The first 10 Tips for Designing Photoblogs talked about how best to design a photoblog. However, it didn’t properly cover how to design and organize the actual images. That’s what we’re going to do now.
8 More Tips for Your Pictures
- Organize your photos. If your images have variety between them, it’s worth taking the time to categorize them clearly. For example, by type (Color or greyscale?) or by subject (People, Places etc). Tags would allow you to use a whole range of classifications.
- Let me choose the photos. As a viewer, I don’t want to see every single photo. Only the ones that interest me. Thumbnails are a great way of giving a quick preview of a large number of images at once. Take a look at the wealth of thumbnails all over the Epic Edits blog.
- AJAX and Flash are great. We talked before about how a fast loading time for browsing between the photos is extremely important. AJAX and Flash allow you to load the next photo, without reloading the rest of the page. Perfect. Check out Matt Stuart’s portfolio.
- You can be as creative as your photography is. Fast-loading images are still the most important thing, but that doesn’t have to hold you back. I could play around on Michael Muller’s site all day!
- Scrolling horizontally works. It’s strange to think of scrolling a webpage horizontally, not vertically, but for photos it can work. At the very least, it’s different. Try it on Nicolas Henri’s portfolio..
- Use different sizes of image. There is no one-size-fits-all. Ideally, 3 sizes are what you should offer. The first is the thumbnail navigation, the second is a medium sized image on the page (Suitable for regular browsing), and the third is a full-size image (For viewers to truly appreciate their favorite shots).
- If you sell print versions of your photos, make it clear. There is no point in hiding your purchasing options down where no-one will see them, but nor do you need to explain everything on every photo page. What about a noticeable “Print Available” button linking to a sales page for that item? It works for Deviant Art.
- Display your best photos. Many photographers upload a lot of photos on a regular basis. With such a full archive, your best photos will be lost in the crowd. Highlight your favorites and give users a method of scrolling through them (e.g. A “Best” tag). Let readers see what you’re capable of.
Those are my ideas for a perfect photoblog. What else can you think of? Any examples of well laid out galleries?
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goldfries. (3 comments)23 December 07
My personal blog is some isn’t exactly a photo blog but I custom made a gallery that works with Wordpress.
David Airey (55 comments)23 December 07
Hi Michael,
Just a quick note to say I hope all’s well with you this Christmas. I’ve missed blogging during the past month, but had an excellent break in India.
Ciao for now.
Brian Auer (3 comments)23 December 07
Oooooh, more great stuff Michael! I’m definitely thinking along the lines of many of your points (especially the thumbnail stuff), and definitely displaying purchasing options very prominently — since that’s the whole point of my upcoming photoblog.
PhotographyVoter.com (1 comments)23 December 07
8 tips for laying out a photoblog with navigation and usability in mind.
Michael Martin (1286 comments)24 December 07
Goldfries – You did? Share the link. It sounds cool.
David – Thank you. I’m glad to hear your holiday went well. It’s just a shame that you had to come back to find some fool messing with your business.
Brian – Another new project? You’re going to be busy.
jsanderz (6 comments)24 December 07
Great tips Michael,
However, the one I am not sure about is ‘Scrolling horizontally works’, I don’t feel that it is as natural as vertical scrolling. But that is just my personal view.
Regards.
Michael Martin (1286 comments)24 December 07
Jsanderz – It does feel less natural, but I quite liked that to be honest. I guess it’s a personal preference. I can’t think of any particular advantage to going horizontal, save for the fact that it’s quite unique.
jsanderz (6 comments)24 December 07
Yes,
Michael you are right it is different, it might attract more readers to the site, who knows.
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Jsanderz
goldfries. (3 comments)25 December 07
http://www.goldfries.com/inperson/mygallery/
Chris Lee (1 comments)26 December 07
Nice idea. Thanks for the tips! :^)
Forrest (25 comments)26 December 07
I’m a big fan of categories, tags, and even Google maps.
You’re right; Muller’s site is great! Very strange, but incredibly unique, and pretty easy to pick up on.
Michael Martin (1286 comments)27 December 07
Merry Christmas to you too jsanderz!
Goldfries – That gallery rocks. Plenty of thumbnails which I always like to see.
Chris – No problem.
Forrest – Google maps is a great tool. No “How To Find Us” page should be without it.
kristarella (141 comments)28 December 07
When Pixelpost first included tags I thought I didn’t want to use them and just stuck with my categories (there weren’t that many of them). However I found an addon to easily tag all my old photos and now I love tags! Some of my photos aren’t even categorised anymore (probably not a good thing), if I think of a decent name for a default category I could put them in there. They’re all tagged though.
Muller’s site sure was different, and creative. Took me a minute to figure out how to use it!
The horizontal scroll is ok, although I suspect most couldn’t pull it off.
It would be nice to offer large, medium and thumb viewing. I don’t think my photoblog software has a system for doing that. I’ll look into it though.
For me, the examples you’ve used are more like websites than blogs. They’ve got a creative way of presenting their content, they might update regularly or they might not, but they don’t seem like sites that you’d go to everyday for something new. I couldn’t see ways to subscribe to the content. Don’t get me wrong, they’re awesome sites – that’s why I wanted to subscribe to them! Anywho, just an observation.
mark (13 comments)28 December 07
Good article Michael, do you store your photos on a dedicated image server like Photobucket or something?
Michael Martin (1286 comments)28 December 07
Kristarella – I noticed very few subscription options as well. That’s why I had to mention that in the previous post. It’s something that most of those sites really do need to get sorted.
Mark – I personally would just host them on my own webspace+software. If I didn’t have a website (Or feel the need for one), then I would Flickr because of it’s social capabilities and massive userbase.