I finished my 365 project back in September, but I've still been posting photos now and then whenever I shoot something that I consider a personal achievement. I have learned SO much since I joined 365 and everyday I strive to be better! I don't know if I'll ever be a "pro," but I definitely want to keep improving.
Anyway, I'd like to showcase my best work on a site other than Facebook. Does anyone have any recommendations of portfolio sites they like and trust? I'm still very new to this "world" and I don't want to put my photos just anywhere.
I use Carbonmade for my art portfolio (oil paintings and pastels), but there is a space limit, and I'd prefer not to make two sites.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks, and good luck to all you amazing photographers! I check the PP every time I'm on here and I'm always so impressed!
Flickr is probably one of the better sites for interaction with other photographers, rather than friends (if you're anything like me, the majority of your contacts on Facebook aren't photographers).
It is getting a bit long in the tooth now, and is clearly lacking in either the funds and/or the technical skill to really move forward -- a lot of the original programmers have either been fired or moved on. It took them until earlier this month for their lightbox mode to start displaying photos that would fill the browser window, for instance, which is shocking for a site with 5 billion photos on it (but then this site doesn't take any awards in that respect either!)
So all in all, it feels ripe for some young up-and-coming site to usurp it, but at the moment, it's probably one of the best ways to present a portfolio of photographs and have them seen. There are a few other good contenders -- 500px has a nice interface and some stunning photos, but I find driving interaction on them is a real challenge -- one of my favourite photos of the last couple of weeks has 195 views and 10 favourites on Flickr -- and on 500px, it's had 3 views in the same period. However, if you plan to direct people to your photos, rather than have people discover them on their own, then it's worth taking a look.
Well, thank you everyone for your valuable input! I will check out everything suggested. I really appreciate it!
My basic goal is to create a digital portfolio. Not really a networking site or a blog, but simply a personal "website" that will display my photos against a solid color and contain them in categories that I customize myself. I hope I can find something that will work for this personal preference. Thanks again! =)
It's definitely worth taking a look at 500px then. Sets (and in a couple of months, portfolios) are limited to paying members, but it does do a nice job of displaying your photos, and gives you a nice simple URL to give people.
You can also choose different display themes, and if you have your own domain name can even use that to point to your portfolio. It's worth having a play while it's free to use the portfolio feature.
An example portfolio (mine) is here -- I don't use it much and I'm not a paying member, so I don't have many photos, nor have organised them into sets.
@abirkill Oh, thank you Alexis, that is fantastic! Pretty much exactly what I was picturing! I will look into the paying feature too. If it's not too expensive, I may consider it. =)
I use SmugMug as well and am quite pleased with it. I switched there from PBase several years ago when the latter was having a ton of stability issues.
@abirkill Thank you for the info, does 500px allows private galleries/sets or password protected sets? It didn't when I first looked at it. I definitely like everything about it otherwise. I use flickr, but the website design is quite ugly in my opinion
I'm pretty happy with jux.com, I display my ever changing personal favourites there. https://eddieoliver.jux.com/ There are no sets or anything, they have just added a comments feature, this site is being developed constantly as per the users input which is refreshing, I just like the layout. it easy enough to use and I actually preferred it pre comments. Its refreshing being able to display and judge your work on its own merits as oppose to just leaving something up your not keen on because it got 30 comments and a handful of favs.
They market themselves as a place to put your best stuff and you can sell through them too. Also has the whole social network/forums/comments/favs functionalities.
Not limited to photos either...any artwork really, and you can sell things like calendars, and even iphone covers!
I use zenfolio. When I was looking for something more than the free photo-hosting sites I checked out pbase, phanfare, zenfolio and smugmug. The first 3 offered a free 30 day trial - at the time smugmug was quite a bit more expensive - it offered more services but I don't use them, so the extra cost seemed to be a waste for me.
You can choose different backgrounds, but I prefer black. If you are interested, feel free to explore my gallery and the albums I've set up. They aren't all that well organized and I really should cull out some photos in a couple of them. http://www.mtngal.zenfolio.com
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deviant art?
if you want your paintings and photos together then bluecanvas.com
It is getting a bit long in the tooth now, and is clearly lacking in either the funds and/or the technical skill to really move forward -- a lot of the original programmers have either been fired or moved on. It took them until earlier this month for their lightbox mode to start displaying photos that would fill the browser window, for instance, which is shocking for a site with 5 billion photos on it (but then this site doesn't take any awards in that respect either!)
So all in all, it feels ripe for some young up-and-coming site to usurp it, but at the moment, it's probably one of the best ways to present a portfolio of photographs and have them seen. There are a few other good contenders -- 500px has a nice interface and some stunning photos, but I find driving interaction on them is a real challenge -- one of my favourite photos of the last couple of weeks has 195 views and 10 favourites on Flickr -- and on 500px, it's had 3 views in the same period. However, if you plan to direct people to your photos, rather than have people discover them on their own, then it's worth taking a look.
My basic goal is to create a digital portfolio. Not really a networking site or a blog, but simply a personal "website" that will display my photos against a solid color and contain them in categories that I customize myself. I hope I can find something that will work for this personal preference. Thanks again! =)
You can also choose different display themes, and if you have your own domain name can even use that to point to your portfolio. It's worth having a play while it's free to use the portfolio feature.
An example portfolio (mine) is here -- I don't use it much and I'm not a paying member, so I don't have many photos, nor have organised them into sets.
http://abirkill.500px.com
https://eddieoliver.jux.com/ There are no sets or anything, they have just added a comments feature, this site is being developed constantly as per the users input which is refreshing, I just like the layout. it easy enough to use and I actually preferred it pre comments. Its refreshing being able to display and judge your work on its own merits as oppose to just leaving something up your not keen on because it got 30 comments and a handful of favs.
here is my site on virb so you can see how it looks. They have a bunch of different themes/color schemes you can use though: www.jlvart.com
http://www.redbubble.com
They market themselves as a place to put your best stuff and you can sell through them too. Also has the whole social network/forums/comments/favs functionalities.
Not limited to photos either...any artwork really, and you can sell things like calendars, and even iphone covers!
You can choose different backgrounds, but I prefer black. If you are interested, feel free to explore my gallery and the albums I've set up. They aren't all that well organized and I really should cull out some photos in a couple of them.
http://www.mtngal.zenfolio.com