# Website builder for photographers?



## burstintoflame81

I have been looking into getting a website. I wan't something that can showcase me and that is a little more professional than a Flickr account. I was just curious if anyone has a website, who they use, and what they like or dislike about them? Also if you have a link to your site, feel free to post it. I would like something that has a basic easy to set up template type deal but leaves some room to make my site unique and also freedom to swap out pics/galleries at anytime.


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## davebmck

I use bludomain.com.  They have templates from $400 to $50.  I used their $50 Cleo template for my website.  You can view it at www.waxhawoutdoorphotography.com.  My daughter who shoots semi-professionally uses a couple of their more expensive templates.


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## HikinMike

I designed my website myself. 

You can check out Smugmug if hand-coding isn't you bag!


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## burstintoflame81

Awesome. I like the site. Do they actually host your site as well? Did you buy a domain name seperately or through them? Do they limit how many visits or bandwith you can have? Thanks for your recommendation.


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## HikinMike

burstintoflame81 said:


> Awesome. I like the site. Do they actually host your site as well? Did you buy a domain name seperately or through them? Do they limit how many visits or bandwith you can have? Thanks for your recommendation.



Thanks!

No, I use 'ICDSoft.com' to host it. I used Notepad++ to code it and FTP'd with 'FileZilla'. I do use Smugmug only for my Gymnastic photos which are password protected. Everything else is through my own server.


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## HikinMike

BTW, they have a great help forum so you can customize your site if you're interested.


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## carolynma

[FONT=&quot]For photographers like you, it is best to build your own website and make it as your online profile. If you have built your own, you can make experiments on what information you want to feed to your visitors.  Its a plus factor![/FONT]


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## DuckRabbit Digital

My husband and I run an artisan black-and-white printing company, and for that, my husband built our website from scratch. We do use tumblr for the blog (a modified version of one of their templates). Duckrabbit Digital - Home

For my personal website, I have a template from indexhibit. You do have to know a little bit about coding, but once you get the template, it's extraordinarily easy to add new work and new categories. Home : Tempest NeuCollins


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## bigtwinky

One of the better ones I have seen is Build a Website - Create a Blog - Squarespace


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## Aayria

I used "wix.com" to design mine- under the recommendation of another photographer on these forums. I just copy the embed code from their site, and past it into my own web domain folder.  It's been very simple, and worked great for all I need   You can view the site in my signatre.


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## TJ K

Smugmug . Love it link is in sig if you want to see how it can be.


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## leftypony

hikinmike, your site looks great and I believe it's not using any flash. I know how to write html code and style sheets but I've been obsessing that I'm not familiar enough with flash to design a photo website. I might take some tips from your site and roll with it! Thanks for sharing


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## Restomage

Check out the link to my website in my signature. If ya like it I can get you a pretty good deal on one and it's nice because I have the freedom to upload/remove pics and create new galleries whenever I want.


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## tmyprod

DeviantArt has a pretty good free portfolio service. Here's mine: tylermyates.daportfolio.com


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## Taraboom

One option is to use a open source photo gallery script such as coppermine  (Coppermine Photo Gallery)
or zenphoto. These are PHP scripts that needs to be installed on a host server. Quite a few templates available, but if you need to customize it becomes quite involved.

I used coppermine for my gallery, not quite finished yet as far as customization go  Aurora Digital Paintings - Home


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## myfotoguy

I've gone through various changes in how I share and display my images, you can read about it here.

In the end, for me, I chose Zenfolio for reasons described in the link above. If I were after more business I would change my blog (links in sig below) to match the design of my Zenfolio (or vice versa). The blog would then be less about sharing tips and more about promoting my work and sharing stories about my latest assignment.

Zenfolio is flexible enough to match some blog desgins, and blogs very flexible to match Zenfolio. 

In the end, I decided the thing I like about Zenfolio is the professional look and layouts, ability to customize the appearance. Also, they back up their servers. When you host yourself, I am not sure what you need to do for backup, or if it's extra. I also like the fact that they handle all the security updates. In a server installed gallery that you run yourself you are responsible to keep adding any neccessary security patches. I don't know how often that is going to be a real threat if you don't, but I decided that I would let Zenfolio handle that for me, and I decided they could do everything else better than I could. But, that's just me, I know that your own hosted domain and coding you can control and personalize, and if you don't mind maintaining it, for many, it's the way to go.


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## kkamin

I use Squarespace and find it to be a very versatile web builder.  It is relatively inexpensive.  It is highly customizable and can probably do what most people want from a web site.  It accepts HTML, CSS and flash files.  There is a learning curve to it, but it is pretty amazing what people can do with it.

I would avoid the low-end photography web building sites.  The ones I have checked out like ifp3 and Photium look tacky and have the look and feel of crappy websites from 12 years ago.  I'm not an expert, but the real nice photography web building sites that are incredibly easy to use tend to be on the pricey side.  Ones I looked at were well over 100+ a month USD.


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## swoop_ds

I use bludomain, see my signature for site as well as blog, and I really enjoy it. Its VERY easy to setup a decent looking webpage and updating it is a snap. I did absolutely no coding and it costs me around 100us a year for everything. Their customer support has been good to me and I would recommend this to anyone who doesn't want to hand code stuff. 

-Dave


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## Dp-PARIS

If you have lightroom, you can get a plugin called LRB Portfolio Pro.  I cannot remember the exact price, but it is not a lot, something like 15 US $.

It only creates the portfolio, you will need to have your own website to host it.

I have not tried it with LR3 yet, but will soon. It definitely works with LR2.


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## JR Davis

Squarespace, also mentioned by some is pretty user friendly and dependable, good site.


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## Kayla

Something that is quick and easy, with built-in slideshows/galleries and a mass image upload is 
http://Spidersitebuilder.com

Two examples of sites built with it are:

TruFoto Imaging
Cedar Hill Photography

They have quite a few templates in there that are targeted for photographers. But again this is for something quick and easy. Hope it helps! :mrgreen:

Website Designer Software


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## redesigns

For the greatest amount of flexibility and options - in another words your website won't look like it came out of a box - use RE Designs Ultimate Web Builder - www.redesigns.org/web-builder . 

Check out the showcase page for examples: Featured Websites Built Using Ultimate Web Builder | RE Designs Ultimate Web Builder

Photographers: How to build a portfolio website easily for your photography business for free ? or almost free | Ultimate Web Builder Blog


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## AnneRiceBowl

I built my own! Currently reconstructing!


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## redesigns

Here's a coupon code for Ultimate Web Builder: thephotoforum010a

It will give you an additional $10 off the current sale.

Purchase & Download RE Designs Ultimate Web Builder software | RE Designs Ultimate Web Builder


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## photosnob

I've been using SmugMug for over 6 years now and it's great. I mainly use it for my wedding photography clients. You can check out my gallery that I customized.

San Francisco Wedding Photographers : Weddings


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## fridil

I havent used it in years but back then it wasnt to expensive and fairly easy to use but try homestead.com it used to have some really great templates and very easy self customization.


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## Sportsphotoguy

I, too use Zenfolio like myfotoguy and recommend it as well.  My Zenfolio site is ocfamilyphoto.zenfolio.com if you want to check it out.


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## waynegz1

I use qufoto.com

I've had nothing but great experiences with them.


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## tammyb

I have been using Photocrati: photocrati.com
It's only $79 which you pay once and they have great support through their forum. It includes:
Website + galleries + blog.
Simple, elegant design. Easy to set up.
Flexible: 15 built-in styles, customize everything.
Awesome SEO and social media so you'll be found!
Based on WordPress, the world's fastest growing web platform.

Here is my site if you want to see one in action and they have some great examples on their website: tammybphotography.com.au
This is the first website I have built and I have been really happy with how easy it's been. It still needs a lot of work but I'm getting there! 

You need to have your own web host. They recommend Bluehost but I have a different one in Australia. It was so easy to load everything on and everything can be uploaded and changed from the wordpress dashboard so you don't need to know any code and you don't really even need to access your ftp files unless you want to do some extra tweaking.

You can try it for free for 30 days so if you don't like it you have nothing to lose. 

Good luck


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## dupek

I use Coppermine. I found it easy to set up and have few templates.
Give try to jalbum for start.


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## flightless_beaker

wix.com ftw. Like the drag and drop when you build it and its a cheap monthly subscription.


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## Infidel

Wow. The spammers are all over this thread.


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## TheMagic

Don't know if you're still looking, but 350pages has a great gallery feature. It'll resize your photos on upload if you request, and the layout options are pretty simple. It's all template based so you don't have to worry about design or code.


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## craigm

bigtwinky said:


> One of the better ones I have seen is Build a Website - Create a Blog - Squarespace



I build my own site now but I have used squarespace in the past and they are really great!


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## ghache

Aayria said:


> I used "wix.com" to design mine- under the recommendation of another photographer on these forums. I just copy the embed code from their site, and past it into my own web domain folder. It's been very simple, and worked great for all I need  You can view the site in my signatre.


 
+1

Photography by Guillaume


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## loopy

carolynma said:


> [FONT=&quot]For photographers like you, it is best to build your own website and make it as your online profile. If you have built your own, you can make experiments on what information you want to feed to your visitors.  Its a plus factor![/FONT]



Please don't try to make your own website, 9/10 times it ends up looking like crap. If your doing it for fun, by all means go ahead but if you are trying to make it as a professional then your website needs to reflect that. These days having an online presence is so important, and could win clients over a competitor.

Plus if you want a successful website, there is more to building a website than a little bit of html/css.


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## VictorAnfu

Hi, I appreciate  my suggestion may be a little late, but I created a really nice website in HTML 5 & CSS3 using a website builder callled BaseKit. 

Anything beyond the basics and I use WordPress, with the occasional foray into Drupal if appropriate.

It used to take me 40 hours+ to design, cut and build even a basic custom-designed WordPress site but I&#8217;ve cut that down to about ten with BaseKit. I just wish they&#8217;d enable whitelisting of their CMS, but that isn&#8217;t a huge deal really.


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## DiskoJoe

22slides


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## adversus

For just a portfolio (I don't shoot professionally, other than selling the random print/canvas), I use a 500px account, loaded by a domain that re-directs from Go Daddy.

It's in my signature, it's fairly an automatic process.


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## rexbobcat

loopy said:


> carolynma said:
> 
> 
> 
> [FONT=&amp]For photographers like you, it is best to build your own website and make it as your online profile. If you have built your own, you can make experiments on what information you want to feed to your visitors.  It&#8217;s a plus factor![/FONT]
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Please don't try to make your own website, 9/10 times it ends up looking like crap. If your doing it for fun, by all means go ahead but if you are trying to make it as a professional then your website needs to reflect that. These days having an online presence is so important, and could win clients over a competitor.
> 
> Plus if you want a successful website, there is more to building a website than a little bit of html/css.
Click to expand...


Website building services cost $500+


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## stephen.shelley

I built my own website using dreamweaver and cs4.  I would like to have had it professionally done but it was cost prohibitive since photography is primarily a hobby for me at this stage in my career.  As I build my portfolio I will eventually have someone create a professional website for me.  I am primarily a landscape/nature photographer that prints my work on canvas and sells it as fine art.  If I was an event or portrait photographer I would think that a professional website would be a must to generate and retain business.  

Everglades, Big Cypress and Florida Keys Photography www.stephenshelleyphotography.com


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## TerryDemczuk

Hi! You can use Weebly if you want to.  I used it to create my site and this is the result:  Terry Demczuk Photography


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## Peareg

I was Looking at using either "photocrati" or the "king size" theme for a site and saw Tammyb's post; It shows you can build a beautiful site with the right tools/creative eye. 
I'm wondering what's involved in linking a theme to a pre-existing address? I booked in with a web builder for this tuesday just so i could get the theme linked to the address and then go from there solo, but i would really love to be able to do the whole thing myself. 
A matter of working out where to start.
I have used php and ftp before(+a little MySQL) but on systems set up by someone else. Any advice?? 
(a link to some work. It's old, _and_ on a nikon site...yes i really need my own site!)  

My Nikon Life photo gallery. Water drop by peareg, photographed with a NIKON D70s


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## photo_joe

I used Adobe Fireworks to design my site and then imported it into Dreamweaver to upload it.  For my galleries I use lightroom to build the galleries since it does all the coding and gives you a lot of different set ups.  

Shutter Release Photography

It's not a completely polished product, but it gives me a basic place to start I guess.  For hosting I use justhost.com, hosting is pretty cheap and you get a free domain name with purchase.


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## photo_me

I've been using Squarebook (www.squarebook.com).  Its simple to use, has a nice clean admin interface, nice templates, and they have a 10-day free trial so you can try it out first.


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## Mully

If you use a mac look into Rapidweaver software ....it is great and the learning curve is easy.  I have built 3 sites with it, the one i did for my church is 40+ pages.  I use Blue Host for a service provider and over the last 3 years they have never been down.


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## photogrowth

I've been a fan of using squarespace in the past, which will do the job if all you really want is a professional presence.  If you are looking at the opportunity of selling your images as art, there's a new one I'd checkout called the Art Storefronts websites builder for photographers.  I'll warn you though, there's a currently a waiting list to get on board.  But its pretty awesome, you control everything and can fulfill your own orders, and collect all the profit.


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## StefanK

If you need website builders specially for photographers - check this review: http://www.webbuildersguide.com/website-builder-categories/photography-website-builders/


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## TWright33

StefanK said:


> If you need website builders specially for photographers - check this review: Website Builders for Photographers



Wow.... Your confident in the OP seeing this is astonishing


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## StefanK

I'm glad it was helpful for you


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