Forums | MacLife

Erin · 2003-01-20 9:23 pm

My dad's boss is a photographer in his spare time... he found out from my dad that I am also a photographer, in addition to my day job as a web & graphic designer. Upon learning this, my dad's boss asked my dad if I might design a web site for him to sell his images. So... I find myself now with a job I couldn't say no to... roll I don't really have a lot of extra time to do this, but I don't really have much choice, so here I go.

I need some advice... he wants a fairly simple website. Since he will be selling traditional black & white, painstakingly printed in the darkroom images, he doesn't expect to sell a lot of prints. But he has a book coming out later this year and he also sells poster prints. He doesn't want to take online orders in the typical sense, since he doesn't have the means (or the desire) to accept credit card payments. He prefers to have a paper form printed out and mailed to him with a check. He expects to put up between 50 and 100 images for sale.

I need to set up the web hosting for him in addition to designing and maintaing the site. I also need to advise him on how to go about digitizing the images. Since much manipulation is done in printing, scanning the negative is not really an option as the final print will look different. Fortunately some of his images will already be digitized for the book, but as many as another 50 need to be digitized. Some of his prints are small enough to be scanned on my flatbed scanner, but the rest are 11x14 or larger. I suggested shooting copy slides and scanning those, but he is not pleased with the quality those provide. (Even though I suggested that any color casting or other problems could be corrected in Photoshop.) Any one else have any suggestions about how to digitize his larger prints?

I am also looking for suggestions on where to go for web hosting. He doesn't need a host with a lot of bells and whistles (2 email accounts will be plenty), but I am guessing we will need probably 100 MB of space. I would like to find something very affordable for him. (I think he would probably be okay with $100 or less a year.) Also, as I am more a designer than a programmer, I am not even sure what I might need out of a server. On that note, I am also looking for suggestions on how to create the order form. I would like for people to be able to check a box next to the image/s indicating what size print or poster they would like as they browse through them and when they are done, click a button that would take them to a page where they could fill in other information, click submit, and then go to a page they could print out and mail in with a check.

Sorry for the long winded post, but I haven't tackled a project like this before. (At work I just design the pages and post them to the server they chose!)

Thanks!

digital_elf · 2003-01-22 8:33 pm

no one wants his photos tongue lol twisted cool

sorry for no helpful advise

Nefarious · 2003-01-22 9:46 pm

It can sound like a job which can use as much as a whole day every 10 days if you are going to use HTML editors.

You might consider making him use iPhoto to make automatic websites or some other shareware.

As far as digitizing photos, mm. I just use a digital camera.

Scott · 2003-01-23 5:40 am

Since he is making the prints, just have him make smaller prints specifically for use in scanning. (or have him buy a good digital camera and stand to shoot them... or sub it out, but really just making smaller prints will be the easiest and least expensive.)

Payment:
Paypal or just have a phone number. No sense in creating some complex system that goes nowhere. Especially since this just sounds like a pretty minor thing. Chances are slim for selling prints online anyway, most people won't use a site that has a complex ordering system (print, fill out, mail.. etc.) Give them prices and a phone number. Building a shopping cart system may be overkill.

Hosting:
There are thousands of options. I have used ait.com for about six years. They have killer set-ups, but may be overkill. They are sucessful, stable and gonna be around in the future. It's hard to say that about a lot of the little outfits.

Erin · 2003-01-23 10:14 am

I suppose I probably should have specified that my dad's boss is an older gentleman so his technical sophistication is small. I mean, he photographs his landscapes in the method of Ansel Adams and the other large format landscape photographers of that time. So he isn't comfortable with the concept of electronic payments. I understand that people like to pay for things online with a credit card and don't want to mail off a check, but he's the client and this is how he wants to do things.

Oh well, thanks anyway.

chl0525 · 2003-01-29 4:15 pm

I set up my mother's site. She repairs dolls and sells clothing, shoes, etc. (www.sherrysterrileedollclinic.com). It was (and still is) my first site. Every thing I did was fumbling along in the dark. But I eventually figured it out and it was not as hard as I thought it would be. Her site is not fancy but it gets the job done and she likes it.

We have contact information so that her customers can send her an email with the items they want. I did not list her phone number, there are just too many wierdo's out there.

Anyway, my point is that you don't have to make things automated for ordering. Just make it clear on the home page that customers need to contact your employer to place an order. Have them drop him an email. It's a simple enough link to set up and my mom is doing a booming business.

Good luck. [/url]

Forums | MacLife

#1 2003-01-20 9:23 pm

Need some advice... Setting up a website for a photographer

#2 2003-01-22 8:33 pm

Re: Need some advice... Setting up a website for a photographer

#3 2003-01-22 9:46 pm

Re: Need some advice... Setting up a website for a photographer

#4 2003-01-23 5:40 am

Re: Need some advice... Setting up a website for a photographer

#5 2003-01-23 10:14 am

Re: Need some advice... Setting up a website for a photographer

#6 2003-01-29 4:15 pm

Re: Need some advice... Setting up a website for a photographer

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