Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => The Coffee Corner => Topic started by: tom b on October 13, 2010, 11:06:36 pm
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While Russ is in the mood for suggesting things I have a suggestion for him.
Anyone who has visited his site: http://www.fineartsnaps.com will find the splash page does not match his philosophy on photography.
I suggest that those of you out there who have graphic/web design skills help build him a worthy splash page.
Here is my 30 minute mock up.
(http://www.balmainartschool.com.au/assets/splash.jpg)
Cheers,
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While Russ is in the mood for suggesting things I have a suggestion for him.
Anyone who has visited his site: http://www.fineartsnaps.com will find the splash page does not match his philosophy on photography.
I suggest that those of you out there who have graphic/web design skills help build him a worthy splash page.
Here is my 30 minute mock up.
(http://www.balmainartschool.com.au/assets/splash.jpg)
Cheers,
Where is the contradiction between his philosophy on photography and his splash page? :-\
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Where is the contradiction between his philosophy on photography and his splash page? :-\
The vignettes are cropped!
Jeremy
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The vignettes are cropped!
Jeremy
Hmm ..... I don't remember seeing uncropped ones. Guess we will have to wait and see how Russ explains it? :) ;) 8)
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They are not cropped, they are diffuminated.
It is true that I always find this index page kind of wired. It draws a 5 number, maybe there is something esotheric or secret behind.
But the vignetes quality do not deserve the good work inside.
For example, the "in passing" thumb is a perfect eliptic difumination while on the others you can see the straight horizontal lines cutted.
Suggestion? if I have one: just put a big "latest" pic on the index and simply put the menu in words instead of thumbs. But that's just me.
(Russ, as I don't like to criticize for nothing: if you would like to do such a thing like my suggestion and do not know html, just ask me in my mail here and I will do the index for you, it will take me 10 minutes
of my free time as your page does not have CMS I don't need anything, and at the same time will add meta words that are lacking).
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Tom, I really like that layout. I built that web originally in FrontPage, which, to say the least, is klutzy. But I've never put a lot of time into my webs. Until recently I needed the time to build software. A few months ago I installed a new Windows 7 64 bit machine and found that FrontPage wouldn't run on it, so I switched to DreamWeaver -- definitely a great improvement. I had intended to get back to that splash page and revise it, but I just never quite got there. In any case, I'll spend some time on it and maybe steal your layout. It's a good one.
Stamper and Jeremy, Those thumbs are NOT cropped. They're vignetted. The full frames are on the site. The very idea!!!
Fred, Thanks for the compliment. I'd certainly like to believe that the vignettes downplay the actual content, so maybe it's time to do what Tom's suggesting. I do think the graphics are a good idea, though.
By the way, for anyone who's not happy with Adobe Flash: The big advantage of Flash, as far as I'm concerned, is that Flash itself is adapted to whichever browser it's going to run in. That keeps me from having to check my pages against all the various browsers out there, including the antiques people keep running long after they've become zombies. Flash is a real time saver.
I'm flattered by all the attention to my web. Blush, blush...
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Stamper and Jeremy, Those thumbs are NOT cropped. They're vignetted. The full frames are on the site. The very idea!!!
Hmm. To crop an image means to remove parts of it, to adjust it so that some of its periphery is no longer visible. Normally, I agree, we would consider cropping to be abrupt and rectangular. A vignette is gradual and elliptical but it's still a crop.
IMHO
FWIW
Anyway, teasing people is fun and I just love Fred's diffuminated!
Jeremy
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Stamper and Jeremy, Those thumbs are NOT cropped. They're vignetted. The full frames are on the site. The very idea!!!
And, of course, you chose the exact amount of vignetting (and/or diffumination) at the time of exposure rather than in post-processing. ;D
Eric
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Absolutely! I squinted until it was just right.
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Absolutely! I squinted until it was just right.
I didn't know that Gary Cooper and Clint Eastwood were also photographers making vignettes!
I like that about this site: I learn some new cultural gem every day.
Rob C
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Absolutely! I squinted until it was just right.
This, sir, requires, nay, demands, an article on LL!
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This, sir, requires, nay, demands, an article on LL!
Better yet: a poem?
;-)
Rob C
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Absolutely! I squinted until it was just right.
Ok, I think I'm beginning to understand. It goes something like this, does it?
"Crop = bad; squint = good."
Eric
P.S. I'm glad you're a good sport, Russ.
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Too much time on my hands, design 2.
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ffdIOaF8Hrg/TLfBKK30wVI/AAAAAAAAAtI/vocCx7rJcWM/s1600/splash_russ4.jpg)
Cheers,
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Design 3. Something to think about.
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ffdIOaF8Hrg/TLfB5mQE-mI/AAAAAAAAAtM/R3BA9vLu4vA/s1600/splash_russ_2.jpg)
Cheers,
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And, of course, you chose the exact amount of vignetting (and/or diffumination) at the time of exposure rather than in post-processing. ;D
Eric
As well as having a circular lens he has a circular sensor in his camera which means he doesn't have to crop? Russ how much did you pay tom b for all of this free publicity? You will now have more viewing than the Chilean miners. :) ;D
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Feppe and Rob, Instead of an article or a poem, how about a cropped photograph from day before yesterday? I like this one because it reminds me of the problem HCB had with Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare, the photograph everyone uses to illustrate what they think "the decisive moment" means. I had to shoot quickly through a (rather dirty) window and there was no way to avoid the bedpost on the left. In fact there's still a bit of window sash on the right that I might either Photoshop or crop out of the picture.
The subject is Charles Rockey, a local, very successful artist. I think I posted a portrait of him earlier on one of these threads. Charles is sitting in his front room office, right on the street in a fairly large, two-story commercial building he owns. The reason there's a bedpost on the left is that Charles collects things and stores them in his building. Charles didn't know I'd made the shot, but I'll give him a matted copy next week.
So you see, Jeff Kohn, I'm not really a purist, but -- for all you guys -- I did, in fact, know what the crop was going to be when I made the shot. Didn't even have to squint.
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Tom, You're really good at this. I fell in love with your first splash page, and I think I'm in love with the second. Might have a nooner with #3, but I'd be back with #1 or #2 by mid afternoon. Here's my first stab at a working draft of #1. If I get some time today I'll probably take a shot at #2, which is the kind of thing Fred was suggesting. Unfortunately, I don't seem to have the elaborate cursive script you used in #1 for "A selection of prints..." and I need to get rid of the underlines on the link text.
Stamper, Tom's help is priceless, so I can't pay him.
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I like all three of Tom's suggestions, but the third is my favorite.
Of course I'll have to suggest one tiny change: Instead of "Photography by Russ Lewis" I would like it to be "Photography by Eric Myrvaagnes." ;)
Eric
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Tom, You're really good at this. I fell in love with your first splash page, and I think I'm in love with the second. Might have a nooner with #3, but I'd be back with #1 or #2 by mid afternoon. Here's my first stab at a working draft of #1. If I get some time today I'll probably take a shot at #2, which is the kind of thing Fred was suggesting. Unfortunately, I don't seem to have the elaborate cursive script you used in #1 for "A selection of prints..." and I need to get rid of the underlines on the link text.
Stamper, Tom's help is priceless, so I can't pay him.
Russ, you need to do CSS to get typography properlly done.
Maybe tonite I have some free time, I'll have some fun doing an index to you, surprise surprise...
If you like it you could download it and just paste the file in your host-root-directory. And if not, well I would have had some fun doing it. No prob.
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Fred, I'm no CSS expert, but I do do some CSS. In fact, in DreamWeaver it's just about impossible to make a decent page without doing at least some CSS. But I don't understand what you're saying when you say that you need to do CSS in order to get the kind of typography you want. If you get time, enlighten me.
But... Until the weather gets worse I'm going to be spending a lot of time outside with a camera. I'm also packing for the move to Florida for the winter -- also planning this year's trip down on the back roads. So there's not a lot of time left over to work on my web.
I don't list this one on LuLa, but I also have a personal web: www.russ-lewis.com where I dump recent work until I decide what's good enough to go up on www.FineArtSnaps.com. I have a bunch of stuff from the past week or so that needs to be culled for that web.
So many pictures. So little time. So soon old. So late smart.
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So late smart.
Russ, you speak for all of us. If I knew then what I ........
Rob C
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Tom, Just so you're not too shocked if you happen to go there: I just put up my approximation of your first design. I plan to do some more work on it when I get in place in Florida in November. Fred came up with a very interesting variant of your second design, one that brings up one of six pictures at random each time you come back to the site. I'm looking at that idea too.
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I like it! I find the new splash page much more convincing.
Eric
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Russ, very good Home Page; you certainly have a good eye and seem to be shamefully prolific!
;-)
Rob C
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Gentlemen and women,
I have an english question: I don't really like the term snapshot wich is also used too many times reffering to street. I like the way Russ putted "the street". Is it admited also streetshot?
or "streetshots"? or "street shots" separate?
Thank you.
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Gentlemen and women,
I have an english question: I don't really like the term snapshot wich is also used too many times reffering to street. I like the way Russ putted "the street". Is it admited also streetshot?
or "streetshots"? or "street shots" separate?
Thank you.
Fred, I'd ride with 'street shots' for plural, and 'street shot' for singular. English confuses many of us, regardless of native tongue; and it gets worse with age, because you start to distrust your memory - okay, I do - and even to start inserting hyphens where none existed before... The thing is, the whole business about 'street' is a little bit difficult because it is the use of words to describe a thing that's mostly a suggestion, something that's hard to define and without a long history of attached name; street can be so many dfferent types of photograph - it touches many genres, from political reportage to holidays beside the Trevi Fountain! A couple of hundred years ago it couldn't have existed in the sense we use it here on LuLa. But then, neither could LuLa have existed; you see the difficulty with this modern world?
Rob C
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I like it! I find the new splash page much more convincing.
Eric
Eric, That's because there's no squinting going on.
Yes, many thanks to Tom. He's really good at that kind of design.
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Russ just google free fonts and you can find a variety of free fonts including script ones. Here are two sites:
http://www.urbanfonts.com
http://www.acidfonts.com
It's good to see the new splash page.
Cheers,
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Russ, one more small point. At work we have quite a few design checks. One of them is that a splash page should fit on a 1024x768 monitor without scrolling. Your's doesn't, this means that About the prints and Click here to contact me links don't show and can be missed on an average sized screen.
Cheers,
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Tom, Thanks. I meant to check it on my wife's screen, but didn't do it. I'll cut it down.
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I like all three of Tom's suggestions, but the third is my favorite.
Of course I'll have to suggest one tiny change: Instead of "Photography by Russ Lewis" I would like it to be "Photography by Eric Myrvaagnes." ;)
Eric
I'm sorry Eric but being the Tar Master you web site should look more like this.
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ffdIOaF8Hrg/TLu0MqXkb5I/AAAAAAAAAtg/G6ouX-tSh-U/s1600/eric_splash.jpg)
Cheers
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Well Thank You, Tom!
But to take credit for Russ's photos I guess your suggesting that I need to post them on my own website. :D
Eric
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Nope,
Just suggesting that where Russ is just the person for classical fonts like Goudy Old Style and Garamond, I see you more of a script type person with a name like Myrvaagnes.
Being the Tar Man why would you want photos of people and old forgotten houses on your splash page. Nope a picture with tar in it should take pride of place.
You should be proud of your own images.
Cheers,
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A number of the serif fonts have quite decorative italics which can be used as alternatives to script fonts. The above mentioned Goudy old style and Garamond come to mind. Russ you're almost there.
Cheers,
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Tom, Thanks. I'm pushing up against departure for Florida early next month and trying to catch up on many things, so I'm sort of pushing off more work on the web until I'm in place down there. Which is not to say I won't get a break somewhere during the next couple weeks and have time to work on the site. I've done some desktop publishing in the past, and way back in the early seventies I printed a catalog on a hand press, using foundry type. Got pretty fast with a type stick. I always loved Goudy old style. Garamond's good too. I'll visit the free font sites you recommended as soon as a break comes along.
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Nope,
Just suggesting that where Russ is just the person for classical fonts like Goudy Old Style and Garamond, I see you more of a script type person with a name like Myrvaagnes.
Being the Tar Man why would you want photos of people and old forgotten houses on your splash page. Nope a picture with tar in it should take pride of place.
You should be proud of your own images.
Cheers,
I actually try to change the home page photo once a month. All the ones I've used so far are shown in the "Prints of the Month" gallery. I have used a tar photo once, and I'll probably do another one soon (especially as I'm having an exhibit of the Tar photos next January into March).
Cheers,
The Tar Man
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Hi Eric,
I realise now what has happened. When I visited your site I still had Firefox set to 1024x768. Your splash page tends to break down a bit at this resolution. See screen grab.
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ffdIOaF8Hrg/TL5qTyqbcnI/AAAAAAAAAuA/Ayu1AT_BF8o/s1600/ericsplash.jpg)
Your picture of the month is cropped and the left navigation has links wrapping. Plus you have to scroll to see all of the information.
At work we have a team of QA people who would say that's not acceptable and I would have to redo the design. Obviously, you're under no such obligation. I guess it's my training that is cutting in that I notice such things.
Actually my web site crops off my name at 1024x768 but my name is on all the navigation pages so I'm not bothered.
As blogger.com offers free hosting and is faster than my present web site my blog will probably become my main image gallery.
Yes and variety is the spice of life.
Cheers,