I decided to write a little bit about displaying pictures online, I spend alot of time online-talking to family back home, so when I started taking pictures it seemed like a good idea to put my pictures in a gallery on the internet so I could easily show my family the pictures I had been taking.
I first found Photobucket which a free image hosting site, I didn’t like the layout of the website and I found that the image quality was degraded so in switched over to Flikr Flikr is Photobucket’s competition, the idea’s behind the two sights are fairly similar, you can make multiple galleries to hold different sets of pictures. With Flikr you can upload 100MB of photo’s every month or you can pay $25 a year which gives you the Flikr Pro account and allows you to have an unlimited amount of pictures on your Flikr site. With Flikr there are many discussion groups, these groups have places to display your pictures and a place to ask suggestions and join in on conversations. I found a great group that helps you learn about Photoshop Elements, a group that is specifically for Canon users, there are specific lens groups (I refer to these when I am thinking about buying a new lens) there are groups for different locations and there are cute cat/dog/etc groups. When I first joined Flikr I had a point and shoot Canon S3IS and I learnt to use it by reading the manual and referring to Flikr groups. Although now I have my own website I will post pictures to Flikr when I want to keep the picture separate from my website. There are other image hosts like Flikr and Photobucket out there, but it seems they are the top two favorites.
Deviant Art is a site I have never tried, I have browsed image galleries on the website and often found it confusing. but maybe I find it confusing because I have never given it a chance. Deviant Art seems to have lots of things to offer, including ways to specifically request critiques or comments on your pictures. Deviant Art has premium print account which allows you to sell your photographs, this costs $25.00.
If you are looking for some where you can display your pictures and have a professional looking website there are a lot of options. Zenfolio, Smugmug seem to be the top two choices for amateur photographers who are looking to make sales on prints. Both sights have annual fees which have multiple tiers allowing you to select the features you want. I chose Zenfolio after doing a free trial on both sights. Why you choose either site is up to you,one of the reasons I picked Zenfolio was that they use mpix.com as there printers, and I really like the prints that they produce. With both sights you can add your own domain name. ( a domain name is your personal web address e.g rachelbaine.com-it costs about $8.00 a year to own one) I think adding a domain name and being able to take away the zenfolio /smugmug branding makes the sight look more professional.
If you are looking to sell your pictures or you want them to be found on Google, Bing or other search engine you have to ‘tag’ your pictures a tag is a word or multiple words that are associated with the image, so if you had a picture of the Eiffel Tower and you wanted people to find it using a search engine you might tag it with: France, Architecture, Eiffel Tower, French, Summer, Vacation, Building, Abroad, etc….
I used Zenfolio on its own for a while and then I decided I wanted something a little bit more fancy, so I taught my self (and I still have no idea what I am doing) some basic web design. If you build your own website you have to have a web host, there are lots of web hosts; Bludomain, GoDaddy, Host Gator. Host Gator is the host I use, you have to pay a monthly fee and you can then make different web pages, either by using pre-made layouts that they provide or by writing your own code and uploading the pages to the web host. I made mine by using a free template that I found online, and I then altered the code to suit my needs. Making a web site did not come easily to me, I tried several different layouts before I came up with the one I have now-and even that is not “technically correct” but I am not giving up on it, I am contently trying to fix it and make it better. Currently my site is linked in with Zenfolio so that my galleries can be accessed from my website and my website can be accessed from Zenfolio. The Part I made and the part that is Zenfolio The way the pages look don’t quite match up, but they are as close as I can get them.
There are other options for websites, you can pay someone to make you a website, they will ensure the code is correct, and you will be found in the search engines, The quotes I had been getting were $500 and upwards-that’s why i took on the task of building my own. Another way to get a professional website is to look through photography magazines such as Rangefinder or Professional Photographer- these often have big advertisements for places that will provide a website, offer online proofing and print ordering.
Something you should remember when uploading your photographs to the internet is that the internet has a lot of bad people on it, some of whom may try and steal your pictures, (some people don’t understand they should ask permission)Theft is is not completely stoppable, but you can reduce the risk of tit happening to you by putting a logo or your name on your picture, don’t upload large files to sights like Flikr and Photobucket.If you are putting a picture in a gallery to sell then you may not be able to upload a small size or a have your logo on your picture, if this is the case check to see if your gallery sight has the option for a watermark to be added, Zenfolio does (I really need to turn on that feature) that way when some one views the picture they see the logo or copyright symbol and are deterred from trying to steal the picture.
So I hope this helps someone or anyone…… and I hope it makes some sense! if you have a question I will try and answer it to the best I can.
