C&C for website (picture of site)

[Vladimer]

Alright so here is a little explanation..

Been trying to code a website with html and css with little success so decided to design it in photoshop before moving on in hopes that I can at least get a better starting idea.

Now this is just a personal website with not much going for it besides a portfolio and just practice making a website.

The website realviewphotography.com that is stuck on there still has to be bought but will ideally be my interior photography business i plan to start relativlly soon. So figured if someone stumbles across my personal page they can move to that page freely. Bad idea or no.

Other then that its basically just a mock up of ideas. Not sure of the flickr thing. Probably will toss that out unless you guys think its a good idea to keep it.

Whats your opinions on having a portfolio and a gallery? I figure why have one page that shows your great shots and one that shows 2nd best shots right? or should I just name it "gallery' instead of portfolio.

Too many questions! :o

Here are the 2 ones i managed to conjure up after way to much time in PS. Lots of good learning done though. I personally like the first one a lot better. My girlfriend likes the second one and thinks it looks a lot neater and simpler. I personally think it just looks cheap and doesn't convey much of a layout.

And lastly between all the pages my plan is that the contents will change in the gray part between the pages while the blue top with the pano and buttons will stay static on each page.


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2681/4517042352_8dfcba449f_o.jpg


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2759/4517042526_c14f43e0d3_o.jpg


open to ANY comments

Thanks!

[dche5390]

I am going to side with your woman (6.5 years has taught me that the woman is ALWAYS right). Jokes aside, I do find the graduated dark background to be more appealing. Apart from that, I can't see any other differences? Or is this one of those IQ tests that I'm miserably failing at!!?!

For your header picture, perhaps make it 100% width (don't ask how as I've no clue), or put a border around it so that it stands out from the background.

I'm inclined to suggest that "blog" is last, so that "contact" comes before that. I don't know why. It's just an after-thought.

A gallery can be a portfolio. But a portfolio should not be a gallery. Does this make sense?

A portfolio should be a select few (>15) that showcases your BEST work. This should be updated frequently (depending on how oft you shoot of course). The blog should house all other photos, accompanied by annotations/rantings. Feel free to disagree.

I prefer peterhanusphotographer over realviewphotography. I think everyone has a much more exciting name than me.

[Vladimer]

Nah its not a trick :) only difference is the background. Probably should of stated that somewhere.

I was actually thinking of adding a border to it as well to frame it off somehow.

But what do you mean with making it 100% width? The website itself is made for a 1024 resolution (ideally. in my smartness i never actually measured it) so where the sides of the header picture reach to is basically inline with the right side of the flikr photos and the left side of the blog part. So that's as far as the website would 'reach' and the rest would be just repeating on the x axis to fill any space there is for folks running bigger resolutions.

And yes the gallery/portfolio thing actually makes sense when you explain it like that :)

As for the website. realviewphotography would just be for real estate work. So that website would not have any private blog/gallery aspect to it. Just geared for the target market it would be hitting. So i figured i would toss a link too it from my personal page but not put a link for my personal page on the business site. If that makes any sense?

You like peterhanusphotographer over peterhanusphotography? Maybe its just that I've had my name for so long but i would hardly call my name 'exciting' lol. I came from the czech republic where the last name Hanus is popular but after moving to canada it was far from. I heard it all in grade school :lol:

[Taylor Rowe]

I like the plain one better, except for the box. Can you come up with some kind of edging or something for that plain white box?

[dche5390]

Now that I'm home, I like #1. Grrr!

[tracknut]

I would vote for the second one, but make the white box the same width as your header image. I really like the layout, and the header pic is stunning.

On the gallery/portfolio thing, I look at it this way. A photographer should have a portfolio of the select few best images. If a gallery is also used, it should be specific to a particular shoot, or customer, like "wedding galleries: Sam & Diane, Nancy & Bob", etc.

I don't see any issue with linking your personal site to your business site.

Make sure when you say "designed for 1024" you've built it about 960 pixels across or so, leaving room for scroll bars and such.

Dave

[digitalphotocandy]

I like the dark gradient too. It makes the thumbnails pop.

[Vladimer]

I like the plain one better, except for the box. Can you come up with some kind of edging or something for that plain white box?

/agreed

Now that I'm home, I like #1. Grrr!

Great to hear! :) I'm still leaning to the gray one myself

I would vote for the second one, but make the white box the same width as your header image. I really like the layout, and the header pic is stunning.

On the gallery/portfolio thing, I look at it this way. A photographer should have a portfolio of the select few best images. If a gallery is also used, it should be specific to a particular shoot, or customer, like "wedding galleries: Sam & Diane, Nancy & Bob", etc.

I don't see any issue with linking your personal site to your business site.

Make sure when you say "designed for 1024" you've built it about 960 pixels across or so, leaving room for scroll bars and such.

Dave

Thank you!

After going back and measuring it. It comes out to 940 px across and height wise i squished it a bit more to minimize scrolling. It comes out to 724 px in height

Should I try to compress it anymore? 724px is pretty close to 768. Probably not enough for your taskbar, IE/firefox bar, etc.. Im just afraid that with the big header that i have going on that the portfolio/gallery images will appear even smaller.


I like the dark gradient too. It makes the thumbnails pop.

I agree with you too, they do pop quite a bit more. I tried getting the best of both worlds buy breaking the gradient and continuing it at the bottom but it just looked goofy in general in would probably look strange on all the other pages where there is nothing on the bottom.


Here is the latest version. Compressed vertically a bit so it comes out to 940x724 px for the viewing area. Still don't have any great ideas as to what to do with the center content box though.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4050/4519402063_46da9cca9f_o.jpg