Rate, criticize, help me with my new website!

T

Thomas Comery

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Edit My Images
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I have set up a new website for my photography and I would like some help forming and improving it. If I deem you advice helpful and constructive I will include you on my links page, you can leave any comments using the contact page and I'll get back to you. Thanks TC:)

www.tcphotographic.co.uk
 
A URL might help :wave::wave:



Do I get a link ?
 
The page takes too long to load - I got bored and moved elsewhere before it loaded fully.

And the music is irritating and pointless, especially when it plays over the music i'm listening to.
 
KK I've had mixed replies on the music so probably going to remove and I assume the majority of people involved in or interested in photography will have reasonably quick pc's. thanks
 
It's the speed of the internet connection that counts...

I'm on a very powerful PC and a 3Mb+ broadband connection (about national average i think)
 
Thomas Comery said:
KK I've had mixed replies on the music so probably going to remove and I assume the majority of people involved in or interested in photography will have reasonably quick pc's. thanks
Click to expand...

They might have quick PC's, but it doesn't mean their connection is fast. I'm on a Mac Pro, but I live in the middle of the Northumberland countryside and my internet connection is absolutely naff (less than 2mb). The pages were slow to load.

You'll not find many takers for music on websites I'm afraid.

Overall I like the site, but clicking on the pics on the home page, simply brings up a slightly bigger version, which then obscures the menus.
 
I think the way everything is laid out works really well, it's clear and concise. However, despite those good points - myself and many other people despise flash so it'll put off a lot of people. I just don't really think it's all that necessary for your website, it will function fine without having each page slide in and out like it does.

The music also has got to go.
 
OK thanks a lot guys really useful stuff, I'm pretty set on flash because of my lack of web designing knowledge and the professionalism it delivers. I'm gonna work on the improvements over the next couple of days if anyone here would like to be included on my links page email me your URL :)
 
For it takes way to long to load, but im on my 512mb laptop, may have no problems on my main computer.
 
I don't agree that a full flash site adds professionalism, I'd say it just makes the site look pretentious.

Maybe I'm being harsh, I've just never seen the reason for any website which is purely just about delivering content to be made in full flash, I only see the reason for it when it's something interactive.

Apologies if I'm being overboard, it's just one of my major pet hates!
 
Ok fair due's, baring in mind I have a small amount knowledge on websites and being a student not much money, what are my options to move away from flash?
 
Just a standard straight up website built with xhtml/css and a bit of JavaScript for your picture gallery should do, so if you were to convert your website away from Flash it wouldn't really be too much of a learning curve.

Besides, if anything, Flash is the expensive one, as you'd have to have bought the flash program which doesn't really come cheap whereas you can do xhtml/css/javascript with just notepad!

Also, for the links page - I'm not entirely sure why it's there, at least in the current state. It would be handier if it was categorised, and maybe have some information about what each link is.
 
From a design point of view i think you have missed the mark with this a bit.
I dont like the rotating images, it doesnt say to me that this si a photography site.
I understand that it has the title of the site, but your images are rotating quite quickly and are all of mens portraits, is that all you do?

I would slow down the rotation if your going to keep that and do a mixture of your pictures, all the same size, with a border...

Your portfolio gallery, the way it is presented is good, but inconsistent.
In some of the galleries the images scroll from the right, in others it opens up a different menu system, and in another the images fade in.

The contact page.
The text does not line up with the contact form box.
Personally i would remove the email address and telephone number and keep the contact form. The amount of spam i got from my sites with the phone number on show did my head... thats just a personal thing though.

I would drop the links page... it serves no purpose other than to move traffic away from your site. You want to keep people looking ;)

I would consider removing the rotating imasges on the front page and just put one nice image with a border instead, this wouold reduce load times.

I would also split each other portfolio section into seperate movies, you can then call each one in when needed. This would reduce your load times as well.
If you need help and advice with this i would strongly recomend you join flashkit.com if you havent already.

Hope some of the advice helps.
 
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