Hiya all,
Recently I had a similar dillema, how to make my own photopage. Have a blog for quite a while on BlogSpot and just felt I need to move on from
WYSIWYG editors to something more complex. So I went on and learned some code (HTML to start with, some Jawascript and ect., all tutorials available for free on
W3Schools Online Web Tutorials), produced my photoblog, paid for hosting, found a domain name, so I might as well share how I got there.
To begin with, you need a template, here you can find a truckload of free web templates:
Open Source Web Design - Download free web design templates.
Browse through them, make notes as you go along on color schemes, design features you like (1 or 2 sidebar pages, navigation vertical or horizontal, etc.), and pick something. After that, you can work on applying the stuff you want in there....
Also, on this page
Dynamic Drive DHTML(dynamic html) & ********** code library
you can find plenty of free scripts for dynamic page elements (navigation menus, scrollers, etc.) you can later on incorporate into the page. Didn't use them, but learned a lot through them and built my own navigation hybrid (template's existing and my idea)
Used free flash viewer for the photos, although personally not a big flash fan (brainded now, can't remember the name of the software).
Couple of tips, think of a logo for the page, make it simple (max 3-4 colors for the logo and the whole page), and then incorporate it into every aspect of the page (branding really sells/leaves an impact on visitors). As said above, 3-4 colors for the whole page, nice contrasting tones, use this page to test your idea or steal somebody's:
Color Combinations | Color Schemes | Color Palettes
If you like some website colors, type the link into the GRAB WEBSITE COLORS box on the left and it will grab the color codes we can use later on.
The mentioned "DynamicDrive" website offers an online favicon maker, use it to create a favicon icon (look up to your addressbar, favicon is the DPS logo on the left of the address):
Dynamic Drive- FavIcon Generator
This should be enough to keep you busy for a while....
Feel free to ask me anything about it, google it first since most of the answers are already out there (Google is your friend) and good luck. Don't be affraid to venture out and try to code your own simple gallery website, you'll learn on the way and sooner or later finish the site. The process of learning is what makes this experience valuable...
R