Web Site Design for Professional Photographers is aimed at the photographer who wishes to put up his/her own website and maintain it. It is also useful for non-photographers who intend to create websites for professional photographers. The focus is on displaying photos on the Web professionally.
In the book, the Roses describe what it takes to successfully launch a website, from design concept to actually putting it live on the Internet. They discuss design elements that make up a good photography website and they teach you step-by-step how to create your own web pages that display your photographs in the most appealing way.
The authors quite wisely avoided discussing HTML to make a website and the source code that goes underneath. Many people who want to start their own websites are put off by the jargon. The book chose a painless approach to write web pages.
Can you do websites without learning HTML? Nowadays, you can with the help of WYSIWYG editors like FrontPage or Dreamweaver. But it helps to understand what’s under the hood, so make it your responsibility to learn basic HTML if you haven’t yet done so. It’s not programming by any stretch of the imagination, it’s just coding and quite easy to grasp. Knowledge of HTML will also come in handy when troubleshooting time comes.
While doing away with any in-depth discussion of coding, the authors took a painless path of introducing you to two applications that let you write web pages without coding. They describe both Microsoft’s FrontPage and Adobe’s Dreamweaver but ultimately chose FrontPage to walk you through the process.
The book also gives you a few basic tips about Photoshop; not so much about enhancing your images (the authors assume you did that already as a professional photographer) but about making those elements that are very valuable for your website, like creating backgrounds, navigation buttons, text logos, image logos and many others.
After showing you how to make your website, the book also steps you through securing a domain name and uploading your site. It even describes a few marketing strategies for the Internet and how to register your site with search engines so prospective clients can find it quickly.
One small note: the download described in the book (p.11) does not work. Use this URL instead, http://www.amherstmedia.com/1Templates.zip, to access the templates mentioned in the book.
Web Site Design for Professional Photographers: Step-by-Step Techniques for Designing and Maintaining a Successful Web Site, by Paul Brooks Rose and Jean Holland-Rose, Amherst Media, 8½ x 11, $29.95 USA, $44.95 Canada.
Table of Contents
About the Authors
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Goals
What You Need
Additional Materials
1. Getting Started
Becoming Your Own Site Designer
Making Changes to an Existing Web Site
Software Tools – Microsoft FrontPage, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Flash
2. Elements for Success
Background Color and Design – Choosing a Background Color, Background Selection
Logo
Image Display – Thumbnail, Slide Shows, Collage
Menu Bar – Plain Text Links, Backlighting Menu Bar, Javascript Buttons, DHTML Drop-down Menu, Flash Software Elements
Interactive Elements – Information Form, Linking to Other Web Sites, Text to Capture Your Target Audience
3. Photoshop Techniques
The Basics
Creating a Gradient Background
Creating a Textured Background
Creating the Round Button
Creating the Rectangular Button
Creating the Cylindrical Button
Creating a Text Logo
Creating a Logo Using an Image
Optional Border
Creating Thumbnail Images for a Gallery Slide Show – Method #1: Shrink the Entire Image, Method #2: Cut Out a Square Portion of the Image
Creating a Photo Collage
4. Gallery Display
Thumbnail to Slide Show Gallery – Using the Downloadable Template, Making Your Own Template
Photojournalism Collage Gallery
On-Line Teaching Gallery
5. Building Your Web Site with FrontPage
Creating the Web
Set the Home Page Background
Create the Navigation Menu
Add an E-Mail Link
Insert the Images
Defining the Gallery Pages – Frames, Load Time
Creating the Gallery – The Menu Page, The Gallery Template, Create the Gallery Pages, Create the Frame Pages, Link the Gallery Pages
The Information Response/Reply Form – Design the Form Page, Add the E-Mail Function
The Final Step
6. Making the Web Work for You
Web Master’s Tools – Domain Name Registration, Obtaining Hosting Services, Recording Domain Server Addresses with your Registrar
Search Engines – Title Tag, Keyword Tag, Description Tag, Header Tag
Submit Your Web Site to Search Engines
7. Updating Your Web Site
FTP
Updating Images – Uploading an Image
Conclusion
Do
Do Not
Contributors
Glossary
Index