So... you want a website?

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Name
Peter
Edit My Images
Yes
If you want to make a website and don't want to invest too much time, there's a few solutions that you might like to be aware of.

Free photo sharing services:
These include Flickr, Picasa Web Albums, Carbonmade and other ones, you can find a more extensive list (although not exhaustive by any means) here:
http://photo-sharing-services-review.toptenreviews.com/ (look on the menu on the left)

Paid photo sharing services:
These include SmugMug, Photium, Pholio, Clikpic, PBase, Zenfolio and others, some of which are listed here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_photo_sharing_websites
and here:
http://picturesync.net/?PictureSync_services.

Self-hosted solutions:
If you have a domain or a subdomain and sufficient amount of web space to go with it, you can use a gallery solution.

Dynamically generated galleries that include an administration interface for uploading photos and managing your online galleries can be quite nice, you can find a short list here:
http://opensourcecms.com/ (click on Image Galleries in the menu on the left).
I can recommend Coppermine and Gallery 2.
If you need more than a gallery, something like a personal website with a contact form and a gallery, I suggest using Jaws or Dragonfly CMS (Dragonfly integrates Coppermine gallery). There are more, but I found these two to be rather easy to setup and get going. More can be found on the http://opensourcecms.com/ website.
If you're looking for a blog-type system, then there's e.g. Wordpress. It's very popular and there's loads of themes and plug-ins available for it.
Pixelpost isn't too bad if you're looking for a photo blog either.
Again, more of them can be found on the http://opensourcecms.com/ website.

If you want a solution in Flash, try these:
Simpleviewer
Flash Gallery
Art Flash Gallery
Flash Image Gallery
I don't like them, but some people love their flashy looks.

Offline gallery generators:
Jalbum - this one's quite popular. There are similar programs, e. g. in Python, but they're not as fast to install (you will most likely need a few extra things to install before it runs) and their templates are generally... pretty ugly.
Namu6 - it's more of a personal website editor, but if you don't have many photos, it can serve you well.

What NOT to expect:
Most gallery systems will not allow you more than switching a gallery 'skin' or rearrange navigation boxes.
If you need to get a custom design made (see 'Modifying a template' below), you can either try and do it yourself (which most of the time ends up in frustration) or you can hire someone to do it for you, that can be quite costly.
You can also use free template available. They can be found for example here:
http://www.oswd.org/
http://www.openwebdesign.org/
http://www.opendesigns.org/
http://www.designvitality.com/blog/...box-100-tools-resources-and-template-sources/ (lots of other links too)
http://www.freecsstemplates.org/

Which one should you go with?
It's simple, try them all and find one that suits YOU.
If you need more, Google's your friend.

Modifying a template
If you want to edit a website template, you're almost certainly need to know some XHTML and CSS (do NOT use the WYSIWYG editors, they almost always produce junk code or they cost a fortune).
You can find their specifications at http://www.w3.org/ .
Unless you're an extremely fast learner (very few people are like that), you're likely to be quite disappointed at the beginning, because you'll realise, it can take a lot of time to learn them and even longer to learn them well and get some good practices under your skin.
Some links to get you started:
W3Schools - fairly verbose free online course of XHTML, CSS and plenty of other technologies
Google learning XHTML
Google learning CSS
Google CSS tips and tricks - A List Apart is a pretty good resource, sitepoint has some OK articles sometimes as well
CSS Zen Garden - visiting it rarely harms

Note: not all people are good designers, even with training. Hiring someone to create a custom design for you might be cheaper (time is money ;)) than trying to do it yourself.
To try out whether you're any good at designs, get a pencil, a paper and sketch the design roughly. If it looks good to people around you (and you're sure they're honest), then DIY might be worth a shot if you don't claim yourself to be a 'technically challenged' person.

Suggestions and complaints via PMs, please.
 
Changelog:

24.08.2008: added template sites, including suggestion by Mattfeliks
07.09.2008: added 'Modifying a template' paragraph
13.10.2008: added 'Wordpress' and 'Pixelpost', as suggested by KayJay (Wordpress) and Ste L (Pixelpost)
 
Nice, concise, post giving useful information and links, thanks for posting this Slapo.
 
It hasn't really been left out, it's a blogging system (or it was intended to be one).
You can find it on the http://opensourcecms.com/ website.
Jaws and dragonfly seem to be a better choice for a website that isn't just a blog, as they come in packages that feature pretty much everything what someone setting up a personal/SOHO website would usually need. The last time I checked, you needed a Wordpress plug-in for many a thing those two offer in a default complete installation.
The same could go for Drupal (which also happens to have an administration system that many newbies find too complicated, especially if they're not very used to working with computers).

Thanks for the suggestion, though.
 
It hasn't really been left out, it's a blogging system (or it was intended to be one).
You can find it on the http://opensourcecms.com/ website.
Jaws and dragonfly seem to be a better choice for a website that isn't just a blog, as they come in packages that feature pretty much everything what someone setting up a personal/SOHO website would usually need. The last time I checked, you needed a Wordpress plug-in for many a thing those two offer in a default complete installation.
The same could go for Drupal (which also happens to have an administration system that many newbies find too complicated, especially if they're not very used to working with computers).

Thanks for the suggestion, though.

Not anymore, with 2.6.2 you now have a pretty comprehensive list of image handling, including skinable galleries, EXIF information and one of the best template systems around. I think it merits a mention of its own. Not to mention it's the biggest self-hosted blogging platform in the world. It's also used as a CMS.

Drupal is one of the worst open source CMS systems around. You should give wordpress another go, I think you'll be surprised.

There is also indexhibit which we used to build www.leemawdsley.co.uk
 
What an excellent post, knowledgeable, concise and to the point :clap::clap:
 
Thanks Les, whoever that was aimed at :)

KayJay, I just gave it a shot, but the only thing it does with images in the default installation is that it enables me to insert them into the page, which is just about what any more advanced CMS or blog system can do. Then again, people who don't post many shots at once could be happy with that and as it was fairly snappy on localhost, so I'll add it.
 
Remember to take a look at Indexibit ;)

I just did, it doesn't look very impressive to be honest.
I had trouble getting its homepage to load as well :p

Hi new to this site so forgive me if this is wrong, i was looking at this
http://www.clikpic.com/index.cfm?section=index
any thoughts good or bad, seems easy to use and relatively cheap
Thanks

There's a couple of threads about Clikpic around, I'm pretty sure a search would reveal some of them.
That said, some people here said they liked it, from what I can recall.
 
The problem with this thread is nothing seems to get onto the first post without your approval so what's the point in suggesting additions?

I think I'm going to create my own thread...
 
The problem with this thread is nothing seems to get onto the first post without your approval so what's the point in suggesting additions?

I think I'm going to create my own thread...

The point of this thread is to give people who're looking into getting a website for photography or just a personal site a few pointers, it, apparently, doesn't aim to be a complete guide how to do it, just like it's not a complete list of all the systems you can find and use.
 
I'll add a site for sharing if that's OK, its deviantART and will host any kind of photography up to fetish & nude etc. Large international community of togs and other artists, and some very very talented individuals there too.
 
Thats an obvious one Mr.OP

Eh? Someone's going to have to tell me what OP means lol Because unless that means 'observation post' I'm lost.
 
I'm not sure I understand why it wouldn't, but that's your call. I've never had a problem. The only thing I wouldn't do is use it to sell prints.
 
im a web designer and i have all my domains with krystal hosting.. they charge £6.99 for 2 years.. and its not much more to renew after that...

If you looking at good hosting... i always use this company its around $7.99 a month which is only £3 odd for unlimited space and always excellent support...
 
I know a good webdesigner...try googling webcentrix - no clue about any of the other bits though. I'm still trying to find any reference to good canvas printer (as in computer printer to do it myself on these forums!) Must not get sidetracked any more...
 
I know a good webdesigner...try googling webcentrix - no clue about any of the other bits though. I'm still trying to find any reference to good canvas printer (as in computer printer to do it myself on these forums!) Must not get sidetracked any more...

spam.
 
Thanks for the links Slapo, which one is better, Smugmug or Zenfolio ?
 
Anyone know which one is better, Zenfolio or Smugmug ?
 
Over the last few days I've just been redesigning my website using Pixelpost and found it almost a joy to use. One of my problems was cross-browser compatibility, what looked good in Firefox, wasn't too good in IE.

My son came up with a couple of very useful free addons that solved all my problems and have the ability to do so much more.

A Firefox addon .... Firebug (go to tools/addons and add it)
And for IE ............. IE Developer Toolbar (go to tools/manage add-ons/find more add-ons)

If looking at modifying templates, they help with identifying what does what and where to adjust for desires results .... INVALUABLE


HTH
 
inspect element on the right click in chrome also does a similar job
 
If you are struggling with cross browser compatibility, have you considdered using 2 stylesheets? its called conditional CSS

example:
<link href="css/style.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> ***** loads the standard style sheet ****
<!--[if IE 7]> **** If IE7 do the following *****
<LINK HREF="css/styleIE.css" REL="stylesheet" TYPE="text/css" /> ***** load the IE stylesheet *****
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/styleIE7.css" /> ***** load the IE7 style sheet too *****
<![endif]-->
<!--[if lt IE 7]> ***** in the instance the browser is Less Than IE7 (IE6 for example) ******
<LINK HREF="css/styleIE56.css" REL="stylesheet" TYPE="text/css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/styleIE56.css" /> **** load the stylesheet aimed at IE 5 and 6 *****
<![endif]-->
 
I'd give pixelpost a thumbs up. I was planning on using wordpress for my site but thought I'd give pixelpost a go and found it very easy to set up and customize.
 
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