# Best Color Schemes and Sizes for Pro Photogs Sites



## bethany138 (Feb 28, 2006)

What do you think are the best color schemes or Page sizes (pixels) for a Pro Photographer's Site?  This is in reference to those who work for clients - weddings, portrait, etc.  What do you thind draws the customer in more and why?

Links to your own fabulous site are good too!


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## bethany138 (Mar 5, 2006)

I don't think many people read this section..lol... I'll just hang out down here by myself...haha.


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## hobbes28 (Mar 5, 2006)

Anything made by bludomain.com that I've seen have been great.


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## Alpha (Mar 10, 2006)

Your best strategy is to start by building your template no wider than 750px. The reason for this is that most internet users have their screen resolution set at 800x600px. Problem is, you can't build an 800px wide template because you lose some pixels in the browser.

(note: this isn't a personal promo, as I more or less closed my web design company down operationally when i decided i didn't want to do it as a career)
Anyway, my company uses some proprietary tracking software to log a lot of information about visitors to our site and the sites that we build, including screen resolution. If you find that the vast majority of your visitors are using 1024x768px, then consider expanding the template width. A CSS-only template will auto-resize according to screen res, but your photos won't, so coding format is a bit moot. 

All in all, you should have photos that fit nicely into your 750px wide template, and hyperlink them to full-sized versions that people can scroll around if they like. 

I might add that i'm currently working on coding a web app that will dynamically resize photos according to what my tracking software says the visitor's screen resolution is. Should be f-in priceless once i finish it


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## gfoz (Mar 11, 2006)

Max Bloom is absolutely right when he says that to optimise for 800 x 600 you'll cater to everyone, but if you find it restrictive, you'll find that you won't be upsetting too many viewers - to give you an idea, of the visitors to our packshot website, less than 5% are on 800x600 screens. The rest are on 1024x768 (77%) and the rest, higher still.


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## Alpha (Mar 11, 2006)

I certainly agree with you that it is restrictive. However, I don't see any problem at all with having a smaller image inside your template and then linking to a full-sized or simply larger one. You wouldn't be able to fit the full-sized image into a 1024px template, either.


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## bethany138 (Mar 13, 2006)

Thanks guys...  What about color schemes.  I want to keep it classy... but not to boring.  I wish I knew how to do the brush edge look I see.. hmm..

Colors??


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## gfoz (Mar 14, 2006)

These links to colour scheme and colour blending sites might give you a head start...

colorblender.com
colorcombos.com
colorschemer.com/online.html.webloc
wellstyled.com


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## Arch (Mar 14, 2006)

If your business has a colour scheme already, i would suggest you try and stick to it. There's nothing worse than a company who have different styles and colours for all of there advertising and marketing. If you dont have a set colour scheme yet and haven't got anything important printed like brochers etc.. then its best to try and come up with a solid idea of how you want to promote your business, and then try to stick to it..... unless of course you fancy a rebranding.
Example.... one of my clients decided to rebrand.... went for the website first... colour scheme was then decided on, to how he wanted to be presented.... then everything that followed... i.e. business cards, leaflets etc... were all designed in the same style. This way when someone recieves your card or see's an advert in a magazine the overall look is related straight to your business even if they didin't really take in alot of the information. This helps public awareness and can boost the effect of your advertising.
BTW... this client chose black as a BG and went for light grey and white to enhance picture boarders.... txt etc.
Other popular colours for wedding company's are cream, silver, light blue, B+W, metalics. If your not a wedding company, just portraits etc... then the colour pallet is open to whatever you like....sometimes its good to be different.


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