website question

[victoria]

I finally bit the bullet and worked my fingers to the bone to pull this off. Now I have some questions.:smile:

I have read and read on here about different recommendations to improve one's website. I tried to make it as easy and professional looking as possible with the know how I have. I also have come across discussions about not to disable right click and whatnot. What is the best way for me to protect the images on the site without making them any smaller than they are right now? I would watermark them but I don't want it to become distracting. Also I don't want to have to go through the trouble when anybody with the will and know-how can go in and photoshop it off anyway. So what do you do?

Also I would love to be able to get something going as far as a password protected gallery. I have 165 girls that I will be taking photos of in two weeks and I would much rather be able to put the proofs online than do what I have done in the past. I would print up 4x6 proofs with the option to buy(most would) but I would spend so much time resizing and printing and delivering that it just wasn't worth it. I would rather have them available online so that they can view them and if they want a 4x6 I will print up a 4x6. I really don't know where to begin to get that accomplished.:oops:

Please let me know how you think I did on the website.

Thanks!!

www.artisticaffairsphotography.com (http://www.artisticaffairsphotography.com)

[chris_m_atl]

Very nice, but once I enter a gallery there's no back button for me to return to the homepage...

To protect your images, you'll have to make a decision on adding a watermark. For online purposes, there's really no other way around it... Once you make a watermark in Photoshop (with a transparent background), save the file as "Watermark.psd" and open one COPY of a sample image --> Create a new action --> Record --> place the "Watermark" file on top of your image --> Flatten --> Save--> Close.-->Stop the Action recording --> File--> Automate --> Batch Processing --> Select the folder with all your image copies --> Choose the Watermark Action you just made --> and click OK and Photoshop will apply the watermark to all the images in the folder.

Makes sure you do this to a COPY of your originals!

To place your images and proofs in a protected gallery, your hosting site will provide you with a "database" in which you can enable the password protection. Their customer service dept should be able to help you get this setup, if it's not already accessable in your hosting control panel.

[Megapixle]

There's really no way to protect images on a website. If you're worried about people stealing them, the only way to combat that is to not put the images on the website. Sorry to be blunt, but that's the reality.

On the positive side, with the size they are now, they can't be made into good looking prints at least. But you should expect people to save them to their computer for emailing, desktop backgrounds, etc.

As far as the rest of your website goes.....and all the following is just my personal opinion.......

1) I'm not a fan of splash pages (your 'Enter') page. It really serves no purpose--of course I want to enter your webpage, that's why I came to it in the first place.

2) This is nitpicky--you might think of getting rid of your counter, or at least hiding it somehow where others can't see it. Counters are kind of a 90's thing I think. Plus, nobody's going to be real impressed that 33 people have visited your website.

3) I'd recommend against using Java. It's quite tempermental for some people, including myself. At best it's clunky & annoying.

4) You should try viewing your website in different browsers. For example, I use Firefox and your site looks nothing like it does in Internet Explorer.

5) I'd recommend adding some navigation menus so users don't always have to rely on their 'Back' button.

6) Speaking of navigation, on your main page with all the links to the galleries etc., I have to click the links twice before it takes me to the page.

Well those are the impressions off the top of my head, take them for what they're worth. I'm not trying to be malicious or anything, just a few pointers that might improve your site (or maybe not).

~mp

[victoria]

Thank you Chris and MP

I didn't even think twice about sticking a "back button" in there - I will work on doing that. Is that something that would be on every page?

As for the watermarking, I looked at your site and I like that it is on your photos in a way that isn't too distracting. I will try to do that and see what I can come up with.

I am not at all offended in any way. I am wanting to learn. The website was just published this weekend, so that is why there are only 30+ views on it. I knew that it could be misleading, but I have been messing around with all sorts of things (being the novice I am with website design) just to get a better feel for what I am doing on there. You did point out that you have to double click on the links. I have no idea how to fix that so that you only have to click once. I know that in Netscape you only have to click once. In IE you have to click twice. So if you can enlighten me on how to fix that issue that would be fantastic because I don't care to click twice on anything for it to open myself.

The "Splash Page" didn't know it was called that....:oops: That is the design on my business card and so I went with it thinking that it would let people know they are really in the right place. Didn't think twice about that either.

Thanks for the comments.

[chris_m_atl]

A navigation bar on the left/top/or bottom of each page would help. Or a back button on each page...Your preference. If you do a navigation bar, your webpage design software should have a create template feature so if you were to make changes to the links later on, you just modify the template -->save and the change will apply to all pages using that navigation template..

I use Google Analytics for page counting. It's far more dynamic than that of a static counter on the site. It's very easy to setup and you can get it free here:
http://www.google.com/analytics/

I also use Google Webmaster tools:
https://www.google.com/webmasters/

My watermark is only on the Highway 78 Aerial photography portion of the gallery. All my images are copyright registered, so if I find someone using them...well, I'll get a very nice paycheck bonus at the end of the day. I'm personally not too worried about infringment since I'm primarily Real Estate. However, in your case (since your photographing people and especially children) you really should have a medium strength watermark smack in the middle of the image...IMO

[victoria]

Hey thanks Chris....

Removed the counter and signed up for the analytics. Wow...impressive.:)

[victoria]

I am planning on copyrighting all the images. I read post after post about putting them all on a CD and sending it off for $x and I would get a certificate stating that they are copyrighted..etc. I just want to double check....EVERY photo that I ever take should be copyrighted? It doesn't matter what it is? I am new at the copyright thing...I never thought about it until I signed up on this forum. The best way to protect the photo is to watermark it clearly so that it would be nearly impossible to "remove". As for the images on the site....do you think they are the correct size or should I be making them smaller. I don't want them so small that you can't tell if it's a good or bad picture.

Sorry....:lol:

[chris_m_atl]

On all professional work, I send a cd for official registration. On all personal and past work, I get a "poor man's patent" in which I put them on a cd/dvd and mail it to myself. I mail at least two copies of the same thing, so If I ever go to court, I'll have the postage US postmark stamp stating the date that the package was shipped and the images were "copyrighted." If the need ever came that I open the package to prove the CD contents are indeed my images, I'll also have backups of the same thing in the additional packages I mailed to myself.

This is also a great way to archive and backup your database...killing two birds with one stone, sort of thing..

The images are a good size as they are now, I think..

[souporman]

I've just got home after quite a few drinks, but I just have two things to say:

1) I'm not a fan of splash pages (your 'Enter') page. It really serves no purpose--of course I want to enter your webpage, that's why I came to it in the first place.

Amen

5) I'd recommend adding some navigation menus so users don't always have to rely on their 'Back' button.

and amen!

I'll have a look again tomorrow, but those are 2 major ones for me at first glance.

[victoria]

:lol: :lol:

Okay...I get it! I will work on the Navigation Menu!

[victoria]

Okay I think I have it figured out....I managed to get back buttons on all pages except for a couple due to an error. MP you can click once on those!:) I will work on the actual links to galleries so that you only have to click once also.

Still working on the other issues. I still can figure out how to fix the firefox and netscape viewing problem.