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Author Topic: One's Own Photographic Site  (Read 9190 times)

Ray

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One's Own Photographic Site
« on: July 01, 2012, 04:17:23 am »

I'm trying to find a sensible photographic website template, or design, so I can display my own images with options for purchasing prints made by me, and also options for me to make ascerbic comments on various issues.

I'm not getting much success doing a search on Google. What's on offer seems very much attuned to the very popular market of wedding images and 'cool' images etc. with all sorts of irrelevant options for me.

Do I really have to start from scratch and employ my own computer programmer, at great expense, or is there already available an affordable, flexible template for sensible and serious photographers?

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
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Rob C

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Re: One's Own Photographic Site
« Reply #1 on: July 01, 2012, 04:49:10 am »

Ray, are you in danger of losing your artistic virginity?

Rob C

dchew

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Re: One's Own Photographic Site
« Reply #2 on: July 01, 2012, 06:05:29 am »

Ray,
If you use Lightroom, theturninggate/ has some very flexible templates that include options for shopping carts, etc.

Dave
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Rajan Parrikar

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Re: One's Own Photographic Site
« Reply #3 on: July 01, 2012, 06:06:32 am »

The Wordpress platform is robust. I use the ProPhotoBlogs theme which is highly customizable and will allow you to design the look and layout per your taste -

http://www.prophotoblogs.com/

Ray

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Re: One's Own Photographic Site
« Reply #4 on: July 01, 2012, 06:20:47 am »

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll check them out.
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budjames

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Re: One's Own Photographic Site
« Reply #5 on: July 01, 2012, 07:30:29 am »

I host my photo web site on Zenfolio.com. The price is reasonable, they have nice templates and they handle the fulfillment for print orders.

You can check my site out at www.budjamesphotography.com.

Cheers.
Bud
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JohnBrew

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Re: One's Own Photographic Site
« Reply #6 on: July 01, 2012, 08:18:43 am »

Another vote for Zenfolio.

Craig Arnold

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Re: One's Own Photographic Site
« Reply #7 on: July 01, 2012, 08:48:13 am »

Any basic host that supports Wordpress then look for some good themes.

Graph Paper Press does some very good ones for reasonable prices.

I use them for my website.
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Walt Roycraft

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Re: One's Own Photographic Site
« Reply #8 on: July 01, 2012, 09:01:27 am »

Wordpress/Prophoto Template

www.roycraftart.com
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PeterAit

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Re: One's Own Photographic Site
« Reply #9 on: July 01, 2012, 04:57:41 pm »

LR itself can make a wide variety of albums for the web. You can find scads of out-of-work web designers on Guru.com who can design the support pages for a very reasonable cost.
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Wayne Fox

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Re: One's Own Photographic Site
« Reply #10 on: July 02, 2012, 12:12:55 am »

I"ve tried several, including LR/turning gate self hosted, wordpress blog, PHotoShelter and smugmug.

I'm now with Zenfolio and I also highly recommend it.  I like how my template looks, the commerce part is flexible enough, and I also like how if you self fulfill they don't take a cut.  this was the main drawback with smugmug and Photoshelter ... they wanted a pretty hefty percentage for anything I sold that I wanted to print myself .  the problem I had is the percentage is out of line considering what I"m selling is full retail vs. the percentage they expect for many customers which is a fraction of what I'm collecting.

You can see my results if you want by clicking the link in my sig.  (my blog is wordpress based and does link out of zenfolio to a separate self hosted site, but Zenfolio recently introducing blogging options, which is probably enough for many who like to post occasional things.
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Ray

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Re: One's Own Photographic Site
« Reply #11 on: July 02, 2012, 01:27:40 am »

Ray, are you in danger of losing your artistic virginity?

Rob C

Yes, I'm afraid so. I have a professional printer and I have already sold a few images to friends and neighbours, and even to the Brisbane City Council in Australia, but I'm very undecided about the entire issue of a web presence and any obligation to produce prints on demand.

How would it sound if I were to state at the top of my website, something like, "Here are my print costs for various sizes, but bear in mind there may be considerable delays in your order being fulfilled, should I happen to be trekking in Nepal"?

I take some pride in getting my prints just right, as I like them. I wouldn't want to hand over that task to someonme else, as HCB did.

It's a problem I've been struggling with for a while.
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Robert-Peter Westphal

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Re: One's Own Photographic Site
« Reply #12 on: July 02, 2012, 03:03:37 am »

Hi,

I would highly recommend to go with SmugMug.

It is a galleriy which allows you to start very quickly with good results, and if you want to dive deeper into it, you can use Java or CSS to finetune everything.

But, the most important reason for me to use it, was that there is a published service available for Lr which "thinks for me". When updatuing a picture which was published years agom, it remndas me directly to rebublish it to the recent version. Furthermore, I can import all comments into Lr and have one tool to see everything around it.

Pretty nice !

Robert
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'visit my completly renewed gallery at http://www.naturfotografie-westphal.com '

Ray

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Re: One's Own Photographic Site
« Reply #13 on: July 03, 2012, 10:41:01 pm »

Thank you all for your suggestions. When I typed Zenfolio into Google, I got the following Australian website which is advertising itself as better value than Zenfolio.

I'll probably go with Photomerchant, because I'm so patriotic (Joke). However, I'm still undecided about the whole concept of getting involved in selling my own printed photos. Should I be bothered or concerned about such issues at this stage of my life?

Which would I rather do, spend 3 months printing out photos to fulfil international orders, or spend 3 months trekking in the most marvelous and exotic locations on earth?

Maybe I'll have to let Photomerchant do my printing, which would be a shame because I do pride myself on producing a realistic print that matches the emotion of the scene.

http://pro.photomerchant.net/l/zenfolio-photomerchant-AU?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=%2Bzenfolio%20%2Bphotographers&utm_campaign=AU-SE-Zenfolio-A&pm_kmatch=Phrase&pm_src=web&pm_ad=Adwords_AU-SE-Zenfolio-A_ZenfolioPM_%2Bzenfolio%20%2Bphotographers&pm_site=&pm_adgr=ZenfolioPM&gclid=CPux9sX5_rACFWaXpgody01VQA
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LesPalenik

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Re: One's Own Photographic Site
« Reply #14 on: July 03, 2012, 11:11:46 pm »

Ray,

The Australian site looks ideal for local interest prints. American-based sites may be better for serving US buyers. You could try one or other, and if things go well, most probably it would be best to have presence on both continents.

Have you looked at finartamerica.com?
I think, this one is optimized for selling prints, rather than coffee mugs and T-shirts, and they will do the professional fullfilment for you.
They have a free small version that you could try out (I think up to 25 images).  Here is an example of one successful site:

http://elena-elisseeva.artistwebsites.com/ (powered by Finearartamerica.com)

Les

« Last Edit: July 03, 2012, 11:22:21 pm by LesPalenik »
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Ray

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Re: One's Own Photographic Site
« Reply #15 on: July 03, 2012, 11:35:01 pm »

Ray,

The Australian site looks ideal for local interest prints. American-based sites may be better for serving US buyers. You could try one or other, and if things go well, most probably it would be best to have presence on both continents.

Have you looked at finartamerica.com?
I think, this one is optimized for selling prints, rather than coffee mugs and T-shirts, and they will do the professional fullfilment for you.
They have a free small version that you could try out (I think up to 25 images).  Here is an example of one successful site:

http://elena-elisseeva.artistwebsites.com/ (powered by Finearartamerica.com)

Les



Les, you have created a bias in my outlook by showing me a website with a beautiful picture of Elena Elisseeva holding a camera to her eye. That's very alluring and a great advertisement for the site. But I'm not sure I should be seduced by it  ;) .
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LesPalenik

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Re: One's Own Photographic Site
« Reply #16 on: July 03, 2012, 11:43:16 pm »

Just trying to help. I thought, I'd better switch from parrots to pictures of pretty girls.

Let us know what you decide and how it works for you.

Les
« Last Edit: July 03, 2012, 11:53:47 pm by LesPalenik »
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Ray

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Re: One's Own Photographic Site
« Reply #17 on: July 04, 2012, 12:48:59 am »

Just trying to help. I thought, I'd better switch from parrots to pictures of pretty girls.

Let us know what you decide and how it works for you.

Les


Okay! I shall. You might be interested in genuinely unmanipulated images of Tibetan refugee camps in the early 1960's. (Although I'm not sure I should mention this in case China refuses me a visa should I decide to visit their country.)
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LesPalenik

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Re: One's Own Photographic Site
« Reply #18 on: July 06, 2012, 06:25:27 pm »

Ray,

a few days ago, I registered my ArtistWebsites / FineartAmerica account, and uploaded about 100 images.
It's simple and straight-forward setup, however it seems that this community caters to more painters than photographers (both artists and buyers).
To satisfy your requirements, they have also provision for image specific comments (acerbic or others), but hardly as many comment readers/posters as in this establishment.

In general, I'm happy with the website, but I use also other sites/venues for different collections of images.
A useful feature at this website, when you log on, is a display of recent sales on the site, so it's interesting and sometimes inspirational to see what other artists are creating and selling.

If you want to try it (free for small collections, or $30 per year for unlimited galleries), here is my referral link:


My initial gallery:
http://www.les-palenik.artistwebsites.com/
« Last Edit: July 06, 2012, 07:25:40 pm by LesPalenik »
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Ray

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Re: One's Own Photographic Site
« Reply #19 on: July 06, 2012, 10:54:37 pm »

Congratulations on your new website, Les. It looks good. I particularly like that facility to display 100% crops from any selected part of a preview image. The customer can then get a better idea of the resolution or sharpness of the image and what size print it might be good for.

I haven't noticed such a facility on other photographic sites. I wonder how prevalent this feature is.

$30 a year for unlimited uploads seems fantastic.

However, I think I have a lot of organizing to do before I'm ready for this. I haven't even got my own URL address yet. I recently bought a couple of the new 2TB WD Passport USB 3.0 external hard drives, hoping I can fit all my images, well-organised under appropriate headings, onto one 2TB drive.

I then have the problem of selecting for display what I imagine might have a more universal appeal than any personal favourites. It's a huge task. I never realised I'd be so busy in my retirement. I need another lifetime to finish this project.  ;D
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