good site for a professional photographer?

[bigben2wardpitt]

I am helping a friend with her website. She currently has a site they she overpays for, where they do everything for her. However, what she really needs is a site that is geared towards photographers. She basically wants to use the site to put up her work, and have categories for the different things she has taken pictures of. And of course a page for contact info, so that is her goal. I would like it to be a site where I could do the work, not some stupid developer behind the scenes being overpaid and putting together crap. So what is a good site,

it can be really easy to set up, it can already have a host built in (i could just forward the domain registrar to the site) or it could be just a site where i have to install the site software onto the host, whatever. I would like to make it easy, because hopefully, SHE could add the photos or edit it, but i dont know if thats possible either. It doesn't have to look amazing.

so, any ideas?

 

[mugs]

I would like it to be a site where I could do the work, not some stupid developer behind the scenes being overpaid and putting together crap.

It would be good to know what you're capable of...

 

[Mr Pickles]

There are plenty of apps that you can activate through Control Panel's Fantastico that you can test to find what you like.

 

[kranky]

I have a photographer friend who set up his own site using iWeb software he runs on his Mac. He's definitely not a developer/programmer/webhead, and if he could put together a good looking photographer's site, anyone could do it.

 

[bigben2wardpitt]

coding is not my thing, lets put it that way. I enjoy putting sites together like wordpress blogs and such because they are easy to make, but I can still do a fair amount.

 

[userman]

http://www.tfnn.net/forum/index.php?board=16.0

 

[fbrdphreak]

One word: Wordpress. Blogs are a CMS of their own. She can have image galleries, or static pages to showcase things, or whatever. They truly are universal as long as you have the vision.

She could host it at Wordpress.com for free, but then you start tacking on fees per month for custom themes, custom domain, etc.

If she can get some tech help (from you?), you can get a cheap host, find some PHP/CSS talent to code her site the way she wants it to look, and find the appropriate WP plugins to have things run the way she wants.

Anything else is a waste of money, IMO.

 

[mugs]

Well, whatever CMS or whatever you use for the site layout, I recommend you use SimpleViewer for the photo galleries. Sample: http://www.airtightinteractive.com/photos/ I think it's a lot nicer than HTML-based photo galleries.

 

[arrfep]

Have her try Smugmug. There's different levels of customizability (it's a word) and it sounds like it would fit all the things she needs. They have an integrated shopping cart system if she wants to sell her photos as prints or digital downloads. I believe you can still do the design work or what-not, but they host everything and you can get your domain name to redirect to the smugmug page. Seems like it is a good balance between creative options and ease of use.

 

[dartworth]

Take a look at http://smugmug.com/

Here is a nice example of what you can do with it... http://www.moonriverphotography.com

 

[bigben2wardpitt]

smugmug is nice and all, but a big hard to customize really... its nice, but i dunno, any other options? I could work with smugmug, cuz its fairly easy to customize...

 

[ghostman]

Originally posted by: bigben2wardpitt
smugmug is nice and all, but a big hard to customize really... its nice, but i dunno, any other options? I could work with smugmug, cuz its fairly easy to customize...

Huh?

You should be careful stepping into a position you may not want to hold later down the line. Especially one that requires you to actively maintain the site and be involved for every photo she uploads. And I think if she intends to sell photos or services through this site, it will most definitely have to look amazing. Make sure you're up to the task of designing an appealing website first (most people, I believe, cannot... and that includes me).

Otherwise, I'd stick with what others have mentioned already. smugsmug or some Fantastico-based gallery like Coppermine.

EDIT: Or this: http://www.zenfolio.com/

 

[aphex]

I use Zenfolio (as mentioned above) and LOVE it. Very happy with it.

 

[George P Burdell]

Another vote for Smugmug

 

[bigben2wardpitt]

What i meant to say was smugmug is fairly easy to customize, but then again seems to require too much work to achieve what I am looking for, i would have to make major changes. Sure, there template for that "" moon river photography" site looks awesome, and is perfect, but obviously I do not have those skills.

These gallery sites are nice (like zenfolio), but i feel like I need just a little more of a site rather than just a photo gallery.