New Webpage - Opinions

Ballgirl

Ballgirl

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Hi All,

Had the day off from work today so thought I'd work on a webpage for my photography business that I want to start.

Any opinions welcomed.

http://www.susanball.co.uk/

Still need to complete the Wedding Gallery but it will operate the same as the portrait gallery.

thanks

Susan
 
Try making the font much smaller, large fonts look clumsy on web pages and I would look into a more corporate look for your business you will be guaranteed more customers.

Thats just from my experience in the design industry, Good luck!
 
You are a photographer - a professional one - where are the photographs? Does your site shout and scream "I am a photographer" No. Infact it says

"I have put this web-site together to introduce my services and I have deliberately kept it simple and uncluttered using just a few words and pictures to give you a 'flavour' of what I am about." which shouts and screams, inexperienced, and unreliable

The photographs are on Photobox - my mum puts photo's on photobox and orders jigsaws and fridge magnets and stuff, I send mine to a professional lab

BTW - I am not saying you are inexperienced or unreliable, thats just how your website reads.

Put yourself in the shoes of a client: They are paying you £1000+ to shoot a wedding in dec. 2010... they want a bit more upfront

____

Graphi albums are really visual - they sell themselves... however, does your next door neibours 18 year old know what one is... you need a lot more info and imagry upfront, or you just wont get sales. At the moment the website isnt helping you

I know this post is a bit harsh, but trust me on this. As a professional wedding photographer and website designer, I really have seen it been there and ripped up the postcard
 
Richard King said:
You are a photographer - a professional one - where are the photographs? Does your site shout and scream "I am a photographer" No. Infact it says

"I have put this web-site together to introduce my services and I have deliberately kept it simple and uncluttered using just a few words and pictures to give you a 'flavour' of what I am about." which shouts and screams, inexperienced, and unreliable

The photographs are on Photobox - my mum puts photo's on photobox and orders jigsaws and fridge magnets and stuff, I send mine to a professional lab

BTW - I am not saying you are inexperienced or unreliable, thats just how your website reads.

Put yourself in the shoes of a client: They are paying you £1000+ to shoot a wedding in dec. 2010... they want a bit more upfront

____

Graphi albums are really visual - they sell themselves... however, does your next door neibours 18 year old know what one is... you need a lot more info and imagry upfront, or you just wont get sales. At the moment the website isnt helping you

I know this post is a bit harsh, but trust me on this. As a professional wedding photographer and website designer, I really have seen it been there and ripped up the postcard
Click to expand...


As I said I'm not a website designer, in fact this is the first time I've even tried using Dreamweaver so constructive criticism is welcome.

It is a work in progress so when I can figure out flash etc there will be a much more photo content on the webpage.

Point taken on Photobox, I'll scrap that.
 
For sure I dont want to bash you down.. I do however think you need to know how you are seen. Good luck with the business - hope it all works out. For a first go it is a great effort

:-)

Feel free to message me with anything you are stuck with

BTW
forget flash. Dreamweaver easily will add images to your page
 
Simpleviewer moves through the images within the gallery by using the scroll wheel (one way). I had to use the main page scroll bar to move down the page as, by using the wheel on the mouse, this went through the gallery pictures.

Can I suggest making your logo at the top of the pages not as deep. It takes up quite a bit of the visible screen. (I've only got a little monitor or laptop screen.)

I agree with the other comments about text size too.

Contact me page: If you have your email address as a hyperlink you will be inundated with spam. Put it just in plain text so people have to type it in or copy/paste.

It's a really good effort for a first go. Well done. :)
 
As a web designer and corporate designer, I feel you could do with a more corporate approach to the website, something alot more clean If you are looking to put across a professional image I might be able to help you, Take a look at my wwebsite removed and Maybe I can sort you out with a package.

You will probably make more than enough money back to cover the costs, of the design.
 
I used Adobe Dreamweaver, I also struggled with things lining up etc.

I did the banner as a gif in Photoshop but now trying to do a smaller more corporate logo etc.
 
Advertising rates are cheap here for traders...
 
I've slightly amended the site now. I can't come up with a logo I like so will have to keep thinking about it :(
 
Think I've about finished with the tweaks now but still haven't come up with a 'pro' logo yet
 
Just had a look on the services page I'd add some space between the end of your text and the bottom bar
 
Again this is going to sound quite harsh, but I hope you take it as the constructive criticism it is. The banner is terrible for the market you are going for. It does not look professional and really does not convey what you are about.

Home page. The whole thing does not line up anywhere. The best design tip I was ever given was to use a grid to design. Things should line up. If you look at your page. The header doesn't not fit the width of the site, the Nav Bar does not line up with the Welcome text, which in turn does not line up with anything, the images along the bottom do not line up with anything either and the footer fits the page, which the header does not.

Galleries are just way too small! You cannot see the detail of any shots and it does not do your photography justice. Look at using Auto viewer or similar. Pretty simple to use and put into a site.

As for your logo/Identity. Look at what others are doing and see how simple some of the best wedding photographers Logo's are. A logo that works is usually very simple, and use of a good font can be your logo. (whatever you do avoid Times New Roman and Arial, they are too standard to really work as a logo). Whilst on font maybe go for a different font to Arial as it is more associated with business letters than weddings.

Sorry to sound so harsh and go on so long, but you need to get this right as it is the first point of contact for a lot of potential clients.

Here's a cpl for inspiration

http://www.lacourphoto.com/

http://www.jessicaclaire.net/

http://www.karenwise.com/
 
Updated yet again, different gallery and much simpler logo

website.jpg
 
Definately better. Still need to work on aligning everything to make it really work. Also maybe look at separating your galleries up into different sections, as is it doesn't show off all your skills without going through it all, where as before you had your fashion type stuff and wedding stuff separate which I personally think worked better

You still need to work on the layout a little. The logo (which I like) needs a little tweak. The outside edge of the squares needs to line up with the S of susan and the L of ball. Would really help make it better (again IMHO).

The home page still needs tweaking as I said in previous post. But the latest tweaks are definitely a step in the right direction!
 
Quite like the site, but for what it's worth I'd make your email address a proper mail to link allowing visitors to simply click it to send you an email.

Also I initially liked your Gallery page but it may be better if it didn't show portions of the previous and next pictures (from time to time). Or if this is the look you're going for the site should do this for all photos displayed.
 
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