My Photography Website

[creative_one]

I was thinking on having a splash page & then have flash galleries & all other pages are going to be non-flash.
Is that too much flash or what do u think?
Any advice?

Thanks
Creative _One

[OsmosisStudios]

Before i board a plane and strangle you, DO NOT USE A SPLASH PAGE. Texas isn't that far away.

Your best bet with flash is to use it as an element within a page. Design and build the entire site in HTML and CSS and insert a flash gallery into the HTML as an element instead of as the bulk of the site.

[creative_one]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

Before i board a plane and strangle you, DO NOT USE A SPLASH PAGE. Texas isn't that far away.

Your best bet with flash is to use it as an element within a page. Design and build the entire site in HTML and CSS and insert a flash gallery into the HTML as an element instead of as the bulk of the site.

Im just wondering why i shouldn't use a splash page.
How do i insert a flash gllaery into HTML?

I googled & saw alot of photographers websites that are either flash or has a splash page.
What do u like or not like about a splash page OsmosisStudios?

[nategesner]

I find splash pages VERY annoying. It's like inviting your friends into your house, but forcing them to stand in the foyer and read magazines first. I mean, what's the point?

To quote the infamous Nacho Libre: Let's get to the nitty gritty...

[LostMahbles]

From a usability standpoint, noone, and I mean noone is going to your site to look at the splash page. They're going to look at your content. If you put something between the user and what they're looking for, it's pointless, you're just going to piss people off. The only reason splash pages were created was because the programs that used them couldn't load fast enough and they wanted to let the user know that the computer hadn't hung. Unless you're creating an absolute dog of a site, you won't have that problem, so why put the splash there?

Take any reason you can think of that isn't "Well other people have them, and besides, I love repeating wav files" for having a splash screen, and I guarantee that there's a better way to do it within the context of your site. For example...."But I want people to see my best work first."....then create something on your site that has rotating stream of your best photos.

And for the love of all things holy....please don't use sound if you decide you need to use Flash.

[OsmosisStudios]

Splash pages mean there's an extra step between the user arriving at your page and actually viewing anything of importance. Users are fickle, and impatient. They wont go past the splash page, and if they do, they wont stay as long.

Splash pages are a thing of the past. They used to be used as cover pages, but it's not relevant anymore. They're very Geocities circa the mid 90s.

Just, please, no splash pages.

[weshoot]

Another thing not thought about is: how do search engines work? Pages without text in the page are not conducive to being found by Google, Yahoo, and the rest. These search engines look for text, not just in the meta data, but also in the matching text on the page. And it is considered "Black Hat" to put random text the same color as the background in the page. If discovered, it will get you downgraded, at least by Google.

Gary Silverstein
We Shoot

[goandcheck]

well flash is a good way if you want to protect your photos unless they can still get a screenshoot when you don't watermark them, but I'm totally against Flash... you may create a blog and easily share photos using Flickr

[kawazu]

My real job is in web design, so I'm pretty familiar with the situation here. It seems that a lot of photographers I've worked with prefer flash-based sites for the following reasons:
-splash intro/outro
-more control over image protection and copying
-ability to add visual effects, slideshows, and sound

However, as almost everyone pointed out on this thread, splash pages are bad practice. Unless you're a rock band, video artist, or similar style with the need to showcase important work *before* the rest of the site content, splash pages only get in the way of the user getting to the rest of your site (and in turn the "good stuff" you have to offer)

Also, as weshoot mentioned, search engines particularly dislike the use of flash in pages as it's "near" impossible to categorize and index them. Your SEO rank for a flash site is usually far below that of most sites. Your best bet in maintaining good accessibility for users, search engines, and those with disabilities is to avoid using flash for content when possible.

There are several ways to build galleries without flash, and using AJAX/CSS you can even animate them. I've even seen (and built) php scripts that can add watermarks to images on-the-fly when displaying or uploading, so if you're worried about theft and security this can be a great deterrent without using flash.

Just my two cents, and I hope that your website turns out fantastic! Post a link when you've got it up and running!

[PowerPix]

I'll throw in $0.04. NO SPLASH PAGE!!!!!!!!!!! People do not want to click on stuff more than they already have to. It's kind of the same thing as having a slideshow that you manually have to start. It should be done automatically. Get people to your website and lock them in! Splash pages will turn people off and they will leave even before entering, I do it all the time. It's one of the most annoying things and serves no pertinent purpose other than, "Gee the little 'loading' symbol looks cool when it's moving".