New website and photos.. Critiques?

[HMetal]

I guess I'm posting because I want someone to critique our final design for the Luminescent Memories Photography website. Please have a look. Feel free to make suggestions for improvement.

The link is also one of our latest client photos, recently posted.

Thanks.

http://www.luminescentmemories.com (http://www.luminescentmemories.com/portfolio/index.php?tag=Fitness&pid=64)

[vettenet]

doesn't look right on my Mac. the picture is offset way to the right and half off the screen.

[HMetal]

Sorry, apparently there were some tweaks still being made. Can you let me know if it looks okay for you now?

Thanks.

[waple]

I really like it.

The only question/concern I have is the prices of your 4x6 and 5x7. Both seem very low compared to the 8x10 and up. I actually made my 4x6 and 5x7 both at $15 (soon to be $20) and beyond that, you and I are pretty close in price.

[JasonBr]

I think the links at the bottom look too much like one of those pages that you hit when you type an address wrong. The ones that are just advertising.

[Karl Johnston]

I think your small print prices are fine up to 11x14...then your larger prints get extremely inexpensive; why so cheap?

16 x 20 $120.00
20 x 24 $140.00
20 x 30 $175.00

Where are you printing and what are you printing on to have such cheap prices? And why offer both the sizes 20x30 and 20x24?

[vettenet]

yes, looks right now.

[NYC2BGI]

Looks good to me!

[Alleh]

Sorry the website looks awful. The photography is of similar quality and honestly looking at prices makes me cringe that someone would pay at all.

First you need to focus on what you really want to do. Pick a photographic category and start building some experience and skill as those things improve your portfolio will improve then you can design a website that that will showcase your work in the way it needs to be displayed depending on who you are targeting as clients. The site actually looks about 15 years old.

[Moppie]

Sorry the website looks awful. The photography is of similar quality and honestly looking at prices makes me cringe that someone would pay at all.

First you need to focus on what you really want to do. Pick a photographic category and start building some experience and skill as those things improve your portfolio will improve then you can design a website that that will showcase your work in the way it needs to be displayed depending on who you are targeting as clients. The site actually looks about 15 years old. Honestly if you have owned a camera for longer than 6 months and those are your best images photography probably isn't your gift.


Says the guy still using flickr and lightroom galleries on his webpages?
You might want to check your blog link as well, it gave me access to the directory and folder structure on your server.

You might be the more experianced photographer, but HMetal has superior website.

The only good advice is your suggestion to narrow down the number of catagories, and focus on a smaller number.

[R33E8]

Sorry the website looks awful. The photography is of similar quality and honestly looking at prices makes me cringe that someone would pay at all.

First you need to focus on what you really want to do. Pick a photographic category and start building some experience and skill as those things improve your portfolio will improve then you can design a website that that will showcase your work in the way it needs to be displayed depending on who you are targeting as clients. The site actually looks about 15 years old. Honestly if you have owned a camera for longer than 6 months and those are your best images photography probably isn't your gift.

Wow.. harsh.. Although a lot of what you say is true I disagree with your last line..


Says the guy still using flickr and lightroom galleries on his webpages?
You might want to check your blog link as well, it gave me access to the directory and folder structure on your server.

You might be the more experianced photographer, but HMetal has superior website.

The only good advice is your suggestion to narrow down the number of catagories, and focus on a smaller number.

As long as the galleries look good and work well then I see no problem using them...

I think Alleh's website is wonderful and a good example of a well designed photographer's website. It's a simple minimalistic design that is very easy to navigate.

HMetal's website does look kinda of old and like it was based off of a free template available online.. The gallery is pretty hard to navigate, I really dont like the keyword kind of titles for each gallery at the bottom.I would have put them on a menu to the right of the images, and display thumbnails of the images to the left.. The center could display the selected images enlargened..

For the menu bar, I would choose a simpler font and lose the black to gray gradient and metalish looking bars... The revits(?) and bevel in the banner look kind of tacky as well.. A simple design using a consistant colorscheme would look good.. Try to look up some "web 2.0" designs(http://www.cssbeauty.com/) and use color pallets such as the amazing ones availble from adobe's kuler.. http://kuler.adobe.com/

For the domain name I would have suggested something much shorter such as www.luminphoto.com or so.. It's a lot easier to tell someone and spell..

I'm sure if I look closer I can find a few more things I don't like about the site, but I think it would be a wise choice to pay someone to design it for you.. I hope you didn't pay for this design...:confused:

[Alleh]

Says the guy still using flickr and lightroom galleries on his webpages?
You might want to check your blog link as well, it gave me access to the directory and folder structure on your server.

You might be the more experianced photographer, but HMetal has superior website.

The only good advice is your suggestion to narrow down the number of catagories, and focus on a smaller number.


I don't have it connected to flickr not sure what makes you think that. I also don't own lightroom. I do however need to design a new gallery system as i don't really like the current layout but I need to do a major redo of the portfolio anyway. I also tried making some changes to the blog section of the website today and it's all messed up right now blogger is having a hard time publishing the content in the site. All of my website issues aside it still doesn't make the site up for review look any better.

"you might be the more experianced photographer, but HMetal has a superior website"

says the guy with no link to a website.

[BlueTreePhoto]

Some of your work is really nice, some of it I think you should take out, like the woman with a cat on a bed. That looks more like a snapshot at home than a professional image to me. I also agree with what someone else said, narrow your categories. You have some nice portrait work and the top part of the website looks well done. One thing that bugs me is the different font sizes on the links, but that is just a personal thing :)

[PhotosGuy]

luminescentmemories.com I think you might be expecting too much to expect everyone to type "luminescent" & get it right? ;)
Good name for maternity & people shots, but not so hot for surfing & skateboarding?

I don't like this very much:

362556

I'm not caring a whole lot for the image(s) on your home page. I expect a slide show, & don't get one. Clicking on it does nothing, & refreshing gives me an unrelated image, so I don't have a feeling for what you want to sell me.
I'd try to simplify the focus. A few shots of your primary target client on the home page, or maybe at the top of your gallery. Then a few of the best teaser images of other things you do well farther down on the gallery.

OTOH, what do I know? Nobody liked my site, either! :D

[HMetal]

Says the guy still using flickr and lightroom galleries on his webpages?
You might want to check your blog link as well, it gave me access to the directory and folder structure on your server.

You might be the more experianced photographer, but HMetal has superior website.

The only good advice is your suggestion to narrow down the number of catagories, and focus on a smaller number.

Thanks. I wouldn't call my website superior but it is unique and mine. I designed and coded it myself. Good or bad, I'll take the criticism or the kudos on that. :)

As for the categories, They aren't really categories. They are a tag cloud created from the tags with which I've tagged the photos. I can narrow them down easily.. and will ASAP.

As for the rather rude comment on the quality of my photography and website above.. I don't consider myself the best photographer in the world but I am smart enough not to let a few negative opinions affect me. Some people need to put down others to feel more important. The person definitely has no tact but does have the personality of a wet mop and is also rather full of himself. But that's okay, OPINIONS VARY.

Thanks to the others who had CONSTRUCTIVE and friendly criticisms. :)

[Hikin Mike]

I know this is an old thread, but since you just posted again...I thought I'd throw in some info.

I like the overall design. The portfolio is a bit different. Not as intuitive as most, but I got the hang of it eventually.

Have you checked your site on different browsers? I use FF3 and your missing a few corner pieces on your background. I checked IE7 and it looks better, but definitely not the same. You might want to check that.

I always look at the source code...it's a habit! You've got a good title. The description tag is okay, but IMO it needs "life", not a few keywords and a short sentence. I would copy the first line "Luminescent Memories Photography is a full-service, creative, expert photography team located in Windsor, Ontario Canada, servicing Southwestern Ontario and beyond." and put that in your description metadata tag.

I also think you've got too many keywords to be effective IMO. Just throwing a bunch of keywords isn't as effective as selecting 10 (or less) keywords/phrases) based on your content.