The basics

250 ADVANCED PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 5.0 FOR DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHERS
EXTENDING YOUR WEB
ABILITIES
I’m old enough to still remember the ubiquitous
‘black’ folio case. In fact I think my chiropractor
remembers it as well; I have been a regular client
ever since. It wasn’t just the weight of 30–40 matted
prints that made the task diffi cult; it was the unwieldy
size of the case that made touting the folder from offi ce
to offi ce a daunting task.
I’m happy to say that there is a new set of imagemakers
(professionals and amateurs alike) who have
no knowledge of my folio-carrying woes. The notion of
the folio still exists and remains the stable marketing
device of most creative professions, but the black case
may be gone forever. In its place is a cyberspace folio,
accessible any time, and place, for potential clients
or admirers, armed with nothing but a common web
browser.
Open 24/7
The web is a ‘godsend’ for photographers who are
eager to display their pictures. An on-line gallery
space which contains biographical and résumé details,
as well as a folio full of examples of past work, is like
having a personal promotions manager on hand 24
hours a day, 7 days a week. Never before has it been
possible to share your photographs with such ease or
obtain this much exposure of your talent and abilities
for such little cost.
Gone are the days where you have to send your
precious images to far fl ung parts of the country in
order to share that precious moment of little Johnnie’s
fi rst step. A few simple clicks from anywhere in the
world and Johnnie’s agility and prowess can be
admired by all.
Photo site styles
Photo sites come in all shapes and sizes and no matter
whether you are part of a multinational imaging
company or a weekend shooter who wants a few
images on a page, a little design thought early on will
Book resources at: www.adv-elements.com
Photo website styles
The style of the site you make will depend on the
nature of your work and the content that you
wish to share with the world.
Thumbnail and gallery >>
Prolifi c image-makers who want to keep an
archive of their work on-line will need to use a
design that allows many images to be previewed
before selecting a single picture to look at in
higher resolution. Usually referred to as a
‘thumbnail and gallery’ design, this is by far the
most popular form of photo website on the net
today.
Used by photographers, galleries and stock
agencies, this design is a great way to provide
quick access to a lot of pictures. Because of the
size of the thumbnails they download quickly and
placing a single image on individual gallery pages
also speeds up their display time. The format has
proved so popular that packages like Photoshop
Elements include automated wizards for creating
these type of photo sites.
On-line résumé >>
Professional image-makers saw the potential of
the web as a marketing tool very early in the life
of the net. They frequently use it to hold CV or
résumé information including lists of past and
present clients, contact details and, of course, a
few of their images. In fact, most shooters who
make a living from their pictures probably have a
site that is a combination of the thumbnail/gallery
type introduced above and the on-line résumé we
see here. This type of web presence is now a
necessity rather than a nicety for most
photographic businesses.
Slide show >>
In an interesting variation of the thumbnail/
gallery folio site, some image-makers have
dragged the automated slide show presentation
idea of old squarely into the 21st century. Using
interactive technologies like the Adobe Flash
format and the new animated web templates in
Elements, these photographers have created online
slide shows that display a changing sequence
of their best images.
All on one page >>
The simplest approach to making your own
website is to combine your images and text on
the one page. Doing so means that there is no
need to worry about making and linking extra
pages. This approach is handy for those who want
to give their audience a taste of their work and
then provide contact details for further
information, or for the photographer who wants
to establish a web presence quickly, before fi nally
linking the thumbnails to a range of gallery
pages.