Photography Website Help!!!

[RBennett]

Ok, so I know a lot of people on here have websites that they have set up to show off their photography and to backup their pictures on-line, but I'm hoping someone on here can help me with this. Well I am having HUGE difficulties trying to get it set up. I am going through bluehost.com and I am using filezilla as my FTP to transfer files onto the website. I transferred 35 pictures into my public_html folder but when I go to the website there are no pictures on the site. Did I miss a step?

 

[RitchG]

I think the short answer is Yes, you missed a step.

The photos will not display in a browser by themselves, they need a "host file" to arrange them in a way the browser understands. (I suppose you could see them directly in the browser by using http://www.mysite.com/photos1/img_3746.jpg for each photo but that's a bit tedious). I see you have a photobucket account; when you transfer files to it the photobucket software creates this host file for you (well, that is over-simplifying but the idea is the same). When you have your own web site (like through bluehost) you need to create this file yourself. If you have one of the photo-organizing tools like Lightroom, those programs often will create a photo web-site with all the necessary files for you; you just upload to your folder a whole mess of files.

Does that help? Or have I muddied things?
---Ritch

 

[RBennett]

Yeah, it pretty much confirmed what I already knew; I know nothing about building a website. I'm pretty much having to go through tutorial after tutorial on the bluehost website to figure out what to do. I'm so lost. I'm thinking I made a mistake on trying to do this and there HAS to be an easier way.

- Robby

 

[JR6ooo4]

Yeah, it pretty much confirmed what I already knew; I know nothing about building a website. I'm pretty much having to go through tutorial after tutorial on the bluehost website to figure out what to do. I'm so lost. I'm thinking I made a mistake on trying to do this and there HAS to be an easier way.

- Robby

there is!
use this code EDfLfDAAygNVM for $5 off a smugmug subscription.

they are a great hosting site. you can host original files and choose what size to post or share. you can sell photos also. I have been with them for many years now.

they also have a deal with Godaddy for domain registry and forwarding to your smug site for $10 a year!!!! you can't beat that deal, unless you want to run your own server...

fell free to PM me if you have any questions. the links in my signature are to some of my smugmug galleries.

Mikeeee

 

[RBennett]

I appreciate that Mikeeee! When I originally bought into bluehost, they told me that there was no file size limit, which was my biggest concern because I also wanted to be able to back-up my RAW files on the site as well. But now that I have actually started to create the site, the file manager through Soholaunch says that the file size has to be under 2MB. It's so frustrating.

 

[JR6ooo4]

while I do send large files to smug, so clients can print poster size if they want, I don't send every single file I have.

Plus I don't know if they accept raw files.

Mikeeee

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Smugmug does accept RAW files but you have to pay an extra fee for this. If you go through their website it says you can pay a fee to Amazon.com for the ability to upload your RAW files. I don't think there is a limit on how much you can upload either, but don't quote me on it as I don't do that. Seems like it would be much easier to pay smugmug than trying to build your own website, especially if you're still learning how to build a website.

 

[coloneldebugger]

I would suggest just using the free parts of something like flickr (http://www.flickr.com/) or picasa (http://picasa.google.com/) to help get an understanding of uploading your pictures to the web. From there you can link to the pictures and/or post your pics on message boards.

Even if you've already paid for something using one of these services should help you get an understanding of the file paths (URL) you'll need for posting pictures here.

 

[steery1]

Yes Smugmug does accept RAW files for back up purposes, not for display.
Details here......http://www.smugmug.com/help/smugvault

The link in my signature gives you an idea on the customization that you can do within Smugmug and their customer service is second to none. Heres a code for a $5 discount mpHziF6nYwGVk

 

[MICKEY88]

another option is zenfolio, they are very similar to smugmug, when I was looking for a place to host my photos, I chose zenfolio over smugmug, because they use mpix as their print lab, and I've used mpix for years so I knew I was happy with the quality of printing..

here is a discount code to save 5 dollars with zenfolio

XE1-C1X-2JF

 

[RBennett]

Well I was up until 11:30 last night trying to work on this and so far, here is what I have. It just really bugs me that I can only put 25 pictures in each album. So what am I supposed to do? Put like 10 albums on each page? How great is that going to work out? I think I should just eat my loss and move to smugmug?

 

[MICKEY88]

I think smugmug and zenfolio are both much easier to deal with,


I don't know how many pics you shoot per month, but backing up raw files online would be too time consuming for me
, so I have multiple external drives for that purpose.

 

[RBennett]

there is!
use this code EDfLfDAAygNVM for $5 off a smugmug subscription.

they are a great hosting site. you can host original files and choose what size to post or share. you can sell photos also. I have been with them for many years now.

they also have a deal with Godaddy for domain registry and forwarding to your smug site for $10 a year!!!! you can't beat that deal, unless you want to run your own server...

fell free to PM me if you have any questions. the links in my signature are to some of my smugmug galleries.

Mikeeee

Smugmug does accept RAW files but you have to pay an extra fee for this. If you go through their website it says you can pay a fee to Amazon.com for the ability to upload your RAW files. I don't think there is a limit on how much you can upload either, but don't quote me on it as I don't do that. Seems like it would be much easier to pay smugmug than trying to build your own website, especially if you're still learning how to build a website.

Yes Smugmug does accept RAW files for back up purposes, not for display.
Details here......http://www.smugmug.com/help/smugvault

The link in my signature gives you an idea on the customization that you can do within Smugmug and their customer service is second to none. Heres a code for a $5 discount mpHziF6nYwGVk

The only things that concern me is can you password protect any of the pages, if I don't want the general public to have access to some of our family photos? Also, with the .22 cent per gig storage charge and the the upload charge of .31 cent per gig is kind of steep. I have 70 gigs of pictures right now so we're talking aout $15 a month for storage on the smugmug vault, and a charge of $21.70 to upload the photos, not to mention the cost of the subscription. Is that worth it?

 

[RBennett]

I think smugmug and zenfolio are both much easier to deal with,


I don't know how many pics you shoot per month, but backing up raw files online would be too time consuming for me
, so I have multiple external drives for that purpose.

But if someone wanted to back up their RAW files on-line, does zenfolio let you? From what I saw on their website, it didn't look like it supported RAW files.

 

[JR6ooo4]

again I have a pro account so things might be alittle different than a lower tier account.

But I can set the preferences for each gallery or for the entire site with just a few clicks.

I can also make hidden galleries. so even if you are at my home page you will not find this gallery of silly random DIS board photos.

Mikeeee

 

[MICKEY88]

But if someone wanted to back up their RAW files on-line, does zenfolio let you? From what I saw on their website, it didn't look like it supported RAW files.

I don't believe zenfolio does, my average shoot takes overnight to upload jpegs, so uploading raw files would take days, that is why I opted for multiple hard drives

 

[RBennett]

again I have a pro account so things might be alittle different than a lower tier account.

But I can set the preferences for each gallery or for the entire site with just a few clicks.

I can also make hidden galleries. so even if you are at my home page you will not find this gallery of silly random DIS board photos.

Mikeeee

So let me ask you this, since you probably know as much as anyone on here since you have a pro account; if the accounts give you unlimited storage and unlimited traffic, why would someone need smugmug vault? Just for RAW files?

 

[steery1]

The only things that concern me is can you password protect any of the pages, if I don't want the general public to have access to some of our family photos? Also, with the .22 cent per gig storage charge and the the upload charge of .31 cent per gig is kind of steep. I have 70 gigs of pictures right now so we're talking aout $15 a month for storage on the smugmug vault, and a charge of $21.70 to upload the photos, not to mention the cost of the subscription. Is that worth it?

Yes the vast majority of my galleries on Smugmug are "Unlisted" (hidden to everyone but me).
You can also "password protect" galleries so only someone you tell the password can view that gallery.
You can also hide individual photos within public galleries.
You should try it out you get a free two week trial I think. Thats what I did.

 

[steery1]

So let me ask you this, since you probably know as much as anyone on here since you have a pro account; if the accounts give you unlimited storage and unlimited traffic, why would someone need smugmug vault? Just for RAW files?

In a word - yes.
Smugmug doesn't support RAW files so I think they've done a deal with Amazon Web Services so their customers can back up their RAW, TIFF files.
Reckon thats why you pay Amazon for the service and not direct to Smugmug

 

[JR6ooo4]

So let me ask you this, since you probably know as much as anyone on here since you have a pro account; if the accounts give you unlimited storage and unlimited traffic, why would someone need smugmug vault? Just for RAW files?

I did not notice that it is unlimited traffic. when I signed up there was a limit.
my stats used to say 1 gig of bandwidth used out of XXX gigs. but I do not see the limit anymore.

for the vault, I believe it is any file you want backed up. word docs, autocad drawings, games, music etc...

I pay $50 a year for real time backup with carbonite. but it is not long term storage. as long as the file is on my computer it is on there server (which may also be amazon's). but once I delete it from my comp it only stays on their servers for 30 days. it is mostly designed for sudden losses like a hard drive crash.

Mikeeee