Hey guys, I am finally selling off a business I have owned for 25 years and am fortunate not to have to reply on photography for income.
But I am planning to devote myself full time to finally learning more about photography and shooting much more of course.
I need a website to display some images, Perhaps 5 categories, maybe 50 - 100 images maximum.
I need this to give to potential clients and models as well as to help define what I am doing and to give me more motivation to shoot for the website and my portfolio.
I shoot mostly black and white and want something very clean, professional and clear.
Any leads on template sites or other solutions are very appreciated.
Your own domain?
Online sales?
High degree of customization?
Do you want to do it yourself? Do you have the skills to do it yourself?
These things will help narrow down the field.
Yes my own domain, no online sales, not really high level cutomization, and yes I would prefer if I can manage it myself.
I've spent a few hours using wix.com and one of the photography templates they have seems almost perfect. But while I am able to edit the template a bit and mess around with putting my own images into it, I am finding using the site and software very confusing and hard to nail down.
I can add a page and do various things but it's going to take someone to show me how to do this or I am just wasting time and knocking my head against the wall.
I've looked at all the sites that were suggested here and on the link and wix seems closest to what I need right now.
I don't have a huge body of work I want to put up on a site..maybe 5 categories with perhaps a total of 50-100 images maximum. I'll add to it and edit as I have more work.
I'm frustrated with wix.com, it's so close to being what i want and yet so far. I do want to be able to have total control and the ability to do any changes and updates myself. The design part of the site is very simple and straightforward.
Hm, right off the bat I would probably just do a Flickr slideshow. Upload your photos into 5 different sets (or collections) on your Flickr site, then create a flash portfolio.
You can create different slideshows for each set or collection and link to each of them very easily. The slideshow can be full screen for a dramatic effect or resized, or even put into its own CSS div for more customization.
All of this is free (there might be a fee for having a certain number of collections or sets over 3, but you may need to do some research on this).
There are also some affordable websites like ZenFolio and also SimpleViewer (free or paid version).
Do you want a site just to impress people you come in contact with or do you want a site to really market your business. A flash site looks good but will never be a site for marketing to clients doing internet searches. If you mix a flash and HTML site you could have both if done right. A basic HTML site with slideshows and other content would be best for marketing. I bid and got $700.00 of jobs today from people looking for photographers online. Also be careful how and where you host it if you plan to use it for marketing. You want a independent IP address and not a shared one. Not a issue if you are not marketing and only use the site to show clients you come in contact with yourself.