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DIY website development software - recommendations please.

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  • 27-04-2010 7:08pm
    #1
    Dinarius
    Registered Users Posts: 3,395 ✭✭✭


    I'm a photographer and I'd like to set up a small website.

    I'm thinking about going the DIY route. Am I nuts? :)

    I'm also conscious of the influence of the iPhone (other photographers have shown me slide shows on their iPhones) and (shortly) the iPad, so I'm keen to avoid Flash.

    Also, the results of this survey are interesting........

    http://www.photoshelter.com/mkt/photo-buyer-survey-2009

    Photoshelter is a big player in the world of photography marketing, so what they say can't be taken lightly.

    1. Any recommendations on DIY website software?

    2. Any advice on hosting?

    3. Any other advice?

    A few sites I like........

    http://www.eugeniofranchi.com/portfolio02.html

    http://www.thomasbroening.com/#/work/portfolio/1

    ....I'll add more tomorrow.

    D.


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    #2
    Liam Byrne
    Closed Accounts Posts: 18,163 ✭✭✭✭Liam Byrne


    Dinarius wrote: »
    I'm a photographer and I'd like to set up a small website.

    I'm thinking about going the DIY route. Am I nuts? :)

    I'm also conscious of the influence of the iPhone (other photographers have shown me slide shows on their iPhones) and (shortly) the iPad, so I'm keen to avoid Flash.

    Also, the results of this survey are interesting........

    http://www.photoshelter.com/mkt/photo-buyer-survey-2009

    Photoshelter is a big player in the world of photography marketing, so what they say can't be taken lightly.

    1. Any recommendations on DIY website software?

    2. Any advice on hosting?

    3. Any other advice?

    A few sites I like........

    http://www.eugeniofranchi.com/portfolio02.html

    http://www.thomasbroening.com/#/work/portfolio/1

    ....I'll add more tomorrow.

    D.

    The first of those is poor, tbh, right down to the "underline" used counter-intuitively when the menu option isn't a link.

    The second looks good, with good whitespace, but is done in Flash (despite there being no functionality within it that actually requires Flash.

    In both cases the "Loading..." messages should be unnecessary if the sites were coded better.

    Re the survey, it's unsurprising really, given the types of templates that they're offering. That said, I'm surprised that they didn't highlight that Flash cripples your SEO and also doesn't work on an iPhone.

    That said, while I test all my most recent sites on the iPhone and they work, I'd suspect that no-one is really going to seriously look at professional photography with a view to booking the photographer on the smallest available screen.

    If you're going DIY, best of luck with it; if not, drop me a PM as I specialise in photography websites.


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    #3
    Dinarius
    Registered Users Posts: 3,395 ✭✭✭Dinarius


    Thanks for the reply. I was in a hurry yesterday. Here's a more considered list of sites I like......

    The clean look of this one......

    http://www.simonburch.com/

    I like this for its Lightroom-like layout. i.e. image strip running along the bottom. I also like it because she's probably the best still-life photographer working today. Truly incredible work!

    http://www.sophiebroadbridge.com/

    This is a really nice site. Again, clean lined, no delays for the viewer and the image grid (which seems to be a characteristic of most sites now) that allows the viewer to watch a slide show (if there is one) or click on an image in the grid and look at it directly. The only criticism I'd have with this in mind is that I'd like the grid images to be a bit bigger.

    http://www.jkphotography.com/people/index.htm

    This is about as cool and breezy as a site can be, in my opinion. Add in a grid of images on the left (or right) and I'd have pretty much what I'm after, I think. The images load with blinding speed on my aging laptop - is this a Flash site?

    http://www.marloh.com/HTML/gallery/gallery0450.html

    And this is an example of what Photoshelter are on about. Lovely work, nice site, but over wrought and too ssssslooooooooowwwwwwwwwww......

    http://www.timothy-hogan.com/

    Food for thought.

    D.


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    #4
    CathalDublin
    Registered Users Posts: 4,146 ✭✭✭CathalDublin


    You might find Joomla interesting.
    If your using a macbook theres a very good application called freeway and there are tutorials on their website of how to use it


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    #5
    p
    Registered Users Posts: 2,119 ✭✭✭p


    Dinarius wrote: »
    I'm a photographer and I'd like to set up a small website.

    I'm thinking about going the DIY route. Am I nuts? :)
    I would use cargocollective.com - it's a really good way to get a nice portfolio online for Photographers and designers. It offers a decent amount of customization so you can experiment and teach yourself stuff too. If you need something highly custom down the line, you'll have a good grounding by using it first.


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    #6
    Liam Byrne
    Closed Accounts Posts: 18,163 ✭✭✭✭Liam Byrne


    Dinarius wrote: »
    http://www.simonburch.com/

    A nice look, but has no hope of being found in search engines due to the lack of any text content and the fact that it's in Flash.
    Dinarius wrote: »
    http://www.sophiebroadbridge.com/

    Would be a decent site if it wasn't done in Flash. Everything here could be more-or less done using a jQuery gallery, but it might need at least some expertise; again, no image captions or text to allow the site to show up in search engines.
    Dinarius wrote: »
    http://www.jkphotography.com/people/index.htm

    Agree with what you said about this one, although it loses impact by being so left-aligned. It's also done using frames, which is a really bad idea; it could easily be achieved without that outdated technology.

    It also seems to be set up in a way that would be difficult to update, with individual HTML pages for each image.
    Dinarius wrote: »
    http://www.marloh.com/HTML/gallery/gallery0450.html

    No, it's not Flash, and it's a good, simple design (although I would put the navigation at the top so that it's more accessible). The captions also help, although they could be slightly better to improve SEO.

    Again, this also appears to be set up in a way that would be difficult to update, with individual HTML pages for each image.
    Dinarius wrote: »
    http://www.timothy-hogan.com/

    WAY too slow, and I'd have shut it down while the percentage on-screen; god forbid anyone was on mobile broadband trying to view it.

    It's also extremely rude of a site to take over full-screen.

    What I find amazing is the number of these that have annoying splash screens which (a) have no useful purpose (b) are bypassed if the site is working properly within SEO - although this is irrelevant for the Flash sites anyway and (c) just annoy people.


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    #7
    Dinarius
    Registered Users Posts: 3,395 ✭✭✭Dinarius


    Thanks for the reply.

    Totally agree on the last one. It was a mistake on my part. I meant to included this link........

    http://www.jkphotography.com/business/index.htm

    Good point about search engines although, in Sophie Broadbridge's case, she doesn't need them - she's got agents! :)

    The Wolf Marloh look with the addition of a grid of images would be my ideal look.

    D.


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    #8
    Dinarius
    Registered Users Posts: 3,395 ✭✭✭Dinarius


    Been doing a lot of research since I last posted here.........found some interesting info.

    The school is out on HTML or Flash for web development it seems.

    A short piece on to Flash or not........

    http://aphotofolio.com/is-flash-still-the-best-language-to-build-websites/

    I posted a question on another site and received a few replies so far........

    http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=43998

    Finally, two design-your-own sites. Wix.com is very slick.

    http://aphotofolio.com/

    http://www.wix.com/

    D.


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    #9
    Liam Byrne
    Closed Accounts Posts: 18,163 ✭✭✭✭Liam Byrne


    Dinarius wrote: »
    Been doing a lot of research since I last posted here.........found some interesting info.

    The school is out on HTML or Flash for web development it seems.

    A short piece on to Flash or not........

    http://aphotofolio.com/is-flash-still-the-best-language-to-build-websites/

    That article is misleading, because it starts from an assumption that Flash was once the best "language" for website development; I would argue that it never was......great for applications and standalone games, etc, but not for websites.

    Also, the article has absolutely no mention of SEO or updateability, so the "requirements" that the author had are incomplete.

    Finally, the author has overlooked 2 additional key points.

    While claiming that HTML5 is unavailable to "old browsers", he hasn't spotted the parallel between old browsers and older versions of Flash.

    Also, the "scaling" that he mentions is further misleading, since images cannot scale upwards to the quality required for photography websites (they'll look pixelated and blurry); conversely, if you use the highest resolution and "trust" Flash to scale images down, then someone on a slow connection with an average screen will be waiting forever for the images to load, despite not even needing them.

    So basically, his entire article is only half the story; some key parts missing, and some other parts misrepresented.


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    #10
    fergalfrog
    Registered Users Posts: 352 ✭✭fergalfrog


    p wrote: »
    I would use cargocollective.com - it's a really good way to get a nice portfolio online for Photographers and designers....

    If you are going the diy route I would second this. A graphic designer I work with put her portfolio on there (www.eyedeer.net) and it has came out pretty well.

    Also I was able to set it up for her such that I host the domain but the website is hosted by cargo. This might not seem much but it would allow you to have email such as you@yourphotosite.com and other features without being reliant on cargo collective for everything. You could still have sub domains operating independently too if there was something you wanted but wasn't offered on cargo.


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