Web Gallery?

[Kawidude]

I've taken a few trips to a local track and gotten lots of shots of various people riding (mostly rickyd). I'm looking for a way to build an on-line gallery of the images to allow people to view them.

I started out at GoDaddy.com and bought a domain name with hosting. I just need to figure out the best way to build a gallery and have it run through the domain name I bought.

I'm essentially looking for something like what Okie used for his gallery/portfolio. I don't need shopping cart capabilities, just something for viewing. I'd like to have a different section for each track I visit and then break it down by each date that I photographed people at each track.

Does anyone have a recommendation that won't break the bank? I've already looked at Jalbum and Website Tonight (through GoDaddy), but I can't decide which way to go. Any help is greatly appreciated! :cool:

 

[Okiewan]

I made mine from scratch .. Don't really care for many of the canned galleries out there and also don't plan on putting up everything I shoot so automation isn't as important to me as the look I was going for.

A good one though (and free) is Gallery2. Prepare to learn some code, but do-able by pretty much anyone. http://gallery.menalto.com/

For a quick and easy one, PS has it's version built in.

 

[Kawidude]

This web site stuff is a brand new thing for me. Is it fairly simple to get the gallery to run through the domain name I bought even though I design it through another program?

I've got Photoshop 7.0 so I'm not sure if I can build webpages with it. From what I've read, CS and CS2 are no problem. I'll check it out.

 

[Okiewan]

There's no way I or anyone else can answer a question like that, kinda like "how do I fix a car?". You'll need to do some reading, experimenting, etc. If you want to play on the web and can't/won't pay someone to do it for you, you'll either need to learn it, or go with a pre-packaged place; there are many sites that will host your images for a small fee or for free, the member gallery here on DRN for one.... STM's can set up their own public and private galleries.

 

[Kawidude]

Thanks for the info. I've spent most of the day reading and researching my options. I've been bombarded with info so that's why I'm here asking questions. I'll keep digging and see if I can find something that suits my needs.

 

[photojojo]

I use http://www.smugmug.com I have used photoreflect in the past, but that was geared more towards sales, so you probably would not be interested in that.

I really like the look of smugmug plus the way they handle the way things fit on a screen. It will autodetect your browser and screen size and the display accordingly. There are also tons of other nice little things that make smugmug worth the money. Like they give you links for forums in small, medium, and large display options. Plus tons of user control in control panels. If you already have a url you can redirct it to a smugmug page as well. You can also have private galleries just for family that is password protected...that's a pretty big deal for me.

There are three different levels, $39.95, $59.95, $149.95. The $59.95 level lets you customize the page more and you can uplaod video as well.

Here is the kicker UNLIMITED storage. You can upload gigs of photos and never run out of space. The traffic is limited but it is set very high...like 6 gigs. That's 90,000 views a month.

here is a thread on some nice customized smugmug sites
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=27713

You can use coupon code 6bPSMkMYrhpVE to save $5.00 when you sign up.

 

[stevensj2]

I'd highly suggest the free flash app called SimpleViewer.

I use it to display my (non-MX) photo gallery, here (click "See more").

My domain was only $9 and my hosting (which included unlimited MySQL databases) is only $30 from A Small Orange.

 

[Kawidude]

Thanks for the info guys! I've checked out POTN as well and some people are trying to avoid using flash on their websites. Has this been a problem for anyone?

I've been reading lots of good things about smug mug as well. Might have to start digging into that a little bit.

photojojo - So those sites you linked were all created entirely in smug mug? Man, those are really nice and exactly what I was looking for. I've got this software called Website Tonight and it's been a real pain to try customizing anything with it.

 

[photojojo]

yep, they were all smugmug sites. What they are doing is changing the headers and using their own. They are probably creating their own graphics in PS or some other graphics program.

I have not done any of these cusimizations but there is lots of help on the Digital Grin forums concerning smugmug at http://www.digitalgrin.com/forumdisplay.php?f=27