Is it boring, really??

Markjay

I am working on improving my smugmug gallery this week piece by piece and would like to know what I can do to improve on it...... if you would be so kind?

Should there be a background image / screen on the main gallery page?
Should I leave the main gallery page the clean looking white / gray it is now?

I am going to be working on a splash / welcome screen as well... something brief, simple yet eye catching that will then take the viewer to the image galleries. Any suggestions on this?

Here is my Smumug gallery page http://winkphotoworks.com

Any and all imput would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Markjay

wholenewlight

Nobody else is commenting so I will!

I like the page. In fact I'm going to modify my smugmug site and may steal/borrow some of your formatting ideas. I like it simple. I wouldn't put a background image. And, I'd keep the gray.

Basic thoughts for a basic, clean, easy-to-navigate site.

Markjay

Thanks for responding!
Yeah, I was kind of hoping for more feedback but, I appreciate ANY feedback, yours is no exception.

Markjay

wholenewlight wrote:

Nobody else is commenting so I will!

I like the page. In fact I'm going to modify my smugmug site and may steal/borrow some of your formatting ideas. I like it simple. I wouldn't put a background image. And, I'd keep the gray.

Basic thoughts for a basic, clean, easy-to-navigate site.

savannahga

I like the simple layout, simple like mine.

DavidTO

Markjay wrote:

Should there be a background image / screen on the main gallery page?
Should I leave the main gallery page the clean looking white / gray it is now?

I like it simple. I guess it depends on the background image, but just imagining it, I would think it would be too cluttered feeling, what with the layout you have going.

wxwax

There's no dominant thing to grab the eye and inform us. Simple is good. But even your banner sort of blends in. Something needs to be assertive and announce what this place is and how it works.

DavidTO

wxwax wrote:

There's no dominant thing to grab the eye and inform us. Simple is good. But even your banner sort of blends in. Something needs to be assertive and announce what this place is and how it works.

Markjay,

My advice? Don't take advice on what's boring from a guy who gets paid to talk about the weather. :P

That being said, I think wxwax is right.

wxwax

DavidTO wrote:

Markjay,

My advice? Don't take advice on what's boring from a guy who gets paid to talk about the weather. :P

That being said, I think wxwax is right.

Oh, that gets the big one! :fu :boid :rambo :bluduh :moon :toni

coldclimb

I'm always kinda frustrated by photography sites with lots of categories hidden under individual thumbnails. I load up, and get six thumbnails to click, and hidden behind those six is a hundred photos, but all I have to influence my decision of which category to view is the six lone thumbnails. I don't get to see what I'm getting till I actually get there.

I dunno, maybe it's just me, cause most photography sites I've seen are set up like this. There's also not really any other GOOD ways, besides a lone page with ALL your thumbnails.

Anyways, about YOUR site, it is a little bland. I don't know about a background image, but an eye-catching image somewhere on the main page would spice things up a lot. I actually didn't even notice your top bar at first, because it seemed like an advertisement all alone in its long rectangular shape, and my mind automatically ignored it.

Hope this helps some.

Markjay

Great advice...... I agree!
Excellent advice!! I agree completely the header gallery image is somewhat too subdued / boring. Maybe a combination of some of my more eye catching images would do the trick?

Thank you very much,
Markjay

coldclimb wrote:

I'm always kinda frustrated by photography sites with lots of categories hidden under individual thumbnails. I load up, and get six thumbnails to click, and hidden behind those six is a hundred photos, but all I have to influence my decision of which category to view is the six lone thumbnails. I don't get to see what I'm getting till I actually get there.

I dunno, maybe it's just me, cause most photography sites I've seen are set up like this. There's also not really any other GOOD ways, besides a lone page with ALL your thumbnails.

Anyways, about YOUR site, it is a little bland. I don't know about a background image, but an eye-catching image somewhere on the main page would spice things up a lot. I actually didn't even notice your top bar at first, because it seemed like an advertisement all alone in its long rectangular shape, and my mind automatically ignored it.

Hope this helps some.

coldclimb

Markjay wrote:

Excellent advice!! I agree completely the header gallery image is somewhat too subdued / boring. Maybe a combination of some of my more eye catching images would do the trick?

Thank you very much,
Markjay

Yeah, a good collage, or maybe just a close up crop of one section of a pic, or something. Possibly in the background, or in the header bar there. My personal favorite is a random image script that selects from a folder of images made specially for the header, such as the one I used on www.morffed.com, the one at the top here on dgrin, and one that some friends of mine did on www.akclimber.com. Those seem to work really well, and give a nice variety since they change every time you load a page. Static images are great as well though, especially if you have one that's just perfect for the job, and you use it nicely. :