Luminous Landscape Forum

Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Adobe Lightroom Q&A => Topic started by: msmile032 on May 17, 2018, 03:27:15 am

Title: Gallery Hosting Service ?
Post by: msmile032 on May 17, 2018, 03:27:15 am
Admittedly, I am coming out from under a flat rock on this issue. But I have to start some where. Currently I am developing web galleries in the Lightroom 5 Web Module & sharing them with friends via the public folder in my Dropbox account.
However, I am starting to see the advantage of putting together a website containing several web galleries. Unfortunately, I am unfamiliar with any of the online hosting services.
For those of you who have established your own website of image galleries, I would appreciate a few recommendations regarding hosting services.
Thank you kindly.
Title: Re: Gallery Hosting Service ?
Post by: Frodo on May 17, 2018, 04:56:15 am
I've been through Photobucket, Picasaweb, Google Photos, and Irista.  I am currently with Flickr, but will be leaving soon.

I am setting up a website using Squarespace and one of the objectives is to host my photos, including galleries.

My experience with the on-line options I mentioned, is that they don't remain constant.  They can be bought out by others or unilaterally change conditions of use.  I'm tired of having album links that no longer work.  And the free services poke in unsolicited and sometimes inappropriate advertisements.  Sure they have to get their money from somewhere but I don't mind paying.  But I'm not convinced that the "pro" Flickr users are any better off than the rest.

So I'm going my own way.  Would love to hear from Squarespace users who use this for webalbums to send links to clients or friends.
Title: Re: Gallery Hosting Service ?
Post by: John Caldwell on May 17, 2018, 08:54:08 am
...Currently I am developing web galleries in the Lightroom 5 Web Module & sharing them with friends via the public folder in my Dropbox account.

I had enjoyed using the DropBox Public folder for years to host Galleries produced in LR, but several months ago DropBox made changes in the way the Public Folder functions that ended my ability to share Web Galleries in that folder in the way that I had previously shared them. At the risk of being rude and not helping with your question, may I ask how it is that you now share galleries from the DB Public Folder? Would you mind post a link to one of your galleries, perhaps?

Many thanks,

John Caldwell
Title: Re: Gallery Hosting Service ?
Post by: rtlonghitano on May 17, 2018, 09:15:47 am
Another option is PhotoShelter. You can store you images and create a website.  It's a pretty robust and you have total control. I would never use those so called free services.

https://www.photoshelter.com/ (https://www.photoshelter.com/)
Title: Re: Gallery Hosting Service ?
Post by: rdonson on May 17, 2018, 10:13:01 am
I've been happy with SmugMug for many years.
Title: Re: Gallery Hosting Service ?
Post by: John Caldwell on May 17, 2018, 11:28:10 am
But is it not true that PhotoShelter and Smugmug are not being used to host Web Galleries generated in LR? You are using their templates and layouts, if I'm correct.
Title: Re: Gallery Hosting Service ?
Post by: jrsforums on May 17, 2018, 11:35:39 am
But is it not true that PhotoShelter and Smugmug are not being used to host Web Galleries generated in LR? You are using their templates and layouts, if I'm correct.

Yes, that’s true, but I think that is an advantage.  Once you set up the way you like, you just need to send jpegs.

I use Zenfolio because it allowed me the setup/look I wanted.  At the time, Smugmug did not have the capability I wanted (not sure now)

I believe Smugmug and Zenfolio have similar, reasonable pricing.

Jeffrey Friedl has plugins for Smugmug and Zenfolio. http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies
Title: Re: Gallery Hosting Service ?
Post by: Wayne Fox on May 17, 2018, 12:25:33 pm
Certainly depends on what you needs and expectations are.  Are you just wanting to host a place for people to see photographs?  If you use Lightroom and PS and part of the CC, thats all available and offers a some nice options.

If you want a shopping cart attached, then other questions go along with that.  Do you want a service that also fulfills any orders and just sends you money?  Do you want full control of that without their involvement other than allowing them to get to your chosen pay services?

I've tried several, and for quite a while used Zenfolio.  They changed their pricing structure for online sales which didn't suit my business model, and gave them too much of a commission for doing nothing other than hosting a gallery for me and allowing customers to pay me directly through PayPal.  I self fulfillment and never once did their "marketing" develop me a lead.  So not sure why they should get 15% of a $4000 sale.  However, for a wedding photographer or other types of shooters it's a nice solution because they can take care of everything from taking orders to delivering the goods.

I switched to PhotoDeck, and while the tools aren't quite as robust, it was actually easier to build price lists and incorporate them into the site.
Title: Re: Gallery Hosting Service ?
Post by: rdonson on May 17, 2018, 04:50:44 pm
But is it not true that PhotoShelter and Smugmug are not being used to host Web Galleries generated in LR? You are using their templates and layouts, if I'm correct.

SmugMug is very flexible and if you want to you can create any layout you'd like.  I don't find their options limiting and have avoided writing any code..

One of the beauties is the amount of control I have.  They have a wide spectrum of things that customers can order from PRINT and I can set the pricing with my Pro account.  The selected print shops are good and you don't have to turn it on in galleries you don't want to.  That way you can source your prints yourself if you'd like. 

You can use the Lr Publish service to upload to your galleries if you'd like.   
Title: Re: Gallery Hosting Service ?
Post by: john beardsworth on May 17, 2018, 05:01:45 pm
Certainly depends on what you needs and expectations are.  Are you just wanting to host a place for people to see photographs?  If you use Lightroom and PS and part of the CC, thats all available and offers a some nice options.

I assume Wayne is referring to Portfolio (https://www.myportfolio.com/), which you get on top of the latest versions of LR/PS. The subscription also includes  a couple of other web galleries - LR Web for sharing sets of photos, and Spark (https://spark.adobe.com/) which is more for story-style web presentations.
Title: Re: Gallery Hosting Service ?
Post by: Wayne Fox on May 17, 2018, 10:58:58 pm
thanks John. I've seen some nice galleries from photographer friends that have used the tools from Adobe, but I've never done it so I wasn't familiar with what programs are actually used.
Title: Re: Gallery Hosting Service ?
Post by: mcbroomf on May 23, 2018, 06:04:27 pm
I create galleries in Google Photo (free with any gmail account) but then use an Adobe Portfolio website (free with a Photo CC subscription) to create a front page with links from large thumbnails to those galleries.  All free and little work once you figure out Portfolio.  No way to create text in Google Photo though, and not a portal for selling.
Title: Re: Gallery Hosting Service ?
Post by: HSakols on May 04, 2020, 09:35:58 am
If you just need a host for your LR galleries, there's plenty to choose from.  I purchased a lifetime membership for $150.00 about 15 years ago.  https://asmallorange.com
Title: Re: Gallery Hosting Service ?
Post by: stevehayes on August 26, 2020, 02:43:23 pm
I also used Flickr for a long time to be honest. However i was disappointed by it pretty quickly. Before that i also had to use Irista, which proved to be really great, also i liked Picasaweb actually. Recently i haven't been using any of them as i just do not need them. So i cannot tell anything really constructive on this subject right now. However my friend told me that he actually found a certain web hosting company which provide any kind of hosting services. He found them on https://fortunelords.com/website-builder/ (https://fortunelords.com/website-builder/)and told me that the guys are actually really great. Did you guys use their services?
Title: Re: Gallery Hosting Service ?
Post by: JeanMichel on August 27, 2020, 10:44:21 am
Check out Zenfolio. It is not for everyone, and cost something like Can$350 per year. I have used it successfully for some years now, but i also have hired a developer to build a new site and hosting it somewhere else.
Title: Re: Gallery Hosting Service ?
Post by: Jeffrey Saldinger on August 29, 2020, 09:51:47 pm
https://icompendium.com

I have used them for eleven years, very happy, terrific and terrifically responsive customer service.