research on galleries to use on site

Research on how to display photos in the gallery:

There are a few ways I could display the photos of costumes on my site:
 plain html, when thumbnails are clicked just link to another page with that picture on it
 javascript, a popular one, plenty of websites use this and it seems to work well as long as they don't have a script blocker running. Will display a mini window with back and forward buttons to go between photos when thumbnails are clicked
 AJAX (asynchronous java and xml) this is also a popular option and will output in a similar way to java in terms of when thumbnails are clicked.


Lightbox http://www.huddletogether.com/projects/lightbox2/

Very popular, easy to set up script (AJAX) that works on all browsers. Popular as it is so unobtrusive and easy to use and looks clean. Does what I need it to, and there is plenty of support out there for it! Only lacks the ability to go between photos from the enlarged picture.


Minishowcase http://minishowcase.net/

This is a very nice AJAX script that is easy enough to set up and looks professional. Does take a little longer to load but works well and is easy to use for the end user. Does absolutely everything I need it to as well as being very pleasing asthetically.




http://www.zenphoto.org/zenphoto/

zenphoto is a very basic script again, written in ajax. Too simple for my liking as it takes you away from the gallery and its not quick enough to get back to the thumbnails. Simple and easy to use but doesn't have the look and functionality of the other ones.



http://www.couloir.org/js_slideshow/#2

This is a gallery written purely in CSS, it does not have thumbnails though. But it does have picture animations and is rather asthetically pleasing and very lightweight as seems to be the theme.




Cross Browser Multi-Page Photograph Gallery
http://www.cssplay.co.uk/menu/lightbox.html#flower8

This is a very nice looking gallery thing that is written in CSS and just uses the hover line. This is a very affective implementation, but I think that the pictures don't get big enough and I need to be able to include text below the image, will have to look to see if I can change this, but I am considering this one.



http://www.jasons-toolbox.com/SlightlyThickerBox/#
slightly thickerbox 1.7

This is what I’m looking for in terms of functionality but does no look aesthetically pleasing at all and I don't really have the skill sets required to change this. Also is very slow to load which is not good for the end user, as they don’t like to wait.



What I need from the gallery:
- Ease of use
- Ability to include text above or below the picture.
- Overlays the screen, keeps the thumbnails in the background. Reason for this being, it is the easiest way to get back to gallery.
- Has to look aesthetically pleasing / Professional
- Has to be able to have back / forward function between images

The gallery I will try first is minishowcase and based on how easy that is to use and if I can get it set up right, I will try lightbox. Minishowcase is the only one that does everything I want it to and looks the part, lightbox comes close but lacks the ability to go between photos from the enlarged picture.

The copy with screenshots is included in my visual diary