to take more to standout. Here are a few more more examples:

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Dee Copeland on November 4, 2007 12:54 pm

So you think this will be used more than the fancy video tour options and information-filled single property websites that more agents are utilizing?

This definitely simplifies things since that site would be extremely easy to create.
Larry Lohrman on November 4, 2007 1:33 pm

I would much rather watch a slide show of large still images than a video that bounces up and down, changes exposure and has curved walls. I’ve not seen a video tour with someone walking through a home with a video camera that I like. Nothing is moving in a home so why is video needed? I can’t watch the ones that have the home owners walking through their home explaining everything.

I know many agents are doing it but I don’t like the way they look. Everyone needs to decide for themselves… I get attacked by video photographers every time I talk like this on my blog.
Norm Fisher on November 4, 2007 2:22 pm

Larry,

I have to agree with your comments regarding video. I haven’t seen one that had the same impact as good still images. The tour that you featured above is excellent and it was even put together in a way that gives you a pretty good idea how the floor plan flows from one room to another. Very nice! Are you now producing your own slide shows in Lightroom?
Max Christian on November 4, 2007 4:24 pm

For large images, these “PicturePlus” tours might be worth a look. They’re the only ones I know of that always fill the screen, no matter whether it’s a little laptop or a 42″ plasma:

http://content.metropix.com/p/427694
(click the ‘photos’ tab for full-screen)
Larry Lohrman on November 4, 2007 6:44 pm

@Norm,
Yes, Here are are a couple of slide shows I’ve done in Lightroom:

http://lohrman.com/simple/index.html and
http://lohrman.com/vr/king/index.html

both of the same listing. Also here’s the same listing with buildatour.com:

http://www.buildatour.com/tour/buildatour-full.html?id=19534

The boss (my wife) is very opinionated about tours she doesn’t like the Lightroom tours but likes the buildatour.com tour. She is a fan of my 360s:

Like this one for the same listing-

http://lohrman.com/vr/king/360/kitfam.htm

and really doesn’t consider a slide show a “tour” but of coarse these are a lot more work!

@max,
PicturePlus looks interesting, I’ll have to check it out.
Ken @ Realivent on November 4, 2007 10:13 pm

Larry, you’ve got some of the best real estate photos on the RE.net. Is this slideshow (the Flash component ) a Lightroom product ? http://lohrman.com/vr/king/index.html
Did you do any post-editing ? I recall you mentioned that almost all of your photos are usually edited ? Thanks!
Larry Lohrman on November 4, 2007 10:50 pm

@ken,
Yes the example I gave (http://lohrman.com/vr/king/index.html) is the monoslideshow template for Lightroom. For more details see my post at:
http://photographyforrealestate.net/2007/09/18/monoslideshow-template-for-lightroom/
Larry Lohrman on November 4, 2007 10:51 pm

@Ken,
Yes, the images in http://lohrman.com/vr/king/index.html are all post processed in Lightroom.
Norm Fisher on November 5, 2007 5:47 am

Thanks Larry, nice stuff. The Lightroom templates are a little basic. I’ll bet we see all kinds of new templates available in a short period of time. It looks like it would be a really simple way to go. I do like the idea of the large format slideshow. Thanks again.
Fred Light on November 5, 2007 2:02 pm

I’ve been doing large flash slideshows for over 4 years of 800 x 600 stills. A simple program called SWF n Slide (http://verticalmoon.com/products/swfnslide/swfnslide.htm_ can generate a lot of variations on the theme without much of a learning curve. (sample: http://www.nashuavideotours.com/virtualtours/sample/RollingWoods/MLS.html)
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