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Welcome

Welcome to the FlashPalette blog. Here you will find the latest happenings, products and promotions. If it is to be said, it will be said here, so keep an eye out!

Monday: Words Count

Nothing is more important to  any photographer then their images.  This is how, you as photographers, view the world and make your living. However, when it comes to your website it is also important to make sure your words match your images.  You need to make sure if you are describing your style as breezy and fun that your gallery images relfect that.  You also need to make sure you identify and speak the language that makes you sound like an expert without using too many technical terms making your site sound stiff and formal.

Shannon

08A /08 Editor Updated : Flashpalette websites

We have updated the 08/08 editor.  The new interface has better image importing and a few other features.
You can download it from our website, the 08 editor is located in the $90 templates.

Regards,
Shannon

Friday Finds: FlashPalette Website Templates

Fridays are the day I plan to share with you things I have found. They may or may not be related to building websites.  They will be related in some way to photography and business.

Here are today’s finds:

Do you ever wonder about selling gift cards and the rules that you need to be aware of?  If so this is the site for you. It lists each states requirements for a business that sells a gift card.

Do you have a polaroid? Did you stock up on film when they stopped production?  Did you miss out and worry that you will never be able to find one?  If so worry no more they are coming out with a new polaroid camera and it is going to use the same film, the 600.  This means you can dust off your old one or head out and get a new one.  Check out the new polaroid

Thursday Tip: How to size your images Mini and Standard Sites

As photographers the most important part of your website is your images.  You want to make sure they shine and look their best.  This article will tell you the best way to prepare your images for your website template.

To start with all the templates have different requirements.

Standard and Mini Templates:

The standard and mini templates have fixed sizes on the images.  This means if you import an image that is bigger then the editor accepts the editor will automatically reszie the image.  So if you cropped your image in photoshop your image will be downsized again, which can result in pixelation.

The best practice is to start with the full resolution image and then crop your images to the editor size.  All sizes are also listed on the batch import button as well and are at 72DPI.

Mini Editors:

Note the Mini editor resize your images when imported.  For best results we always recommend you start with a full resolution image and crop it to the maximum size the editor will accept. You can also see the pixel size when you click on batch import to the editor.

Mini Plain
gallery: 720 pixels wide by 420 pixels high at 72DPI
home page: 860 pixels wide by 450 high  pixels at 72DPI
text pages can have images up to 830 pixels wide by 420 Note the wider you make the image the more it will interfere with your text box.
Mini Lacy
gallery: 600 pixels wide  370 pixels high at 72DPI
home page: 750  pixels wide 375 pixels high at 72DPI
text pages can have images up to 750 pixels wide by 360 pixels high at 72 DPI Note the wider you make the image the more it will interfere with your text box. pixels at 72DPI
Mini 01A:
gallery: 900 pixels wide by 550 pixels high at 72DPI
home page: 860 pixels wide by 450 high  pixels at 72DPI
text pages can have images up to 900 pixels wide by 550 pixels Note the wider you make the image the more it will interfere with your text box.
Mini Frame
gallery: 670 pixels wide 420 pixels high at 72DPI
home page: 865  pixels wide 506 pixels high at 72DPI
text pages can have images up to 830 pixels wide by 420 pixels high at 72 DPI Note the wider you make the image the more it will interfer with your text box. pixels at 72DPI
Tina Parker:
gallery: 570 pixels wide 380 pixels high at 72DPI
home page: 750  pixels wide 375 pixels high at 72DPI
text pages can have images up to 300 pixels wide by 400  pixels high at 72 DPI Note the wider you make the image the more it will interfere with your text box. pixels at 72DPI
04A
gallery regular: 600 pixels wide 400 pixels high at 72DPI
gallery client: 490 pixels wide by 400 pixels high at 72DPI
home page:  800  pixels wide 450 pixels high at 72DPI
text pages can have images up to 200-600 pixels wide by 400  pixels high at 72 DPI. Note the wider you make the image the more it will interfere with your text box.
05A
galleries (regular and client): 800 pixels wide 420pixels high at 72DPI
home page:  800  pixels wide 450 pixels high at 72DPI
text pages can have images up to 200-600 pixels wide by 400  pixels high at 72 DPI. Note the wider you make the image the more it will interfere with your text box.
06A
galleries (regular and client): 800 pixels wide 420pixels high at 72DPI
home page:  800  pixels wide 450 pixels high at 72DPI
text pages can have images up to 200-600 pixels wide by 400  pixels high at 72 DPI. Note the wider you make the image the more it will interfere with your text box.
Standard Sites:
Note the standard editors resize your images when imported.  For best results we always recommend you start with a full resolution image and crop it to the maximum size the editor will accept. You can also see the pixel size when you click on batch import to the editor.  Text pages images that are the maximum width may interfere with the text box in some editors.
Team Steve:
Text page image size : 860 pixels wide by 450 pixels high at 72 DPI
Gallery Pages: 710 pixels wide by  450 pixels high at 72 DPI
home page slide show: 860 pixels wide by  450 pixels high at 72 DPI
10E:
Text page image size : 650 pixels wide by 440 pixels high at 72 DPI
Gallery Pages: 650 pixels wide by 720 pixels high at 72 DPI
home page slide show: 650 pixels wide by 720 pixels high at 72 DPI
07E:
Text page image size : 650 pixels wide by 440 pixels high at 72 DPI
Gallery Pages: 650 pixels wide by 720 pixels high at 72 DPI
home page slide show: 650 pixels wide by 720 pixels high at 72 DPI
09E1/09E2
home page: 660 pixels by 440 pixels at 72 DPI
text pages: 660 pixels by 440 pixels at 72 DPI
gallery images: 660 pixels by 440 pixels at 72 DPI
Nikki Lynn:
Images for Nikki Lynn for the home page and galleries are the same:
1200 pixels by 800 pixels at 72DPI
Austin:
All images can be imported at 1900×1200 pixels to have a full screen effect. Note if you do not want this make your images smaller.
This editor does not have.  Image on the text page but takes a background image. For the best results when using a photograph use the dimension 1900×1200 pixels at 72DPI.
08A:
All images are now full screen. The best way to prepare them is to crop them to 1900×1200 pixels for the home page slideshow.  The editor will downsize the images for the gallery to rougly 800×600 pixels.
That’s it!

Shannon

Cool Contest at Adorama: FlashPalette Websites

Adorama is having a great i-phone contest.  I suggest if you are lucky (and I am not) and have an i-phone you head on over and check it out. This looks to be a very cool contest. Coming up on the blog : do’s and don’ts of website creation, how to prepare your images and so much more.

Shannon

FLashpalete: Back on line

We had a minor email glitch eariler today –tried to email us and things did not go through please try us agan!

Every thing is back to normal and we are ready and waiting for your questions about our website templates for photographers.

Shannon

Changes: Temporary Price Reductions

It is the start of a new year, and time to update your website and get everything in order for the coming year.

We know that often right after the holidays you have time to create a new website, but not always the funds. To help you out we have reduced the price ALL of our websites. We did this so that you can change up you with out feeling the pinch in your pocket book.

In addition we have some great plans for specials in the month ahead.  Think extra discounts for existing clients, new features and many other exciting things!

SEO: A great way to start

I think one of the most confusing things out there, is the idea that you can not have GOOD SEO with a flashsite.  This is true to some extent, in that the serach bots may not pick up on all your sites text and but you can have good SEO, you just have to approach it differently then if you have a standard SEO website.

There are so many elements that go into doing a website, many of them go beyond just your website. The hardest part is to figure out what to do and where to start. Blogger Laura M. of Dress it up Photos has a post that gets you started on SEO and thinking about what you need to do.

This is important to think about weather or not you have an html or a flash website.

Music or Not: Flash website design

When it comes to designing your website there are many factors to consider. Just one of them is music.

The FlashPalette editors accept only the file format of MP3, so if you music is downloaded in another format you will need to convert it to a MP3 file.

The use of music is a personal choise. Some use it for the whole website, others use it in just their galleries.  However, one thing you need to be aware of is that you can not use just any music on your website .  Music, just like images, is copyrighted.  Even though you may purchase a song from I-Tunes that does not give you the right to use the music on a website or in a slideshow.   You need to have permission from the song’s creator to do this.  The best bet is to use royalty free music on your website.

Here are some of our favorite places to get Royaly Free Music:

1. Find up and coming artists and email them, often for credit they will let you use their songs.

2. Use A royalty free music site.

Music Bakery offers a great selection of Royalty free music

Triple Scoop Is where we have purchased all our royalty free music for our demo sites.

Stock  20 - Offers a great selection and has lyrical music through it’s partner Red Beard Music

Take Care!

New Year New Website: Flash websites for photographers

FlashPalette is ringing in the New Year in style.
.

WE have just launched our latest template,Austin is a sleek sophisticated website that really allows your images to shine. The galleries and home page slide show show case your images in a 3-D wall that allows your clients to interact with your images. They can pan side to side or make the wall bigger or smaller.  The options on this template are amazing.

This template allows for 108 images per gallery, but you can have as many portfolios as you would like and as many galleries within those portfolios.  The text pages are simple and easy to read.  Austin features configurable backgrounds for both the text pages and portfolios, you can make a different background for each page if you wanted!

Right now the introductory price is $100!

Shannon