Review My Photograpy Website Please!

[coops]

Hi All,

I created a personal photography website a while ago now but have recently made a few tweaks and added more content.

I was wondering what you lot thought of it ? All comments welcome, good and bad

Plans in the pipeline are to get a php contact page sorted where users can email their comments to me. I would also like a profile page with info about me, my equipment etc....

www.coops.tk

or...

www.coops.exofire.net

Thanks!

 

[David]

Well, something important to remember in photography is to remember to never center the image. Most cameras have a box on them, the subject of the photo should be somewhere outside that box.

You also seem to enjoy the use of the long exposure feature, which creates a nice effect, but it isn't always appropriate for every setting. (If your photographing a butterfly, you want to capture it still, with maybe some minimal blurring to accentuate its movement.) I would suggest trying out some other exposure methods, as they can be fun and create cool effects as well.

Your photos are rather nice, overall though.

The site design is okay, and would work for a portfolio if you plan to go into the photography field. I would suggest some spicing up of a few things here and there, but you don't want to take away from the photography.

Not so much a review on the site as it is constructive criticism of the photos.

-David

 

[coops]

Well, something important to remember in photography is to remember to never center the image. Most cameras have a box on them, the subject of the photo should be somewhere outside that box.

You also seem to enjoy the use of the long exposure feature, which creates a nice effect, but it isn't always appropriate for every setting. (If your photographing a butterfly, you want to capture it still, with maybe some minimal blurring to accentuate its movement.) I would suggest trying out some other exposure methods, as they can be fun and create cool effects as well.

Your photos are rather nice, overall though.

The site design is okay, and would work for a portfolio if you plan to go into the photography field. I would suggest some spicing up of a few things here and there, but you don't want to take away from the photography.

Not so much a review on the site as it is constructive criticism of the photos.

-David

Thank you for your comments. I do try to be as creative as possible with my photography and love the light paintings as it gives a really striking effect. I feel my skills have advanced since i first started and will take your comments onboard to improve further. The gallery is in chronological order so the albums at the top are newer than the bottom ones.

What exactly would you spice up ?

Thanks again, Adam.

 

[leafypiggy]

Not really a photography expert, so I'll offer some ideas on the site.

Make the navigation bar larger. It took me a little while to find (even with my glasses on )

You could make a repeating bg image for it, (like http://neilhanlon.com/dev/ ), it would "spice it up" and make it not look as plain.

Images in a design are just as important as the code used to design it. To me, your site is too plain in design. adding gradients, etc will help tremendously.

Also, make your contact url not be a mailto:, make it an actual contact form that the end user fills out and sends through php mail() or SMTP. It makes your site look more professional.

Thanks,

 

[wjh2303]

just FYI, what david is refering to is the rule of thirds: http://digital-photography-school.com/rule-of-thirds explains/illustrates it fairly well, when i first herd about it it sounded too simple to make a difference and didnt bother, but once you just give it a go, it makes a huge difference, have a play with it

but RE the site, maybe on the gallery page, you'd like to lump all the cars into a sub-galley to keep the page from getting too cluttered

 

[frankfriend]

Hi Coops,
I really think this is a goodsite, because it is well put together and your photographs are good.

Slight things for you to consider :
There seem to be two broad brownish columns surtrounding your central image - try different colours, try it with light gray. light blue, internediate grey.

Wjh, that was a great tip about http://digital-photography-school.com/rule-of-thirds

Could there be more arrow buttons to make it easier to step through the pictures in a large size.

 

[coops]

Hi Coops,
I really think this is a goodsite, because it is well put together and your photographs are good.

Slight things for you to consider :
There seem to be two broad brownish columns surtrounding your central image - try different colours, try it with light gray. light blue, internediate grey.

Wjh, that was a great tip about http://digital-photography-school.com/rule-of-thirds

Could there be more arrow buttons to make it easier to step through the pictures in a large size.

There should be arrows as you hover you mouse over the image? You should also be able to use the arrow keys on the keyboard as well.

Im not too sure what you mean about the brown columns ?
Edit:

Not really a photography expert, so I'll offer some ideas on the site.

Make the navigation bar larger. It took me a little while to find (even with my glasses on )

You could make a repeating bg image for it, (like http://neilhanlon.com/dev/ ), it would "spice it up" and make it not look as plain.

Images in a design are just as important as the code used to design it. To me, your site is too plain in design. adding gradients, etc will help tremendously.

Also, make your contact url not be a mailto:, make it an actual contact form that the end user fills out and sends through php mail() or SMTP. It makes your site look more professional.

Thanks,

I see where you are coming from and i like the idea of the repeating background image, it will hopefully make the nav bar stick out more, ill try and create something that gives it a 3D effect. That should draw attention to it.

I tried to cut down on the amount of images to keep loading times down, ill see what i can incorporate though.

Thanks for the comments.

 

[Westcoast-Games]

Hey Coops,

Some great looking photos there & clearly a fair amount of effort has going into the site design.

I've got two suggestions (mentioned by other posters leafypiggy & frankfriend)

1) Colours - the black / grey around the photo works really well, looking very slick & professional. Although for me, the transition from the black-blue of the title bar to the orange of the border and then to the brown of the background, simply does not (a darker shade of the grey used for the photo borders instead of the brown, maybe?).

2) Navigation - For over 5 minutes I was navigating your site using only the links on your index page, this was because I didn't notice your nav bar. Why didn't I notice the nav links?
> This may be due the fact the links are on the right (reading left - right)
> The text size of the links are tiny
> Little contrast against of black text against an orange background
> There's the word 'Gallery' above the links that dominates the visual attention (away from the links below)

Basically the links get lost, there are many more visually dominating elements surrounding that grab attention.


Don't get disheartened & Keep up the good work!

Thanks
Chris