Photo Content Management System

[lindseywb]

I'm looking into building my friend a website for her photography business and I was wondering if anyone had suggestions for a good content management system for this (open source preferred, but paid also an option). She needs to be able to easily upload photos into galleries for clients to proof and order prints (focus on easy!) as well as make slideshows. In terms of the software, I'd be installing it on her domain and set it up (I know PHP/MySQL, so I'd prefer something that runs on that), so she just needs something w/ a relatively simple interface as she's slightly computer illiterate.
She's also looked into BluDomain, but got scared off by some of the negative reviews, so any opinions on that are welcome as well.
Thanks!

 

[disneyboy2003]

There are already photo-hosting Web sites that do everything that you / your friend need & mentioned for her photography business, so I hate to see you spend all your time re-inventing the wheel.

I use SmugMug (www.smugmug.com), and they've got different account levels. Sounds like you / she may need the Pro level account. You / She can upload an unlimited number of photos, and organize them into different galleries.

Her customers can select one or multiple photos to order prints.

In the Pro level account, you can customize your / her SmugMug account to give a different & more personal look & feel, instead of the standard SmugMug theme. You can also have your custom domain name point directly to your / her SmugMug account, so that www.lindseywb.com, for example, would point directly to her SmugMug photos.

There are other photo hosting sites that do similar things, too. You can also try looking at Zenfolio, too.

Anyway, with SmugMug, your friend can be up and running with the Web portion of her photography business in no-time. I'm sure you're a talented PHP/MySQL programmer, but it'll still take lots of time to re-create & program all the functionality of a photo hosting Web site...time that your friend could be taking orders for her prints.

Just a thought. Let us know what you decide to do.

 

[AbbysFamily]

Gallery would be the one that comes to mind for me, however there is a ton of choices out there: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_photo_gallery_software

 

[JoeDif]

Another vote here for the SmugMug Pro account. It offer everything your friend is looking for

 

[lindseywb]

SmugMug looks great - I didn't know they had pro accounts. Is the interface relatively simple? In her words she has the computer abilities of a 2 year old.
Thanks for the Wikipedia link, that also helps a lot.
Any opinions on SmugMug vs Zenfolio?
Thanks again!

 

[MICKEY88]

I chose zenfolio over smugmug because they use mpix for their print lab.

and I've been using mpix for years, they are a division of Miller's Professional Imaging which has grown to be the largest professional lab organization in the United States

Zenfolio is easy to use, very reliable, great customer service.. and you can point your domain to them..
i upload my photos, set my prices...customers order directly from the website, the photos are sent to the customers and I get an email telling me there is money in my account..
if interested pm me and I can give you a discount code for zenfolio

zenfolios premium account is only 100 per year