Building a stock photo website (suggestions / advice / tips required)

creativesplash · 2006-06-30 11:55:10

Hi folks,

I’m building a stock photo/imaging website (like <a href=“http://veer.com”>Veer</a>) containing about 80,000 to 100,000 images (and increasing). We’ll be using an image cataloguing software (either iView or Apple Aperture or Adobe LightRoom) to export xml files which will contain file information such as image location, keywords, image description etc.

I’m also looking at auto generation of different sizes and resolutions of a single image + Lightboxes + e-commerce + all things in <a href=“http://veer.com”>veer</a>

We’re looking to build a custom web application which will take the xml file (parse it) and transfer it to the database. By looking at the quantity of the images which programming framework and database will you suggest? <a href=“http://www.rubyonrails.org/”>Ruby on Rails</a>, <a href=“http://www.djangoproject.com/”>django</a>, <a href=“http://www.turbogears.org”>TurboGears</a>, <a href=“http://pylonshq.com/”>Pylons</a>?? (Pearl, Python, PHP, Ruby)???

I’ve no idea where to begin. Can anyone offer me tips/advice? links to websites which offer solutions for developing such a website? Any feedback is appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

Regards,
Vasanth

Last edited by creativesplash (2006-06-30 11:59:50)

Walker · 2006-06-30 13:49:57

Well, any of those frameworks (languages) could do this.
Which ones do you know?

If you know how to use Python, then Django might be the way to go.
If you can program Ruby then Rails might be the way to go.
If you can program PHP, then Cake might be the way to go.

Don’t do a site like Veer’s. It’s already been done (obviously?) and so doing one like it won’t set you apart from the competition.

What is currently missing from the world of stock photography?

If you can answer that question, then make the site.

Last edited by Walker (2006-06-30 13:50:50)

squaredeye · 2006-06-30 14:03:28

creativesplash,
Not that you’re asking business questions,
but I agree with Walker, you may think about ways you can go niche?

Look at http://threadless.com, they’ve produced a submission contest for t-shirts, and sharing links that add to sales, gives you points for shirts, etc.

Interesting model.

If you don’t already read mashable, you ought to think of starting. That guy seems to have a great leed on what is making web 2 work, and what isn’t.

Anyhow, good luck man. I wish I knew what programming languages to recommend.
Let me know if you need testers :)

M

creativesplash · 2006-06-30 14:36:05

I am not a programmer but a designer :) I’m just trying to narrow down on technology. If I’ve gone wrong in doing so, please advice me on how to go about the process of building such a website. We’re not trying to achieve anything creative. We’re just putting up a stock website where people can buy images.

I’m not trying to copy Veer here. Veer is only my inspiration. I’d like to come out with something even better. Good user interface for browsing, adding images to the queue and buying photos has to be a unique experience. That’s the main goal as far as presentation is concerned. But I’m not really bothered about the presentational element for the time being.

What is currently missing from the world of stock photography?
Its quite hard to find images from India. We’re aiming especially at Indian architecture, portraits, landscapes, fashion and trends. We’re in the process of archiving all our collections, assigning keywords and providing descriptions. Therefore we’re still in a planning stage.

In fact we’ve just begun planning. That’s exactly why I need an opinion from a programmer or someone who’s done this before. If you were the project manager for such a website, how would you go about it? I’d like some inputs from the textpattern community because I believe that you’re a very matured and have a logical point of view.

Regards,
Vasanth

Last edited by creativesplash (2006-06-30 14:49:31)

creativesplash · 2006-06-30 15:06:28

@Matthew: Well, I’ll be completely honest with you. I’m not doing this work for business sake. Its for the sake of pleasure. I am not even a photographer :) In fact I’m just helping out a friend who has no idea about how the web works.

Its just that, I want to learn how programmers think. I’d like to learn the processes involved in building such a website. It doesnt hurt to learn. So here I am googling,googling and googling trying to find out where to start :)

I decided I’ll try here and I kind of knew I would get some ideas from here.

Look at http://threadless.com, they’ve produced a submission contest for t-shirts, and sharing links that add to sales, gives you points for shirts, etc.
Interesting model.

Yeah! Threadless is fantastic. Its got a really nice model to it. Its like a “Everybody Wins” model. Which is nice. But I’m no way connected to business plans and stuff. My work in this website will be only to design the user interface.

If you don’t already read mashable, you ought to think of starting. That guy seems to have a great leed on what is making web 2 work, and what isn’t.

Thank you very much for telling me about mashable. Its quite an excellent resource for all things web 2.0.

_Anyhow, good luck man. I wish I knew what programming languages to recommend.
Let me know if you need testers :)_

Thank you! I would definetley need lots of luck. I thank you for atleast linking me to mashable. You did the best you could.

Regards,
Vasanth

Last edited by creativesplash (2006-06-30 15:07:39)

Textpattern CMS

Textpattern CMS support forum

#1 2006-06-30 11:55:10

Building a stock photo website (suggestions / advice / tips required)

#2 2006-06-30 13:49:57

Re: Building a stock photo website (suggestions / advice / tips required)

#3 2006-06-30 14:03:28

Re: Building a stock photo website (suggestions / advice / tips required)

#4 2006-06-30 14:36:05

Re: Building a stock photo website (suggestions / advice / tips required)

#5 2006-06-30 15:06:28

Re: Building a stock photo website (suggestions / advice / tips required)

Board footer