Comments on my website please!

[DJ Paris]

Hi,

DJParis.smugmug.com

I just put this up on 9/1/2009

Looking for comments on how I could better set it up! I am a amateur photographer so any comments are great!

[OdiN1701]

A link would be nice.

[DJ Paris]

well the url is there! But i just linked it as well.

[naqs]

just out of curiousity, why do you have the 70-200 F4 and the F2.8?

[DJ Paris]

just out of curiousity, why do you have the 70-200 F4 and the F2.8?

the 4L is mine and i barrow the 2.8L from my friend very often. Plus the 4l is nice to carry around during the day when i really dont need the 2.8!

[Nyobie]

Love the paint ball gallery - colors are excellent and your composition is good. How did you guarantee you didn't end up with paint on your equipment?

Smugmug has a lot of different layouts that you could also try for various galleries but personally I like the one you're using with the all black background. That's what I use. It looks very professional.

Keep up the shooting!

[Jonta]

1: I click on the link. I know that I currently use a monitor with a ridiculously large amount of pixels. But all I see is text. Not a single photo. (No, the one of you doesn't count).

So how am I supposed to know that this is a photography-site?

2: Favicon
3: I try reading the wall of text, my brain moves my eyes, but no, can't.
4: Why show us an empty gallery?
5: Header not clickable (!!)
6: Nah, that watermarking just doesn't work. And warn people to get a vomit-bucket before using Comic Sans

[Stav_98]

I'd have a little jumble about personally. The site is pretty much 50/50 split with regards to the selling bit (services, kit etc) and the product bit (your photos). It comes across that the photos are second to the other information, this seems wrong to me. Personally I feel you need more than one page to separate the date, get some images near the top of the page as these are ultimately what' your trying to sell. I also wouldn't bother with the most popular section. Again this comes across as being more important than your other galleries (covering all types of work); fantastic if you're a paintball fan but adds no benefit it somebody wants a portrait.

Hopefully not waffled too much!

Stav

[DJ Paris]

Great thank you for the comments!

[DJ Paris]

I'd have a little jumble about personally. The site is pretty much 50/50 split with regards to the selling bit (services, kit etc) and the product bit (your photos). It comes across that the photos are second to the other information, this seems wrong to me. Personally I feel you need more than one page to separate the date, get some images near the top of the page as these are ultimately what' your trying to sell. I also wouldn't bother with the most popular section. Again this comes across as being more important than your other galleries (covering all types of work); fantastic if you're a paintball fan but adds no benefit it somebody wants a portrait.

Hopefully not waffled too much!

Stav

Ya i am working on that currently to seperate the dates and places that I will be. I deff need to have more pages to set up my information so its not a over load to the people viewing the site.

[canonnoob]

Ill be totally honest... I wouldnt hire you to do any work for me... Sorry for being harsh but it is true.. Here are the reasons:
- No need to list your gear... most people looking for services will not know the difference between a $100 lens vs. 5k lens..
-I dont see any pricing.... anywhere... so how should i know how much i will have to pay for your services... economical is a very subjective term. i could be a millionaire whose economical is a couple thousand dollars.. vs economical of a single dad who can barely make ends meet... make sense? Also, make your pricing available up front..
-you say you specialize in night club photography? I dont see any club photos.
-let you photos speak for you... post your best work.. I scrolled through a few galleries and based off of some of your sports work i wouldnt hire you. Reasons being: bad crops- not cropped enough vs weird crops, lighting/white balance is inconsistent between photos, crooked horizons, exposures.
- Your friends modeling gallery... i wouldnt say that he is your best friend... makes it sound like you dont get any business.. other than friends.

All in all a decent start... but you have some work to do. I would make sure that you are straight and get the point.. tell the visitor what you can do for them and how much it can cost.. and show them your best photos.. make your ordering seperate if you have to.. (example of this is that i have my site, showing off my best work, then use zenfolio for ordering/printing, ect.)

[DJ Paris]

Ill be totally honest... I wouldnt hire you to do any work for me... Sorry for being harsh but it is true.. Here are the reasons:
- No need to list your gear... most people looking for services will not know the difference between a $100 lens vs. 5k lens..
-I dont see any pricing.... anywhere... so how should i know how much i will have to pay for your services... economical is a very subjective term. i could be a millionaire whose economical is a couple thousand dollars.. vs economical of a single dad who can barely make ends meet... make sense? Also, make your pricing available up front..
-you say you specialize in night club photography? I dont see any club photos.
-let you photos speak for you... post your best work.. I scrolled through a few galleries and based off of some of your sports work i wouldnt hire you. Reasons being: bad crops- not cropped enough vs weird crops, lighting/white balance is inconsistent between photos, crooked horizons, exposures.
- Your friends modeling gallery... i wouldnt say that he is your best friend... makes it sound like you dont get any business.. other than friends.

All in all a decent start... but you have some work to do. I would make sure that you are straight and get the point.. tell the visitor what you can do for them and how much it can cost.. and show them your best photos.. make your ordering seperate if you have to.. (example of this is that i have my site, showing off my best work, then use zenfolio for ordering/printing, ect.)

Thank you! Your are not being harsh by any means! The whole reason why I posted this on here is to see what works and what does not work!

[DJ Paris]

i am updating more stuff as i go and making improvements daily!

[_aravena]

Dave is spot on but I would add that you don't specialize in anything till you've gather a collection of photos in each area. Paintball you cover a lot and if people buy photos from those events then keep it up but aside from that, take a few down.

Get very very critical on your photos. I'm finding out that I've been really critical lately and don't allow as many photos to be converted (RAW to JPG) from Lightroom. I'm also in the process of going through my galleries and deleting/re-editing some photos. I cannot emphasized enough that you need to do this for your sports area. They look like fun snapshots, but I'd just ask my neighbor, friend, kid's mom, to take photos of football or community baseball game. Sorry man.

But again, go through and delete A LOT of your photos. On Rick's gallery under paintball #1 and #5 are the same with a bit of crop on 5. 2-5 should be gone. But that's me.

[DJ Paris]

Dave is spot on but I would add that you don't specialize in anything till you've gather a collection of photos in each area. Paintball you cover a lot and if people buy photos from those events then keep it up but aside from that, take a few down.

Get very very critical on your photos. I'm finding out that I've been really critical lately and don't allow as many photos to be converted (RAW to JPG) from Lightroom. I'm also in the process of going through my galleries and deleting/re-editing some photos. I cannot emphasized enough that you need to do this for your sports area. They look like fun snapshots, but I'd just ask my neighbor, friend, kid's mom, to take photos of football or community baseball game. Sorry man.

But again, go through and delete A LOT of your photos. On Rick's gallery under paintball #1 and #5 are the same with a bit of crop on 5. 2-5 should be gone. But that's me.

Great thank you!