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I know many of the people develop their own web sites, and that's fine if you want to invest the time. Unfortunately, I barely get time enough to take photographs, so I would rather get something out of the box.

I came across a photographer's website and found it was hosted on wix.com. And after some digging, I found a nice template for a photographer website. Does anyone use this or any other resource that allows for simple and fast creation and administration of a website to display my photographs?

I use Picasa for sharing with friends and family. I'm looking for more of a proper face to my photography where I can post select images and maybe flourish into a storefront down the road. A secure section for uploading client images would be great. Then that's everything I can ever need.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Is this a duplicate? photo.stackexchange.com/questions/295/… \$\endgroup\$
    – Reid
    Commented Jan 23, 2011 at 18:24
  • \$\begingroup\$ Can you clarify if this looking to have your own site, that may be hosted, or for sites for photo sharing? \$\endgroup\$
    – Joanne C
    Commented Jan 23, 2011 at 18:55
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Reid not sure if this is more "what do I install to make it simple to build websites to show my protfolio off / allow clients to view", rather than "what hosted solution can I use to share a few photos with friends" \$\endgroup\$
    – Rowland Shaw
    Commented Jan 23, 2011 at 18:56
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Reid No, I don't think so. If I am not mistaken, kacalapy is looking for a template to produce his own website that he can host on his own domain name. Something like flickr would be inappropriate for that. I am also looking for something like this - I bought a domain name recently and have been looking for a template to easily build my own photo site. \$\endgroup\$
    – rm999
    Commented Jan 23, 2011 at 18:58
  • \$\begingroup\$ OK, that makes sense. Thanks for the clarification. \$\endgroup\$
    – Reid
    Commented Jan 23, 2011 at 19:28

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I use Flickr, but Smugmug it's a lot nicer if you have the money... It's very nice and you can sell your images through their site.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Smugmug has been the best site I've used, by far. \$\endgroup\$
    – mmr
    Commented Jan 23, 2011 at 19:08
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Based on your edit, it seems like SmugMug would be an excellent option. They have easy options for setting up portions for client pricing and can handle alot of the backend stuff (printing, shipping, etc).

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    \$\begingroup\$ I was on SmugMug and there is a lot that is truly excellent about it... Until I wanted to customize it (not 'light' customization, I mean really customize it). The way that SmugMug gives users to customize is a royal PITA, and I found it was far easier for me to go elsewhere in order to accomplish what I needed. Now for the majority of users- those who aren't running a business and need strong branding and customization- SmugMug is awesome, and is probably all you'll ever need... \$\endgroup\$
    – Jay Lance Photography
    Commented Jan 25, 2011 at 1:22
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    \$\begingroup\$ On the other hand, if you're not someone who can 'leave well enough alone' and simply use the themes they provide... You may be very frustrated. \$\endgroup\$
    – Jay Lance Photography
    Commented Jan 25, 2011 at 1:23
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I haven't used it before, but I have heard good things about pixelpost: http://www.pixelpost.org/

Pixelpost is an open-source, standards-compliant, multi-lingual, fully extensible photoblog application for the web. Anyone who has web-space that meets the requirements can download and use Pixelpost for free!

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Is this the site you ended up using for your photography? \$\endgroup\$
    – kacalapy
    Commented Jan 23, 2011 at 20:04
  • \$\begingroup\$ No, I haven't setup a site yet, but I plan to in the near future. A couple of my friends use pixelpost and I like how their sites function/look. \$\endgroup\$
    – rm999
    Commented Jan 23, 2011 at 20:21
  • \$\begingroup\$ Unless you have a really good reason to want to manage your own code and server there are a lot of great hosted photo services out there. Especially at the pro level you should consider a hosted solution for its uptime, redundancy and customer support for your clients. \$\endgroup\$
    – Shizam
    Commented Jan 23, 2011 at 21:07
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    \$\begingroup\$ I'm honestly surprised nobody has created a platform that leverages both. You'd have software that controls the layout as fine as you like that you run on your own server and it pulls all the content from a hosted solution using its API. That way you get your OCD level of control plus all the redundancy, speed and CDN etc from a hosted service.... business opportunity cough \$\endgroup\$
    – Shizam
    Commented Jan 24, 2011 at 0:02
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    \$\begingroup\$ From a software developer's point of view I'd not recommend pixelpost - it was last updated in 2009 and has minimum PHP and MySQL requirements that are seriously outdated. \$\endgroup\$
    – chiborg
    Commented Aug 23, 2012 at 12:43
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I have used zenfolio for the last few months, its nice and easy to use and set up, clean templates and you can sell your images via them as well. I chose them specifically for the option to have protected galleries for clients.

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I used to have my own CMS, which I wrote specific to my purposes, but ultimately decided to go with Wordpress in combination with the NexGen gallery plugin. I've been happy with it and, if you don't have the hardware to host your own, Wordpress offers hosting. I'm running directly myself, easy as pie to maintain.

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I've been using Photoshelter for the last few years, it isn't the cheapest solution out there, but I believe it is the best. The customer service is great and it makes it easy to sell your images as both prints and electronic files.

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You may want to look at 500px.com as far as I know you can link your domain to it.

Another option may be a wordpress.com hosted blog with a portfolio/photoblog template. You can link a domain name to that and you can customize the themes to a certain extent.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ 500px is nice - got an account there as well. One notice: Free users have an upload limit per week or month, or was it day? Having said that, that isn't necessarily bad as it makes you more selective. The last time I checked a paid for account was 50 Dollars per year - and I think that is required for using your own domain on the portfolio part of their site. \$\endgroup\$
    – DetlevCM
    Commented Sep 5, 2012 at 16:31
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I use Piwigo, it's dead easy and has many plugins, themes, and options. It's also free and open-source if that matters to you (if not it certainly won't get in your way). You can use it with your own hosting, or pay Piwigo to host and manage your site.

From their website:

"Piwigo is a photo gallery software for the web, built by an active community of users and developers.

Extensions make Piwigo easily customizable. Icing on the cake, Piwigo is free and opensource."

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I found Zenphoto to be a nice, php based photo-gallery platform:

http://www.zenphoto.org/

It is customizable but not too bloated.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I like Zenphoto and have it on my own website. The one thing I lack in Zenphoto is a way of embedding photos externally (even for myself), but as a pure gallery it is a great package. \$\endgroup\$
    – DetlevCM
    Commented Sep 5, 2012 at 16:29
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You might want to try Squarespace as a hosting platform. You get your own website with a great WYSIWYG editor and a bunch of slick portfolio themes/layouts to use.

You even get a 14 day trial without the need for a credit card. So you can try the whole service for free.

I use squarespace and love it. Plus their customer support is amazing. You can't bring a squarespace site down.

squarespace.com

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If you are subscribe to Adobe's Photography CC plan for Lightroom/Photoshop it may be worth checking out Portfolio for your website, as it is included within the plan. https://www.myportfolio.com

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