critique Website

dslrchat · May 9, 2008

So I have made a Portfolio website for my Step Daughter.
She is just finishing up high school and would like to get into a career as a photographer.
She has taken and intro course in high school and is looking into colleges and just landed a part time job at the Sears Photo "Studio"

So back on subject, I made this site for her to help her along, let me know what you think.
This images are some some she had in a folder that I resized so galleries were not empty.
(site is not even on her own domain yet)

http://planethax.com/joanna

celery · May 9, 2008

I like the way the site is built, if you made it yourself, then I tip my hat to you.

The homepage is a bit odd though, the little paragraphs with the staggered photos. For as well done the site is, perhaps something a bit more reader friendly/professional?

When it comes to online art galleries, there are two "rules" I like to follow:

1. Less is more. If you're just going to have a bunch of galleries, eliminate most of the photos and only keep the cream of the crop.

2. Separate galleries by topic/content. i.e. Portraits, Landscapes, Animals/Wildlife, Abstract and so on. I can see that the photos in each gallery were related, but no one said I wanted to see pictures of cats. Had I been browsing your site looking through the portfolio, I probably would have stopped after the first 2 galleries based on content.

Basically, either tell your viewer "hey, this is what I do, this is my style" and show 10-20 shots or give the viewer options, "hey, you like Architecture photography? Click here."

Other than those couple of things, I think it's a great site, well done.

dslrchat · May 9, 2008

Thank you, this has taken me awhile and I pretty much started from scratch.

I totally agree with you on content, that will be her job lol, I just put up anything for now just to fill it up.

Once she comes up with the Images she wants online, I can name/add/remove the galleries.

Being a teenagers, she goes in spurts lol, will will dilligently for a few days, then stop for a week.

kellylindseyphotography · May 9, 2008

Complete honesty- it needs a lot of work. Her photo's are lacking... many are flat, out of focus, blurry (looks unintentional, and thereby not professional), have color issues and so on.

I'd choose a GREAT, FANTASTIC top 10 and get the rest off there. She should take a look around here to really learn some stuff.

sears is a great place to start, btw. Just have her realize that it is not "real" photography by any measure. The job is mainly getting spit up on, dealing with screaming babys and picky moms, and being a clown to make the babys laugh. All you do is click a button, there is no real photographic elements that will EVER help her career. She will not be able to use the pics she takes in a portfolio, and even the experience isn't all that. Its stressful and you have to be REALLY careful that they don't mistake your daughters ambition to be a photographer for someone that will work 90 hours a week during the holiday rush for them. (which they will do)

Instead, try looking up photographers in your yellow pages and calling a few. Being an assistant to one would be invaluable at this point in her life.

dslrchat · May 10, 2008

Ya, those photos were just some old ones she had, I put them there for now.
When she gets me some new photos I will replace them and then get her, her own domain.

Do you think the slide show is too much?

dslrchat · May 10, 2008

Oh, just wanted to mention, this is the only site I have ever put music on (slide show) only because she insisted.
I beleive music on website are a big faux pas.

TCimages · May 12, 2008

Great work! I like the site and pictures

EricBrian · May 12, 2008

I think you should get rid of the flash that you have on the home page.

It seems as though every page has a different layout. That is annoying because I don't want want to have to 'learn' your layout for every page.

Don't change the order of the navigational elements.

Use colors with great contrast. For instance, black letters on a dark purple background is too hard to read.

Also, mystery links are not too friendly. So, on the home page provide text links under the images to let me know where my click will take me to.

You might also want to test the site using different browsers. I say that because I don't think you want the home page to look the way it looks using Safari.

Keep up the work on the site, it has the potential to be great.