Here’s another stay home project for you to work on this month. It’s time to build yourself a little online photo gallery to showcase your images.
Why build an online gallery?
The benefits of making yourself an online gallery are many.
First, it may be outside your comfort zone to share your images and put them out there for the entire world to see. So by building an online gallery, it forces you to do so.
Be vulnerable, be brave. It will help you improve your confidence in your photography and yourself.
Secondly, it will force you to be selective and only choose your very best images to display.
You want to put your best foot forward and in the case of a portfolio or gallery, fewer images are better.
Don’t put 500+ images into one gallery because your best ones will not only be lost in a sea of photos, but it will make people’s eyes glaze over because it’s too overwhelming.
Lastly, it also forces you to go through the culling or selection process, and then to actually edit your images.
If you haven’t done much in this area, it presents you with an opportunity to learn how to do it now. There’s no better time to start than today.
How do you make an online gallery?
There are many ways you can go about making your gallery. Here are a few options.
#1 – Build an actual website
This is obviously the most work but if you use something like Wix or Squarespace it can be fairly simple. But if all you want is a nice place to display your images it’s like overkill, and there is a cost for those options.
#2 – Use a social media site
If you want to keep it really simple you can use one of your profiles on a social media site to make your photo gallery.
Facebook allows you to make albums so you could set it up that way. Or you can even make a Facebook Page for yourself. You don’t need a business name or anything just use “Your Name Photography” at the page title. Just go to this page and select Community of Public Figure and fill in the blanks like so.
#3 – Use Adobe Portfolio
If you pay the monthly subscription plan for Lightroom and Photoshop, the good news is that you can also use Adobe Portfolio at no extra cost. As indicated on their page it allows you to create unlimited pages and includes hosting for your little gallery.
#4 – Get a Membership with a Photo Sharing Site
There are several options here ranging in price from free to about $100 a year. Look at the benefits of each and see which works best for you.
Flickr
I used to use Flickr but have not used it much in years. You can opt for the free Flickr membership, but that is limited to 1000 images uploaded total. If you just want an online gallery that may be all you need.
If you go for the upgrade to Pro you can unlimited storage and discounts at some popular vendors including Smugmug who own Flickr now. Pro will cost you $7.99/month (or $5.49/month paid annually) though. If you need more space and want to save all your images online as an extra backup I’d actually recommend getting a SmugMug Power Account instead.
500px
This one I do NOT recommend!
500px used to be a great site, and I knew the editor.
However, 500px was sold in early 2018 to a Chinese photo agency and there have been rumors of them selling photographers images that were posted on the site without their permission or compensation. Avoid it, there are other options.
SmugMug
SmugMug is one you have to pay for but the prices are very reasonable for the lowest tier, and you get a lot for your money.
For their Basic plan, it will run you just $48 (save 15% if you use this special link) per year which gives you unlimited photo uploads, a way for family and friends to order prints of your photos directly from your gallery, and more.
This is the option I recommend if you can swing it.
You get a really nice gallery, a way to store and share all your photos and the best thing is that it’s super easy! I was able to sign up and create several image galleries in less than an hour.
This is the online gallery I made, have a look.
SmugMug has given me links for you to get 15% off the regular prices. That works out to the prices shown below (all prices are in USD and apply if paid annually, slightly higher rates apply if you pay monthly):
- $40.80 USD per year (regular $48) for the Basic plan – a simple safe place to share and save/backup your photos.
- $61.20/year (regular $72) for the Power plan – gives you more customization and control of how your gallery looks.
- $153.00/year (regular $180) for the Portfolio plan – choose this one if you are ready to start selling your photos.
- $306.00/year (regular $360) for the Pro plan – includes a full set of all the extra tools that professional photographers need.
Make your gallery for this stay home challenge
To participate in this stay home photography challenge you just need to make a small gallery containing the best of your images. You can use any of the platforms or sites mentioned. Select your favorite images and make a gallery to showcase them.
To participate in this challenge you just need to:
- Create your online gallery using whichever platform and method you choose
- Share the URL (link) to your gallery in the comment area below so we can see it.
- If you wish – upload a screenshot of your gallery as well in your comment.
So get busy, let’s see those galleries!
Cheers,
Disclaimer: I am an affiliate partner of SmugMug and as such get a referral or affiliate commission on any sales using my link. You, in turn, get to save 15% off the regular price and a lovely new gallery. As you can see I’ve made my own new travel photography gallery using SmugMug and I only ever recommend things I have tried and use myself!
