Photography Website.

[Scott™]

Looking to put some of my pictures into a website or maybe a blog.

Somewhere really other than flickr, here or facebook. Does anyone have any knowledge in this field? I have no idea how to create one, and I'm not that technically minded when it comes to codes etc so a nice easy step by step site would be great.

Just want some thing to start showing my work off a bit.

Any help at all is appreciated.

Scott

 

[TOGUSA]

deviant art can be a good place to start, you can build your own website on it and if you pay a fee you can remove all the advertising, but even then the advertising is not extensive

 

[Scott™]

Okay thanks for the heads up. I will give them a shout tomorrow.

 

[Gavin.]

i just signed up to 500px, seems pretty good!

 

[Scott™]

i just signed up to 500px, seems pretty good!

That's not a place I can have my own web address though is it?

 

[Gavin.]

Ah! Apologies, I only read the thread title. iFail

 

[Scott™]

No probs

 

[Luke.]

with 500px you can have your own link to your profile.

http://500px.com/ljbridgeman

is mine and it works quite well. that way everyone can see your photos and its free

 

[Scott™]

Yea I appreciate that its a good site etc but I'm looking at a completely customised site with my own domain name so I can advertise.

 

[Sam]

Surely the easiest way is to use a blog if you dont know what your really doing.

You can get a good blog like wordpress at http://www.wordpress.com and then you can set up your own domain to it and then it will be your own website.

There are 100's of different themes and you can also edit them to customise it to your specifications. You can also create your own if you know what your doing. There is loads of pluggins including photo managament and google analytics to help you manage your site and view your users.

Really good in my opinion for what it is.

Sam!

 

[Scott™]

Cheers Sam. I will also have a gander at them.

 

[Mr Pants]

Wordpress is the best option mate. Easy to use CMS that helps if you don't understand how websites are put together.

 

[Andy.]

Coincidentally, I got a renewal letter for my domain this morning. 1 year on and I have put zero public content on it. This thread has given me some motivation to get my arse into gear.
The wordpress templates work well, as do the lightroom web galleries, although you have to create a font end to link to them.

There is loads of free stuff to help build sites, and most hosts have easy installation options for wordpress etc so you don't have to be that savvy with creating sites. This place has more than a few experts who are ready to lend a hand with simple niggles too. Look forward to seeing the site.

 

[SharkyUK]

Scott,

I'm with 123-reg.co.uk and have had several good years with them. You can buy a domain (e.g. scotts-piccys.co.uk) and a hosting package with them at the same time for literally a few quid a month (cost depends on what features you want). They have a system in place that hand-holds you through the creation of a basic website. Once you've got your domain and web space up and running you could always install a blog, gallery software, etc. and there are some good free ones about.

To give you an idea... clicky here and here. Of course there are other providers who offer similar packages.

Cheers.

 

[The Ironist]

A lot of people use blogger/tumblr with their own domain name.

 

[MattT]

Easiest way that gives you a lot of freedom is set up a flavors.me account.
It pulls content from loads of social sites (your twitter, facebook etc) and will load blog content too should you want to start a blog (tumblr, wordpress, blogger etc).
But it also loads photos from flickr too - so you upload to flickr and right away your flavors.me site is updated. There's loads of themes, fonts, etc - a lot of creative freedom to get it looking how you want etc.

flavors.me is free or you can pay a little extra to get a custom domain too. It's worth doing - I went premium on mine.
Give us a shout if you want a hand setting up!

 

[Addicted]

Wordpress, without a doubt, but get your own hosting and set it up yourself!
This way you get access to all the plugins and themes you want (i suggest you make your own)

I'm currently producing a portfolio for web development / programming / 3d modelling and have build a wordpress theme from scratch to cater exact to my needs - if you want a link to it to see the possibilities, PM me, i won't be putting it on here (for definite at least until it's done)

It's a very versatile CMS, you can customize it EXACTLY to your specification

and p.s., if you are getting a domain name, get it from http://www.namecheap.com - by far the cheapest & best place out there - free whoisguard for every domain also!

 

[DanFreemanPhoto]

Hey Scott,

I saw this post a few days ago, but now I can reply properly.

As mentioned before, Wordpress is a very powerful tool, particularly if you are new to it (which I still am!)

Find a nice theme, some are free, the better ones are about $30 or so. Then change the theme to fit you, most have options to help you do this. Then upload your photos.....done!

It's easy to change, you can access your wordpress admin panel from any PC with internet.

Get a domain name, get a hosting package (make sure it can handle an SQL database which is vital for WP!), upload WP then have a play!

 

[Cup_Phil]

Lots and lots of bad advice on here!!

Wordpress is a nightmare to use as a gallery - trust me - I write plugins for it just to make it useable

Sign up on 500px.com then get a pro account ($50 for a whole year). You can then have a fully custom domain name of your own, you can choose from a load of skins - it hosts all your images and gives you a blog

It's awesome and involves no technical knowledge at all

 

[DanFreemanPhoto]

^Can't say I agree with that.

I find WP easy to use as a gallery, yes there are limitations, but it's very easy to upload/label etc.

Perhaps I'm biased as I find it perfect for what I need to do.

500px is indeed great though, I use the free version.

The only issue I would have with that is you don't have the uniqueness of your own website, being part of the 500px community. To me, having your own website is much better.

 

[The Ironist]

Wordpress, without a doubt, but get your own hosting and set it up yourself!
This way you get access to all the plugins and themes you want (i suggest you make your own)

I'm currently producing a portfolio for web development / programming / 3d modelling and have build a wordpress theme from scratch to cater exact to my needs - if you want a link to it to see the possibilities, PM me, i won't be putting it on here (for definite at least until it's done)

It's a very versatile CMS, you can customize it EXACTLY to your specification

and p.s., if you are getting a domain name, get it from http://www.namecheap.com - by far the cheapest & best place out there - free whoisguard for every domain also!

Do you have referral links I'm about to sign up?

Noob:
What is WhoisGuard and do I want it more than the free year £1.80/year?
What is PositiveSSL and do I want it for £1.24/year?

 

[The Ironist]

Doesn't matter.

 

[Cup_Phil]

^Can't say I agree with that.

I find WP easy to use as a gallery, yes there are limitations, but it's very easy to upload/label etc.

Perhaps I'm biased as I find it perfect for what I need to do.

500px is indeed great though, I use the free version.

The only issue I would have with that is you don't have the uniqueness of your own website, being part of the 500px community. To me, having your own website is much better.

It works well for photography like yours - 4 or 5 very nice shots and a bit of a blog post

Not so nice if you go to the nurburgring and come back with 200 photos you want to host somewhere
Though saying that 500px wouldn't be ideal for that either BLEH

There's a whole in the market for a decent photo-blog-gallery style program.
I tried to start writing one with a mate of mine who's on the wordpress UI team - but we never found the time to finish it off

 

[DanFreemanPhoto]

Ah ok, I see what you're saying.

I depends if you want a portfolio or a gallery, two very different things imo

 

[Sam]

Do you have referral links I'm about to sign up?

Noob:
What is WhoisGuard and do I want it more than the free year £1.80/year?
What is PositiveSSL and do I want it for £1.24/year?

Just incase you where wondering, WhoIsGuard is what mask and protect all your details from people trying to see it and gives you an proxy email address.

PositiveSSL is used for secure wed certificates for is you need to make a secure connection to a server or what not.

Sam!

 

[The Ironist]

Just incase you where wondering, WhoIsGuard is what mask and protect all your details from people trying to see it and gives you an proxy email address.

PositiveSSL is used for secure wed certificates for is you need to make a secure connection to a server or what not.

Sam!

Found them but thanks

 

[Addicted]

Do you have referral links I'm about to sign up?

Noob:
What is WhoisGuard and do I want it more than the free year £1.80/year?
What is PositiveSSL and do I want it for £1.24/year?

Nope no referral link i'm afraid, at least i don't think i have one anyway!
WhoisGuard is a useful tool, it's purely up to you whether you think it's needed or not though - for example on http://whois.domaintools.com/ you can find out who owns any domain, containing name, address, phone number etc!

 

[Addicted]

i hate double post.

 

[Scott™]

So I decided to use 500px.com after all that. It's only a temporary measure whilst a friend of mine has agreed to build me a proper site. Please let me know what you think but I must stress I am massivly limited to the design and lay out. Please also realise that it is not finished and I have my bio info to add plus a few other galleries.

www.CSThomasPhotography.com

Scott

 

[DanFreemanPhoto]

Great start! Nice and simple, look forward to the proper one

 

[Scott™]

Cheers Dan. It should do the job. I love how 500px keeps the quality of the image. Some fantastic images on there.