@TMcEwen said:
I enjoy looking at everyones site as it gives me inspiration on mine tmcewenphotography.com/ . I always enjoy C/C.
Overall your site looks good but the presence of the smugmug header and full footer takes away from the site. You can easily turn those off by clicking Customize... Content and Design, then clicking SETTINGS. Change the values for SmugMug Header and Footer.
If I click the blog entry in your menu I am taken to your blog. That's good - but your blog doesn't include an entry to return to your smug site. You can easily add a link to your site in the sidebar of your blog. Do you plan to add entries to your blog? As it stands right now, with only a few entries there you might consider removing the menu item from your smug site. I hate being taken to places that haven't been updated in a long time - although it's entirely possible that other people don't have that same feeling.
@TMcEwen said:
I enjoy looking at everyones site as it gives me inspiration on mine tmcewenphotography.com/ . I always enjoy C/C.
Overall your site looks good but the presence of the smugmug header and full footer takes away from the site. You can easily turn those off by clicking Customize... Content and Design, then clicking SETTINGS. Change the values for SmugMug Header and Footer.
If I click the blog entry in your menu I am taken to your blog. That's good - but your blog doesn't include an entry to return to your smug site. You can easily add a link to your site in the sidebar of your blog. Do you plan to add entries to your blog? As it stands right now, with only a few entries there you might consider removing the menu item from your smug site. I hate being taken to places that haven't been updated in a long time - although it's entirely possible that other people don't have that same feeling.
Thanks so much for the info. I had no idea you could see the header and the footer but I turned the header off and could only choose mini for the footer.
As far as the blog, this is something that has been driving me crazy as well. I have plans in the next few weeks to take care of that issue. Thanks again for the info.
@TMcEwen per your request, here are few thoughts on your site:
Reduce the logo size - this will allow more of your featured image to be visible.
Landscape - big fan of the saturation you get in your images. My suggestion is to trim down the number of similar shots. Culling the section will allow you to rotate photos in and out of the site, keeping it fresh and allowing you to provide focus for the ones you feature. Additionally you will be able to use the photos as fodder for your blog - tell a story about a featured photo. Otherwise I suggest you remove your blog as it has not been updated since August.
Portraits - You have the Buy Photos button activated - do you want anyone to be able to buy those photos? If so, do you have model releases for all of them? And same suggestion
Sports - Very nice collection of photos
About me - Suggest you reformat the page so the text wraps around your photos
Contact - Your Contact page doesn't actually have your specific contact information. You are expecting people to click through our social media outlets to find out how to contact you.
Instagram - Most articles I read about growing an IG audience involves being focused on one topic/subject. Your feed contains, sports, portraits, landscapes, BBQ sauce ect...
If your stream is just for fun, it's fine. If you want to grow it, narrow down your offering.
I know from your Twitter feed that you are tired of the Sports world (at least the business) and you enjoy Landscapes - So from the easier said than done file- take a deep breath, enjoy the landscapes and let go of the negativity of the business of sports photography.
Well every person you can know,
And every place that you can go,
And any thing that you can show,
You know they're nouns.
@uncool said: @TMcEwen per your request, here are few thoughts on your site:
Reduce the logo size - this will allow more of your featured image to be visible.
Landscape - big fan of the saturation you get in your images. My suggestion is to trim down the number of similar shots. Culling the section will allow you to rotate photos in and out of the site, keeping it fresh and allowing you to provide focus for the ones you feature. Additionally you will be able to use the photos as fodder for your blog - tell a story about a featured photo. Otherwise I suggest you remove your blog as it has not been updated since August.
Portraits - You have the Buy Photos button activated - do you want anyone to be able to buy those photos? If so, do you have model releases for all of them? And same suggestion
Sports - Very nice collection of photos
About me - Suggest you reformat the page so the text wraps around your photos
Contact - Your Contact page doesn't actually have your specific contact information. You are expecting people to click through our social media outlets to find out how to contact you.
Instagram - Most articles I read about growing an IG audience involves being focused on one topic/subject. Your feed contains, sports, portraits, landscapes, BBQ sauce ect...
If your stream is just for fun, it's fine. If you want to grow it, narrow down your offering.
I know from your Twitter feed that you are tired of the Sports world (at least the business) and you enjoy Landscapes - So from the easier said than done file- take a deep breath, enjoy the landscapes and let go of the negativity of the business of sports photography.
Thanks for the feedback. As far as the items you mentioned;
I have a new logo but I like the size of it on the homepage.
The blog is in the process of being updated on a more regular basis but I agree with taking out some of the more common photos.
Thanks for the update on the "Buy" button on the portraits. I never noticed it so I removed it.
On the "about me" I thought it was pretty easy to send me a message on there as I have been contacted a few times through it but I will take a look at that as well.
Thanks for the critique as I always enjoy getting peoples input.
@TMcEwen said:
I enjoy looking at everyones site as it gives me inspiration on mine tmcewenphotography.com/ . I always enjoy C/C.
It seems as if you have cleaned up the above issues mentioned earlier, but one thing stands out for me. You seem to be random on your watermark. You have 2 different ones and use them sparingly.
If you're going to use a watermark (I personally believe that everyone should) at least use the same one and use it all the time.
Hi all, I'm after any advice you have to improve my site. It's just a personal site for displaying pics for friends and family to view.... but I still want to make it as good as it can be! http://www.elmani.com/ Thanks in advance..
It's good that you stated the purpose of your site. That helps with the review.
The first thought is - are you okay with having your personal/family photos available to the world? SM has a few options to lock down galleries that provide select access. That is how I have my site set up. I use SM as a virtual shoebox full of photos and only provide access to the relevant subjects. I only bring this up in case you were not aware of the privacy options SM offers.
Next, you are asking your family to search for older photos. Do you have your photos keyworded enough so people can find photos of all events? If not, I suggest organizing the photos into common groups
Birthday Galleries - sub group Charlie, Dylan, Bob, Frank, Sara, Mary etc.
Vacations - Paris, Disney, That one pub
Events - sports, day trip to the zoo, drinking at that one pub etc.
Basically, make it easy to jump to main topics and then dive deeper.
@elmani said:
Hi all, I'm after any advice you have to improve my site. It's just a personal site for displaying pics for friends and family to view.... but I still want to make it as good as it can be! http://www.elmani.com/ Thanks in advance..
Well every person you can know,
And every place that you can go,
And any thing that you can show,
You know they're nouns.
@elmani said:
Hi all, I'm after any advice you have to improve my site. It's just a personal site for displaying pics for friends and family to view.... but I still want to make it as good as it can be! http://www.elmani.com/ Thanks in advance..
I agree with uncool about taking advantage of some of the privacy tools for a friends and family only site. It seems a little odd to me that have facebook/twitter links for friends and family though.
Thanks for the feedback. The sites gets circulated quite widely to lots of people (wider family, friends of friends etc) hence why it's not locked down - however I've made it so it doesn't appear in search engines. Thanks also for the feedback on the search functionality. Do you have any feedback on the site design - in particular, I'm thinking about how I can improve the landing page.
A brilliant site Adam... and brilliant photos. A super clean, super modern platform for your photos. Very easy to navigate. How long have you been a Smugmugger? It looks like a lot of work... Regards Mick UK
@elmani, since you are using your site for family sharing, one way to enhance your landing page is to highlight a photo-a-week or month - Display it large. And add nav buttons to guide viewers to photos by category.
Well every person you can know,
And every place that you can go,
And any thing that you can show,
You know they're nouns.
Hi All,
I've been making some tweaks to my site and wouldn't mind getting some feedback on a few items I'm not sure about. The site is really just for personal use to share my photos with friends and family. I'd like it to be easy to navigate and visually appealing. With that being said, I'd like constructive feedback on the following:
Drop Shadows - let me know if you think it's too much. I personally like it in the gallery view, but I'm not sure if it's too much also having it for folders and the lightbox.
Background. I'm not a fan of a plain background so I've added a few simple wallpapers that change each time you open a page. Should I pick 1 and stick with it, or does it look better with a variety of backgrounds?
Lightbox. I've made a few changes to the lightbox (background, arrows, logo, drop shadow etc.). Just want to make sure it's not too busy and distracts from the photo. I've also changed the photo sizing so that it adjusts based on monitor size. I've tested it out on 3 monitors and it seems to work okay. Let me know if you get any overlap between the photo and the logo on your monitor. I've set the logo to disappear on monitors less than 1200px wide.
The site is simple enough. No issues navigating, no problem with the header. The changing backgrounds are a bit distracting for me, especially the blue in the "before and after". Personally I would stick with just one throughout, but I don't think that on a site that is dedicated to only friends and family it will be a big deal.
I'm not a fan of drop shadows but I think that's very much a personal preference. If that's the look you want, then you should leave it.
You use rounded corners on the folder pages but not in the galleries. I find the switch between the two to be somewhat jarring. Either use rounded corners everywhere or don't use them at all.
I've never understood hiding a name when the viewer hovers over something. If I hover over a folder or a gallery to possibly click and explore further I would still like to see the name.
On some pages the background is fine, on others it's not. I'd select a single background, make sure it is simple and doesn't clash with the photos.
I concur with denisegoldberg and CygnusStudios on the backgrounds and inconsistent corners. Overall the site is easy to navigate and serves its purpose well. I like your logo, simple and effective and that the navbar is unobtrusive.
The only additional comments are about your social buttons - they do not add anything to the site and only serve to encourage people to leave. You may be doing something different with IG but can't be sure because that account is set to private.
@JWatson said:
Hi All,
I've been making some tweaks to my site and wouldn't mind getting some feedback on a few items I'm not sure about. The site is really just for personal use to share my photos with friends and family. I'd like it to be easy to navigate and visually appealing. With that being said, I'd like constructive feedback on the following:
Drop Shadows - let me know if you think it's too much. I personally like it in the gallery view, but I'm not sure if it's too much also having it for folders and the lightbox.
Background. I'm not a fan of a plain background so I've added a few simple wallpapers that change each time you open a page. Should I pick 1 and stick with it, or does it look better with a variety of backgrounds?
Lightbox. I've made a few changes to the lightbox (background, arrows, logo, drop shadow etc.). Just want to make sure it's not too busy and distracts from the photo. I've also changed the photo sizing so that it adjusts based on monitor size. I've tested it out on 3 monitors and it seems to work okay. Let me know if you get any overlap between the photo and the logo on your monitor. I've set the logo to disappear on monitors less than 1200px wide.
Thank you all for your feedback. I couldn't figure out how to respond individually to your replies, so I'll just post at the bottom of the chain.
I have settled on one background per page. It's grey (I think... I'm red/green colour blind, so it may be pink or teal). I may opt for something a little darker, but for now this is the best of what I have. The exception to a common background is the 'about me' page which I have kept a different colour to differentiate it from a gallery folder. I also kept the rounded corners for now. I don't like the gallery link page to look too similar to the gallery itself. I personally find it difficult on some pages to distinguish between a page of gallery folders and the actual gallery when they look so similar. As such, I like to have a visual identifier so people can easily tell what level they are at. In the past I've used highlight 'borders' or 'expand on hover' to signify a gallery link. For now, I'm using rounded corners. Perhaps simply removing the drop shadow will be enough. I also prefer to remove label headings on hover so you can see the full picture before drilling down.
I agree with the comments about the social icons. I either need to start maintaining the content on the links, or drop them from the site. Originally I put them there for friends/family that find it easier to follow on Facebook than to check out the website, but then I never get around to posting on Facebook, Instagram etc.
hi
here is my web site: http://www.kennphoto.com. I tweaked a little bit. not a lot. let me know what you think. i know the home page is wired on iPhone. i already posted it on forum for help.
thanks for the input.
Ken
One thing jumped out at me though - depending on the background photo shown on your home page it is almost impossible to see that there are links to click in the header. I knew they were there because the first time I went to your site a photo with a clean background was shown. The next time a heavily colored image totally obscured both your logo and menu. With a clean but light background there is also an issue in that the text color is too close to the background color.
@kenji, first I want to say that your photography is very good.
As for your site - I am unclear what the purpose is - you have product shots. portraits, and flour. If you are trying to get business, you need more information that "Call me".
And if you are trying to get business, the portrait world and commercial product photo worlds are quite a bit different. It's not out of question to pursue both clients but you'll have more success if you focus on one.
Now if this site is simply a showcase of your talent, I would combine the For Him and For Her sections. And change the Illustration heading to Experimental or Other or something else because when I think of illustration, I think of drawing or graphic imagery.
Take these observations for what they are worth - from a random guy on the Internet.
@kenji said:
hi
here is my web site: http://www.kennphoto.com. I tweaked a little bit. not a lot. let me know what you think. i know the home page is wired on iPhone. i already posted it on forum for help.
thanks for the input.
Ken
Well every person you can know,
And every place that you can go,
And any thing that you can show,
You know they're nouns.
I moved from Pbase (my site for over a decade) to Smugmug and I must say I am so happy I did. It feels like I am back in the 21st century. See my new site here... http://www.beautifulworld.photography/ Would love feedback and tips.
You have chosen to open a new tab (or browser window) each time the viewer clicks from your smugmug site to your blog and back again. That's something that immediately triggers me to close all of the browser windows and not return. If I want something to open in a new tab / window I will request it myself. As your site is right now, clicking from your home page to your profile to your galleries leaves 3 open windows.
It appears that you allowed SmugMug to create keywords based on your file names. That means there are many meaningless numeric keywords that I recommend you delete. I also recommend you change the setting to avoid this issue in the future. Go to Account settings... Discovery... Search and set the Filename Keywording setting to OFF.
There is a remove numeric keywords option on the keyword screen in the organizer. If you go gallery-by-gallery, select all of the photos, and remove numeric keyword I would think the removal could be done relatively quickly.
Welcome to SmugMug and DGrin. Per your request here are a few options/observations:
Personal preference - The auto slide show is going way to fast. Suggest you slow it down or just set it to display a static image on each refresh
FB link - the lack of recent, regular posts makes the side trip to FB unnecessary
Twitter - Regular posts are good for Twitter but they do not relate to your photography - don’t see it as necessary
IG - Looks like it’s kept up to date. Suggest you turn some of the IG posts into blog posts.
Wordpress button and Blog link are the same - suggest you only keep one
Blog - explore the SmugMug tools - match your blog to the rest of the site. Suggest you search links for a couple of wonderful DGrin contributors, Denise Goldberg and Hiking Mike - they both have nicely incorporated blogs on their sites
Search - Not sure what you expect people to be searching for - suggest you remove the link. If you decide to keep the feature, provide some help text on the page…offer suggestions on what can be searched.
Profile - Suggest you incorporate an About Me page in SmugMug rather than linking to your blog.
9 - Note site related but during my browsing of your site I saw a few crooked horizon lines. Suggest you make sure your photos are straight before posting.
@BeautifulWorld said:
I moved from Pbase (my site for over a decade) to Smugmug and I must say I am so happy I did. It feels like I am back in the 21st century.
Nice site. I have a couple suggestions over and above what has already been noted.
1. The slideshow photos that are on your main page look like they are being pulled from your gallery settings using a much lower resolution than 1920x1080. As such, they appear very pixelated. I would create a hidden folder for your main page and use higher resolution pics for the slideshow.
2. The gallery view pages look very narrow. I have a larger monitor with a high resolution and the gallery appears as a thin strip (about 1/3 of the total screen real-estate). I would try use use a section width of no less than 1400 px to accommodate for larger monitors. Alternatively, you can simply stretch the screen to automatically adjust depending on the monitor that is viewing the page.
I look forward to seeing which ever suggestions, if any, you decide to implement!
Thanks you @denisegoldberg@JWatson@uncool for all the suggestions. I am working my through them. Very Helpful! I really like the suggestion of trying to get the Blog to look similar to the site but have to figure out how to do that. Is there a common theme between Smugmug and Wordpress that I can use?
@BeautifulWorld said:
Is there a common theme between Smugmug and Wordpress that I can use?
No. Best solution is to pick one theme, be it SM or WP that you like and copy the other platform to match. In my case, my website is 98% WordPress. The other 2% is SmugMug, only using the galleries (Portfolio) and my 'SmugMug Customization Pages'.
Hello :) That's my new customized website - http://www.nikidinov.com/ I still have to finish somethings and then I am going to translate it in English. Now it is only in Bulgarian.
@nikidinov, not sure if you are simply showing off your site or are looking for input/observations.
If you are looking for input/observations, here are a few thoughts. If you are not, well feel free to ignore the following information.
Remove the splash page. It does not provide any useful information.
The social media links do not help your business message. Suggest you remove them. If not, you need to make sure your messaging is consistent across all channels.
The Blog is empty. Remove the link until you have content.
The structure of the top of your site (name/logo, the menu/navigation bar, and headline) forces the photography and message down the page. Suggest you redesign so your message and photos are more prominent.
Your photography is very clean, sharp, and well composed - make sure your site shows it off.
Well every person you can know,
And every place that you can go,
And any thing that you can show,
You know they're nouns.
I agree with uncool, but I'll also add that you should remove the smugmug footer.
The site is smooth and easy to navigate. Not sure why you have the architecture section set to a mini slideshow, then make viewers click another link to get to the portfolio though. I would make it the same as the others, but that is more personal preference.
Comments
Overall your site looks good but the presence of the smugmug header and full footer takes away from the site. You can easily turn those off by clicking Customize... Content and Design, then clicking SETTINGS. Change the values for SmugMug Header and Footer.
If I click the blog entry in your menu I am taken to your blog. That's good - but your blog doesn't include an entry to return to your smug site. You can easily add a link to your site in the sidebar of your blog. Do you plan to add entries to your blog? As it stands right now, with only a few entries there you might consider removing the menu item from your smug site. I hate being taken to places that haven't been updated in a long time - although it's entirely possible that other people don't have that same feeling.
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
Thanks so much for the info. I had no idea you could see the header and the footer but I turned the header off and could only choose mini for the footer.
As far as the blog, this is something that has been driving me crazy as well. I have plans in the next few weeks to take care of that issue. Thanks again for the info.
http://www.tmcewenphotography.com/
@TMcEwen per your request, here are few thoughts on your site:
Reduce the logo size - this will allow more of your featured image to be visible.
Landscape - big fan of the saturation you get in your images. My suggestion is to trim down the number of similar shots. Culling the section will allow you to rotate photos in and out of the site, keeping it fresh and allowing you to provide focus for the ones you feature. Additionally you will be able to use the photos as fodder for your blog - tell a story about a featured photo. Otherwise I suggest you remove your blog as it has not been updated since August.
Portraits - You have the Buy Photos button activated - do you want anyone to be able to buy those photos? If so, do you have model releases for all of them? And same suggestion
Sports - Very nice collection of photos
About me - Suggest you reformat the page so the text wraps around your photos
Contact - Your Contact page doesn't actually have your specific contact information. You are expecting people to click through our social media outlets to find out how to contact you.
Instagram - Most articles I read about growing an IG audience involves being focused on one topic/subject. Your feed contains, sports, portraits, landscapes, BBQ sauce ect...
If your stream is just for fun, it's fine. If you want to grow it, narrow down your offering.
I know from your Twitter feed that you are tired of the Sports world (at least the business) and you enjoy Landscapes - So from the easier said than done file- take a deep breath, enjoy the landscapes and let go of the negativity of the business of sports photography.
And every place that you can go,
And any thing that you can show,
You know they're nouns.
Thanks for the feedback. As far as the items you mentioned;
I have a new logo but I like the size of it on the homepage.
The blog is in the process of being updated on a more regular basis but I agree with taking out some of the more common photos.
Thanks for the update on the "Buy" button on the portraits. I never noticed it so I removed it.
On the "about me" I thought it was pretty easy to send me a message on there as I have been contacted a few times through it but I will take a look at that as well.
Thanks for the critique as I always enjoy getting peoples input.
http://www.tmcewenphotography.com/
It seems as if you have cleaned up the above issues mentioned earlier, but one thing stands out for me. You seem to be random on your watermark. You have 2 different ones and use them sparingly.
If you're going to use a watermark (I personally believe that everyone should) at least use the same one and use it all the time.
Website
Hi all, I'm after any advice you have to improve my site. It's just a personal site for displaying pics for friends and family to view.... but I still want to make it as good as it can be! http://www.elmani.com/ Thanks in advance..
Hello @elmani
It's good that you stated the purpose of your site. That helps with the review.
The first thought is - are you okay with having your personal/family photos available to the world? SM has a few options to lock down galleries that provide select access. That is how I have my site set up. I use SM as a virtual shoebox full of photos and only provide access to the relevant subjects. I only bring this up in case you were not aware of the privacy options SM offers.
Next, you are asking your family to search for older photos. Do you have your photos keyworded enough so people can find photos of all events? If not, I suggest organizing the photos into common groups
Birthday Galleries - sub group Charlie, Dylan, Bob, Frank, Sara, Mary etc.
Vacations - Paris, Disney, That one pub
Events - sports, day trip to the zoo, drinking at that one pub etc.
Basically, make it easy to jump to main topics and then dive deeper.
And every place that you can go,
And any thing that you can show,
You know they're nouns.
I agree with uncool about taking advantage of some of the privacy tools for a friends and family only site. It seems a little odd to me that have facebook/twitter links for friends and family though.
Website
Thanks for the feedback. The sites gets circulated quite widely to lots of people (wider family, friends of friends etc) hence why it's not locked down - however I've made it so it doesn't appear in search engines. Thanks also for the feedback on the search functionality. Do you have any feedback on the site design - in particular, I'm thinking about how I can improve the landing page.
Regards
Mick UK
Thanks! I've run my site since 2001 and it's been through many different platforms and variations - I moved to SmugMug in 2015 and absolutely love it!
@elmani, since you are using your site for family sharing, one way to enhance your landing page is to highlight a photo-a-week or month - Display it large. And add nav buttons to guide viewers to photos by category.
And every place that you can go,
And any thing that you can show,
You know they're nouns.
Hi All,
I've been making some tweaks to my site and wouldn't mind getting some feedback on a few items I'm not sure about. The site is really just for personal use to share my photos with friends and family. I'd like it to be easy to navigate and visually appealing. With that being said, I'd like constructive feedback on the following:
Any other feedback would also be welcome.
site: www.jasonwatsonphotography.com
Thanks!
Jason
The site is simple enough. No issues navigating, no problem with the header. The changing backgrounds are a bit distracting for me, especially the blue in the "before and after". Personally I would stick with just one throughout, but I don't think that on a site that is dedicated to only friends and family it will be a big deal.
Website
I'm not a fan of drop shadows but I think that's very much a personal preference. If that's the look you want, then you should leave it.
You use rounded corners on the folder pages but not in the galleries. I find the switch between the two to be somewhat jarring. Either use rounded corners everywhere or don't use them at all.
I've never understood hiding a name when the viewer hovers over something. If I hover over a folder or a gallery to possibly click and explore further I would still like to see the name.
On some pages the background is fine, on others it's not. I'd select a single background, make sure it is simple and doesn't clash with the photos.
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
I concur with denisegoldberg and CygnusStudios on the backgrounds and inconsistent corners. Overall the site is easy to navigate and serves its purpose well. I like your logo, simple and effective and that the navbar is unobtrusive.
The only additional comments are about your social buttons - they do not add anything to the site and only serve to encourage people to leave. You may be doing something different with IG but can't be sure because that account is set to private.
And every place that you can go,
And any thing that you can show,
You know they're nouns.
Thank you all for your feedback. I couldn't figure out how to respond individually to your replies, so I'll just post at the bottom of the chain.
I have settled on one background per page. It's grey (I think... I'm red/green colour blind, so it may be pink or teal). I may opt for something a little darker, but for now this is the best of what I have. The exception to a common background is the 'about me' page which I have kept a different colour to differentiate it from a gallery folder. I also kept the rounded corners for now. I don't like the gallery link page to look too similar to the gallery itself. I personally find it difficult on some pages to distinguish between a page of gallery folders and the actual gallery when they look so similar. As such, I like to have a visual identifier so people can easily tell what level they are at. In the past I've used highlight 'borders' or 'expand on hover' to signify a gallery link. For now, I'm using rounded corners. Perhaps simply removing the drop shadow will be enough. I also prefer to remove label headings on hover so you can see the full picture before drilling down.
I agree with the comments about the social icons. I either need to start maintaining the content on the links, or drop them from the site. Originally I put them there for friends/family that find it easier to follow on Facebook than to check out the website, but then I never get around to posting on Facebook, Instagram etc.
Thanks again for the feedback!
hi
here is my web site: http://www.kennphoto.com. I tweaked a little bit. not a lot. let me know what you think. i know the home page is wired on iPhone. i already posted it on forum for help.
thanks for the input.
Ken
I like the clean and simple look of your site.
One thing jumped out at me though - depending on the background photo shown on your home page it is almost impossible to see that there are links to click in the header. I knew they were there because the first time I went to your site a photo with a clean background was shown. The next time a heavily colored image totally obscured both your logo and menu. With a clean but light background there is also an issue in that the text color is too close to the background color.
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
@kenji, first I want to say that your photography is very good.
As for your site - I am unclear what the purpose is - you have product shots. portraits, and flour. If you are trying to get business, you need more information that "Call me".
And if you are trying to get business, the portrait world and commercial product photo worlds are quite a bit different. It's not out of question to pursue both clients but you'll have more success if you focus on one.
Now if this site is simply a showcase of your talent, I would combine the For Him and For Her sections. And change the Illustration heading to Experimental or Other or something else because when I think of illustration, I think of drawing or graphic imagery.
Take these observations for what they are worth - from a random guy on the Internet.
And every place that you can go,
And any thing that you can show,
You know they're nouns.
See my new site here... http://www.beautifulworld.photography/
Would love feedback and tips.
Thanks
Karthik
http://www.beautifulworld.photography/
http://www.karthikraja.blog
Overall your site has a nice clean look.
You have chosen to open a new tab (or browser window) each time the viewer clicks from your smugmug site to your blog and back again. That's something that immediately triggers me to close all of the browser windows and not return. If I want something to open in a new tab / window I will request it myself. As your site is right now, clicking from your home page to your profile to your galleries leaves 3 open windows.
It appears that you allowed SmugMug to create keywords based on your file names. That means there are many meaningless numeric keywords that I recommend you delete. I also recommend you change the setting to avoid this issue in the future. Go to Account settings... Discovery... Search and set the Filename Keywording setting to OFF.
You can see all of your keywords at http://www.beautifulworld.photography/keyword.
There is a remove numeric keywords option on the keyword screen in the organizer. If you go gallery-by-gallery, select all of the photos, and remove numeric keyword I would think the removal could be done relatively quickly.
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
Welcome to SmugMug and DGrin. Per your request here are a few options/observations:
Personal preference - The auto slide show is going way to fast. Suggest you slow it down or just set it to display a static image on each refresh
FB link - the lack of recent, regular posts makes the side trip to FB unnecessary
Twitter - Regular posts are good for Twitter but they do not relate to your photography - don’t see it as necessary
IG - Looks like it’s kept up to date. Suggest you turn some of the IG posts into blog posts.
Wordpress button and Blog link are the same - suggest you only keep one
Blog - explore the SmugMug tools - match your blog to the rest of the site. Suggest you search links for a couple of wonderful DGrin contributors, Denise Goldberg and Hiking Mike - they both have nicely incorporated blogs on their sites
Search - Not sure what you expect people to be searching for - suggest you remove the link. If you decide to keep the feature, provide some help text on the page…offer suggestions on what can be searched.
Profile - Suggest you incorporate an About Me page in SmugMug rather than linking to your blog.
9 - Note site related but during my browsing of your site I saw a few crooked horizon lines. Suggest you make sure your photos are straight before posting.
And every place that you can go,
And any thing that you can show,
You know they're nouns.
@ Beautiful World.
Nice site. I have a couple suggestions over and above what has already been noted.
1. The slideshow photos that are on your main page look like they are being pulled from your gallery settings using a much lower resolution than 1920x1080. As such, they appear very pixelated. I would create a hidden folder for your main page and use higher resolution pics for the slideshow.
2. The gallery view pages look very narrow. I have a larger monitor with a high resolution and the gallery appears as a thin strip (about 1/3 of the total screen real-estate). I would try use use a section width of no less than 1400 px to accommodate for larger monitors. Alternatively, you can simply stretch the screen to automatically adjust depending on the monitor that is viewing the page.
I look forward to seeing which ever suggestions, if any, you decide to implement!
Thanks,
Jason
Thanks you @denisegoldberg @JWatson @uncool for all the suggestions. I am working my through them. Very Helpful! I really like the suggestion of trying to get the Blog to look similar to the site but have to figure out how to do that. Is there a common theme between Smugmug and Wordpress that I can use?
Thanks
Karthik
http://www.beautifulworld.photography/
http://www.karthikraja.blog
No. Best solution is to pick one theme, be it SM or WP that you like and copy the other platform to match. In my case, my website is 98% WordPress. The other 2% is SmugMug, only using the galleries (Portfolio) and my 'SmugMug Customization Pages'.
Images in the Backcountry
My SmugMug Customizations | Adding CSS to Your Site | SEO for the Photographer | Locate Your Page/Widget Number | SmugMug Help Desk
That's my new customized website - http://www.nikidinov.com/
I still have to finish somethings and then I am going to translate it in English. Now it is only in Bulgarian.
@nikidinov, not sure if you are simply showing off your site or are looking for input/observations.
If you are looking for input/observations, here are a few thoughts. If you are not, well feel free to ignore the following information.
Your photography is very clean, sharp, and well composed - make sure your site shows it off.
And every place that you can go,
And any thing that you can show,
You know they're nouns.
I agree with uncool, but I'll also add that you should remove the smugmug footer.
The site is smooth and easy to navigate. Not sure why you have the architecture section set to a mini slideshow, then make viewers click another link to get to the portfolio though. I would make it the same as the others, but that is more personal preference.
Website
I thought I would share my site and see if anybody has any feedback or suggestions.
http://www.ianhuftonphotography.co.uk/