Flickr or a website?

[zafra52]

I am wondering what would be the best way to go to put
my photos online. Flickr $49.50 annual subscription or
register my own domain and build a website $4*12=$48.
Currently I get about 50MB web server space with my
Optus deal to be shared by email and website. Any ideas?

[biggerry]

Zafra, i guess the most important question is 'what do you want to do with your images when they are online?'

getting them online is relatively easy now but choosing the right carrier for your needs and desired exposure is a different kettle of fish.

Regarding Flickr, its free for a terabyte with some ads. Its good for exposing your images and also good for sharing your photos to other mediums like this forum.

let us know more about your requirements and I am sure we can advise more appropriately..

[Matt. K]

I've been using Pbase for many years and am happy with it. Costs around $30.00 per year.

[tommyg]

Another one out there in Australia is called fotomerchant, they allow unlimited storage - predominantly for putting up images for selling however. they then use nulabs to allow you to print

Cheers
Tom

[gstark]

Gerry has correctly asked you what the underlying purpose is.

While I am very much an advocate of the custom, your own personal URL/domain name route, that is not a solution for everyone. The photo sites do a very job and let you focus on taking and uploading images.

Setting up your own domain is highly recommended, but you need to be able to install and maintain that website.

And back it up.

[zafra52]

Very good questions. Basically, I am not a professional and quite
frankly I don't believe my photographic standards are nowhere
near enough to selling material. So, partly because of a lack of
web server space and partly also because I am not interested in
creating or maintaining a website with blogs where people can
leave messages, I guess at this stage I would like to be able to
show to show more photos than I currently can. My website is very
basic and easy to maintain using Adobe Bridge and I only show
9 photos of previous weeks, but I guess I would like to be able to
show a larger collection.

http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/~zafra52/

You are right a website would give me more flexibility and more
work; while a good photo site may give me a restricted and large
storage space for displaying photos, but less maintenance.

Decisions, decisions.

[Mj]

There are a wealth of photo storage sites out there but not so many that will allow custom domains.
I think 500px will and also Redbubble.
You could setup a Domain Name and just have it redirect to a photo site. That would be cheap (just the cost of the domain).
Maybe a custom domain is not important to you?

Another option is to use one of the free(ish) website build/host sites... Geoff Marshall here uses weebly quite happily I think.

I really think for many people Flickr with it's 1Tb storage is hard to go past and their interface is much nicer than it use to be.
Can't host custom domains though.

Unfortunately... as in many things in life there is no one solution that fits all requirements... I do use Flickr but would like it to allow secured images to be displayed on other sites when I wish to... this is not possible... they are either public and shared or private only.

[zafra52]

Thank you all for your advice. I've learned that
when I activated my new Samsung tablet I also
created a Google account that gives me a 15GB
of storage as well. Since I read your responses
I've been looking at Photobucket, Pbase and another
one I think Flickr seems a nice interface. I'll check
500px will and Redbubble.

[Wink]

Check out Smugmug too. You can do a 14 day free trial. The new design really is awesome and so easy to work with.

[Geoff M]

Another option is to use one of the free(ish) website build/host sites... Geoff Marshall here uses weebly quite happily I think.

Indeed I do and am.

I use weebly for my 'Xtographer' site and it is free. Very easy to set up with a wide choice of options for appearance of the site.There are (paid) options to have your own domain name rather than having weebly in the address but as yet I have not gone down this route. With the free option you do get to see stats but it is limited to the last 30 days of hits on your site. Paid options enable visibility of additional stats etc. The free site also includes the option of including a blog if desired.

I also use Zenfolio for my general photography but to be honest, I am not sure the expense brings any advantages over the weebly site. The weebly site certainly gets many more hits than the Zenfolio site.

[chrisk]

+1 for smugmug. I love their new designs and easy to use customisable tools.

[CraigVTR]

+2 for Smugmug.

[the foto fanatic]

+3 for smugmug.

You can have your own domain there if you wish.

[zafra52]

Wow, thank you guys. This is an embarrassment of
rich advice. I will study the different options and
hopefully I get myself sorted out soon.

All I want to do really is to add a photo a week (so
I don't bore my limited audience with too many
photos) and keep the photos from previous weeks
still available for those that couldn't see them on
time.

As it is a hobby and I don't make money from my
photos, it needs to be reasonably inexpensive and
easy to maintain.

[zafra52]

I've been visiting the sites you recommended and I got very
attracted to Weebly and Smugmug. When I visited Flickr I
realise that I had not one but two free accounts because I
had two different email addresses with Yahoo so I've been
uploading photos and checking them in my tablet, iphone
and computer. I haven't yet made up my mind but I realised
that a major advantage of using a photo shite is of course
not having to create and maintain a website and the ability
of seeing photos a variety of different devices. Thank you
guys, I learned a lot.

[Wink]

Yep. The new Smugmug translates on any device really well these days.

I've customised my Smugmug using the new design. It's super easy to do and maintain. Uploading straight from Lightroom is a handy feature too.

You can see what I've done here... http://www.photosbyadamlee.com

I went for a simple and clean design with maximum visual presence for the images. I also set up a blog using Blogger and matched it in fairly well. I'm not very good at updating that with new posts though.

[chrisk]

That looks great Adam.

The thing I love about smugmug ATM is the ability to work on a new design, preview it, test it and save it all in the background without affecting your current site at all until you're ready to go live. They have done a tremendous job with the designing and the simplicity of modifying so any clown can make a site look ok.

My one main gripe is only being able to have one sideshow per site rather than a slide show that draws off the photos in the gallery you are viewing.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Wink]

You can set the gallery style to slideshow. That should give you a slideshow in each gallery.

[zafra52]

Thank you for sharing your site, Rooz- you have beautiful photos in it.

[chrisk]

You can set the gallery style to slideshow. That should give you a slideshow in each gallery.

yes, you can but it doesn't give me the tile style I wanted and limits your customisability of the presentation to the template... unless im missing something...

[chrisk]

Thank you for sharing your site, Rooz- you have beautiful photos in it.

that's adams site zaf lol

[Wink]

I'm not 100% sure. I don't like the slideshow layout myself.

I chose the style I have because it works well with touch devices where everything is scrolled.

There's a very active customisation forum connected with Smugmug. If it's possible then the people there will know how to do it.

[Wink]

25% off Smugmug. Be quick. It runs out soon...
http://www.smugmug.com/thanksgiving-sal ... e=Facebook

[chrisk]

I have the tiles aswell, but I like the slideshow on top personally. eg:
http://www.fotographia.net.au/

[zafra52]

Thank you for that. I didn't see the discount, so I just signed the
basic Smugmug package for a year. Now I have to learn how to
set it up now.

Question: Do you upload small pictures say 800x800 max as required
for this dSLr site or larger jpgs.

P.S. Sorry Adam

[zafra52]

I like the way you organised your fotographia site.

[Wink]

I upload larger files. At 2048 on the longest edge at 80% quality via LR from memory. I figure at that size they'll be big enough to fill 99% of monitors out there.

When you link a photo you get the option to chose from a bunch of different links that have a predetermined maximum size. I just choose one that suits the requirements of where it will be shared. There's a little info icon next to each link so you can see the sizing details.

[zafra52]

Thank you for your help. This is a test...



This is much easier than Flickr, as far as I can see.

[claystevens]

Maybe I would try Smugmug later. What's your experiences of it for now?

[Wink]

My one main gripe is only being able to have one sideshow per site rather than a slide show that draws off the photos in the gallery you are viewing.

I believe this option has been added recently. I'm using it for my homepage. Pretty sure it can be set on any page though.