My new photo website

dougdarter

dougdarter

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Douglas
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Hi,

I have spent the last few days setting up my new website:

www.dougdarter-photography.co.uk

It's been a sharp learning curve, and whilst it's still a 'work in progress', it's nearly all there.

It's probably a bit image heavy in some areas, and light in others, but I've to do some weeding here and there, and add more pics.

Please visit, have a look round and play, and if you enjoy it, please add a kind comment to the visitors book:lol:

C and C here would be useful.

Thanks.
 
I'll go back to this when I have a bit more time.
Some points:
Spelling mistakes (Comissions first page Cretive in image repair.
Some images (fishing boats for example) seem oversharpened, they are not, it's just the compression to the image size makes them look so.
In the architecture section, names to places needed.
It's not clear what the function is of the white boxed arrow bottom right?

Those aside I think it's quite excellent, clean and simple lines, easy to navigate, and interesting content.
Look forward to it being completed.
 
Les McLean said:
I'll go back to this when I have a bit more time.
Some points:
Spelling mistakes (Comissions first page Cretive in image repair.
Some images (fishing boats for example) seem oversharpened, they are not, it's just the compression to the image size makes them look so.
In the architecture section, names to places needed.
It's not clear what the function is of the white boxed arrow bottom right?

Those aside I think it's quite excellent, clean and simple lines, easy to navigate, and interesting content.
Look forward to it being completed.
Click to expand...


Thanks Les, typos are the bane of my life. I actually ran it all through a spell checker!! I'll attend to that immediately.

The compression is a bit odd, but it's what the server insists on.

I'll name the places when I have a little more time.

Click the little white arrow, and it takes you back to the top of each page.

Thanks:D
 
Some sub-galleries in the British Birds gallery might be good - it's a lot to scroll through if you're looking for one image and sub-galleries would help this :)

Love the goldfinch pics ;)
 
A very good looking site Doug ... :thumbs: ... very easy to navigate and find your way around and attractive to look at ... ;)

A couple of points in addition to Les above;

The Intro/Home page should ideally be viewable on loading without scrolling imgo ... :shrug:

You should think about adding Common & Latin Names to the Birds (and other creatures if/when you add them) ... :thinking:

Rather than 'Continue' within galleries for page turning might it be preferable to have page numbers ... :shrug:

I am not too keen on the new window opened when clicking for larger views ... may just be a personal thing ... :D

On my screen there is a lot of wasted space as the whole thing only takes up approximately half of it ... :suspect: ... again could just be me ... ;)

But overall a very pleasing site Doug and given it is a 'Work in Progress' I am sure it can only get better ... :thumbs:






:p
 
Venomator said:
A very good looking site Doug ... :thumbs: ... very easy to navigate and find your way around and attractive to look at ... ;)

A couple of points in addition to Les above;

The Intro/Home page should ideally be viewable on loading without scrolling imgo ... :shrug:

It was all visible when I started - info overload. I'll sort it into 2 pages.

You should think about adding Common & Latin Names to the Birds (and other creatures if/when you add them)

I'll do this when I find my bird book - I think it's under the sofa!!

Rather than 'Continue' within galleries for page turning might it be preferable to have page numbers ... :shrug:

It's the default option - no way of changing it.

I am not too keen on the new window opened when clicking for larger views ... may just be a personal thing ... :D

I may be able to change it - I need a better handle on the software first.

On my screen there is a lot of wasted space as the whole thing only takes up approximately half of it ... :suspect: ... again could just be me ... ;)

It automatically sizes with the width of the images. I need to find another image, or widen the first.

But overall a very pleasing site Doug and given it is a 'Work in Progress' I am sure it can only get better ...






:p
Click to expand...

Thanks:D
 
Very Nice Doug After a quick flick around I will re-iterate a point already made that some images do look over sharpened
but if thats the server request then I guess you are "stuck with it"
Web sites can be real time consuming & a right pain in the ass for us non-IT guys ( I've done a couple so I sympathise) You've done a good job :thumbs:
 
I found it a bit confusing - not the navigation, etc. but who the site is aimed at. The front page suggests a commercial site for a freelance tog but the rest of the site is pretty much a gallery of your work plus a gear list. The only real information about work you do is image repair.

I would maybe put the menus into clearer sections - About, Gallery, Services then place everything under those main headings and add some more details/sales pitch for hiring you.
 
Nice site, my comment would be (feel free to take it or leave it) the names of the pictures under the thumbnails in some of the sections needs bit of work e.g. in the landscape they are descriptive for the picture (fishingboat etc,) good. But in the Pirelli classic you've just left them as the IMG_ number, that doesn't look as good, maybe just rename them 'Pirelli01' etc.
 
Have visited - signed guest book!:thumbs:

I'm just a bit uncertain on one point - what brand of kit do you prefer to work with?



:lol:
 
I'm in the middle of reviewing a web design document in my day job when I saw this so the following may / may not be useful but my brain's currently in work mode :gag: Apologies in advance for any offence !

  • Top banner and left navigation look very professional. I like it !
  • Lose the hit counter. Fair enough if you want to know how many ppl have visited but most ppl who are visited probably won't care. Takes the edge off the professional look
  • Lose the pic of the camera with your email on it. Looks amateurish
  • Lead the site with one of your best pictures to attract the particular clientele you are looking for
  • Double check grammer and spelling !
  • Put your Price list on a seperate page and have examples
  • Not a big fan of the font on the home page
  • Try not to let the home page go below the fold (i.e. scroll below a screen size of 768)
  • Put your email address in one place, near the top right. ppl look there !
  • Put an 'ALT' tag on your #top flag at the bottom of pages !
  • Consistency of font & size should be paramount
  • Spelling of 'unsuccessful' on the Image repair page
  • As pxl8 has said, you need to advertise your pictures and services seperately so people know where to go !
  • Thumbnail borders should either be consistent across all your pics or different for each theme. Atm it's a bit of both !
  • As you have a Pbase gallery section, you should make the image on the page link to it.
  • Popup images *shudder*

I'd better stop now, I think I'm being overcritical ! :embarrassed:
 
Nice site, better than I can do without templates! The two criticisms I have are the tiny preview images, you say it is a server problem but the problem is they make a good site look a lot more amateur that it actually is. Maybe consider doing the thumbs manually?

The other thing is the hit counter, it does make the site look amateurish, and only really appears on amateur sites. If you want to know how many people have been to your site have a look at Google analytics. It's free and very useful.:)
 
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