New website...C&C?

TinyTouchPhotography · Feb 21, 2010

I started my photography business in September, and just redid my entire site with Flash. Could anyone offer and comments or suggestions for me on either the site or the photography listed in the portfolio?

www.tinytouchphotography.com

tdiprincess · Feb 21, 2010

Very nice elegant and soft. On your pricing page you spelled their, thier.. you may want to fix that...
And it may have been my internet connection, but the music kept skipping.

FORCFED · Feb 21, 2010

Read over your preperation paragraphy. The first sentence is missing "how". The information and FAQ tab are the same. Not sure if thats supposed to be that way.

Music played just fine for me.

mrmacedonian · Feb 21, 2010

Nice site, I think it works well with the above observations. Now, I'm no expert portrait photography, so this is just from seeing example of portraits people post in this forum, but the lighting just doesn't seem to be quite right.

A lot of times with the babies its far to harsh and then looking through children/senior portraits etc I see the same areas. For example in the senior portraits there's a reoccurring hot spot on her forehead. With the face of the senior being the primary focal point I can't say as a customer I'd like that large glare on my forehead. Not sure what the studio lighting setup is, perhaps more experienced portrait photographers will be able to determine just what might be wrong.

That being said the poses and positions through the gallery are very nice, along with most of the other technical aspects, so perhaps look into lighting a bit more or have a colleague in your area take a look at the studio lighting setup.. just my opinion from glancing through your work.

TheDirtStreet · Feb 21, 2010

Like the site. Loaded fine for me. I would remove the music, it's one of my biggest pet peeves when looking at. I almost never continue past the point of music on a site. I listen to iTunes while im on a site, and to have to hunt down a way to turn off the site music. But better yet, I just leave the site.

I think it's a common problem in the online photography world. I don't mean to sound harsh or anything. Here is a link to 5 Reason Not to Use music.

5 Reasons Not to Put Music on Your Website | Evision Worldwide's official blog

danielrwelch · Feb 21, 2010

TheDirtStreet said:
Like the site. Loaded fine for me. I would remove the music, it's one of my biggest pet peeves when looking at. I almost never continue past the point of music on a site. I listen to iTunes while im on a site, and to have to hunt down a way to turn off the site music. But better yet, I just leave the site.

I think it's a common problem in the online photography world. I don't mean to sound harsh or anything. Here is a link to 5 Reason Not to Use music.

5 Reasons Not to Put Music on Your Website | Evision Worldwide's official blog

I'm inclined to agree with the website soundscore phenomenon. If it's a band page or a music page or a site that is intentionally visited for an audio AND visual experience that's one thing, but people don't go to a photography site for the music...they go for the images.

I'm aware that even seasoned professional photographers will soundscore their sites, but I find it to be an immediate turn-off, even if their images are incredible. Let the images speak for themselves.

Lastly, might there be a way to pause the slideshow, or make the image browsing manual? I found that with some photos, I wanted to look at them longer than the timed slideshow allotment and even clicking the image again simply reset the timed display rather than freezing on it.

TinyTouchPhotography · Feb 21, 2010

tdiprincess: Thank you for catching that error, it's been fixed!

FORCFED: Thanks for catching the missing word, and the wrong link. They were not suppose to be the same so thanks for seeing that. They've both been fixed.

mrmacedonian: I agree that the lighting is definitely my struggle so far. I have 2 strobe lights, one with a softbox and one with an umbrella. I see beautiful pictures of babies and children where the lighting is just perfect, and I haven't been able to get it to that point yet. I'm not sure exactly what I'm doing wrong yet. For the senior pictures, I did not yet have my strobes so that was done with just overhead lighting and lots of post processing to get rid of unwanted shadows. She was a model for me so that I could practice on seniors.

TheDirtStreet: I do know what you mean about the music, which is why I just have it on one page, not throughout the site. There is a music player on the top left that you can turn the volume down or turn it off all together.

Danielrwelch: Thanks for the input on the slideshow. I do have it so you can select the photos manually if you'd like, but never thought to have it able to pause. That gives me something to think about and improve.

Thank you to everyone for visiting the site and giving me some critiques. More are welcome! You guys have come across errors that I didn't catch myself, and wouldn't want clients to catch. And if anyone has any help or suggestions on the lighting and what I may be doing wrong, advice will be much appreciated.

Bitter Jeweler · Feb 21, 2010

I would add, that it's silly to have a page that one uses to "enter" the site. Particulary, one that actually took some time to load.

Clicking your link, or entering your web address should take me to your site, not the front door to your site.

Some people tend to browse in smaller than full screen windows. If you have to scroll down to even find the door knob... :grumpy:

The transitional "fade" between images is way to slow, and "stepped", rather than smooth. That's kinda awkward.

Also, throughout the site you switch naration. Sometimes it's you, and sometimes it's someone else talking about you.

And you seem really cheap. :shock:

pcacj · Feb 21, 2010

Went to your site. The layout is nice and pleasant. Took a long time to load. That is not good. Most people want immediate results when surfing and will not wait for a site to load more than 2 or 3 seconds. The music is one culprit for slow loading. I have to agree with Bitter Jeweler and the "Enter Site" page. It is redundant and takes more time to get where I want to go. Why have it? What purpose does it serve? Other than that, it looks good.

TinyTouchPhotography · Feb 21, 2010

thanks for the input. The original reason I had the enter site is because I am going to create a blog and thought I could have one button that enters the site, and the other to enter the blog. But, I just thought that I could also just add the blog as a link with the other links and it would get rid of that page entirely.

mrmacedonian · Feb 21, 2010

TinyTouchPhotography said:
I agree that the lighting is definitely my struggle so far. I have 2 strobe lights, one with a softbox and one with an umbrella. I see beautiful pictures of babies and children where the lighting is just perfect, and I haven't been able to get it to that point yet. I'm not sure exactly what I'm doing wrong yet. For the senior pictures, I did not yet have my strobes so that was done with just overhead lighting and lots of post processing to get rid of unwanted shadows.

Yeah, the reason I joined this forum back in August was to get tips and tricks and general info about senior pictures, since I want to try and take my sister's. I took a look around and found I have way to much to learn so I've stuck around

I'm sorry I can't offer any direction or advice, I'll leave that to the Pros floating around

Best of luck!

p.s. I agree with Bitter on the music.

jimmyeao · Aug 2, 2011

My 2 pence worth..
I LIKE the general layout and theme.
Personally I wouldn't bother with Flash, HTML5 will replace it for most websites, and it alienates iPad/iPhone users straight away. purely from a business point of view, I would make it as accessible as possible to the largest possible audience. I know you have a HTML version as well, but really, why bother? you have to update 2 sites now, and it's an extra click for users to get in..
Also when I click on various links, it opens new windows instead of staying in the same window, which makes navigation rather messy.

Please don't think I'm being down on your site, the idea is there, and some great images, I just think with a couple of tweaks it could be more accessible and enjoyable to navigate