Setting up a website

Hubble · 11 Mar 2006, 21:39 (Ref:1543958)

Hi all

I am currently in the process of designing and setting up a website to display my images, and I would welcome any advice from those of you who have already done this.

In particular, I am interested in advice on the following:

Watermarking
Recommended image sizes, both file size and physical dimensions to use, as well as thumbnail and image display sizes
Resolution (dpi)
Expected costs for hosting etc.

I am completely new to this concept, so please be patient with me

Cheers

Phil

redshoes · 11 Mar 2006, 22:28 (Ref:1543977)

A lot of decisions come down to personal preference and what you want to with the site.

If you are bothered about people using your images elsewhere then definately consider watermarking. Not that that will always stop people. I've seen mine used on ebay and other race car sales sites, and recently saw flyers being handed out at a show with a very blatent watermark across the image - not mine in that instance but another forum member.

Thumbnails I use 120 x 90 pixels. Any smaller and it's not always obvious what the picture is of, any larger and filesize and page loading times become an issue. Main images I used to use 800 x 600 but recently switched to 600 x 450. Partly to save some disk space and partly because I'd redesigned the site layout and the smaller size worked better. If it's for viewing onscreen only then DPI is not really an issue.

Hosting costs depends on how much space you need and how much bandwidth you use. I'm paying £10 a month for 1.5Gb disc but you could go as low as £3 a month for 250Mb disc. Avoid anyone who seems overly cheap or offers unlimited space, they rarely have the bandwidth or technical support. A lot of providers are offering a free domain name, check that you own the domain as if not you could face problems if you move to another provider and want to take the name with you.

Pet hates:
Any form of java navigation
Thumbnails that open the main pic in a new window

Top tip:
Caption everything with a meaningful title. Looking through the logs on my site most hits come from search engines not looking for "photograph" but for a specific car or driver.

James North · 11 Mar 2006, 23:09 (Ref:1544012)

Take a look at my site. http://www.f1-jimages.co.uk

Nothing to flashy, but it's as good as my expertise or lack of them as far as web-design goes to. It does pretty much everything i need it to.

MikeHoyer · 12 Mar 2006, 01:20 (Ref:1544054)

One thing I'd do is program the html yourself, rather than use Frontpage or whatever. That's what I did with my redesign, the few days spent learning and experimenting paid off I think!

Dave_G · 12 Mar 2006, 04:08 (Ref:1544093)

I've spent a lot of time thinking about this. I started out doing it all from scratch, which was a tedious, laborious, and unsatisfactory process. I then began searching for prepackaged online gallery software packages and discovered that there is a confusingly huge array of options to choose from. I tried many of the packages available, rejected many as unsuitable for one reason or another, and made two false starts with packages that looked good at the start but didn't suit my needs once I began using them in earnest.

I finally settled on a package called Gallery, which I have been very happy with. It's a wonderful piece of programming, and since installing it on my own site, I've noticed it in many other sites as well. It will do all of the things that you're looking for, and once you get through the learning process it's easy to use. It's also free. It does require a fair bit of knowledge in the workings of setting up a web server.

Their web site is http://gallery.menalto.com/ . Click on the "Samples" link to see what people have done with Gallery.

My own car-related photo gallery is at http://tundra.cs.middlebury.edu/gallery2/v/cars/

No affiliation, just a happy customer.

PaulSands · 13 Mar 2006, 12:35 (Ref:1547078)

Keep it simple

Alan Raine · 13 Mar 2006, 12:52 (Ref:1547093)

Quote:

Originally Posted by PaulSands

Keep it simple

Agreed. Forget all the Flash intros. If there is too much going on and the site is hard to navigate, people will get bored and go elsewhere.

alfacors · 16 Mar 2006, 11:44 (Ref:1550175)

I've kept mine simple, and I also use Gallery (along with Gallery Remote for uploading). Would appreciate any comments/criticisms on my site if anyone's keen to have a look. Was doing my images at 1024 wide, but dropped to 800 wide now. Always using watermarking, although I have shifted the location of it slightly so as to detract a little less from the image displayed.

http://www.speedshots.com.au

IMHO, a very simple layout, nothing too flashy, and most importantly, very easy to update

**bella** · 16 Mar 2006, 22:28 (Ref:1550618)

i've used the gallery software too, it's a fantastic bit of kit. no unnecessary information like ratings for pictures if you don't want it or anything, although i found it a bit of a pain in the bum to set up on the server.

rdjones · 16 Mar 2006, 22:42 (Ref:1550627)

I have to agree with what most people have being saying, keep it simple its the best way. I also use J-Album as my gallery software, it has no bells and wistles and is dead easy to use.

philneast · 17 Mar 2006, 01:07 (Ref:1550719)

I have a site www.kartpic.com hosted free by fotopic.

It uses anumber of templates that allow you to configure the pages without having to go into HTML.

It also generates the thumbnails ets.

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