Flash website?

Hello everyone,

 

I'm starting my photography business very soon, it will focus on weddings and

couples. I've been debating whether or not to have a Flash-based portfolio or

just stick with HTML, since a lot of people seem to have problems accessing

Flash sites. What should I do?

 

To clear things up, my website will NOT be fully Flash, simply the portfolio

section.

 

Thanks.

If you choose the right portfolio code package, it will use JavaScript to fairly reliably detect whether or not the visiting browser can support the needed version of Flash, and if it can't, will serve up a straight HTML version of the gallery instead. I really, really commend you for thinking this through and not following the all-Flash herd over the cliff.

I keep programs such as flash up to date, and yet I still have trouble with many flash websites, parts of them truncated, or worse, covering up each other. My reaction is to think the website (and therefore the company) is less professional. If part of a website does not work properly for me, it is the same as all of it. Just my opinion.

How friendly is Flash content to dial-ups? Longer download times? I stuck with HTML to keep it quick and simple. Viewers dont really care what you use as long as the images pop up quickly and makes them go WOW!

I use a cascading style sheet to give me a gallery that looks a bit like flash but is html based. It preloads all the images, so when the user clicks in the gallery there is no load time.

 

Search "css photo gallery" or similar to give you some examples.

<p>My experience has demonstrated to me that the ‘majority’ of web surfers aren’t as advanced as the technology that they use. When it comes to looking at photography websites, site visitors prefer to see the images, not wait for the bells and whistles to perform. Even web surfers with fast service don’t ‘appreciate’ flash, CSS, java, etc. as much as we would like them to. In my opinion, the main point in having a photography website is to show your work. I minimize all barriers to displaying the images. I might use a thumbnail gallery, but, that’s it. Just my opinion.</p>

<p>I hope this is helpful.</p>

Flash is heavy. Even on good internet connection it will be painfully slow to load and navigate. The advantage is that it looks consistent across all browsers and operating systems. That's because its a plugin, not something that a browser can interpret in its own way. And the browsers love to do that. HTML website will behave differently depending on a browser brand, browser version and operating system. It takes more time for the designer to make it look consistent everywhere, and even after that its not guaranteed. Some computers are plain outdated or screwed up. Fortunately, these differences are usually minor.

 

Also, for what its worth: to me Flash image quality looks much worse than ordinary *.jpeg files in HTML. I am surprised how many photographers choose Flash ignoring this fact.

 

So, I prefer HTML. Just don't overload it with JavaScript or other client-side crap - you are inviting misbehavior and inconsistency.

Use html - no flash.

 

They load many times faster, and the biggest reason sites lose traffic is because they're too slow.

 

In our Marketing Consulting, we give people specific information of loses.

Some people get confused and think they need flash or don't need it operating on very little information. Like any kind of add-on flash can be heavy or load fast, depending on what you use it for. I think that you can have a flash gallery and have it load fast and have a javascript detect for flash (which is on 98% of newer browsers) level. That was a good answer to a good question.

 

The real question to me is what is it that makes you want to use flash? If you like quick animations (fade out and up) between frames and/or movement, flash might be a good way to do that. Create bookmarks for your favorite 10 sites and use that for reference material to create something that matches your own style. If it so happens that all the galleries that you like are flash galleries, then flash may be something you want to use, but many of the effects can be achieved with DHTML programming also.

 

You might try searching for flash web site template to see if any of the canned sites have what you like. I think a nice site is important, but if you're like myself and find yourself fiddling with computers way too much it might be a way to get something going and move on to actual projects.

I am suprised to hear that everyone here is saying to stick to HTML. When I switched my site to flash I have seen my business practically double! I have had great success with it. I used www.flashpalette.com I used the miniO1A cost was 150.00 took one day to get site up and running. I love it!

 

www.thomaswardphotography.com