Create Your Own Photo Blog

Book description

Photos exist to be shared

Whether you seek to showcase a professional portfolio or just want your family across the continent to see the pictures from the reunion, you can do it with a photo blog. Catherine Jamieson, whose award-winning blog, Utata, has a legion of fans, gives you all the tools you need in this richly illustrated, full-color guide. She translates Web lingo, walks you through setting up your blog, and provides professional tips on composing, shooting, and editing your photos. Jamieson even helps jumpstart your creativity with 100 photo ideas to get you shooting.

Catherine gets you started blogging in Movable Type

Covers the tools you need to get up and running

  • Understand your style and decide on the purpose of your photo blog

  • Evaluate Web hosting options

  • Design your blog using the Movable Type publishing platform and professionally created, customizable templates

  • Learn to shoot, edit, and select photos that work best on the Web

  • Create a site to publish projects for your group or organization

  • Promote your blog, network with other photo bloggers, and syndicate content

  • Improve your photographic skills with professional tricks and techniques, whether you take pictures for a living or just for fun

  • Explore and learn from some of the Web's top-rated photo blogs

  • Check out the free templates and additional resource materials at www.wiley.com/go/photoblog

    Table of contents

    1. Copyright
    2. about the author
    3. credits
    4. preface
    5. acknowledgments
    6. I. GETTING STARTED
      1. 1. JOIN THE REVOLUTION!
        1. 1.1. What's A Blog?
        2. 1.2. What's A Photo Blog?
        3. 1.3. Are My Photographs Good Enough?
        4. 1.4. Who Keeps Photo Blogs?
        5. 1.5. Who Visits Photo Blogs?
        6. 1.6. What Can I Do with a Photo Blog?
        7. 1.7. What Do I Need to Get Started?
        8. 1.8. What Do I Need to Learn?
          1. 1.8.1. Design
          2. 1.8.2. Publishing
          3. 1.8.3. Photography
        9. 1.9. Film, Digital, or Digital SLR
        10. 1.10. Where Are Photo Blogs Going?
      2. 2. EXPOSING YOUR STYLE
        1. 2.1. Expressing Yourself
        2. 2.2. Styles Galore: What Works?
        3. 2.3. Basic Photo Blog Layouts
          1. 2.3.1. Photo A Day Layout
          2. 2.3.2. Blog Style Layout
        4. 2.4. Which Layout Is Right for You?
        5. 2.5. Exposing Your Own Style
        6. 2.6. What the Cool Kids Are Doing
        7. 2.7. The Photographic Showcase
        8. 2.8. The Slice of Life Photo Journal
        9. 2.9. The Special Interest Photo Blog
        10. 2.10. The Group or Community Photo Blog
        11. 2.11. The Artistic or Photojournalism Photo Blog
        12. 2.12. The Professional Photo Blog
        13. 2.13. View, Review, and Get Ready to Log On
      3. 3. FINDING A HOME FOR YOUR PHOTO BLOG
        1. 3.1. Common Terms and Acronyms
        2. 3.2. Making Your Publishing Plan
        3. 3.3. Step One, Managing Your Blog Content
          1. 3.3.1. Self-management
          2. 3.3.2. Using a content-management system
        4. 3.4. Step Two, Storing Your Photographs
          1. 3.4.1. Using your own domain
            1. 3.4.1.1. Storage space
            2. 3.4.1.2. Bandwidth
          2. 3.4.2. Using a photo storage site
            1. 3.4.2.1. Choosing a screen name
            2. 3.4.2.2. Photobucket.com
            3. 3.4.2.3. The Free Account
            4. 3.4.2.4. Signing up for Photobucket.com
            5. 3.4.2.5. flickr.com
            6. 3.4.2.6. Signing up for flickr.com
        5. 3.5. Step Three, Your Own Domain
          1. 3.5.1. Domain type
          2. 3.5.2. Domain name
          3. 3.5.3. Registering a domain name
        6. 3.6. Web Hosts
          1. 3.6.1. Content management support
          2. 3.6.2. Contracting with a web host
          3. 3.6.3. Registering and contracting with Nexcess
          4. 3.6.4. The right package
          5. 3.6.5. Domain name and account registration
    7. II. SETTING UP
      1. 4. BUILD YOUR BLOG: THE TOOLKIT
        1. 4.1. Your Web Host
        2. 4.2. Setting Up House
        3. 4.3. Logging On
        4. 4.4. Setting A New Password For Siteworx
        5. 4.5. Site Email
          1. 4.5.1. Access And Set Up Your Primary Email
          2. 4.5.2. Other Email Addresses
          3. 4.5.3. Using Web Mail
        6. 4.6. If You Are Not Using Nexcess
        7. 4.7. If You Are Using Another Content-Management System, A Wysiwyg, Or A Text Editor
        8. 4.8. The Movable Type Interface
          1. 4.8.1. Logging On To Movable Type
        9. 4.9. Configuring Your New Blog
          1. 4.9.1. Weblog Authors
          2. 4.9.2. Username
          3. 4.9.3. Display Name
          4. 4.9.4. Email Address
          5. 4.9.5. Web Site Url
          6. 4.9.6. Language
          7. 4.9.7. Passwords
          8. 4.9.8. Password Hint
          9. 4.9.9. Api Password
          10. 4.9.10. Change System Settings
          11. 4.9.11. Naming Your Blog
          12. 4.9.12. Adding Your Description
          13. 4.9.13. Timezone
          14. 4.9.14. Excerpt Length
          15. 4.9.15. Third-Party Services
          16. 4.9.16. Post Status
          17. 4.9.17. Text Formatting
          18. 4.9.18. Accept Comments
          19. 4.9.19. Accept Trackbacks
          20. 4.9.20. Basename Length
          21. 4.9.21. Publicity/Remote Interfaces
          22. 4.9.22. Feedback
          23. 4.9.23. Accept Comments From
          24. 4.9.24. Authentication Status
          25. 4.9.25. Using Typekey
          26. 4.9.26. Creating A New Typekey Account
          27. 4.9.27. Editing Your Typekey Profile
          28. 4.9.28. Require Email Address
          29. 4.9.29. Immediately Publish Comments From
          30. 4.9.30. Email
          31. 4.9.31. Allow Html
          32. 4.9.32. Auto Link Urls
          33. 4.9.33. Text Formatting
          34. 4.9.34. Trackbacks
          35. 4.9.35. Junk
          36. 4.9.36. Site Url
          37. 4.9.37. Site Root
          38. 4.9.38. Advanced Archive Publishing
          39. 4.9.39. Preferred Archive Type
          40. 4.9.40. File Extension For Archive Files
          41. 4.9.41. Dynamic Publishing
          42. 4.9.42. Archive Mapping
        10. 4.10. Rebuilding Your Site
        11. 4.11. Choosing A Blog Model
          1. 4.11.1. Default Style
          2. 4.11.2. Blog Style
          3. 4.11.3. Banner Styles
        12. 4.12. Configuring Your Blog Style
        13. 4.13. Adding Content
          1. 4.13.1. Adding A Test Entry
          2. 4.13.2. Entry Title
          3. 4.13.3. Primary Category
          4. 4.13.4. Entry Body
          5. 4.13.5. Using A Photograph From Your Computer
          6. 4.13.6. Using A Photograph From Flickr
          7. 4.13.7. Viewing Your Test Entry
      2. 5. THE WORKBENCH: INSIDE YOUR BLOG
        1. 5.1. Using Templates
          1. 5.1.1. The Template CSS Files
          2. 5.1.2. Photoblog.css
          3. 5.1.3. Skin.css
        2. 5.2. Getting Your Design To The Browser
        3. 5.3. Creating Blog Elements in CSS
        4. 5.4. Container Elements
        5. 5.5. Defining The Three Major Data Elements
          1. 5.5.1. Displaying a content area with #content
          2. 5.5.2. Displaying a menu with #navmenu
          3. 5.5.3. Creating Menus and Links
          4. 5.5.4. Displaying a sidebar area with #sidebar
        6. 5.6. Getting the Data to the Page
          1. 5.6.1. Entry Title
          2. 5.6.2. PrimaryCategory
          3. 5.6.3. SubCategories
          4. 5.6.4. Entry body
          5. 5.6.5. Default main index template HTML
          6. 5.6.6. Default template CSS styling
          7. 5.6.7. Extended Entry
          8. 5.6.8. Default main index template HTML
          9. 5.6.9. Displaying your text entry
          10. 5.6.10. Photographs in the Extended Entry field
          11. 5.6.11. Excerpt Entry
          12. 5.6.12. Directing viewers to your flickr stream
        7. 5.7. Archiving Your Entries
        8. 5.8. Creating and Managing Categories
          1. 5.8.1. Assigning thumbnails to categories
          2. 5.8.2. Locating your thumbnail images
        9. 5.9. Storing Photos
        10. 5.10. Displaying Thumbnails
          1. 5.10.1. Telling the System Where to Find Thumbnails
          2. 5.10.2. Creating your own thumbnails when uploading
          3. 5.10.3. Customizing your thumbnail sizes
      3. 6. THE DESIGN STUDIO: SKINS AND CUSTOMIZING
        1. 6.1. Making Interesting Pages
        2. 6.2. Creating Links
        3. 6.3. Creating a Fabulous Links Page
        4. 6.4. Making a Memorable About Page
          1. 6.4.1. Bio
          2. 6.4.2. Cameras
          3. 6.4.3. Subscribe
          4. 6.4.4. Elsewhere
          5. 6.4.5. Credits
          6. 6.4.6. Mail
        5. 6.5. Using Skins to Give Your Blog Style
          1. 6.5.1. How skin files work
          2. 6.5.2. Skin graphic files
          3. 6.5.3. How the skins are used
          4. 6.5.4. Changing to an included skin
          5. 6.5.5. Modifying skins
        6. 6.6. Making the Best Use of a Sidebar
        7. 6.7. What To Put In the Sidebar
        8. 6.8. A Few Quick Troubleshooting Tips
    8. III. WORKING WITH PHOTOGRAPHS
      1. 7. The Photographs That Work
        1. 7.1. Defining The Wow Factor
        2. 7.2. Dramatic: The Natural Beauties
          1. 7.2.1. Be balanced
          2. 7.2.2. Include context
          3. 7.2.3. Shoot the exotic
          4. 7.2.4. Get toned
          5. 7.2.5. Finding a dramatic photograph
        3. 7.3. Invented: Create and Direct
          1. 7.3.1. Be a director
          2. 7.3.2. Capture the motion
          3. 7.3.3. Still life makes a comeback
          4. 7.3.4. Mine your surroundings
        4. 7.4. Artistic: Controlling The Canvas
          1. 7.4.1. Go abstract
          2. 7.4.2. Get close
          3. 7.4.3. Lighting
          4. 7.4.4. Gallery style
          5. 7.4.5. Art is everywhere
        5. 7.5. Narrative: The Storytellers
          1. 7.5.1. The narrative portrait
          2. 7.5.2. A slice of life
          3. 7.5.3. The hard stories
          4. 7.5.4. In the neighborhood
      2. 8. FROM CAMERA TO BLOG: MAKING THE MAGIC HAPPEN
        1. 8.1. Identifying The Subject or Area of Interest
        2. 8.2. Understanding Composition
          1. 8.2.1. Applying the rule of thirds to compositions
          2. 8.2.2. Make your subject clear
          3. 8.2.3. Light, motion, and pattern as subjects
          4. 8.2.4. In-camera cropping
          5. 8.2.5. Point of view
          6. 8.2.6. Basic compositional guidelines
        3. 8.3. Depth of Field
        4. 8.4. Working in the Digital Darkroom
        5. 8.5. Photo-Editing Software
          1. 8.5.1. Cropping
          2. 8.5.2. Resizing
          3. 8.5.3. Resizing with Picasa
          4. 8.5.4. Resizing in Photoshop
          5. 8.5.5. Sharpening in Picasa
          6. 8.5.6. Sharpening in Photoshop
        6. 8.6. Saving Original Photographs for the Web
          1. 8.6.1. Saving a photograph in Picasa
          2. 8.6.2. Saving a photograph in Photoshop
      3. 9. 100 PHOTO IDEAS TO GET YOU SHOOTING
      4. 10. LETTING PEOPLE KNOW YOU'VE ARRIVED
        1. 10.1. Before You Go Public
          1. 10.1.1. Ensure you have plenty of content
          2. 10.1.2. Make a good description for your blog
          3. 10.1.3. Use Accurate Keywords
          4. 10.1.4. Embed meta tags
        2. 10.2. Going Public
        3. 10.3. Be Active In The Community
          1. 10.3.1. Memes and Competitions
          2. 10.3.2. Linking
        4. 10.4. RSS and Syndication
          1. 10.4.1. Your rss and atom Feeds
          2. 10.4.2. Pinging
          3. 10.4.3. Automatic pinging
          4. 10.4.4. Getting Your RSS Feed Indexed
          5. 10.4.5. Getting Rated on Search Engines
        5. 10.5. Submitting Your Site To Index and Portal Sites
          1. 10.5.1. Select appropriate categories
          2. 10.5.2. Getting listed on DMOZ
          3. 10.5.3. Photoblogs.org
          4. 10.5.4. Yahoo!
          5. 10.5.5. Flickr
        6. 10.6. Personal Publicity
      5. 11. FLICKR
        1. 11.1. Storing Your Photos
        2. 11.2. Uploading Your Photos
          1. 11.2.1. Installing the uploadr
          2. 11.2.2. Using the uploadr
          3. 11.2.3. Uploading with the web upload page
        3. 11.3. Using Tags to Get Noticed
        4. 11.4. Organize and Manage Your Photos
        5. 11.5. Creating, Joining, and Participating in Groups
          1. 11.5.1. Joining a group
          2. 11.5.2. Practicing good etiquette
          3. 11.5.3. Participating in discussions
          4. 11.5.4. Creating a new topic
          5. 11.5.5. Adding photos to a pool
          6. 11.5.6. Checking for activity in your groups
        6. 11.6. Using the flickr Comment System
        7. 11.7. Using the flickr Contact System
          1. 11.7.1. Adding a contact
          2. 11.7.2. Viewing your contacts
          3. 11.7.3. Viewing your contact status
        8. 11.8. Playing Favorites in flickr
        9. 11.9. Making a Buddy Icon
        10. 11.10. Making Your Profile
      6. 12. DOING COOL THINGS WITH YOUR BLOG
        1. 12.1. Selling Your Prints
          1. 12.1.1. Organizing prints on your site
          2. 12.1.2. Designing a print information page
          3. 12.1.3. Selling prints with an email system
          4. 12.1.4. A few print tips from the pros
        2. 12.2. Creating Projects, Collaborations, and Collections
          1. 12.2.1. Set up a project
          2. 12.2.2. Project/collaboration tips
        3. 12.3. Providing an Online Resume/Portfolio
        4. 12.4. Creating Custom Mail Pages
        5. 12.5. Using Entry Keywords To Maximize Exposure
          1. 12.5.1. Turning on and using keywords
          2. 12.5.2. Keyword tips and hints
          3. 12.5.3. Creating a list of master keywords
        6. 12.6. Using and Displaying EXIF Data
        7. 12.7. Having Fun with Your Images
          1. 12.7.1. E-Cards
          2. 12.7.2. Calendar pages
          3. 12.7.3. Hindsight is 20/20
          4. 12.7.4. Bulletin board
          5. 12.7.5. Other cool projects

    Product information

    • Title: Create Your Own Photo Blog
    • Author(s): Catherine Jamieson
    • Release date: April 2006
    • Publisher(s): Wiley
    • ISBN: 9780471767749