Thoughts on gf's studio/photo business website? Update 1

[DisgruntledVirus]

GF's studio website (not complete yet)

Any thoughts/suggestions/comments/critiques?

As of now the gallery portion isn't up, and looking for suggestions on the site not photography for this thread

UPDATE 3 PMAlso, she redid the general site layout and it is much better IMO. Told her she should change the grey circles to another color though. She hasn't worked on anything outside of the basic layout (i.e. the other pages) though yet.

 

[angry hampster]

Cheesy as hell and the text banners are way too big. The "MADE BY WIX" banner at the bottom is horribly distracting as well.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Originally posted by: angry hampster
Cheesy as hell and the text banners are way too big. The "MADE BY WIX" banner at the bottom is horribly distracting as well.

Lol

That bottom banner will be removed when once it's done.

 

[troytime]

ZOMG i would click the BACK button as soon as i saw that site.
some advice.
1. don't show that logo more than once.
2. don't use flash, especially for text content
3. use text links in your navigation - get rid of those tabs. use some nice css effects.
4. get rid of the HOME tab. its a known usability standard that the logo links back to the homepage
5. get rid of the PROOFING and LINKS tabs. you don't want a new customer getting distracted by those
6. get rid of the ABOUT tab and include some of the basic bio info on the homepage. if there's additional info, leave a small text link to see the full bio
7. if you're not going to show pricing, don't put a pricing link
8. blog tab - if she's going to blog, link it to the blog. not some page that changes content every 3 seconds.

 

[Aharami]

sorry man. not feeling it. To me, the website tells me the photographer caters to high school prom parties, batmitzvahs, etc. Not weddings.
take a look at some professional wedding photog's websites and model after that

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Originally posted by: troytime
ZOMG i would click the BACK button as soon as i saw that site.
some advice.
1. don't show that logo more than once.
2. don't use flash, especially for text content
3. use text links in your navigation - get rid of those tabs. use some nice css effects.
4. get rid of the HOME tab. its a known usability standard that the logo links back to the homepage
5. get rid of the PROOFING and LINKS tabs. you don't want a new customer getting distracted by those
6. get rid of the ABOUT tab and include some of the basic bio info on the homepage. if there's additional info, leave a small text link to see the full bio
7. if you're not going to show pricing, don't put a pricing link
8. blog tab - if she's going to blog, link it to the blog. not some page that changes content every 3 seconds.

Much appriciated.

1, 4, 6, 7 are all things that I basically agree with. I don't know enough about web design to be able to do 3 on my own (without massive amounts of time invested in it which right now I don't have). The 2nd one, is most likely a good idea as well. And, 8 when I clicked on it I was thinking "omfg myspace", because IMO it should just be simple text (a paragraph of the intro, and a link to the rest of the entry). The issue I have with 5, is most photography sites have a proofing tab/link so show examples of their work. The links tab I agree with though.

Also, in reference to the size of the banners. The banner to page ratio is way off. The banner should be less of the page, and more actual content.

Finally, the proofing tab is now up (but not sub-links in there). I'm not a fan of it (the colors and stuff are off). I told her I liked this, and think is what it's loosely based off.

Originally posted by: Aharami
sorry man. not feeling it. To me, the website tells me the photographer caters to high school prom parties, batmitzvahs, etc. Not weddings.
take a look at some professional wedding photog's websites and model after that

Whoa whoa whoa.

I didn't say this was my site. I've given my suggestions/input, but ultimately it is her site.

Some I like:
http://cantrellportrait.com/
http://www.christianothstudio.com/#/intro
http://denisreggie.com/
http://jerryghionis.com/ <- for a more "girlish" site
http://tyingtheknot.net/

If it were my site, I would design it very simple, clean, and like those. I do give her my thoughts/suggestions/etc, but it's her site so she has final say.

 

[Aharami]

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus
Whoa whoa whoa.

I didn't say this was my site. I've given my suggestions/input, but ultimately it is her site.

Some I like:
http://cantrellportrait.com/
http://www.christianothstudio.com/#/intro
http://denisreggie.com/
http://jerryghionis.com/ <- for a more "girlish" site
http://tyingtheknot.net/

If it were my site, I would design it very simple, clean, and like those. I do give her my thoughts/suggestions/etc, but it's her site so she has final say.

no i understand it's not your site. but you being her bf can give her your thoughts. And I didnt mean any disrespect by the "high school prom parties, batmitzvahs" comment. I meant that the website gives off that vibe even though she might be fine wedding photog

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Originally posted by: Aharami

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus
Whoa whoa whoa.

I didn't say this was my site. I've given my suggestions/input, but ultimately it is her site.

Some I like:
http://cantrellportrait.com/
http://www.christianothstudio.com/#/intro
http://denisreggie.com/
http://jerryghionis.com/ <- for a more "girlish" site
http://tyingtheknot.net/

If it were my site, I would design it very simple, clean, and like those. I do give her my thoughts/suggestions/etc, but it's her site so she has final say.

no i understand it's not your site. but you being her bf can give her your thoughts. And I didnt mean any disrespect by the "high school prom parties, batmitzvahs" comment. I meant that the website gives off that vibe even though she might be fine wedding photog

Yeah. I didn't take any offense, and didn't think you weren't being disrespectful or anything. I know what you were getting at

I can give her thoughts sure, but it's up to her to listen to them or not .

BTW thanks for the comments everybody. Much appriciated.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

I would have to agree with everything that others have said in here. The website in its current state is like a step back to the good ol' days of geocities. This is not good.

Like you said, simple and clean. You will have to learn some fundamental CSS at the minimum though. A lot of the flash effects like slideshows and the like can be mimicked with easily customized javascript, but there are easily customized flash galleries as well. She can even use Lightroom to export flash and html galleries.

Here's my buddies' site:

http://www.memoirestudio.com/

Really, all a wedding site needs is a main slideshow to show examples of your best work and some links to sections.

Home tab - yeah, not really needed unless your logo is not prominent or your demographic just doesn't "get" it and is clueless about current website conventions.

Blog - could be valuable to show potential clients what you've been up to and to show your personality

About Us - definitely
Contact Form - definitely
Information on your wedding packages - definitely

Client Portal - you should consider something like this so that clients can log into your site and select which photos they want, order proofs, etc. You could try that instaproofs thing that my buddies did. Better than emailing back and forth about which photos they want, etc.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Another thing:

1. In her About:

By not having a studio of her own, the artist is fully able to utilize the world around her. Clients can pick the most memorable locations for photoshoots and use the environments they're comfortable in.

Having or not having a studio has no bearing on whether or not a photographer can fully utilize the outside world. Both can just step outside and, well, fully utilize the outside world. To me her statement simply means that she doesn't have the benefit of having a studio on hand should I want studio shots. I would not mention the lack of studio and instead concentrate more on the awesomeness that is shooting on location, whether it be a place of Amanda's choosing or the client's.

2. I also see that the website dynamically resizes EVERYTHING, even font sizes, when I change the window size. On my 24" 1920x1200 monitor the website looks like it was made for near-blind people, lol. Everything is so big.

3. Have the absolute very best of her work on the website: ex. The B&W photo under Services under Engagements is not all that good. Same with some images from the other sections.

4. Portfolio - checkboard, gah.

5. Fonts - I would avoid overly fancy fonts like the ones used in the Links section. Makes things hard to read.

6. Perhaps give an address in the contact section. Clients like to know where the photographer is based to get a general idea of the travel distance, area of coverage, etc. I actually lived in area code 330 for a while before moving to 440 and then 650 (Cali), but 330 covers a lot of area...

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
Another thing:

1. In her About:

By not having a studio of her own, the artist is fully able to utilize the world around her. Clients can pick the most memorable locations for photoshoots and use the environments they're comfortable in.

Having or not having a studio has no bearing on whether or not a photographer can fully utilize the outside world. Both can just step outside and, well, fully utilize the outside world. To me her statement simply means that she doesn't have the benefit of having a studio on hand should I want studio shots. I would not mention the lack of studio and instead concentrate more on the awesomeness that is shooting on location, whether it be a place of Amanda's choosing or the client's.

2. I also see that the website dynamically resizes EVERYTHING, even font sizes, when I change the window size. On my 24" 1920x1200 monitor the website looks like it was made for near-blind people, lol. Everything is so big.

3. Have the absolute very best of her work on the website: ex. The B&W photo under Services under Engagements is not all that good. Same with some images from the other sections.

4. Portfolio - checkboard, gah.

5. Fonts - I would avoid overly fancy fonts like the ones used in the Links section. Makes things hard to read.

6. Perhaps give an address in the contact section. Clients like to know where the photographer is based to get a general idea of the travel distance, area of coverage, etc. I actually lived in area code 330 for a while before moving to 440 and then 650 (Cali), but 330 covers a lot of area...

Thanks for those. All good points, and let her know all of them.

UPDATE 3 PMAlso, she redid the general site layout and it is much better IMO. Told her she should change the grey circles to another color though. She hasn't worked on anything outside of the basic layout (i.e. the other pages) though yet.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

LOL WOW a 330 number

OHIO in the house

 

[Kelvrick]

I think the website is way too dark. A black background is fine, but it seems the whole site is black. It reminds me of a funeral. What do you think about just changing the main section to a shade of grey a little lighter than those backgrounds of a camera and such?

I think a cleaner border will do it good as well instead of the dotted lines. I also don't think red and green go together so well.

 

[angry hampster]

Just looked at the website again.





No.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

I've never used WIX, but if all of its templates look like the two above, I think you're better off abandoning it and going with some other template.

 

[Deadtrees]

The site looks very cheap and cheesy. If it wasn't you who told me to check out the site, I would've closed it right away as it looks like one of those cheap porn sites that's filled with viruses/worms.
If she or her site wants to be respected, she should change everything. Really, the site looks like an on-line version of cheap brothel.

 

[Deadtrees]

One more thing:
It seems like most, if not all, pictures suffer from high-compression-quality-loss. Check out the B/W picture of a lady by a window. The gradation is just way too terrible.
Colors on all the other pictures are very dull and they look like images you'd get from cell phone cams. Focusing is terribly off as well. Exposure also is quite off in most of the pictures. On some pictures, I can tell exposure was terribly off and she tried hard to compensate it using photoediting softwares, the result is very screwed up dynamic range, washed out colors, smeared pixels. It's amazing how she managed to pull out such terrible images from 5D.

If she's serious about this business, she really needs to change everything. I'm not trying to be mean or anything. It's just that everything is just way off.

 

[Aharami]

how do I go back to the main portfolio page after entering a gallery? everytime I click on the "portfolio" link at the bottom right, the image above expands. And navigating away to another menu item and coming back to the portfolio again via the menu up top brings me right back to the same gallery I was trying to get out of. this is frustrating me. I dont think her pics are all that bad. Ive definitely seen worse (but usually those photogs are charging less than a thousand per wedding). I say redo the entire website to something more professional looking and go from there

 

[akugami]

KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid

While your web site should show off your pictures, it should also be minimalistic. Don't make your web site "noisy" (distracting with too much going on) and lose sight of the fact that you want people to visit and like your web site. Get your message across in as simple a manner as possible.

For example, one of the things you learn when you take classes in using presentation software such as Powerpoint is the 7x7 rule. Basically each slide should have no more than seven words per line and no more than seven lines per slide. The reason is to not overwhelm your viewer in any one slide, or web page as our case may be. Give them info, whether it be pictures or words, in small chunks. Try to get as much across in as simplistic a manner as possible. I'm not suggesting using the 7x7 rule for your web pages, just try to keep it simple.

The longer they stay and the easier it is to navigate and view your web site the more likely they will stay long enough that the site makes an impression on them and should they need photography services they will use you. If there is too much info that it overwhelms them or the message in is unclear they will leave with a bad impression. The same will happen if your site is considered difficult to navigate.

I know your GF used a ready made template but that template is simply horrid for what she wants. If you want to get a site up from scratch and don't want to buy software like Dreamweaver, consider something like these editors which are free WYSIWYG editors. You'll need to learn how to use them but they will be easier than learning to code by hand and it's gotta at least be better looking that the template she used. These free editors usually have a lot of help in their user forums as well.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Originally posted by: Deadtrees
One more thing:
It seems like most, if not all, pictures suffer from high-compression-quality-loss. Check out the B/W picture of a lady by a window. The gradation is just way too terrible.
Colors on all the other pictures are very dull and they look like images you'd get from cell phone cams. Focusing is terribly off as well. Exposure also is quite off in most of the pictures. On some pictures, I can tell exposure was terribly off and she tried hard to compensate it using photoediting softwares, the result is very screwed up dynamic range, washed out colors, smeared pixels. It's amazing how she managed to pull out such terrible images from 5D.

If she's serious about this business, she really needs to change everything. I'm not trying to be mean or anything. It's just that everything is just way off.

Which is why I didn't link her to this thread, because I don't want her to take it personal.

I'm not a fan of templates personally, and I haven't even touched WIX. All I have done is looked at her site after she sent it to me, and gone "I don't like x, heres what I would do." I'm trying to walk a fine line of not crushing her ego/self esteem with it, while trying to give an honest opinion and help her improve it so she can be successful at it. I'm not a huge fan of the pictures she picked either, because she has better pictures.

Part of the issue with the pictures she chose, is that she doesn't have much in the way of a portfolio. She hasn't been able to shoot much to build up her portfolio. Hell her 5D only has 6k clicks on it. Also, to be fair a lot of those pictures were taken a while ago. She also doesn't know PS in and out (which I did pick up a PS for photog book over the weekend), so PP has work to do as well.

I'd love to hear more suggestions for the site though.

Thanks for the input everybody.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Originally posted by: Kelvrick
I think the website is way too dark. A black background is fine, but it seems the whole site is black. It reminds me of a funeral. What do you think about just changing the main section to a shade of grey a little lighter than those backgrounds of a camera and such?

I think a cleaner border will do it good as well instead of the dotted lines. I also don't think red and green go together so well.

A lot of photography sites have darker backgrounds. A lot also have light ones.

I'm not a fan of the dotted liens either. The colors I don't think she'll budge on, but I'd love to know any suggestions you may have instead so we can at least try them out.

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
I've never used WIX, but if all of its templates look like the two above, I think you're better off abandoning it and going with some other template.

Me either, I haven't even touched it so I don't know what they offer. Do you have any suggestions for alternatives?

Originally posted by: Deadtrees
The site looks very cheap and cheesy. If it wasn't you who told me to check out the site, I would've closed it right away as it looks like one of those cheap porn sites that's filled with viruses/worms.
If she or her site wants to be respected, she should change everything. Really, the site looks like an on-line version of cheap brothel.

Thank you for taking the time to look at it, even if you thought of a cheap porn site (and didn't get any good porn from it).

Could you link me to a site that you personally like? I'm just curious to see what kind of sites you like.

Originally posted by: Aharami
how do I go back to the main portfolio page after entering a gallery? everytime I click on the "portfolio" link at the bottom right, the image above expands. And navigating away to another menu item and coming back to the portfolio again via the menu up top brings me right back to the same gallery I was trying to get out of. this is frustrating me. I dont think her pics are all that bad. Ive definitely seen worse (but usually those photogs are charging less than a thousand per wedding). I say redo the entire website to something more professional looking and go from there

Yeah I had the same issue when I looked earlier. It's on my list to bring up to her. I had to just click on the home page.

Well, she has only done one wedding "professionally" and it was for a friend (who happened to love her pics btw) as her wedding gift. So, she doesn't have much experience with wedding photography. Right now I think she will be staying under the $1k mark (for a general rule of thumb) just to get business and build her portfolio.

Also, I see what people say about the compression. Jeeze, some of those are horrible quality. No idea what's going on with that. Oh, and FWIW they scroll too fast on the home page. Makes me feel rushed. Plan to bring that up to her also.

Originally posted by: akugami
KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid

While your web site should show off your pictures, it should also be minimalistic. Don't make your web site "noisy" (distracting with too much going on) and lose sight of the fact that you want people to visit and like your web site. Get your message across in as simple a manner as possible.

For example, one of the things you learn when you take classes in using presentation software such as Powerpoint is the 7x7 rule. Basically each slide should have no more than seven words per line and no more than seven lines per slide. The reason is to not overwhelm your viewer in any one slide, or web page as our case may be. Give them info, whether it be pictures or words, in small chunks. Try to get as much across in as simplistic a manner as possible. I'm not suggesting using the 7x7 rule for your web pages, just try to keep it simple.

The longer they stay and the easier it is to navigate and view your web site the more likely they will stay long enough that the site makes an impression on them and should they need photography services they will use you. If there is too much info that it overwhelms them or the message in is unclear they will leave with a bad impression. The same will happen if your site is considered difficult to navigate.

I know your GF used a ready made template but that template is simply horrid for what she wants. If you want to get a site up from scratch and don't want to buy software like Dreamweaver, consider something like these editors which are free WYSIWYG editors. You'll need to learn how to use them but they will be easier than learning to code by hand and it's gotta at least be better looking that the template she used. These free editors usually have a lot of help in their user forums as well.

I agree with the KISS/minimalist approach. Trying to convince her of that though is another story. She wants it to be "fun", so trying to get her to stop it from being so "noisy" is proving difficult.

I agree 100% the goal is to get them to stay there to make an impression upon them so when they get to choosing a photog, she is on the list they talk to. I managed to get her to at least get to this point from what it was before (even before the OP version), so progress is being made at least. Just slowly.

Well, we have Dreamweaver. Shes just never used it (neither have I), but it might be worth learning. I will look into that site though. Thanks for the link.

Thanks for the input everybody, it's more appreciated than you know.

 

[akugami]

If you have Dreamweaver then that should simplify things. There are lots of Dreamweaver templates (many free) on the web so I'm sure with a little bit of looking you should be able to find something that will suit your needs or close enough that you can modify and adapt it to your needs.

Tell your GF that the web site should not be about fun. It's a business and should look professional. This can be tough. I know because sometimes I just give up when my wife wants something done and I try to convince her it's a stupid idea. You'll never win. Unfortunately in this case the consequences can be huge if you are trying to make a living as a photographer and your site is turning off potential customers.

BTW, you can have a "fun" web site and still be professional. It still should follow the KISS rule and be easy to navigate. One of the things to avoid is over use of Flash. Not everyone has broadband and I always hated web sites that took a minute or more just to load an intro page.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

I would agree that being too "fun" can work against her and if not done right can devolve into inferred unprofessionalism both in character and aesthetic taste. She can certainly show her fun side through her About Me, Blog, and photo gallery though. If she posts photos of couples looking like they're genuinely having fun, then that will reflect positively on her. You can portray a truck as fun by showing photos of people using it at a tailgate party, car camping out of it, etc. But the truck by itself still retains professionalism. Or you could try for that fun vibe by painting the car in poka dots with swinging rubber testicles on the trailer hitch. Then it's just too much and can reflect badly on the car, the car owner, and the car maker. She's trying to paint the car.

I wouldn't call Dreamweaver a really easy to use WYSIWYG editor, but if you've got it you might as well use it. Just be open to learning and fiddling around with CSS, HTML, pre-made javascript, getting a web host, etc. Definitely check out pre-made templates though to give yourself a head start.

As for building her portfolio, tell her to do a few weddings for free. Seriously. It's not a good idea to place herself into a paid situation where she has full liability for any mistakes she may make as a result of only having had one wedding under her belt. Offer them for free to start with. That way she'll get jobs easily, build her portfolio, build her name, and probably gather some great testimonials. And the website will be better off as well because it'll actually have content to display. Possible paying clients aren't going to be impressed at a website with almost zero content even if it is well designed...

I would invest in Lightroom because it will make her workflow a lot faster and easier. Leave Photoshop for the heavy duty stuff like cloning out large objects and the like. I personally don't know of any photographer who deals in even moderate volumes that uses Photoshop as their only image editing software. Most use something in the Lightroom/Aperture/Capture One category.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
I've never used WIX, but if all of its templates look like the two above, I think you're better off abandoning it and going with some other template.

Me either, I haven't even touched it so I don't know what they offer. Do you have any suggestions for alternatives?

Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with those "turn the key and go" type of websites. All I've used are html templates that I download and then heavily modify with my own html, css, javascript, etc.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Do you have the resources to hire a local web design guy? Maybe even someone from the local high school who would work for cheap?