Dreamweaver and Photoshop for the main layout/design (slices in Photoshop are your friend when it comes to graphics and the general layout of the site). Dreamweaver for putting it together. I use FileZilla for my FTP client.
Dear Bhorst, I think the key words in your post are "make it much better". Please accept the suggestion to spend a good amount of time researching and defining what "much better" means. And consider what "better" means from two different perspectives, the viewer of your photos and your own.
Do you want to spend more time building and maintain a web site and less time on photography? Is that better for you? Then build your own site and use Flash. If not, then use a service like Zenfolio, Smugmug, Pbase, Flickr.
Do you want your viewers to have fast access to your images, with the ability to scan thumbnails quickly, choose the ones they wish to see, and view them in different sizes according to the size of their monitor? Then use Smugmug.
Do you want your viewers to be held captive in a slide show experience, forced to view all your images in sequence, at a slower pace that you deem appropriate? Then build your own with Flash.
Do you want your viewers to marvel at your creativity in web site design? Do you want to challenge them to discover new and confusing ways to navigate? Then build your own with Flash. Or do you want your viewers to focus on your images and your photography skills? If the latter, then use a standard, tried and true interface from one of the service providers.
You may detect an anti-Flash bias in my post. It's true. I've yet to see a Flash site that is "better" for me, a viewer who wants to scan thousands of images quickly and simply, and dwell on the ones I find interesting.
I offer some examples:
Here is Flash to the extreme: http://www.qstra.pl/ Have fun playing the "chase the thumbnail" game. An excellent photographer, but I spend more time getting to the images than "getting" the images.
http://www.moonriverphotography.com/ Is my one of the owners of Smugmug. So it shows off many of the available features of Smugmug. Here you can have your cake and eat it too. Some galleries are forced fed slide shows. Some are traditional thumbnail driven.
Actually, Andy isn't an owner, just one of the most visible & active employees (at leas that's my understanding). His site is an excellent example; there is a list on the help pages somewhere of others, too.
I use Smugmug, and have spent time learning how to customize it. However, it takes me a lot of time to just figure out everything. I have in my mind what I want it to look like, but it is taking me forever to get there. Are there people/businesses who will set up your site for you? I wish to continue to use Smugmug, so I am not interested in starting another site, just finding someone who specializes in Smugmug and can set it up for a fee. I have searched the internet, but can only find people who will do it using their site/business.
Exposure Manager, you can link to my site below. I modified some one of the basic thumbnail templates to a very large size. Jury still out on that but regardless, you can look at samples on www.exposuremanager.com
