# Website Feedback? I Finally Made My Own!



## D-B-J (May 15, 2014)

Simple as that.  Can you ladies and gents give me feedback?  I've never made a website before, but squarespace made it quite simple.  I'm pleased with it, but I'm sure there are a million things I can improve upon.  I know you often hate clicking outside links, but I swear this is legit :mrgreen:


Red Skies Photography

Cheers!
Jake


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## Virgil (May 15, 2014)

I like it. Site is easy to navigate and i like most of your work.


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## vintagesnaps (May 15, 2014)

Saying your portfolio is everchanging doesn't to me sound confident - yes, you'll probably make changes as you go but I don't think it's necessary to say so. 

I like your use of lines from your photos in your background but I'm not sure if it works against the photos scrolling down, seems maybe too contrasty? not sure if that describes it well. Maybe a different color than white? seems to need something...

To offer portraits I think it would help to show more, the cropped band shots may not be representative of what people would be looking for. Those not so cropped might be better in a section related to bands/events.


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## tirediron (May 15, 2014)

Not bad at all!  Definitely a much better product than many 'first 'sites' we see here.  A few minor nits:

-The 'site seems VERY slow to load
-A little more about what you can do for me and why I should hire you.  Can you photograph my wedding?  My birthday?  My poodle?  I realize you have some information on your pricing page, but people are lazy.  They are not going to look for; it should be there bright and bold on your home page.
-Why are you offering digital files with $100 sessions and listing print prices?  No one's going to buy the cow if they've already got the milk for free.
-Get your e-mail onto your domain name; 'gmail' does NOT scream 'pro'!
-Your print prices make no sense to me; a 4x6 is almost 63 cents a square inch, but an 11x14 is down to 25????


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## D-B-J (May 15, 2014)

tirediron said:


> Not bad at all!  Definitely a much better product than many 'first 'sites' we see here.  A few minor nits:
> 
> -The 'site seems VERY slow to load
> -A little more about what you can do for me and why I should hire you.  Can you photograph my wedding?  My birthday?  My poodle?  I realize you have some information on your pricing page, but people are lazy.  They are not going to look for; it should be there bright and bold on your home page.
> ...



Thanks! And yeah.. I definitely struggle with pricing.  I have no idea what to charge or how to charge.  The "business" aspect is all so new to me.  Is it easier to set a price/square inch and just judge that way?  As they are it was mostly arbitrary on how much each cost.  Should I not bother with print prices?  

Cheers!
Jake


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## D-B-J (May 15, 2014)

vintagesnaps said:


> Saying your portfolio is everchanging doesn't to me sound confident - yes, you'll probably make changes as you go but I don't think it's necessary to say so.
> 
> I like your use of lines from your photos in your background but I'm not sure if it works against the photos scrolling down, seems maybe too contrasty? not sure if that describes it well. Maybe a different color than white? seems to need something...
> 
> To offer portraits I think it would help to show more, the cropped band shots may not be representative of what people would be looking for. Those not so cropped might be better in a section related to bands/events.



Crap! I meant to get rid of that line in my portfolio section.  Thanks!  And yeah, maybe I should separate out the band photos.  Maybe into events?

Cheers!
Jake


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## D-B-J (May 15, 2014)

tirediron said:


> Not bad at all!  Definitely a much better product than many 'first 'sites' we see here.  A few minor nits:
> 
> -The 'site seems VERY slow to load
> -A little more about what you can do for me and why I should hire you.  Can you photograph my wedding?  My birthday?  My poodle?  I realize you have some information on your pricing page, but people are lazy.  They are not going to look for; it should be there bright and bold on your home page.
> ...



Oh, but I should add I did actually set the prices based on what it would cost me to print, and marked up for profit.


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## vintagesnaps (May 15, 2014)

Maybe a section on bands, it doesn't seem to me like those would show prospective customers what to expect from a more standard portrait session. 

Pricing info. etc. on American Society of Media Photographers . For art prints I go by the price range at shows in my area, or price according to the range at any given gallery when I do submissions out of state.


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## lambertpix (May 15, 2014)

Definitely nice & simple.  You might be able to speed up the first load by putting your background on a bit more of a diet -- especially since it's B&W.  It's still showing as almost 5MB for me, and it's sized at 4000+ pixels in width, which is definitely great in the "upward compatibility" area, but maybe more than you really need.  I bet you could get it closer to 500Kb without working too hard at it.


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## D-B-J (May 15, 2014)

lambertpix said:


> Definitely nice & simple.  You might be able to speed up the first load by putting your background on a bit more of a diet -- especially since it's B&W.  It's still showing as almost 5MB for me, and it's sized at 4000+ pixels in width, which is definitely great in the "upward compatibility" area, but maybe more than you really need.  I bet you could get it closer to 500Kb without working too hard at it.



Oh, right! i downsized all the rest but forgot that one.


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## runnah (May 15, 2014)

Background image is way too big, reduce file size.


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## Steve5D (May 15, 2014)

I like it. It's simple, uncluttered and easy to navigate.

I have one criticism, though. Remove this sentence from your "About Me" page:  "I hope to continue learning and improving my skills, so let's set up a shoot today!"

As much as I know what you're trying to say, a potential customer might think they're hiring an amateur.

Otherwise, it looks good to me...


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## D-B-J (May 15, 2014)

Steve5D said:


> I like it. It's simple, uncluttered and easy to navigate.
> 
> I have one criticism, though. Remove this sentence from your "About Me" page:  "I hope to continue learning and improving my skills, so let's set up a shoot today!"
> 
> ...



I added that as a last minute idea.  Thanks for the comments! 

Cheers!
Jake


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## Msteelio91 (May 15, 2014)

Soooooo I'm at work and I apologize to anyone who may have mentioned similar points but I don't have time to read through:

The good: 

Site looks great! Really easy on the eyes, as a photog website should be. 

I like the gallery dynamics, easy to navigate and easily shows your work. Well done on that, I think a lot of people mess this up. 

The bad:

I'm on a 1gbps connection and I noticed some lag on the background. This is due to the size of the image in the background, you should probably correct that by bringing down the quality a bit so folks on slower connections don't experience issues. Compress the image but keep the res and you'll be fine. 

The red title font is a little TOO simplistic and shows too many pixels IMO. It reminds me of crappy 90's websites. Choose something with a little more smoothness to it. I hate to jump on the bandwagon but helvetica is a great font. 

Overall: 

10/10 would click again


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## D-B-J (May 15, 2014)

Msteelio91 said:


> Soooooo I'm at work and I apologize to anyone who may have mentioned similar points but I don't have time to read through:
> 
> The good:
> 
> ...




Thanks! And yes, I significantly reduced the size of the background.  That was the only one I DIDN'T resize. Haha.

Cheers!
Jake


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## spacefuzz (May 15, 2014)

I like your work.  I think the background  image is distracting from the images, lines pulling me away.  What is your goal with the site?  Are you wanting to sell portrait sessions or fine art?  I would say pick one and accent that.  For me it seems like you dabble in too many things (thats not bad, just from a business site point of view).  If all you want is a portfolio site I'd say it works great. 

You show A Calm End and the bridge twice. 

I like that after I scroll down I can immediately move to another gallery.


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## tirediron (May 15, 2014)

D-B-J said:


> Should I not bother with print prices?


Better yet, don't bother with digital files.  

As for the actual print pricing; what I've done is taken my cost and calculated a multiplication factor; let's say 3.5x on 'X' product range, so if my lab sends me a new price list and I notice that products in 'X' have increased, I just take my new price, multiply it by 3.5 (or whatever) and there's my new base price.  Your lab may be different, but both of the labs that I deal with have a pretty consistent price (when worked out per square inch) for each product range; in other words, the cost of four 4x6 prints is very similar to that of one 8x12 which is why I found the significant decrease in pricing as the print size increased to be rather odd.

Now, all of that aside, whatever pricing works for you is what works for you.  Just make sure that you calculate it correctly, and factor in all of your hard and soft costs.


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## D-B-J (May 15, 2014)

spacefuzz said:


> I like your work.  I think the background  image is distracting from the images, lines pulling me away.  What is your goal with the site?  Are you wanting to sell portrait sessions or fine art?  I would say pick one and accent that.  For me it seems like you dabble in too many things (thats not bad, just from a business site point of view).  If all you want is a portfolio site I'd say it works great.
> 
> You show A Calm End and the bridge twice.
> 
> I like that after I scroll down I can immediately move to another gallery.




Thanks! I hadn't realized I posted those two twice--I remedied that. Also, I don't have a focus yet... That's what I'm leaving it open-ended/portfolio style right now. 

Cheers!
Jake


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## archaicworld (May 19, 2014)

First, I would suggest creating packages for any portrait work. Most clients won't understand $/H or number of digital files, your business angle needs to be just as engaging as your photographs. 

Secondly, your background is too light, it seriously detracts from B&W photos and when viewed from an inexpensive monitor, the kind that a majority of your clients will be using, it seems to leach the vibrancy from color images.

Thirdly, since most people have a 17 inch or larger screen these days you could make your images display significantly larger and put more space between them. You don't, in general, want tons of space around an image or the next image butting onto the screen when your trying to really look at on you like.

Lastly, as has been mentioned, your background image has some seriously strong lines and  my eyes were constantly trying to follow them.

You've got some pretty great work which you probably want to show off, the focus of your website should be on showcasing the images while everything else fades away.


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## D-B-J (May 19, 2014)

archaicworld said:


> First, I would suggest creating packages for any portrait work. Most clients won't understand $/H or number of digital files, your business angle needs to be just as engaging as your photographs.
> 
> Secondly, your background is too light, it seriously detracts from B&W photos and when viewed from an inexpensive monitor, the kind that a majority of your clients will be using, it seems to leach the vibrancy from color images.
> 
> ...



Thanks! I'll have to figure out some portrait package pricings.

Cheers!
Jake 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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