# Need help organizing my website



## nerwin

So I've been working on my photography portfolio site and I just need some advice on how I should go about organizing it.

First things first, I am NOT looking for clients. This is simply a website to share my best work in a somewhat professional looking setup. I'm not trying to reach a certain audience. It will just a place of my own that I can send people to see some of my photos, contact info and social media. That's it.

Secondly - This website is built on Adobe Portfolio platform. So there isn't much customizing, but I did what I could to make the website look the way I want and function the way I want.

As you probably might know I'm a photographer who likes to take pictures of lots of different subjects so I'm really finding it difficult to create galleries on particular genres and populate them. But my _best _work seems to be landscape/nature so I having those two galleries were obvious.

When I do find myself in a urban environment, I've been known to take a good shot there so I created a urban and street gallery.

I also made a miscellaneous but that one just doesn't feel right to me.

I'm not looking to have 100,000 photos on my website and 500 galleries I just want a good selection of my best stuff work and I'm just having a hard time with it. All I wanna do is keep it simple.

Any help will be greatly appreacited.

So here's my site > Nicholas Erwin  — Photographer


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## Destin

Following. I’m also interested to hear how others do this.


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## waday

I'm interested in this, as well.

The one thing I can say right off the bat is that I very much dislike the "miscellaneous" category. Some of the pictures in there are great, others are, no offense, not up to same quality as your others.

One thing that seemed to stand out to me in your misc album was that you could create two additional albums and remove the misc. One would be portraits, and the other would be abstract.

For the photos that don't meet the portraits and abstract (the flowers and lawn chairs that could go in wildlife and landscapes, respectively), I'd suggest changing your "Urban and Street" album to "Urban and Architecture". Then, all your pictures of buildings and cars can go into this album.

You do have a lot of automotive shots, which could have an album all on their own. I guess it comes down to your comfort level of how many albums you want and how wide of a definition you have for each category.

But, I'd nix the "misc" album. To me, it reads "crappy leftovers", which your pictures are not.


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## Designer

It's looking good!  Way better than many posted on here.  You can have a miscellaneous gallery, but you don't have to call it that.  Think up a different name to call it.  "Non-specified", or something like that.  

Please link to the source where you got this, because others might want to do the same thing.


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## nerwin

waday said:


> I'm interested in this, as well.
> 
> The one thing I can say right off the bat is that I very much dislike the "miscellaneous" category. Some of the pictures in there are great, others are, no offense, not up to same quality as your others.
> 
> One thing that seemed to stand out to me in your misc album was that you could create two additional albums and remove the misc. One would be portraits, and the other would be abstract.
> 
> For the photos that don't meet the portraits and abstract (the flowers and lawn chairs that could go in wildlife and landscapes, respectively), I'd suggest changing your "Urban and Street" album to "Urban and Architecture". Then, all your pictures of buildings and cars can go into this album.
> 
> You do have a lot of automotive shots, which could have an album all on their own. I guess it comes down to your comfort level of how many albums you want and how wide of a definition you have for each category.
> 
> But, I'd nix the "misc" album. To me, it reads "crappy leftovers", which your pictures are not.



This is the advice I was looking for. Thank you very much, its help me out quite a bit. I knew the miscellaneous album didn't feel right and to be honest I literally just created that album in lightroom and just dumped the photos I wasn't sure how to categorize them. 

The problem with the portraits and abstracts, I don't have many portraits that to me deserve to be on my website as I'm a noob when it comes to portraits since that's something I don't have a huge interest in but I'll think about it. 

As for abstracts, I might have a few good ones that I could stand displaying on my site but I just don't know if I have enough to make look right.

Same thing with the automotive shots, I don't have that many car photos that are good enough for me to put on my website. I already had a automotive album and I didn't like it. But I maybe I need to spend more time in lightroom and finding the best shots. 

Maybe I don't need 25 images to fill the whole page and maybe only a few is plenty enough. I'm not sure.

I also thought about making a projects page for groups images for things like my trip to mount washington and things like that. I could also put events on that page too. Just something I'm considering.

I don't want to have too many albums, 4-6 I think is plenty but because I do shoot many other things which is why the project page with additional albums might be useful.


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## nerwin

Designer said:


> It's looking good!  Way better than many posted on here.  You can have a miscellaneous gallery, but you don't have to call it that.  Think up a different name to call it.  "Non-specified", or something like that.
> 
> Please link to the source where you got this, because others might want to do the same thing.



Are you talking about the website platform? If so, it's just Adobe Portfolio and it's parts of your Adobe CC Photography subscription if you subscribe. Not everyone seems to know that it exist, its still in its infancy but it's getting better and I've been working with them to help introduce new features. They've actually already implemented some of my ideas hehe.


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## FotosbyMike

To me it looks good! But as stated above I don't like Misc category I would use something like "Personal Projects"


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## nerwin

The biggest problem I'm having is I just don't how to figure which genre a particular image is.

Like for an example, I really like this shot but I have no idea what genre is haha.


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## SquarePeg

Really nice work!  Great advice from @waday   Exactly what I was thinking when I looked at your site.   If you have to have a Misc/Other category, I like the Personal Projects suggestion or maybe just call it something kind of light hearted like Everything Else or Divergent or Falafel or even Exploring...  

I would consider that last photo a landscape unless you had a bridge category.


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## kap55

Your site looks pretty nice - clean layout and good sized previews make it easy to view.

One thing that hurts my eyes is the momentary font change that occurs on your name (upper left corner) every time a category is selected from the menu.


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## nerwin

kap55 said:


> Your site looks pretty nice - clean layout and good sized previews make it easy to view.
> 
> One thing that hurts my eyes is the momentary font change that occurs on your name (upper left corner) every time a category is selected from the menu.



Unfortunately, that's nothing I can fix. That's just the platform it's built on. Hopefully that is something they'll fix but it is what it is.

HOWEVER! It does not occur in Microsoft Edge. So possibly it's a browser thing and compatibility with typekit fonts.


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## Designer

nerwin said:


> The biggest problem I'm having is I just don't how to figure which genre a particular image is.
> 
> Like for an example, I really like this shot but I have no idea what genre is haha.


You can just keep them in the "misc." gallery until you get 9 or 10 that are similar, then start a new gallery for that category.


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## dxqcanada

Hmm, if this is just a site to introduce yourself and have people view your images ... I wonder if the landing page should be more about you first ... the introduction that sets the stage for the images ??


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## nerwin

dxqcanada said:


> Hmm, if this is just a site to introduce yourself and have people view your images ... I wonder if the landing page should be more about you first ... the introduction that sets the stage for the images ??



I tried that once, I honestly didn't like it...I dunno, it just didn't feel right to me. Most already know I'm a photographer.


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## Dave442

It looks like a good start. I think there could even be a B&W category. I also think that the number of images could be knocked down a lot within each category. Where a lot of images works is where you are showing a subject that others are interested, i.e.: cars, buildings, trains, sports, etc.  In your case the site is to showcase your best work. Sometimes it can help to have someone else curate for you. As the photographer, you know things about each piece of work that can make it very difficult to remove. Often the removal is not because the image is bad, it just does not add to current presentation. 

So one goal could be that instead of adding more images, try and remove one image in each category each week this month (starting with the duplicated dragonfly). Later I think you could add some categories and start putting some of the pulled images back in along with some new work.


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## jcdeboever

I really like the site Nerwin. I don't have anything to add that hasn't been said. I think your really talented and should be very proud of your work. I really think it is fine the way it is. The only thing, maybe offer the availability to buy prints. I am no where near your level and people have had to insist on buying prints from me. I don't even have a site. Well done.... Any lenses to sell?


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## nerwin

Dave442 said:


> It looks like a good start. I think there could even be a B&W category. I also think that the number of images could be knocked down a lot within each category. Where a lot of images works is where you are showing a subject that others are interested, i.e.: cars, buildings, trains, sports, etc.  In your case the site is to showcase your best work. Sometimes it can help to have someone else curate for you. As the photographer, you know things about each piece of work that can make it very difficult to remove. Often the removal is not because the image is bad, it just does not add to current presentation.
> 
> So one goal could be that instead of adding more images, try and remove one image in each category each week this month (starting with the duplicated dragonfly). Later I think you could add some categories and start putting some of the pulled images back in along with some new work.



As usual, I'm putting way too much thought into it. I just wanted to keep it simple haha. I don't want too many galleries.

Thanks for the awesome advice, much appreciated.


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## nerwin

jcdeboever said:


> I really like the site Nerwin. I don't have anything to add that hasn't been said. I think your really talented and should be very proud of your work. I really think it is fine the way it is. The only thing, maybe offer the availability to buy prints. I am no where near your level and people have had to insist on buying prints from me. I don't even have a site. Well done.... Any lenses to sell?



I haven't figured out the print thing yet. Prints are hard to sell, especially when you are trying to make money. I've sold a few, but they were private sales and done via email. Unfortunately Adobe Portfolio doesn't have any e-commerce function at this time, so I'd probably have to use a service or something which I'm a little skeptical on. I do mention in the contact page that I sell prints if asked haha. Better than nothing I guess!

Nah no lenses sell yet. Gotta buy them first!!


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## Derrel

Your urban/architecture page has three images that _I_ would kill-file. As mentioned above, very tough to self-curate, but the alley, the one buildins shot, and the "other one" are nowhere near as good as the better ones in that section. Same with the first page...2 of your BEST images are at the bottom of Page 1...ought to be up top.

The mix of color and B&W in the landscapes looks "off" to me...


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## nerwin

Derrel said:


> Your urban/architecture page has three images that _I_ would kill-file. As mentioned above, very tough to self-curate, but the alley, the one buildins shot, and the "other one" are nowhere near as good as the better ones in that section. Same with the first page...2 of your BEST images are at the bottom of Page 1...ought to be up top.
> 
> The mix of color and B&W in the landscapes looks "off" to me...



Maybe quality is better than quantity in this case. 

So maybe having a b&w gallery separate and keep color photos together would be better?


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## Derrel

YES...I think mixing color and B&W landscapes dilutes both. Fewer and better is "mo-betta'!"  than more and lesser.


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## nerwin

Derrel said:


> YES...I think mixing color and B&W landscapes dilutes both. Fewer and better is "mo-betta'!"  than more and lesser.



It's fine to put landscapes among other types of photos into a b&w album?


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## Derrel

nerwin said:


> Derrel said:
> 
> 
> 
> YES...I think mixing color and B&W landscapes dilutes both. Fewer and better is "mo-betta'!"  than more and lesser.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> It's fine to put landscapes among other types of photos into a b&w album?
Click to expand...


Whatever you want to do, I guess. It's your web site!


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## Designer

nerwin said:


> It's fine to put landscapes among other types of photos into a b&w album?


When I view landscape photos, I usually don't categorize them as such, therefore in my mind at least, landscape photos are just pretty pictures.  To me, a photo can be as much about the light or the experience, as much as belonging to a certain category.  You might be able to tell; I don't got out to try to get photos of "landscape".  I just grab whatever whenever.  Like when visiting a certain place, and I just see a nice scene, then I grab it.  If I had a website, I doubt if I would have a section for landscape photos.  That's just me.


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## nerwin

Designer said:


> nerwin said:
> 
> 
> 
> It's fine to put landscapes among other types of photos into a b&w album?
> 
> 
> 
> When I view landscape photos, I usually don't categorize them as such, therefore in my mind at least, landscape photos are just pretty pictures.  To me, a photo can be as much about the light or the experience, as much as belonging to a certain category.  You might be able to tell; I don't got out to try to get photos of "landscape".  I just grab whatever whenever.  Like when visiting a certain place, and I just see a nice scene, then I grab it.  If I had a website, I doubt if I would have a section for landscape photos.  That's just me.
Click to expand...


Dang it, now I'm confused lol. I know a few photographers who have a category for Places but would landscapes really constitute to be under that category? There's others who put landscapes under Nature and Wanderlust. There's so many options...I have no idea what to do.

Unfortunately, Adobe Portfolio doesn't have drop down menu support yet, they are working on that however but who knows when that will be an actual feature.

That is the only downside for Adobe Portfolio, there is limited functionality so you really gotta keep it simple.

I've been looking at other photographers site and seeing what they do and maybe that will give me some ideas for categorizing my work.


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## Dave442

Designer's comment reminds me that in your Landscape section I had noticed that you had images that could be grouped by titles other than Landscape. You have the misty mountains, the bright and saturated scenes, and B&W, to name a few - the hard part being able to come up with a category name that fits more of the emotional feel of the images. 

I think you have a great contrast going with the misty mountain scenes and the hard urban scape images. But I think that potential is buried within all the other images.


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## nerwin

Dave442 said:


> Designer's comment reminds me that in your Landscape section I had noticed that you had images that could be grouped by titles other than Landscape. You have the misty mountains, the bright and saturated scenes, and B&W, to name a few - the hard part being able to come up with a category name that fits more of the emotional feel of the images.
> 
> I think you have a great contrast going with the misty mountain scenes and the hard urban scape images. But I think that potential is buried within all the other images.



I understand what you're saying. I just don't want to have several pages that only have 3 images in. Just feels too much to me. I also don't have much room to add that many catagories.

5-6 tops.

I want to keep it simple, but I wanna do it right too.

It's not easy haha.


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## Destin

nerwin said:


> I understand what you're saying. I just don't want to have several pages that only have 3 images in. Just feels too much to me. I also don't have much room to add that many catagories.
> 
> 5-6 tops.
> 
> I want to keep it simple, but I wanna do it right too.
> 
> It's not easy haha.




This has always been an immense challenge for me. What I feel is good one week looks terrible to me the next; I'm constantly tweaking and changing my website. For me its a little more complicated because I also shoot occasional weddings, portraits, and sports on top of my normal landscape work which makes it really difficult to group everything cleanly and efficiently.


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## Designer

nerwin said:


> I understand what you're saying. I just don't want to have several pages that only have 3 images in. Just feels too much to me. I also don't have much room to add that many catagories.
> 
> 5-6 tops.
> 
> I want to keep it simple, but I wanna do it right too.
> 
> It's not easy haha.


Without making the first category too thin, you can remove some of them to their own category.  As you accumulate more, just start taking some of them off.  Eventually all you have left is the absolute best.


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