Photography Website ?

[Stevie@JC]

Does anyone know were i could get a good decent website for photography some of the ones ive been looking at online are a bit odd looking i will also be looking for hosting space also.

I think its about time i had my own website an have seen some of the members website's on here are fantastic looking

[firesuite]

A lot of photography sites out there Ive seen use flash based solutions which are bought from places like templatemonster.com or something similar. I used one of the flash templates once and regretted it, because I didn't know flash I couldn't customize it nearly as much as I would liked and then most of the creators will charge you extra to really make it your own. So be mindful of them, while they may look nice on the outside, internally, unless you know flash you're going to run into issues I guarantee it.

It lasted a year then I took some time out and learned Joomla which is a content management system (CMS). Theres a few 'free' photo templates out there too and as Joomla is free so far Ive not had to put any more money into it other than my web hosting.

As for webspace I use 'startlogic.com' they have not really given me any problems over the last 2 years. most packages run the same from company to company nowadays. similar prices and types of service.. good luck :)

[Stevie@JC]

Yes i know what you mean i have been looking at those sites myself an with not having any knowledge of Flash it has put me off using them

[blackshadow]

Does anyone know were i could get a good decent website for photography some of the ones ive been looking at online are a bit odd looking i will also be looking for hosting space also.

I think its about time i had my own website an have seen some of the members website's on here are fantastic looking

Stevie - there are so many options to consider. You need to decide exactly what you need a website to do.

Is it going to be something relatively simple with a few pages and a couple of portfolio galleries - just to showcase your work and to provide some information to clients, do you need to have the facility to sell either prints or stock, do you shoot events that mean you always have new content to display, do you want/need a blog component?

Until you know these things it's a little hard to advise the best way forward. Budgetary considerations are also important.

[Stevie@JC]

Stevie - there are so many options to consider. You need to decide exactly what you need a website to do.

Is it going to be something relatively simple with a few pages and a couple of portfolio galleries - just to showcase your work and to provide some information to clients, do you need to have the facility to sell either prints or stock, do you shoot events that mean you always have new content to display, do you want/need a blog component?

Until you know these things it's a little hard to advise the best way forward. Budgetary considerations are also important.


Sorry for not being a bit more precise i want it relatively simple as u have stated with a few pages an galleries i dont want the facility for selling anything stock or prints. Just a site were i can showcase my photos that i have taken. I do some events so yes i would like be to have the option for new content to displacy. As for blog im not intrested in that at all

Thanks for taking the time to answer

Regards
Stevie

[jerdan]

photobiz.com great site and very easy to work with

[blackshadow]

Next you need to decide on whether you want to do it yourself, use an out of the box solution or have someone design a site for you.

[colin uk]

Does anyone know were i could get a good decent website for photography some of the ones ive been looking at online are a bit odd looking i will also be looking for hosting space also.

I think its about time i had my own website an have seen some of the members website's on here are fantastic looking

I am using my own space hosted with 1 and 1but also I use Zenfolio which to my mind offer a great service. I think there are many users of Zenfolio on the forum so I am sure you could get plenty of information.
if you want to look at an example my zen page is
http://splash.zenfolio.com/
and Zenfolio.com
http://www.zenfolio.com/
and can I be cheeky if you sign up with Zenfolio can you use this Referral Code: 6E5-K4V-25G we would both get a little discount

[neil_r]

Check out EE from POTN

http://photography-on-the.net/ee/

[Pete]

I use Gridstar.net for my hosting (more expensive than some of the "value" hosting out there, but the speed and quality of service is superb).

I bought my Flash software from www.imagevuex.com for a pretty small amount (£30 or so).

Exhibit Engine (EE) is good, but requires a certain level of technical know-how to get installed.

[Stevie@JC]

Next you need to decide on whether you want to do it yourself, use an out of the box solution or have someone design a site for you.


Ide rather have someone design it for me as i dont have the knowledge to do it myself

[Stevie@JC]

I use Gridstar.net for my hosting (more expensive than some of the "value" hosting out there, but the speed and quality of service is superb).

I bought my Flash software from www.imagevuex.com (http://www.imagevuex.com) for a pretty small amount (£30 or so).

Exhibit Engine (EE) is good, but requires a certain level of technical know-how to get installed.



Thank you i will check them out

Regards
Stevie

[Stevie@JC]

Check out EE from POTN

http://photography-on-the.net/ee/



Thanks Neil i will check it out

[Stevie@JC]

photobiz.com great site and very easy to work with

Next you need to decide on whether you want to do it yourself, use an out of the box solution or have someone design a site for you.


Thank you i will check both out

[Faolan]

There's been a few threads over the last few months about site design, doing a quick search should dig them up. It'll be useful as there is a lot of good information in those threads that will help you decide what to do.

[Stevie@JC]

There's been a few threads over the last few months about site design, doing a quick search should dig them up. It'll be useful as there is a lot of good information in those threads that will help you decide what to do.


Thank you Faolan i will check that out


Regards
Stevie

[Menelaus]

Smugmug Smugmug Smugmug Smugmug!

[Stevie@JC]

Smugmug Smugmug Smugmug Smugmug!


Im not really into Smugmug

[the_anj]

I had a spare computer lying around, so did a fresh windows install, set up Apache web server, and bought a domain. Free hosting, with no space limitations.

As far as the actual site, I use LR to generate my pages. I'm a software developer, so, realistically, I could design and code the pages myself, but the results I get with LR is more than good enough for me right now, and alot easier.

I know this may not be feasible for most, but if you have the means, and don't mind a bit of work setting up the server, it may be a good solution

[Faolan]

The_anj, it's far better to install Apache on something like Ubuntu /Debian server, mainly because it's easier to lock down and prevent people hacking it. Of course if you're not making it public and it's only on a private addressed LAN then this won't matter.

The other issue is that Windows handles .htaccess, permissions and filenames differently so if you upload to LAMP server you may run into problems down the line. I've been bitten by this a few times in the past.

[Menelaus]

Yeah, but the computer has to be up for the site to be up. I wouldn't trust my ISP/Power company at all in that regard.

[the_anj]

Faolan, I thought about that as well, but decided to set up using windows because I knew I could get it up and running fairly quickly.

One of these days I'm going to move it over to a ubuntu system to see how that works, but for now, it's running well on windows.

The power and internet connection is quite reliable where I am, so the system always needing to be on and connected hasn't been a problem at all.

I know that it probably would have been easier to just host it somewhere, but I like to play around with stuff and configure it, and had a couple spare systems lying around, so I went with this.

[Faolan]

I use Apache server to serve webpages/files to clients, saves a lot of hassle for me when doing collaboration work. It also runs a sFTP server to give an additional layer of security if needed. As to power cuts, that's pretty much non-existant as I have a APC 1500 UPS attached to the server.

I wouldn't trust it for mission critical stuff but for sharing documents, transferring files (such as multiple hi-res PSDs/Medium Format RAW files for retouching) and so on it's ideal especially when you can use encrypted traffic to protect data.

[IdahoPics]

Take A look at Square Space. I have my site (www.idahomemories.com) hosted there and love it! Their customer service should you need it is exceptional.

Square Space is at www.squarespace.com

[Stevie@JC]

I wouldnt trust my ISP either for example when i first signed the contract with them it was for umlimited download now apprently if it goes over 100gb a month they cut my speed down to the bare minimum at peek times what a load a crap that is

Ive a good idea on who the host is going to be its more just the actual website itself i need

[dinny66]

+1 for Smugmug!