A GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) is a bitmap image format developed in 1987.  It is a widely used format on the internet as it is widely supported.  The format supports up to 8 bits per pixel for each image and supports animation.  The use of GIF’s in the context of photography can be extremely useful to display a range of photographs in a unique and interesting way.  In this instance I have shown different shoes in order to allow the viewer to compare the different shoes shown to see the different shapes and styles even though they are all only shoes.  Creating a GIF is a relatively easy and straightforward photograph – to create the GIF shown in this post I uploaded all of the photographs into photoshop and then loading all of the different files into a stack.  I then created a frame animation and made frames from the layers.  I then chose the time that each frame will be shown to be 0.2 seconds and so resulting in a fast moving GIF.

This use of GIF’s is extremely relevant to the topic ‘Variation and Similarities’ as it is an easily displayable way to demonstrate both variation and similarities between subjects.  I plan on experimenting with GIF’s and working them into my exam as I believe that it is a very effective way of displaying typologies of subjects, such as different high rise buildings/office blocks and the contents of peoples’ bags.  As I further develop my work on typologies I will explore photographing more styles of building and putting these into a GIF format in order to effectively show the similarities and differences between the buildings as I aim to do.  Below I have demonstrated an example of the type of work I could produce whilst incorporating GIF’s into my experiments – I will focus on building a wider portfolio of similar photographs in order to create a variety of GIF’s.