for those with webdesign knowlage...

[rebelling_lemming]

hi, im looking to creating a website with a gallery, nothing special - just somewhere where i can write up articles and post pictures of events that i shoot at. so basically what programs would you use? and are there any websites with tutorials on how to do this?


something like this would be ideal e.g
http://www.fastlanephotography.co.uk/index.html
http://www.flowtography.co.uk/a/index.php?cat=10022
http://www.jacobgibbins.co.uk/

[cosworth]

Answer yourself these questions:

Are you selling or showing?
Do you want busy or simple?
Will you update often or rarely?
Will you have non-photo content like a blog or forum?

Get these out of the way first. Draw your website on paper and pick colours. Design it first, then "design" it with a multitude of editors.

Dreamweaver (hard)
Joomla (editable website)
notepad (hardcore coders)
Download templates and mod them for yourself (you'll probably do this first)

You have far too many options ahead of you.

[rebelling_lemming]

it will be just for showing photos, somewhere to upload them to and i will have some articles on events. i would say that i would be updating it once or twice a month with articles and probably every time i get a set of photos which would be every week or so. i have downloaded dreamweaver several months ago but i just never got round to using it..

[cosworth]

I learned everything i know from dreameaver and looking at the code. I don't know much, but I still use dreamweaver to make it faster.

I spent the weekend revamping the look of my site and adding a blog. Next step is to update the content. My shots suck.

The intent of my site is to have some cheap hosting and to sell myself. I wanted simple and clean. Some think it's too simple.

Keep your site simple for now, build it up as you redo it every couple of months.

[BaumannPhotography]

Building a website is not terribly difficult anymore, there are a lot of tutorials online to get you started. The hard part comes when you want to set yourself apart from others. Building a gallery can be done in Dreamweaver with javascript and you can even use the flash default gallery that is already built for you and import it into dreamweaver. So know can you see where it gets tricky? It's not really that hard but it takes some time and patience, as Dreamweaver is not always friendly to work with.

But going with something more difficult will require more knowledge. Flash based sites are awesome but take some knowhow on actionsrcript, html.....blah blah.

Cosworth has great points, you need to answer those questions: a site that people can just go and look at your pictures is different than a site that people can buy/download, and blog at.

Just google webdesign tutorials, start with the basics.

[rebelling_lemming]

damn you cosworth, thats exactly somehting like i want :D . what format is it like html, css etc and did you use any other programs to make the gallery?
also does anyone know of any websites with free templates?

[cosworth]

I made the site in about 4 hours. The galleries are made with porta. The blog is installed by my host, godaddy and it easy to use.

Easily built in a day if you know what you want nad have mappe dit out.

The porta gallery however needs redoing on my part and will involve selecting images that I want to showcase - the hardest part by far since what I like and what will sell "me" is not always what I like.


http://www.stegmann.dk/mikkel/porta/

[saturnin]

yah it all depends what you want out of your site...

i have a site to show ppl my work, if they are intereted they can email

have few samples of current work u know usual stuff

elaborate sites arent for me-flash is always good to display your photos

[ClickClick]

flashtogo has some easy to modify themes and templates.

[jacobsen1]

if you want a super easy way to do it, check out my site (www.benjacobsen.com) and see if you like that format. That's all done with very easy to use (and free!) software.

It's a wordpress page using NexGen gallery software.

[meatbag]

i learned flash (yes i know thats alot of work)

but now my website loads text and pictures dynamically, so its the easiest for me to update, i just upload the pictures. but everyone is right, its does depend on what you need it for

[blackshadow]

I built my site in about an hour (after a lot of homework) it's been up a couple of weeks now and I have made some minor tweaks. I have no experience in web design or coding skills.
My site is made up from the following:
WordPress (opensource CMS specifically aimed at blogging)
A WordPress template - there are heaps of them around
All my photos are hosted on a flickr pro account
I use a WordPress plugin called Flickr Photo Album
and a couple of other WordPress plugins for the event calendar and stuff.

It was all free apart from the flickr pro account and my web hosting ($5.95 AUD/month)

[themirage]

I've done webpages before and haven't put much effort in to mine. Thats beyond the point.

The three pages you showed are actually three differnt levels of web design.
1) This one was nothing but static pages linked together which I'm assuming is the best method for you at this time.
2) This page using PHP scripting and what looks to be a database lookup so I wouldn't suggest you go this route by hand. You could look for premade phpGalleries but they have some manual configuring as well.
3) This one is also fairly simple in that it has static links to other sites using frames to give the perception you aren't leaving the main site.

[asxu]

if you're just looking to start up a simple blog (running wordpress) and don't want the hassle of paying for hosting, you can set one up here: http://blogs.worddissociation.net/signup

it's hosted by my good friend, so if you have any issues, feel free to get in touch with me and i can act as a middle man.

(mods, if you want this link removed for advertising, please feel free. as i know it may be out of place)

[figmented]

my website was super easy to make:
wordpress + smugmug

profit++

[Big WIll]

rebelling_lemming are you from Southerndownhill.com by any chance??

[tbfoto]

Could some of you enlighten me as to what costs are involved to have these web sites? That may sound like a dumb question but I really have no idea what it costs to have a web site! This is an area where my lack of computer knowlage is really hurting me. I was once told $300-$500 per year?????? Anyone?

Thanks,
Tom

[Big WIll]

It depends:
1.
You need someone to design it: This can range from $100 - $20,000+ its a massive market.
2.
You need someone to hold all the data and allow people to access it. - From $FREE - $500+

3. You need a DOMAIN name = From $Free (With the above) - $100+

If you get number 1, they will do all of they other two for you. However if you want to do it alone. You need to do number 2 and number 3

[rebelling_lemming]

rebelling_lemming are you from Southerndownhill.com by any chance??

yes it is... hello!

[jacobsen1]

my website was super easy to make:
wordpress + smugmug

profit++

What theme is that? Looks great.

Could some of you enlighten me as to what costs are involved to have these web sites? That may sound like a dumb question but I really have no idea what it costs to have a web site! This is an area where my lack of computer knowlage is really hurting me. I was once told $300-$500 per year?????? Anyone?

Thanks,
Tom

As mentioned it depends on what you're going for, but typically if you use free software and do it yourself on a site you own it's something like this:

<$10/year to buy/register www.yoursite.com
<$10/month for hosting for said site and all the Data.

If you buy more than one or host more than one you can get deals that give you more space for less money per space. For example I have 4 websites, I host them on 1and1.com. My package is the business package that gets me 3 domains and 250gb of space. It's $9.99 per month. Now I have 4 sites, I got 3 that way, the fourth is an additional $5.99 per year. So in one year I spend $125.87 for the four sites. I've done all the design on my own so that was free to me. For $3.99 per month, they give you one domain and 10gb of space which should be more than enough for one personal site. So the price really comes down to how crazy you want to get in terms of space and sites. Also factor in if you can DIY or if you have to pay for people to design stuff.

[Big WIll]

yes it is... hello!

I thought so as i saw all the above links!
So have you sorted a website out then?