Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Fine Art Landscape Website  (Read 9764 times)

fike

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1413
  • Hiker Photographer
    • trailpixie.net
Fine Art Landscape Website
« on: September 20, 2007, 02:01:31 pm »

So I have a portfolio.  I have 20 images that I consider excellent.  My workflow is good.  I get repeatable results.  My images are worthy of display and sale.

I am not saying there aren't many places my photos can improve.  I would love feedback on how I might improve, but.....

I have adapted my hiking and photography website to be more art-focused so that I can direct prospective gallery owners to my site for additional information about images that are available.  I am not planning to make any substantial online sales from my website.

So, I would like feedback on my website as a vehicle for prospective collectors, gallery owners or curators to browse work I have already shown in person through my portfolio.

How does it stand-up?

Does it look like a website for a serious artist?

Is it easy to find my art photo work?
http://www.trailpixie.net/


Thanks in advance.
Logged
Fike, Trailpixie, or Marc Shaffer

SeanPuckett

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 244
    • http://photi.ca/
Fine Art Landscape Website
« Reply #1 on: September 20, 2007, 05:57:42 pm »

I'd like to see the art set off more from the text.  Whitespace is almost never wasted in designing a gallery site.
Logged

LoisWakeman

  • Guest
Fine Art Landscape Website
« Reply #2 on: September 21, 2007, 09:02:03 am »

I think you need to be much more focused on a specific aim: too many objectives rarely help a web visitor (or a spider) to find what they want. E.g. why would someone looking for an art print care who your friends are?

If your primary aim is to showcase your images (which it may not be), then I think you need to get away from the blog approach, which is generally much more suited to unconnected thoughts and serendipitous browsing, than closely targeted marketing. Unless you have some specific category pages that you will be directing your prospects to, I think they'll be as lost as I was. And you'll be losing out on unplanned visitors too.

Your 'home' page is so huge and complex, I have no idea where to start or just what is on the site - well - not without some serious reading or lucky clicking. You have some lovely images - but almost drowned out by the "noise" of the surrounding text.

I wrote an article about arts web sites that might give you some more pointers. I am sure lots of the info is there - but finding it? Hmm.

http://www.outdooreyes.com/photographywebsite.php3

As for the more specific aspects of the design: the relationship between leading and intercharacter space you have set in your CSS doesn't make for very easy reading at wider window sizes, nor does the use of all caps in the sidebar.
Logged

fike

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1413
  • Hiker Photographer
    • trailpixie.net
Fine Art Landscape Website
« Reply #3 on: September 21, 2007, 10:09:40 am »

Quote
I think you need to be much more focused on a specific aim: too many objectives rarely help a web visitor (or a spider) to find what they want. E.g. why would someone looking for an art print care who your friends are?

If your primary aim is to showcase your images (which it may not be), then I think you need to get away from the blog approach, which is generally much more suited to unconnected thoughts and serendipitous browsing, than closely targeted marketing. Unless you have some specific category pages that you will be directing your prospects to, I think they'll be as lost as I was. And you'll be losing out on unplanned visitors too.

Your 'home' page is so huge and complex, I have no idea where to start or just what is on the site - well - not without some serious reading or lucky clicking. You have some lovely images - but almost drowned out by the "noise" of the surrounding text.

I wrote an article about arts web sites that might give you some more pointers. I am sure lots of the info is there - but finding it? Hmm.

http://www.outdooreyes.com/photographywebsite.php3

As for the more specific aspects of the design: the relationship between leading and intercharacter space you have set in your CSS doesn't make for very easy reading at wider window sizes, nor does the use of all caps in the sidebar.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=140955\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Thanks for the frank assessment.  Your comments are in line with some of my fears about my site.  It has evolved over the years as I have evolved towards being a photographer.  I enjoyed your article about building a Photography Website.  Your comments on website design are prescient.  

But....the reason I have chosen this challenging path is that I believe that marketing your photography is 50% artistic quality and 50% selling yourself.  You mention making your site personal in your article. I like that.  I also look at photo art websites that I frequent (LL, DOP, Earthbound Light).  They all include a significant amount of text and discussion.  Finally, I am definitely working to fit into a geographic region (West Virginia Highlands), so the guidebook like qualities of my website are important  to me.  

The older guidebook photography is not up to a fine art standard.  I know that is a problem.  Photography in the blog is not always Fine Art quality.  That may be a problem.  There is this strange phenomenon that people expect all the photographs that an fine art photographer takes to be stunning.  Well, we all take snapshots for fun and experimentation.  Showing that part of the artistic process may be a mistake.  Perhaps as I write, I am honing my audience?  Is my audience a gallery owner or other outdoor landscape photographers?  That is a good question.  Perhaps I keep this site and make another that is focused on the Portfolio for marketing.  

Thanks for the thoughtful ideas.
Logged
Fike, Trailpixie, or Marc Shaffer

LoisWakeman

  • Guest
Fine Art Landscape Website
« Reply #4 on: September 21, 2007, 10:43:28 am »

Quote
It has evolved over the years as I have evolved towards being a photographer.
I know the problem. A site starts small and gets bigger and bigger – like a shed with too many lean-to structures! My personal site is a case in point.
Quote
I believe that marketing your photography is 50% artistic quality and 50% selling yourself.  …  They all include a significant amount of text and discussion.  Finally, I am definitely working to fit into a geographic region (West Virginia Highlands), so the guidebook like qualities of my website are important  to me.
No problems with any of that. The problem is in how the information is organised. You can have top-quality useful content – but if it isn’t easily found, it may as well not exist. Most browsers are very lazy about working for info.
I guess you want the images to shine on the image pages, and the text content to be compelling in the guidebook part.
Quote
The older guidebook photography is not up to a fine art standard …  Photography in the blog is not always Fine Art quality  …  There is this strange phenomenon that people expect all the photographs that an fine art photographer takes to be stunning.  Well, we all take snapshots for fun and experimentation.  Showing that part of the artistic process may be a mistake.
Not a mistake – but here, in the wrong context. Your playground and your showroom should be two entirely different things.
Quote
Perhaps as I write, I am honing my audience?  Is my audience a gallery owner or other outdoor landscape photographers?  That is a good question.  Perhaps I keep this site and make another that is focused on the Portfolio for marketing. 
Audience analysis is the critical first step, followed by selecting appropriate content for that audience – so, exactly the solution I would have suggested if asked!   Good luck with your cogitations.
Logged

fike

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1413
  • Hiker Photographer
    • trailpixie.net
Fine Art Landscape Website
« Reply #5 on: September 21, 2007, 11:18:52 am »

Quote
I know the problem. A site starts small and gets bigger and bigger – like a shed with too many lean-to structures! My personal site is a case in point....
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Just a quick question....were you able to find the individual image pages like this one:

[a href=\"http://www.trailpixie.net/photography/canal_cedar_isl.htm]http://www.trailpixie.net/photography/canal_cedar_isl.htm[/url]
Logged
Fike, Trailpixie, or Marc Shaffer

Chris_T

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 541
Fine Art Landscape Website
« Reply #6 on: September 21, 2007, 01:26:10 pm »

Many of us here like the following site a lot. Simple, focused, good contents, consistent styles, and easy to navigate. No self proclaimed and dreaded "fine art". The fact that the site was hand coded probably eliminated lots of bells and whistles. A visitor, either a fellow photog or a customer, will come away with an impression that this photog is a humble and straight shooter (pun unintended).

http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index....showtopic=19369

For more web gallery reviews, check out:

http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index....showtopic=13890
Logged

Rob C

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 24074
Fine Art Landscape Website
« Reply #7 on: September 21, 2007, 02:37:08 pm »

Lois

My advice to you, as to anyone else who wants to have a commercial element in their work: NEVER show work other than your best, not on a website, not privately.

You have no idea where stuff turns up; the last thing you want is some client or possible client saying to himself, that´s no better than I can do...

It´s been my professional life longer than I care to remember - believe me, don´t take silly chances.

Rob C

fike

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1413
  • Hiker Photographer
    • trailpixie.net
Fine Art Landscape Website
« Reply #8 on: September 21, 2007, 03:37:41 pm »

Quote
Lois

My advice to you, as to anyone else who wants to have a commercial element in their work: NEVER show work other than your best, not on a website, not privately. ...


...Rob C
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=141036\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I think you are right, but I know that I won't completely expunge my website of any sign of older, less perfect, work.  I think it is disingenuous to be to hide your growth as a person and/or an artist.  

I will be separating trailpixie.net into two websites.  Trailpixie.net will be a hiking blog. My new site, marcshaffer.net, will be a similar, although isolated website for my landscape photography.  

I will probably still use a blog because I like an opportunity to talk about my work in some depth, although I will simplify the layout and navigation of the site.  By having two websites, I will have an outlet for two different interests while not confusing my readers or prospective customers.

I like for people to want to put my photography on their wall.  I hate having to sell it.  Maybe I should just give it away.  That might get my website some attention.
Logged
Fike, Trailpixie, or Marc Shaffer

Rob C

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 24074
Fine Art Landscape Website
« Reply #9 on: September 22, 2007, 04:11:20 am »

Quote
I think you are right, but I know that I won't completely expunge my website of any sign of older, less perfect, work.  I think it is disingenuous to be to hide your growth as a person and/or an artist. 

I will be separating trailpixie.net into two websites.  Trailpixie.net will be a hiking blog. My new site, marcshaffer.net, will be a similar, although isolated website for my landscape photography. 

I will probably still use a blog because I like an opportunity to talk about my work in some depth, although I will simplify the layout and navigation of the site.  By having two websites, I will have an outlet for two different interests while not confusing my readers or prospective customers.

I like for people to want to put my photography on their wall.  I hate having to sell it.  Maybe I should just give it away.  That might get my website some attention.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=141048\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Just give it away?

Sounds suspiciously like the AFKAP...

Rob C

feppe

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2906
  • Oh this shows up in here!
    • Harri Jahkola Photography
Fine Art Landscape Website
« Reply #10 on: September 22, 2007, 04:36:41 am »

The photography is great, but I agree that the layout is a bit too much. While having a flat structure - so the visitor doesn't have to click three or more times to get to the goods - is a Good Thing, your main page is loaded with photographs and lots of text.

A hint: if you're listing your friends for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) purposes, please note that Google doesn't like such lists, and might even demote you due to that. There are millions of link farms which use similar gimmicks to increase their Page Rank, and Google has taken a dim view of them in the past year or so.

Quote
I like for people to want to put my photography on their wall.  I hate having to sell it.  Maybe I should just give it away.  That might get my website some attention.
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

You might be on to something, although you were probably joking. [a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/]Creative Commons Licenses[/url] are used by a lot of photographers to do just that: to give exposure, encourage people to use your photographs, and still retain copyright and get credited. There are several copyleft images, which release varying levels of rights to visitors. And please note that you can control the quality of the released material, ie. you can post only web-sized shots so printing is useless. People who just browse your site for web-sized computer wallpaper shots are unlikely to pay for them, anyway.

jpjespersen

  • Guest
Fine Art Landscape Website
« Reply #11 on: September 22, 2007, 03:00:42 pm »

If your looking for something that galleries like to look at, I would suggest a Flash site.  If you go to  
http://www.jmcolberg.com/weblog/  Conscientious  where a lot of fine art photographers are featured, you will notice that 80% of them use Flash based sites, because it is clean, simple and to the point.

http://www.JPJespersen.com
Logged

LoisWakeman

  • Guest
Fine Art Landscape Website
« Reply #12 on: September 23, 2007, 07:10:32 am »

Quote
My advice to you, as to anyone else who wants to have a commercial element in their work: NEVER show work other than your best, not on a website, not privately.

You have no idea where stuff turns up; the last thing you want is some client or possible client saying to himself, that´s no better than I can do...

It´s been my professional life longer than I care to remember - believe me, don´t take silly chances.
Thanks for the tip. Point well taken
Logged

I CHNGE

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 24
Fine Art Landscape Website
« Reply #13 on: October 01, 2007, 04:09:32 am »

Having seen several of your photos on this forum I was excited to see this thread with the link to your site.

Unfortunately perhaps...it is late at night and the "complexity" of navigating it left me perplexed and frustrated after only a couple minutes...

Finding photos was not easy...too much text to get through...I was being forced to read when what I really wanted to do was look...

Perhaps if the photos were the object of sole interest to each page...and perhaps if by "clicking" on the photo an enlarged version was then visable along with the information you would like your visitors to be aware of was presented...

Bit I digress and I'm not a website designer

I guess I will look for more of your favorites posted here...because as much as I have enjoyed the art you have posted on this forum...

I loath to repeat myself...

Sigh





Just my paltry 0.02

Cliff
« Last Edit: October 01, 2007, 04:14:03 am by I CHNGE »
Logged

fike

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1413
  • Hiker Photographer
    • trailpixie.net
Fine Art Landscape Website
« Reply #14 on: November 14, 2007, 04:28:09 pm »

Okay....feedback taken.  I have streamlined to the bare minimum to focus on the prints.  Please take a look at my new site.  I have divorced the art site from the hiking blog to minimize the impact of prospective customers bing distracted.

MarcShaffer.net

I would appreciate any feedback you might like to give.  I am not sure that I am completely done with it, although baring any serious issues, I will probably start to show it around a bit.  Sometimes it seems a bit too stark.

I am also interested in feedback about the voice I use to talk about my work.  I think I am trying a different approach than many people.  Although that doesn't scare me, I want to be sure the tone doesn't come off too pretentious or too naive.

...and because I have noticed that people on this board like to see images....here is a new gigantic panoramic from Zion.  Zion Zoomify Here...

Logged
Fike, Trailpixie, or Marc Shaffer

kaelaria

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2223
    • http://www.bgpictures.com
Fine Art Landscape Website
« Reply #15 on: November 14, 2007, 06:53:40 pm »

I would strongly suggest two things - better (more appropriate for your resolution) sharpening, and ditch that font.  i don't know if you purposely did it in your CSS or it's just the typeface - but the excessive spacing between letters is TERRIBLE to read for more than a few lines.  

I f  y o u  h a d   t o  r e a d  e v e r y  t h i n g  l i k e  t h i s  y o u  w o u l d  g o  n u t s .
« Last Edit: November 14, 2007, 06:56:08 pm by kaelaria »
Logged

SeanPuckett

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 244
    • http://photi.ca/
Fine Art Landscape Website
« Reply #16 on: November 14, 2007, 07:23:48 pm »

Arbitrary adjustment of the leading and tracking of body text is not a good idea.  For titling, perhaps, you can get away with it.  But if you want your descriptive text to be readable, let the font designer have his way with spacing.  Also, don't let the text stretch across the entire screen.  Shoot for ~60-80 characters per row for easiest reading.  It's a struggle to scan, as it is.
Logged

fike

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1413
  • Hiker Photographer
    • trailpixie.net
Fine Art Landscape Website
« Reply #17 on: November 14, 2007, 09:59:37 pm »

Point taken on the font spacing.  I have been trying to get a unique look.  I changed it back to default.  It does look better.

As for the width of the text, it is difficult to do a layout with all panoramic work, because it almost demands a horizontal layout.  I can think of a few ways to break things up on the portfolio pages.  I'll need to give it a shot.  

I never have been happy with my web publishing workflow as far as sharpening and getting images to pop. I have much better results in print than online jpeg.  I'll have to spend some time on that.
Logged
Fike, Trailpixie, or Marc Shaffer

kaelaria

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2223
    • http://www.bgpictures.com
Fine Art Landscape Website
« Reply #18 on: November 14, 2007, 10:23:46 pm »

The font has not changed on this end.
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up