Hi guys,

 

I current have a site that I have designed for a photographer, and it was actually my first website I designed. The photographer has hundreds, literally hundreds of photos. At the time I began designing the website (over 6 months ago) I was very new to web design and did not have much coding experience at all.

 

Because of my lack of experience, I avoided creating photo galleries myself and found a flash gallery creator (Coffee Flash Galleries). It was ok at the time, but im now starting to think about actually designing it myself so that I can fully customize it to my satisfactory.

 

Thing is, I dont know where to start. Whats the best way to do this, especially when I have so many photographs in quite a few different categories.

 

If anyone could just direct me towards the best way I could do this, then I will research it.

 

(sorry if the thread seems a bit sluggish, im very tired at this time!)

 

Thanks

First I would think long and hard about how your photographer would like their website to work, how they want to navigate? how the photos will be displayed? what categories if any? how photos will be ordered?

 

Once you have this information you can start designing the database you will have to hold the photos, make sure this is normalised (to 3NF if possible). Use foreign keys to reach you normalised database.

 

Once you have this I would think about going through the steps to creating the website. The database will be crucial though. This will let you organise the whole thing sensibly. It will also allow you to manipulate data quickly and test other ideas quicker.

Thank you for your help, maybe it will be easier if I explain that the website is already up:

 

cambridgeimages [dot][com]

 

I dont want to mess up the SEO which is why I do not want to post the actual address.

 

Any suggestions, feedback or advice is welcome Its my first website and I am still learning lot about web design.

 

You will be able to see on the website that there are three main categories, Asia & Oceanic/Europe & Africa/The Americas. Within each of these categories, there are more categories that link the the actual flash gallery of each country.

Hope its ok to bump this.

 

Really need a solution if anyone can help

Are the photos all stored in a database already?

 

If you are learning you will need to decide which direction you want to go with the website. I would say to start looking into some php and mysql. Put all the photos into a database (time consuming but worth it), you can build scripts that will upload 100s of photos and resize them aswell. I made my brothers website Matt-lyon.com, this uses a database to keep the information about the photos.

 

Although this might not be what you require looks wise the point is that this can be changed to look any way I require but the information is always going to be the same!

 

I am struggling to see what you need help with sorry, is it the coding or the design ideas or the way in which a photographers website should work?

 

Andy

Hi,

I came across this interesting link wherein you can use Flash interactivities easily for web design. I hope these would be useful for you

http://www.raptivity.com/webexpert/

Thanks Andy, that's actually a good way to do something like this. I have no experience with php, so would definitely have to read up before I go and do this.

 

But there must be a way to put all of these photos in a database that is a bit quicker than manually doing them all, because compared to your brother's site, the one I am developing has a lot more photos.

 

It would take ages!

Hi!

 

Don`t you think you should do someting with the clog? It looks really bad...

Otherways the site is ok so keep up with the good work!

Yep I know about the blog, will be sorting that out soon. Im actually new to wordpress so have only recently read up on how to get it onto the website, also need to find a way to link the wordpress page back to my site...hope I dont have to pay extra money to do things like that with wordpress.

 

Thanks for the feedback

Worldpress is free to use. You can download themes for your blog just click here or you can make your style. I am not sure about how to link back the blog to your site.

Ok thanks, I did have a look at the CSS files in Wordpress but I think I need to read up on my CSS coding as I only know the basics and I was a bit confused when trying to change the theme to suit my photographer's site.

 

I like the idea of doing this gallery using php, because it would make it much easier to manage for the photographer...I assume he will simply be able to log into the database and add photos/descriptions with ease?

 

Also, with the php gallery database I could display it however I wish to?

 

I think I need to find out where to start with this, I have googled some tutorials and im a little confused where to begin with all of this. I will need a database to start with? Which I should be able to access via JustHost (the host of the site) as they have MySql in the c-panel, but if someone has a guide for a complete beginner at php could you direct me, would really appreciate it.

 

Also, seeing as there are around 500 photos does anyone have an idea of the sort of price I should charge the photographer once I actually know how to do this? Very new to the scene and dont want to be taken for a ride!

Yes you can display photos and descriptions with PHP + MySql however you wish to.

You don`t need a database for this job but it is recommended to use.

Your costumer will be ableto add photos and descriptions in database.

If you want to learn PHP buy a book on visit lynda.com

 

I can give a hand with that blog for a small price.

About price.

 

minimum £6 / hour... I would charge a bit more

Ok thanks, I think I did has a problem previously with installing php and mysql onto my computer as you need to set up a server, is that right? Anyway I never got round to completing the installation and would not know where to start because I had to make a lot of changes with my PC's settings so that it could work.

 

If I do have access to mysql via the c-panel with my host, I assume I would not need to install php or mysql onto my computer?

 

I just think I need mysql in-front of me so that I can learn how it works, books about coding do not work for me, prefer a more hands-on learning/trial & error. I'll have another look around Google for a decent beginners guide.

 

But it seems like this is what I need, a database where the photographer can upload his photographs without having to re-arrange the layout of the page. I think that would be the next thing to work out, how all of the information within the database transfers onto the web page without messing up the structure of the page.

 

I'll have a go at the blog, but its nice to know there's someone who can help should I have any problems.

 

Thanks, its amazing how much I have learned from this forum...

PHP and MySql insalling isn`t hard. You can find very usefull guides on MySql.com and PHP.net. It is recommenden to install both on your PC when you develop the site but you can upload the files every time on the server...

 

That website Lynda.com is good. I paid $30 - $40 / month for waching the videos.

 

I think the photographer will do a big mess with that database.

 

You have a lot of work with the gallery. Plese let me know when you need a hand with the blog.

 

Please vote my post if you like them! ( Green + sign on the right. )

Going to have a look into php and mysql tomorrow.

 

What makes you say he will make a mess?

 

I would really like to change this gallery, which is why im looking at php...but having no knowledge means I have a long way to go. But im determined to get my head around php because I can see it being very useful.

He can mess up the gallery if he doesn`t know what and how to do.

 

Please vote my posts above as well. Thanks!

How is your project going on?

Hey dude,

 

Not sure if it's a bit too late to stop you going down the PHP root, as like you I'm quite a novice with PHP. For my photography site that i built for someone, i used a gallery called flexigallery. You can have a look at it here

http://flashtech.com.ua/flexigallery-xml-flash-image-gallery.htm You can also look at it intergrated in my site at www.jasongold.org/fashion.

 

It's very simple to use and you can even teach the photographer how to use it (as I did with mine) all you have to do is upload the main size image and a thumnnail to your ftp and you have a .XML where you put the code in. The code for one image will look like this....

 

	<item>
		<image>fash3.jpg</image>
		<thumbnail>fash3t.jpg</thumbnail>
		<url>./images/full/fash3.jpg</url>
	</item>

 

Upload this file saved as .XML with the two images and it comes up like my gallery. If anyone could teach me how to make this gallery, would be brilliant.

 

Thanks,

Josh

Hi!

 

It is done in flash with XML database. Maybe i can help. Sorry i am busy now i will post again later.

Hi,

 

I'm interested in this post, specifically with regards SEO and database driven galleries.

 

I work with a friend here in Thailand producing 3D illustrations for various book publications in the UK.

 

Some years ago I put a gallery site together with hundreds of our Dino illustrations. I had no expertise and the site was badly put together as static html. The good thing however is that our images still do reasonably well on google image searches. (http://critters.pixel-shack.com)

 

A few years later I made another gallery website of my 3D artwork, this time however I went down the route of PHP/MYSql (http://rpgdigital.pixel-shack.com).It really is a nice way to work, and making updates to the gallery is a breeze. The downside though is that it's absolutely crap when it comes to google image searches.

 

It's come time to update the older static site, as we have hundreds of new images, and I'm thinking of sticking with the static site option, but with CSS and Javascript to enhance it.

 

Is this wrong?

 

Cheers

 

RLM