EDIT: My New Webby

T

toto8462

Messages
359
Name
Mike
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi all,

I've only been in the DSLR game a year or so, and am certainly not ready to do any paid work yet. That said, I would like a website to showcase some of my work as I develop such that people I meet can see what I can do. Hopefully, I will use it as a platform in the future to take on some work.

So far, people who have been interested in my photography have been directed to flickr, but its all a little bit tacky and impersonal to make much of an impression. I would like to use a flash based website to showcase my work, but I'm I was wondering whether you guys think its a bit OTT where something much simpler and plain would be more appropriate.

Also, is there a tendency that flash will be incompatible with people's web browsers?

Let me know what you think. Thanks.

Mike.
 
With faster internet speeds flash is a viable option, although not necessarily the best option - some folks with flash websites have tended to go OTT so stay plain and simple as it is the photos you want to show off not the fancy flash website. I personally like javacript lightbox galleries to flash.
 
Flash websites do more to protect your work than html ones - but can be a PIA to load if you have a slow connection.
 
awp said:
Flash websites do more to protect your work than html ones - but can be a PIA to load if you have a slow connection.
Click to expand...

Nothing can protect your content on the internet. period.

I'd recommend going for something simple and straight forward and the best way to do that is a HTML website. However it really depends on what you want from your website and your client base. If they are the type of people that would be impressed by extravagant interaction then perhaps go with Flash, if however they're the opposite and just want to see your photography skills then perhaps a HTML site would be the better option. Of course now a days, if you find a competent Flash developer (note, not a designer, there is a distinct difference) then you could have a decent flash site that you can update through a CMS.

My personal preference though is that a photography sites always seems to work better in HTML.

Basically you have to look at both options as tools and decide which one is best for you. A lot of the Flash interaction can be done really easily with AJAX frameworks like jQuery and Scriptaculous.

You can create some pretty nice things without using Flash, but at the same time there are somethings that you can do in Flash that you can't with HTML.

I hope this helps.
 
Also Flash has come a long way, a lot further than people might realise. Flash sites that take AGES to load tend to be built on the time line, i.e.. as one long animation with various key frames to provide interaction. Today Flash sites are built differently, at least ones by professionals. All content no longer needs to be loaded at once, you don't need to slap all your images into an FLA file. Images can be loaded remotely, when and where they are needed.
 
Are flash websites hard to maintain? I was just going to pull a template into dreamweaver and adjust. To be honest, I just did the same for my previous website (which was an HTML template) - I don't know an awful lot about programming.

If you think this precludes flash, then thats would be good to know. It just I've looked at the free trials of clikpic etc. and just don't really like it :(
 
Not much you can do with a flash template in DW apart from embed it really :shrug:
 
pxl8 said:
Not much you can do with a flash template in DW apart from embed it really :shrug:
Click to expand...

I really meant with respect to managing the photos themselves, is this likely to be taxing?

For example, I had in mind something like a slightly simplified trimmed down version of something like this (minus the annoying music)
 
there's really no programming involved in creating a html site - i pulled a few templates apart to learn how css worked myself then stuck mine together. the lightbox code i use is freely available on the net - just look for freeware or open source.
 
Flash sites can be easy to maintain depending on how they are built. If you abstract the content from the actual flash files then the site can be easy to update. For example, building a flash site to pull all content from a database. I don't know what your level of Flash and ActionScript knowledge is but from the fact that you're talking about templates this might be something you're not familiar with? If you're talking about building a Flash site with templates then I'm guess it's probably a better choice for you to go with the HTML route. But again, if you want a site that's easy to update then you need to look at some sort of content management system (CMS). The free one that I use most often when building sites is Wordpress. It's a blogging platform but it's extremely easy to use as a CMS. Please stop me if none of this is making any sense.
 
ianm79 said:
there's really no programming involved in creating a html site - i pulled a few templates apart to learn how css worked myself then stuck mine together. the lightbox code i use is freely available on the net - just look for freeware or open source.
Click to expand...

To me it sounds like every time you add a new image you edit some HTML files and upload along with the new images? Would that be correct?
 
yes, your point being that i'm programming? it's hardly intensive like creating a software but yes it is programing but it is minimal.
 
KayJay said:
Flash sites can be easy to maintain depending on how they are built. If you abstract the content from the actual flash files then the site can be easy to update. For example, building a flash site to pull all content from a database. I don't know what your level of Flash and ActionScript knowledge is but from the fact that you're talking about templates this might be something you're not familiar with? If you're talking about building a Flash site with templates then I'm guess it's probably a better choice for you to go with the HTML route. But again, if you want a site that's easy to update then you need to look at some sort of content management system (CMS). The free one that I use most often when building sites is Wordpress. It's a blogging platform but it's extremely easy to use as a CMS. Please stop me if none of this is making any sense.
Click to expand...

Yea, I will stop you there. Before, I literally pulled an HTML template and messed with CSS. I know VERY little about flash, hence I though I could perhaps pull off the same trick, i.e. get a template and fiddle with it.

To be honest, I'm just looking for my own site (i.e. not restricted by clikpics style management), with such features as lightbox galleries etc. Any suggestions?
 
ianm79 said:
yes, your point being that i'm programming? it's hardly intensive like creating a software but yes it is programing but it is minimal.
Click to expand...

No, not at all. The point is that ideally you'd want a solution that just lets you add new images through a web browser instead of making code changes.
 
toto8462 said:
Yea, I will stop you there. Before, I literally pulled an HTML template and messed with CSS. I know VERY little about flash, hence I though I could perhaps pull off the same trick, i.e. get a template and fiddle with it.

To be honest, I'm just looking for my own site (i.e. not restricted by clikpics style management), with such features as lightbox galleries etc. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Yeah, go for a html website with Lightbox. That's what I did with my own site, see my sig. Once you're familiar with HTML and CSS have a play about with Wordpress. There are plenty of free photo themes that you can download and use with Wordpress. When you're confident, if you want, in future you can make your own.
 
KayJay said:
That's fine, but I'm thinking about the OP :)
Click to expand...

I've used wordpress before for someone else. Could you possibly point me in the direction of a template that I could adjust for a photo gallery + a means of implementing lightbox?
 
Interesting.
I'm a little confused about the anti flash stance to be fair, I agree that some very badly designed flash sites with too much animation take an eternity to load, but I find most decent photography flash sites are fast and very smooth.

I honestly thought the day of 'I can't run flash player' was dead and buried, it's certainly a goner over these parts.

I made my own flash site at the beginning of the year but got too fed up with updating, action script really hurt my head so I bought a template from Bludomain during the crimbo sale and since been very happy and stress free.
My domain had already propagated for nearly a year with a HTML site (the first I ever created) so I still have my Google rating despite changing to a flash only site.

Still confused about it all though :shrug:

T
 
toto8462 said:
Yes. This is what I would prefer...
Click to expand...

Take a look at Wordpress, or indexhibit. Indexhibit is designed for portfolios and is extremely popular among art students.

The studio I work for built this site for the photographer Lee Mawdsley, using Indexhibit. Just an example of what can be done with a piece of open source software.

Some other examples, these were not done by us.
http://megancummins.com/
http://www.tatiret.com/

With a bit of CSS you can make it look as beautiful or as ugly as you like.

ianm79 said:
OP?
Click to expand...

Original poster.
 
Tomas Whitehouse said:
Interesting.
I'm a little confused about the anti flash stance to be fair, I agree that some very badly designed flash sites with too much animation take an eternity to load, but I find most decent photography flash sites are fast and very smooth.

I honestly thought the day of 'I can't run flash player' was dead and buried, it's certainly a goner over these parts.

I made my own flash site at the beginning of the year but got too fed up with updating, action script really hurt my head so I bought a template from Bludomain during the crimbo sale and since been very happy and stress free.
My domain had already propagated for nearly a year with a HTML site (the first I ever created) so I still have my Google rating despite changing to a flash only site.

Still confused about it all though :shrug:

T
Click to expand...

Flash got a bad rep because there were too many people using it inappropriately or badly. People are starting to come round to the fact that actually its a great tool.
 
KayJay said:
Flash got a bad rep because there were too many people using it inappropriately or badly. People are starting to come round to the fact that actually its a great tool.
Click to expand...

Cheers K, the Lee Mawdsley site is a kicker btw! Nice one :thumbs:
 
KayJay said:
Flash got a bad rep because there were too many people using it inappropriately or badly. People are starting to come round to the fact that actually its a great tool.
Click to expand...

KayJay - many thanks for your contributions. I think I will stick with what I know and go for a wordpress based option and try to adapt with some plugins etc.


The next task is to find a cheap/reliable webhost!

Thanks.
 
Tomas Whitehouse said:
Cheers K, the Lee Mawdsley site is a kicker btw! Nice one :thumbs:
Click to expand...

I'll pass on the compliments to the guys that worked on it :)

Also, you see on that site in the bottom right corner of all the images? Click that square. Now that's a good piece of Flash design ;) Two colleagues of mine created that little tool. You can download that from here, for free to use on your own sites if anyone wants it.
 
toto8462 said:
KayJay - many thanks for your contributions. I think I will stick with what I know and go for a wordpress based option and try to adapt with some plugins etc.


The next task is to find a cheap/reliable webhost!

Thanks.
Click to expand...

No problem. If you ever need a hand with Wordpress hacking or anything like that give me a shout.
 
toto8462 said:
I really meant with respect to managing the photos themselves, is this likely to be taxing?

For example, I had in mind something like a slightly simplified trimmed down version of something like this (minus the annoying music)
Click to expand...

The example is pure flash so you need to create/edit the template in flash not DW. If you just want flash to display the photos then something like simpleviewer would be better.
 
^ What he said and Flash isn't the easiest of software to use, I can image it will be worse if you aren't a coder. It is also pretty expensive!!!

Also you have to bear in mind that there are two types of Flash website - full Flash and HTML with an embedded Flash gallery.

I prefer the latter over JS galleries, mainly because of the lack of right click etc. For Flash galleries you can embed into your HTML pages have a look at Airtight Interactive.
 
Flash sites:
1. Have issues with SEO (or lack of)
2. Are relativley harder to maintain - you cant exactly use notepad on a flash site, you need specific software
3. Usually look really pretty
4. Are compartivley a lot of work if you want dynamic content
5. Do have issues on some older machines, or machines on some corporate networks
6. Are suseptable to Adobe moving the goal posts when a new player is launched (something that effected a lot of sites with version 10 player)
 
With regqrds to content being stolen or coppied - thats a whole subject on its own, which I would eb happy to write an artical about. There are some deterrents, and some pretty watertight systems out there
 
OK, this is what I have come up with, let me know what you think. Note, the photos up there at the minute are thrown together at the moment and it seems I can afford to use higher quality images I think.
 
The man's done good. Still a few things to fix but getting there mate. Also I'm running a debug version of flash and keep getting these errors...

ReferenceError: Error #1065: Variable Off is not defined.
at global/flash.utils::getDefinitionByName()
at net.slideshowpro::SlideShowPro/playSound()
at net.slideshowpro::SlideShowPro/toggleDisplayMode()
at net.slideshowpro::SlideShowPro/loadImageNumber()
at net.slideshowpro.observers::Navigation/navLinkMouseEvent()
 
KayJay said:
The man's done good. Still a few things to fix but getting there mate. Also I'm running a debug version of flash and keep getting these errors...

ReferenceError: Error #1065: Variable Off is not defined.
at global/flash.utils::getDefinitionByName()
at net.slideshowpro::SlideShowPro/playSound()
at net.slideshowpro::SlideShowPro/toggleDisplayMode()
at net.slideshowpro::SlideShowPro/loadImageNumber()
at net.slideshowpro.observers::Navigation/navLinkMouseEvent()
Click to expand...

Hmm... I will take a look into that. Thanks.
 
i was bought a website in a box for xmas, and like you use this as a platform for my pics and somewhere to direct people as and when needed

it is simple and easy to use


maybe this would be suitable as I managed to pull a site together in under an hour
 
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