gib_robinson Posted March 3, 2010 Share #1 Posted March 3, 2010 Advertisement (gone after registration) I have been letting various clients post my images but have not maintained my own site for years. All I have of my own at a site is a few galleries of old photos on photo.net. So now that I'm about to take delivery of an M9, I'd like to choose a good hosting site and start posting in the next few months and I'd love to get some suggestions for the best hosting sites. Your suggestions please. --Gib Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted March 3, 2010 Posted March 3, 2010 Hi gib_robinson, Take a look here Web Hosting Sites?. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
sanyasi Posted March 3, 2010 Share #2 Posted March 3, 2010 I built my own site using Lightroom, plugins, and a hosted domain with my own domain name. If you click on signature lines to some of the posts, you are taken to hosted sites. That is a good way to see what is out there. You need to hack around a bit to figure out if the person is using a photo site. I would stay away from Flickr. I find it to be a mess and hard to use. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted March 3, 2010 Share #3 Posted March 3, 2010 I went for my own site becuase I was not impressed by the hosting sites, but if you want to sell your work on a site with a printing service, Zenfolio might be a good choice. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bo_Lorentzen Posted March 3, 2010 Share #4 Posted March 3, 2010 Very happy with Zenfolio, easy to navigate, can be customized, have a good shopping basket experience etc. . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gib_robinson Posted March 4, 2010 Author Share #5 Posted March 4, 2010 Very happy with Zenfolio, easy to navigate, can be customized, have a good shopping basket experience etc. . That's the site I've found the most appealing so far -- not intrusive or garish, quite easy to navigate. I'm not inclined to set up my own site because I'm lazy enough (or just busy enough) to want someone else to do the design work. But I do want good basic website design. I will keep looking and I will check the websites on photo posts to see where they come from. More suggestions welcome. Thanks. --Gib Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
msk2193 Posted March 4, 2010 Share #6 Posted March 4, 2010 I do my own through Lightroom and Adobe's (old) GoLive. I find it easier then the canned packages. Lunarpages.com hosts several domains for me, and I find them very reliable and they have good support. Of the canned hosting companies, Blu Domain and LiveBooks seem to be popular with photographers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arif Posted March 4, 2010 Share #7 Posted March 4, 2010 Advertisement (gone after registration) Another vote for zenfolio. They are very responsive and always adding new features. Please take a look at my gallery where I am not only using their flash site but also linking to an external blog on another site. The only limitation for zenfolio is that traffic is a little slow and perhaps they need to do more to bring the site up to red bubble level. Good luck, Arif Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ccmsosse Posted March 4, 2010 Share #8 Posted March 4, 2010 Very happy with Zenfolio, easy to navigate, can be customized, have a good shopping basket experience etc. . This forum had recommended Zenfolio before ... and now I love the site - not because I hope to sell any photos ever, but because of the setup, ease of operation and flexibility of the site. I can also post "private" photos, i.e. of a colleagues 60th birthday party, which only he and his family should access and download (password protected) ... works very well. Greeting Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ecar Posted March 4, 2010 Share #9 Posted March 4, 2010 +1 for Zenfolio. They've added new features last January and it's a lot more customizable. Some xtra updates are actually coming online today. Yes, it's a bit slow sometimes - but is still the best compromise I could find. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
250swb Posted March 4, 2010 Share #10 Posted March 4, 2010 I recommend 'Clikpic' which specialises in websites for artists and photographers. Websites for Photographers and Artists The templates on offer are very classy and photo freindly, and you can have a website up and running within a weekend very easily, with no knowledge of code needed. Updates are also just as easy and very quick. I don't use them (yet) for my photo's, prefering Flickr for its interaction, but I do have a Clikpic generated site for my other work. Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianspector Posted March 4, 2010 Share #11 Posted March 4, 2010 Zenfolio indeed has a clean uncluttered look but personally I am filled with dread any time I am asked to review a Zenfolio gallery as they load so slowly. I am sure that this is a sign of their success but it drove me to Smugmug that downloads at full bandwidth speeds when uploading and downloading. They have recently introduced 'smart galleries' that allow rules to be run on your portfolio and create logical portfolios. Thus one of my rules might look for a keyword 'noctilux' and a keyword 'f1' and put all the images in a new folder called "blinded by the night" that is made up of all my pictures taken with the Noctilux at f1. But if the performance was as poor as Zenfolio then I would be off. Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TacTZilla Posted March 4, 2010 Share #12 Posted March 4, 2010 Mine is hosted by 1x.com - Best photos on the web - Please note - the link added the 'best photos' wording...not me. It looks good, is easy to use and arrange and is cheap. Just sign up for a 'bronze premium account' $59 (US) per year and you also get to participate in a wonderful art photography website. Link to my site is below. Regards Bob Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
barcoder Posted March 4, 2010 Share #13 Posted March 4, 2010 I use Apple's MobileMe gallery. MobileMe Gallery Features: - Syncs with Aperture (and iPhoto) - Has a mobile interface - Has an iPhone app - Easy to manage - Simple I also occasionally post a picture to Flickr. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gib_robinson Posted March 4, 2010 Author Share #14 Posted March 4, 2010 I recommend 'Clikpic' which specialises in websites for artists and photographers. Websites for Photographers and Artists The templates on offer are very classy and photo freindly, and you can have a website up and running within a weekend very easily, with no knowledge of code needed. Updates are also just as easy and very quick. I don't use them (yet) for my photo's, prefering Flickr for its interaction, but I do have a Clikpic generated site for my other work. Steve Steve, I visited Clikpic and I agree the site is elegant and compelling; but the images are small which certainly helps them load quickly and probably means they won't appeal to people who like ripping off images, but I want a site where it is very easy to see the images. That may mean that the site is slower to load because the images are bigger. I did not see any client pages on Clikpic that had images the size zenfolio allows but I will check with the site management to see what's possible. Thanks for the lead. --Gib Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gib_robinson Posted March 5, 2010 Author Share #15 Posted March 5, 2010 Mine is hosted by 1x.com - Best photos on the web - Please note - the link added the 'best photos' wording...not me. It looks good, is easy to use and arrange and is cheap. Just sign up for a 'bronze premium account' $59 (US) per year and you also get to participate in a wonderful art photography website. Link to my site is below. Regards Bob Thanks, Bob. I've made some visits since your post and will visit some more. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebelfocus Posted March 5, 2010 Share #16 Posted March 5, 2010 Hi Gib, I would advise against iWeb/mobileme as in typical Apple fashion it is a closed system producing non-standard code. I was using iWeb but discovered that even to do a simple thing like add a sitemap for google was a real pain requiring a 3rd party hack as iWeb overwrites the entire directory each time adding it's own junk. I also found the themes to be quite boring and way too difficult to customise. I recently moved over to an excellent tool called RapidWeaver. It's a very mac-like application and as easy to use as iWeb but much more powerful as you can buy themes and plugins from 3rd parties for a few dollars to create very unique designs I redesigned my site using it and it was a real joy to use. Regards, Tony Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vanhulsenbeek Posted March 5, 2010 Share #17 Posted March 5, 2010 With all respect: what has this to do with the Leica M9? Allthough I am a Zenfolio fan too, IMHO this question belongs in the Digital Post Processing Forum, or even in a 'Publishing after Digital Post Processing Forum' Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gib_robinson Posted March 5, 2010 Author Share #18 Posted March 5, 2010 Hi Gib, I would advise against iWeb/mobileme as in typical Apple fashion it is a closed system producing non-standard code. I was using iWeb but discovered that even to do a simple thing like add a sitemap for google was a real pain requiring a 3rd party hack as iWeb overwrites the entire directory each time adding it's own junk. I also found the themes to be quite boring and way too difficult to customise. I recently moved over to an excellent tool called RapidWeaver. It's a very mac-like application and as easy to use as iWeb but much more powerful as you can buy themes and plugins from 3rd parties for a few dollars to create very unique designs I redesigned my site using it and it was a real joy to use. Regards, Tony Hi Tony, I'm not using a Mac, so I think RapidWeaver is out; and I would like to avoid creating my own site; it's too time consuming for me. I've got plenty going on in my life, among other things, I like to photograph :-). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted March 6, 2010 Share #19 Posted March 6, 2010 I got an 18-year old to do my website for me. He was happy to earn a few Euros and he did a really good job. I'm sure you have a kid like that in your neighbourhood, just watch for baseball caps worn the wrong way around. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fotomiguel Posted March 6, 2010 Share #20 Posted March 6, 2010 I'm zenfolio user and I'm quite happy with everything except the colour rendering. I think that it is a bit too saturated. When I upload my pictures I'm surprise. Sometimes I even have to change the post processing. It would be nice to be able to control contrast and saturation. I like the natural colours of my M9 and M8. The post processing is so easy and quick using capture one. Especially easy of my M9. But then in zenfolio everything change. I've been thinking of trying another one, but I'm too lazy for everything except shooting. Anybody has the same problem? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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