My website

robphotographer said:
Hi i am new to this forum thought i would share my website. http://www.robertdickinsonphotodesign.co.uk/

What do you think?

Thanks
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I think the site looks a little confused. You have a few nice photos and then there are others that are a long way behind in standard. Only ever show your very best work.

You have repeat photos for no apparent reason, you're the photographer, you should know which is best, pick one - example, fire engine.

A lot of your work is done in very bad light and lacks any composition. Most of images lack punch.

Your need to improve your post processing hugely.

Overall your site comprises images of a very mixed quality and the bad images (subjective, but you did ask!) drag down the rest. You need to be ruthless about your image selection.

Your site design looks desperately old fashioned. There are far better templates available from Zenfolio.

I'm not sure why you have a Guestbook or Favourites options. They don't sit well on a professional photographers website.

Your watermark bang in the middle of your images is very distracting and obscures your photos.

I'm sure you have used Flickr. Take a look around at the quality of the images you are up against and I think you may rethink your plans.

Example image:-

http://www.robertdickinsonphotodesign.co.uk/birds_and_wildlife/h65e76c06#h65e76c06

Badly lit, no composition, and the bird looks weird.

Sorry, Robert, but I honestly think the standard of your work needs to improve, though you do have one or two images that show some capability.
 
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JennyGW said:
I think the site looks a little confused. You have a few nice photos and then there are others that are a long way behind in standard. Only ever show your very best work.

You have repeat photos for no apparent reason, you're the photographer, you should know which is best, pick one - example, fire engine.

A lot of your work is done in very bad light and lacks any composition. Most of images lack punch.

Your need to improve your post processing hugely.

Overall your site comprises images of a very mixed quality and the bad images (subjective, but you did ask!) drag down the rest. You need to be ruthless about your image selection.

Your site design looks desperately old fashioned. There are far better templates available from Zenfolio.

I'm not sure why you have a Guestbook or Favourites options. They don't sit well on a professional photographers website.

Your watermark bang in the middle of your images is very distracting and obscures your photos.

I'm sure you have used Flickr. Take a look around at the quality of the images you are up against and I think you may rethink your plans.

Example image:-

http://www.robertdickinsonphotodesign.co.uk/birds_and_wildlife/h65e76c06#h65e76c06

Badly lit, no composition, and the bird looks weird.

Sorry, Robert, but I honestly think the standard of your work needs to improve, though you do have one or two images that show some capability.
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Thank you for your feedback, a couple of points if I may,

1. I think the favourites option cant removed or if it can i cant seem to figure how to remove it
2. I am currently in the process of designing/coding my own theme so that is just temporary change from my previous layout as i had feedback saying it was too dark so i moved to a lighter theme.
3. the images i chose i feel are my best work.
4. the watermark is necessary
 
I will strive to improve as i am still learning both with settings on camera and editing photos properly
 
robphotographer said:
Thank you for your feedback, a couple of points if I may,

1. I think the favourites option cant removed or if it can i cant seem to figure how to remove it
2. I am currently in the process of designing/coding my own theme so that is just temporary change from my previous layout as i had feedback saying it was too dark so i moved to a lighter theme.
3. the images i chose i feel are my best work.
4. the watermark is necessary
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1. Check the Options for each page, turn off "Allow to add to Favourites" (or something like that).
2. White is best. Dark/black makes images look over contrasty, imho.
3. Then I suggest you choose again. It doesn't matter if you only have 10 images total as long as they are your best. Tell me why you have three photos of the same fire engine in the same position, what changed, what information was added?
4. Not slap bang in the middle of your images it is not. Take a look at the web sites of famous photographers and see how many have any watermark at all?

My Zenfolio site. Discreet watermarks only:-

http://www.jgw-photography.co.uk/

If your site is purely as an amateur and you're not trying to make a living, make it whatever the heck you want and who cares who likes it or not as long as you do.

"I will strive to improve as i am still learning both with settings on camera and editing photos properly" - This tells me you are not read for a website. Save your money. Use Flickr, join critique groups, whatever you need to do to learn.

If your site is to help you make money as a professional photographer, then in my opinion it doesn't work. Go ahead, prove me wrong, but at those prices you won't be able to afford a decent camera ever if it's your only form of income.

Who is going to buy an out of focus shot of the back of these players' heads?

http://www.robertdickinsonphotodesign.co.uk/iphoneography/h34969553#h34969553
 
JennyGW said:
1. Check the Options for each page, turn off "Allow to add to Favourites" (or something like that).
2. White is best. Dark/black makes images look over contrasty, imho.
3. Then I suggest you choose again. It doesn't matter if you only have 10 images total as long as they are your best. Tell me why you have three photos of the same fire engine in the same position, what changed, what information was added?
4. Not slap bang in the middle of your images it is not. Take a look at the web sites of famous photographers and see how many have any watermark at all?

My Zenfolio site. Discreet watermarks only:-

http://www.jgw-photography.co.uk/

If your site is purely as an amateur and you're not trying to make a living, make it whatever the heck you want and who cares who likes it or not as long as you do.

"I will strive to improve as i am still learning both with settings on camera and editing photos properly" - This tells me you are not read for a website. Save your money. Use Flickr, join critique groups, whatever you need to do to learn.

If your site is to help you make money as a professional photographer, then in my opinion it doesn't work. Go ahead, prove me wrong, but at those prices you won't be able to afford a decent camera ever if it's your only form of income.

Who is going to buy an out of focus shot of the back of these players' heads?

http://www.robertdickinsonphotodesign.co.uk/iphoneography/h34969553#h34969553
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But i am not a professional photographer? I clearly stated this. I see where you are coming from with the few images that have been duplicated, maybe an error on my part when uploading. Nothing wrong really with my website, i have made a few sales from the site and had my own exhibition which i sold prints at.

I will go through the images and remove some. Thanks for your opinion.
 
robphotographer said:
But i am not a professional photographer? I clearly stated this. I see where you are coming from with the few images that have been duplicated, maybe an error on my part when uploading. Nothing wrong really with my website, i have made a few sales from the site and had my own exhibition which i sold prints at.

I will go through the images and remove some. Thanks for your opinion.
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I said: "If your site is purely as an amateur and you're not trying to make a living, make it whatever the heck you want and who cares who likes it or not as long as you do."

best of luck :)
 
I'll have to second Jenny's comment about the watermark being unnecessary and overly obtrusive.

Firstly right click save has been disabled on your site - this will deter a fair few people. Secondly, will the remainder of people that know how to get around the block and save the images really want to steal a web-sized copy to print large?

I personally prefer a simple layout - take a page from mine as an example (ignore the content, just the layout style): http://acwphoto.co.uk/animals

No doubt people will shoot down that layout too - I guess that's what makes websites so subjective.

I personally find yours takes too long to navigate / it's too complex to see all of the images. The gallery thumbnails are also too small and do not grab the views attention.

I'd also make a separate page to list your gear - as the majority of non-photographer users quite frankly will not care and much rather see the photographs themselves.

The content is good.
 
JennyGW said:
I said: "If your site is purely as an amateur and you're not trying to make a living, make it whatever the heck you want and who cares who likes it or not as long as you do."

best of luck :)
Click to expand...

Thank you
 
ACW said:
I'll have to second Jenny's comment about the watermark being unnecessary and overly obtrusive.

Firstly right click save has been disabled on your site - this will deter a fair few people. Secondly, will the remainder of people that know how to get around the block and save the images really want to steal a web-sized copy to print large?

I personally prefer a simple layout - take a page from mine as an example (ignore the content, just the layout style): http://acwphoto.co.uk/animals

No doubt people will shoot down that layout too - I guess that's what makes websites so subjective.

I personally find yours takes too long to navigate / it's too complex to see all of the images. The gallery thumbnails are also too small and do not grab the views attention.

I'd also make a separate page to list your gear - as the majority of non-photographer users quite frankly will not care and much rather see the photographs themselves.

The content is good.
Click to expand...

i am creating myself a new logo soon so will have a watermark lower corner but i still prefer the watermark on there regardless, even if nobody can right click save there is always a way round them been stolen passed off as own as its happened to me before, cant be too careful
 
robphotographer said:
What do you think?
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I think it looks like a hobby website, which it is, so that's a good thing maybe? There are a lot of spelling and grammatical errors throughout the couple of pages I viewed - whether that matters or not, I'm not sure, as the site is just for yourself it would seem. Navigation isn't the easiest with menus moving, and the search field that popped out and covered half the menu was annoying.

robphotographer said:
Nothing wrong really with my website
Click to expand...

I would disagree with that statement, but then maybe I shouldn't, because I don't know what the purpose of the site is (or why you're asking for opinions on it).

Happy photographing!

Oh yea, and the watermark is unnecessarily ugly, and a distraction from your work.
 
Jayst84 said:
I think it looks like a hobby website, which it is, so that's a good thing maybe? There are a lot of spelling and grammatical errors throughout the couple of pages I viewed - whether that matters or not, I'm not sure, as the site is just for yourself it would seem. Navigation isn't the easiest with menus moving, and the search field that popped out and covered half the menu was annoying.



I would disagree with that statement, but then maybe I shouldn't, because I don't know what the purpose of the site is (or why you're asking for opinions on it).

Happy photographing!

Oh yea, and the watermark is unnecessarily ugly, and a distraction from your work.
Click to expand...

thanks for feedback it was just a general question really more on my photos rather than the site but after consideration i have now removed the watermark, managed to get rid of the search button and also favourites option. Purpose of my site is to show my work off, i am going to plan out a new layout better navigation:)
 
If i may add i have made a few sales through this even as a hobby, as my main career goals is in Graphic design areas, photography is just the extra, but i do put as much effort as i can into it, sometimes i have needed confidence boosting with my camera as i can come unstuck with settings and some parts of post editing
 
robphotographer said:
If i may add i have made a few sales through this even as a hobby, as my main career goals is in Graphic design areas, photography is just the extra, but i do put as much effort as i can into it, sometimes i have needed confidence boosting with my camera as i can come unstuck with settings and some parts of post editing
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(Unlike me when I started out ;) ) be ready to accept advice that is well meant (and ready to ignore it if you don't agree).
 
It's ok - as someone young trying to learn skills it's not too dreadful, and like all of us you'll pick up skills and knowledge and tweak and improve as you go along. Making a site and actually "doing" is the best way to learn, so you've taken a good first step. A fair way to go though, but I'm sure that'll come with time. We all start somewhere, my first site wasn't that great either :).
 
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