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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Simpleviewer Pro vs. E(2) Gallery Pro
Stephen Brashear, Photographer, Assistant
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Seattle | WA | USA | Posted: 7:04 PM on 02.05.10 |
| ->> I'm looking at upgrading from Simpleviewer for my photo galleries. I want something that is a little bit more customizable than the free version of Simpleviewer. I'm not looking for a website company at this point (I'm a glutton for punishment and enjoy taking three hours to make a change that would take a web developer 30 seconds that I I spent my web design money on beer). I'm considering E(2) Gallery Pro (http://www.e2interactive.com/e2-gallery-pro/), which is a javascipt browser or Simpleviewer Pro, which is a lot more customizable than the free version of Simpleviewer. Simpleviewer Pro is flash-based (http://www.simpleviewer.net/simpleviewer/pro/). I was wondering if anyone out there has experiences with both. I like the idea of the javascript gallery (viewable by mobile devices), but I'm concerned that the pictures transition slowly and I'm not sure if it is because the originals are too big and it has to resize them every time. Simpleviewer seems to have faster transitions and it flash. It also has a builder interface (http://www.simpleviewer.net/simpleviewer/pro/support/svbuilder.html). Did I mention Simpleviewer is flash? If any one out there has other suggestions let me know. Any help is greatly appreciated. |
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Butch Miller, Photographer
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Lock Haven | PA | USA | Posted: 8:40 PM on 02.05.10 |
| ->> Do you use Lightroom? |
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Paul Meyer, Photographer
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Spring Creek | NV | USA | Posted: 9:54 PM on 02.05.10 |
->> Hi Stephen,
I don't have either gallery generators you mentioned, nor have I used them. I did recently though, purchase, install and upload Slideshow Pro for Flash and Slideshow Director, so I probably fit into the "other suggestions" part of your post. The full product description is available at (http://www.slideshowpro.net). I spent some time researching lots of different gallery products because I was wanting a little more custom feel as well. This product seemed to fit well and to date (only a month or so), I am happy.
I am by no means a web person, the product has very thorough insatllation steps and the technical forum will answer probably any question or issue you have. They also have a test page to make sure your system can run the product.
Hope this helps. |
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Clark Brooks, Photo Editor, Photographer
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Urbana | IL | USA | Posted: 10:22 PM on 02.05.10 |
| ->> Take a look at ImageFolio Lite (http://www.iphotonews.com). It is free and the html pages are totally customizable for the look and feel you want. I've used the pro version since 2002. If you have any questions feel free to drop me a line offline. |
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Israel Shirk, Photographer, Assistant
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Boise | ID | US | Posted: 12:17 AM on 02.06.10 |
->> So... I'm just going to step out and say this - for the money you would spend on simpleviewer, you could get a much nicer and more SEO-friendly website (which your current site is most definitely not).
There are plenty of solutions to this, ranging from Wordpress (my specialty), to custom designed sites, generic template sites such as livebooks...
If you'd like more input in that direction just drop me a note. |
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Israel Shirk, Photographer, Assistant
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Boise | ID | US | Posted: 12:23 AM on 02.06.10 |
->> To clarify my point - I finally got around to re-doing my own site a little (though I'm not near done), and in the last two weeks I've jumped from the third page on Google for "boise wedding photographer" to the third result.
I looked for "seattle wedding photographer" and didn't find you in the top 100. Your web presence doesn't matter much if no one is finding your site. |
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Stephen Brashear, Photographer, Assistant
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Seattle | WA | USA | Posted: 1:34 AM on 02.06.10 |
->> Thanks for the response guys -
Butch- I do not use Lightroom.
Paul- I have did look into slideshowpro a little while back, but haven't recently. I'm not a big fan of the small thumbnails. Too small for my taste and I couldn't tell quickly if they could be larger.
Clark- While I would like a html gallery. I would prefer a bit slicker navigation.
Israel- I know I'm not terribly high on the list for wedding photographers in Seattle, or even on list altogether. For numerous reasons, including going back to school for a Master's, maintaining my website for SEO was neglected. livebooks is not the same cost as simpleviewer, nor are most template sites. Simpleviewer is a one time fee until the come out with version 3.0. I like WordPress and my blog is wordpress, but I haven't found WordPress templates for what i would like to do. One of my biggest pet peeves, and I may have to just get over it, is making people scroll down to get to content other than blogs. I'm open to WordPress templates. I just haven't found any that I like or that don't charge me a monthly fee. |
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Clark Brooks, Photo Editor, Photographer
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Urbana | IL | USA | Posted: 1:41 AM on 02.06.10 |
->> Stephen,
What do you mean by slicker navigation? |
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Stephen Brashear, Photographer, Assistant
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Seattle | WA | USA | Posted: 1:57 AM on 02.06.10 |
| ->> Clark - Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I like to be able to be able to use arrows to navigate through pictures and not have to load pages or go back to the lightbox to view different pictures. |
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Israel Shirk, Photographer, Assistant
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Boise | ID | US | Posted: 2:31 AM on 02.06.10 |
->> Stephen-
You're really just burning time and money if you're not going to be found. I'll look around a bit; I've been putting off writing a plugin to handle the image display thing, this might push it over the edge... |
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Stephen Brashear, Photographer, Assistant
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Seattle | WA | USA | Posted: 2:56 AM on 02.06.10 |
| ->> Israel- I can certainly appreciate that. I'm not making I'm looking for a better slideshow than what I have. I will worry about SEO and being found, once I have a website worth finding, and some may argue that my photography is not worthy finding. I'd certainly be interested in your plug-in. I have a few questions that might be answered off list. |
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