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Author Topic: How could this possibly be Art  (Read 10126 times)

jenbenn

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How could this possibly be Art
« on: March 13, 2009, 08:19:17 am »

Sorry for the provocative titel, but I am in the process of redoing my website. There is still some content missing, but I 'd like to get some feedback before I continue with the concept.  The webadress is www.photography-in-style.de
Many thanks for your help!
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RSL

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How could this possibly be Art
« Reply #1 on: March 13, 2009, 10:19:13 am »

Jens (or, according to your web, Mark), your "provocative" title is a fair question. I can't really tell whether you're after compliments or actual criticism. On the off chance that it's the second:

1. The organization of the site is too complex. You need to simplify it. get rid of the slide-out table of contents and use a frame. People who go to a web tend to be impatient. Having to slide out a table of contents is just about enought to make me move on.

2. There's too much jazzy stuff going on when the pictures come up. Simpler is always better. Also, having to go back to the underlying page to see what's next is annoying. You'd be better off with a frame for the thumbs that stays on screen.

3. There are some good photographs in the collection but there also are many tourist shots. You need to cull and cull. After 56 years shooting photographs, Lightroom is telling me I've kept just short of 13,000 snaps. I know I've dumped a very large multiple of that. But my commercial web contains 188 photographs. As time goes on I'll probably add a few more and drop a few. Always look at your stuff with a critical eye.

I don't know whether you're doing your own web or farming it out to a pro, but most pros go for jazzy stuff because that helps them find clients. What you want is a site that shows off your pictures -- not jazzy web design.

Good luck with it and keep shooting. You obviously have a good grip on the technical aspects of what you're trying to do.


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Bill Caulfeild-Browne

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How could this possibly be Art
« Reply #2 on: March 13, 2009, 09:59:54 pm »

Quote from: RSL
Jens (or, according to your web, Mark), your "provocative" title is a fair question. I can't really tell whether you're after compliments or actual criticism. On the off chance that it's the second:

1. The organization of the site is too complex. You need to simplify it. get rid of the slide-out table of contents and use a frame. People who go to a web tend to be impatient. Having to slide out a table of contents is just about enought to make me move on.

2. There's too much jazzy stuff going on when the pictures come up. Simpler is always better. Also, having to go back to the underlying page to see what's next is annoying. You'd be better off with a frame for the thumbs that stays on screen.

3. There are some good photographs in the collection but there also are many tourist shots. You need to cull and cull. After 56 years shooting photographs, Lightroom is telling me I've kept just short of 13,000 snaps. I know I've dumped a very large multiple of that. But my commercial web contains 188 photographs. As time goes on I'll probably add a few more and drop a few. Always look at your stuff with a critical eye.

I don't know whether you're doing your own web or farming it out to a pro, but most pros go for jazzy stuff because that helps them find clients. What you want is a site that shows off your pictures -- not jazzy web design.

Good luck with it and keep shooting. You obviously have a good grip on the technical aspects of what you're trying to do.

I agree with Russ - there's some really nice work here, but it gets swamped with a lot of pedestrian stuff. NEVER SHOW ANYTHING BUT YOUR VERY BEST! That way nobody will know how crappy we are most of the time!

Good luck,
Bill
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situgrrl

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How could this possibly be Art
« Reply #3 on: March 14, 2009, 06:52:01 am »

The site is programmed in LightRoom Galleries which is a bunch of templates a very clever person made so that an entire site can be made from within LR without resorting to too much geeky stuff.  Mine is made the same way!  I therefore must ask, how did you get more than one paragraph of text out of it because I've not managed so far!

My C&Cs partially echo the others'.  I personally think you need to modify the grid view for each page so that it is uniform (if that doesn't make sense, see my site in the footer).  Some of the work gets lost by the lack of continuity in each gallery.  Some bits are a bit pedestrian - but I also think that some of these pictures - which look like nothing much on screen - would take on a different light in a big print.  It's a limitation of the web unfortunately.  You (like me!) have tried to get around this with the ReadIris full screen thingy - and - like me - you've not configured it to show your site photos!  Why is has to be sooo complicated it beyond me!  I never did get the hang of it

RSL

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How could this possibly be Art
« Reply #4 on: March 14, 2009, 01:24:21 pm »

One thing I forgot to mention: In many cases you've pushed the color saturation to the point where the photograph looks like a cigarette ad. I know that at "art fairs" oversaturation tends to sell photographs. That's because you're dealing with a photographically unsophisticated audience. But unless you're planning to sell your stuff to Marlboro, pushing the saturation can blow away any residual art in a scene.
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LoisWakeman

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How could this possibly be Art
« Reply #5 on: March 16, 2009, 11:07:46 am »

Quote from: RSL
You need to simplify it. get rid of the slide-out table of contents and use a frame.
Lots of good points you made - but please don't advocate the use of frames. There are much better ways of having a positioned menu this century  
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RSL

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How could this possibly be Art
« Reply #6 on: March 16, 2009, 02:51:48 pm »

Quote from: LoisWakeman
Lots of good points you made - but please don't advocate the use of frames. There are much better ways of having a positioned menu this century  

Lois, Okay. Anything to simplify. I agree, frames can be a problem.
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jenbenn

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How could this possibly be Art
« Reply #7 on: April 01, 2009, 09:42:56 am »

Hi everybody,
 thanks for all your constructive comments. I have been busy improving the site which involved a complete redesign. If you want to have a look click here. Comments are very much appreciated.

@situgrrl: you can add more text to the lightroom page after uploading it to the web. Open the page in your browser, navigate to the page where you want to add text and right click. Choose "admin login". The default password is "letmein". You can now edit all text on the page online.
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RSL

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How could this possibly be Art
« Reply #8 on: April 02, 2009, 08:03:00 pm »

Quote from: jenbenn
Hi everybody,
 thanks for all your constructive comments. I have been busy improving the site which involved a complete redesign. If you want to have a look click here. Comments are very much appreciated.

@situgrrl: you can add more text to the lightroom page after uploading it to the web. Open the page in your browser, navigate to the page where you want to add text and right click. Choose "admin login". The default password is "letmein". You can now edit all text on the page online.

Jens, Congratulations. Much, much better. Now it's a web I'd go to on purpose and stick with long enough to look at everything there. The only residual criticism I have is that several of the photographs look as if you've pushed the color saturation. You may not have done that, and what I'm seeing may be a result of looking at photographs on a computer monitor -- never a reliable guide to what's really there. If you are pushing the saturation you may be doing it for a reason. I know a guy who started showing at art fairs several years ago. Last year I noticed he was pushing the saturation to the point where the photographs were starting to look like cigarette ads. I called him on it and he said, "Well, my sales have doubled." Fact is that art fair patrons who don't know much about photography really do like oversaturated color, though I suspect that after having that kind of print on a wall for a month they may take it down and store it in the garage, since wild color on a wall can become really annoying. In any case, if you're pushing the saturation because you're selling at art fairs, have at it. If you're pushing the saturation just because you can do that, you might want to reconsider. If you're not pushing the color, disregard all after the first two sentences.

Again, your web looks a lot more professional now. I like it.
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