Creating a web site for a photographer...

[kwoods]

Hey all! I don't have 10 posts yet, else I would introduce myself in the official introduction thread. My name is Karen. :]

Anyways, I was approached about designing a web site for a photographer and have never taken on a photography portfolio web site before and I was wondering what you guys think the best way to go about it is?

I'm mainly curious as to which CMS to integrate and how they can add their own albums/photos after I design the initial site. For example, is there a way for them to upload their photos to flickr.com, deviantart or another web site and for it to be incorporated into their site? I'm guessing that's a far fetched idea, so what's the best way to make it easy for them to add their own photo albums once I'm not involved anymore? Anyone out there familiar with designing sites for photographers? Any help is appreciated as I'm kind of winging it (I have not agreed to design their site yet, but would love to expand my skills and agree to help them). Thanks!

 

[chrishirst]

is there a way for them to upload their photos to flickr.com, deviantart or another web site and for it to be incorporated into their site?

<img src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/guid_of_image" alt="flickr image" />

Or you could simply use a "photo gallery" CMS such as Coppermine or Menalto Gallery.

 

[ronaldroe]

I did a WP theme for one, and it made uploading their photos as simple as creating a new post and drag/dropping. It was pretty in depth. Got way more into the PHP side of things than I've really ever been comfortable doing.

 

[kwoods]

<img src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/guid_of_image" alt="flickr image" />

Or you could simply use a "photo gallery" CMS such as Coppermine or Menalto Gallery.

I know how to link to images; my hope was to find something very easy for them to do on their own, without having to copy and paste html codes and image links (ie: uploading images to an album on flickr and then pasting the link to the album and the album showing up on their web site).

I have used coppermine for fan site galleries in the past but wasn't sure if I wanted to for a photographer's web site. Thank you for your response =]

I did a WP theme for one, and it made uploading their photos as simple as creating a new post and drag/dropping. It was pretty in depth. Got way more into the PHP side of things than I've really ever been comfortable doing.

Yeah! That's what I'm going for, I think. I'm looking for resources on how other web designers create web sites for photographers. Is it just a lot of jquery?

 

[Dazc]

Wordpress/Joomla can be used to make great Photography Portfolio themes if you know what you are doing..

You could look t themes on themeforest etc.. to get an idea of what others have done

 

[ronaldroe]

Yeah! That's what I'm going for, I think. I'm looking for resources on how other web designers create web sites for photographers. Is it just a lot of jquery?

PHP, actually. Search the WP Codex for the_excerpt_rss - That should start you off in the right direction.

I basically used the_excerpt_rss to post a thumbnail on the category page of each photo in the category. That thumbnail links to the image itself (not the "blog post"), and has a call for a jQuery lightbox. I also used custom menus, which I had to show her how to use. The only crappy part is that when she posts a photo, she has to copy/paste the code into the excerpt block. Not difficult, but perhaps a bit unpolished. Could I have made it so she didn't have to? Yes, but not for what she was paying me.

 

[jkemper]

Wordpress has a few really good gallery plugins.(Be careful when experimenting though, there are also some really crappy ones.), I'll get back with a list of some good ones.

 

[Edge]

Next Gen Gallery worked for us fine but needs a bit of styling up to make it look nice.

 

[DesignsbyKR]

WordPress would be a good place to start - there are already some free themes geared towards photography. If you want to go the custom route, you could design your own theme and play with various photo gallery plugins - some of them are really cool.

I could provide you with links if you are interested.