Photographers' Guide to Web Publishing - Softcover

Saunders, Charles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1861083521 ISBN 13: 9781861083524

Publisher: Guild of Master Craftsman Publications Ltd, 2004

Synopsis

This insightful title provides photographers with a succinct and intelligent overview of the technical expertise required to build a professional-looking web presence, without the need for sophisticated or expensive equipment. The author's jargon-free approach seeks to encourage readers with only basic computer skills, and where more-technical aspects are introduced, they are done so gradually. The book's contents are divided into two main sections, each tailored to suit the particular requirements of photographers and photography websites. 1: The first part provides a general introduction to the Internet, its capabilities and limitations, and to website design and planning. 2: The second part moves on to the specifics of web publishing, including: Creating your first web page; Combining text & graphics; Using HTML & JavaScript; Using tables to control layout; Publishing your website; Getting noticed; Legal issues

About this title

From the Author

I don't know many photographers that like to hide their work away. Even if they show it only to friends and family - who can normally be relied upon for uncritical comments - there still remains a great desire to display our photographic endeavors to a wider public.

Within a few days of publishing my first photographic web site dedicated to black and white photography, I started receiving comments literally from around the world. I was hooked. The idea that my images, developed and printed in a converted garage in Southern England, UK, one day, could be viewed in New England, US, the next astonished me. At around the same time, I was invited to join my local photographic society. Don’t get me wrong; I love talking about photography whilst sharing a beer and regaling tales about the one that ‘got away’, but my interests are fairly eccentric. Monochrome medium format photography using 30-year-old rangefinder cameras for photojournalism simply doesn’t have mass appeal, especially at the club’s highlight of the year, a small display in the town center library. Oh, and they wanted money as well. So instead I found myself favoring the 'virtual world' where I could find kindred spirits and it wasn't long before I was a photographic web-publishing addict. I was soon getting constructive reviews from expert photographers around the globe; a wealth of ideas for new photographic projects; I saw stunning examples of other photographer's work that I would otherwise never have seen and I gained tremendous technical support for the sort of eclectic cameras I liked to use. These are just some of the benefits of being part of an online community.

As I soon discovered, it is remarkably easy to build a photographic web site. It is even easier to build a bad one. Surf the Internet for a few hours and you'll soon notice a huge disparity between the qualities of differing photographic sites.

The purpose of this book is to help you think about the creative process behind web design and to give you specific examples that you might like to apply to your own site. There are plenty of books on the market that can teach you how to write the program code to create a web site. Similarly, there are books you can buy on good web design. However, there are fewer books available that discuss good web design, give solid examples in plain English for the non-technical reader AND do so in the context of photographic web publishing. This is the rationale for the book. At a later date the reader may elect to study more technical texts on the topic area, but my hope is that the material contained here will make that particular experience a little less painful.

Assuming this is your first foray into creating a web site, your expectations of what you might like to build should change after reading the first half of the book - at least that's the theory. The book is divided into two main parts. Part One is about understanding the Internet's capabilities and importantly, its limitations. Good designs recognize and overcome these restrictions and though it is indeed theory, after reading this section you should have a much better appreciation of how your site might be engineered to be both effective and efficient. As in all aspects of design, there is no 'right way' and inevitably, some of the content boils down to personal belief. Nevertheless, I have attempted present many opinions in as balanced a manner as possible. Part Two on the other hand is about rolling up your sleeves and writing the code necessary to create and publish a simple photographic web site. There's less room for debate, it either works or it doesn't. The temptation for most people must surely be to flick ahead to Part Two and start tinkering with your images and favored web-authoring tool. I put myself into this category and so my suggestion is that if you feel you really must start coding, do so using the samples provided and resist the temptation to upload anything to the web until you have read Part One.

Edition details

• Publisher: Guild of Master Craftsman Publications Ltd
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1861083521
• ISBN 13: 9781861083524
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 180