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JennyGW

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Jenny
Edit My Images
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Hi everyone,

Please excuse me if I have posted in the wrong area.

I am in the process of putting a website together and it would be great to get some feedback, please.

http://www.jgw-photography.co.uk/

Thanks,
Jenny
 
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The big thing I notice is speed. Its unusable its so slow - 60mbps broadband here
 
Hi Jenny.....it seems to be the images that are slow to load on each page

Neil.
 
Same here re the speed, I'm on 75mbps but, it's really too slow to expect viewers to put up with it, have you tried resizing the images, I'm betting you've uploaded hi res at 300ppi, try resizing to fit your holder and save them at 72ppi.

Some lovely photos on there though, worth trying to speed it up.
 
Minor point but your contact us page switches between first and third person:
Jenny is based in Codnor Park, right between Nottingham and Derby. Call Jenny on xxxx xxxxxxxx or use the form below and I will soon get back to you! "
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JennyGW said:
Please excuse me if I have posted in the wrong area.
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You'll probably get a better response if you ask a mod to move this to the correct forum:

Computers, Websites and Other Technology

hope this helps
 
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Thanks for all the feedback, much appreciated, I will sort out the images tomorrow and see how it is then.

How did you feel about the general layout/look-feel/concepts, etc, please?
 
JennyGW said:
Thanks for all the feedback, much appreciated, I will sort out the images tomorrow and see how it is then.

How did you feel about the general layout/look-feel/concepts, etc, please?
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Speed is terrible. The logo doesn't fit in, and the fonts used don't seem to match. The menu looks very dated and switches between rounded and square corners. Your page titles are confused and repetitive, paragraph spacing in your style sheet is way too much, as your writing style seems to be that of many single sentence paragraphs it looks weird and uninviting to read. You also seem to include a lot of free advertising for the themes and plugins that you are using. Ultimately people will be looking for a photographer and not a web designer, however I think it is rather dated and unimaginative. Sorry...
 
dejongj said:
Speed is terrible. The logo doesn't fit in, and the fonts used don't seem to match. The menu looks very dated and switches between rounded and square corners. Your page titles are confused and repetitive, paragraph spacing in your style sheet is way too much, as your writing style seems to be that of many single sentence paragraphs it looks weird and uninviting to read. You also seem to include a lot of free advertising for the themes and plugins that you are using. Ultimately people will be looking for a photographer and not a web designer, however I think it is rather dated and unimaginative. Sorry...
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The site is currently on a test/development server, not live, hence the speed. I'll be moving it to a host soon.

Fonts. Hmm, using non-serif for main test and serif for titles. Doesn't seem so bad. Paragraph spacing, I like it, I hate small and tight text that is hard to read.

The only reference to the themes, etc is in the footer of the site, I don't find this overpowering.

Thanks for your feedback all the same :)
 
JennyGW said:
The site is currently on a test/development server, not live, hence the speed. I'll be moving it to a host soon.

Fonts. Hmm, using non-serif for main test and serif for titles. Doesn't seem so bad. Paragraph spacing, I like it, I hate small and tight text that is hard to read.

The only reference to the themes, etc is in the footer of the site, I don't find this overpowering.

Thanks for your feedback all the same :)
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It was fonts for your logo (y) You know the one in the header with the white background. To me your name on top and the grey word below it just don't go together and reduces the image of Jenny Gavin-Wear Photography and thus the good work done with the photography.

All in my opinion of course...
 
dejongj said:
It was fonts for your logo (y) You know the one in the header with the white background. To me your name on top and the grey word below it just don't go together and reduces the image of Jenny Gavin-Wear Photography and thus the good work done with the photography.

All in my opinion of course...
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Ahhha .. sorry, I misunderstood :) I think the main problem with the logo was it being on top of the header photograph, looked messy.

Thanks for your kind words on my photography!

Thanks again,
Jenny
 
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With me being a former web designer this I feel I can comment on I have had a good look at the site.

  1. The overall look off the site is clean, with a well presented layout. And screams professional quality.
  2. The images load at a respectable speed ( at least they do on my PC )
  3. The JGW photography page, is short and sweet but to the point. And provides potential clients with the relevant details they need. With out it being two long winded which is spot on for me.
  4. The actor portfolio page, again is a well presented layout. With detailed information and also great that it features some testimonials.
My overall conclusion, if I was looking for a photographer with in the fields you work in. I would be giving straight on the phone to discuss my photo shoot requirements.
 
I like the overall clean feel. Loading times are good for me.
A few things:
1) The opening images in the slider need to be your best stuff. The first image that loads is a headshot of a lady with a terrible shadow under her nose. (I know were not here for critique but I think it needs changed)
2) some variety on the slider as well woudl be good. Im looking at lots of pics of the same person. Need to show some different stuff. get some of your stage pics on there as they are good.
3) you specialise in actor/stage work - you have a landscapes option on the footer menu on the main page, seems a bit irrelevant.
4) Show your email address somewhere. Gives people more options to contact you rather than use the contact form, some people have their own ways of doing things and like to compose their own emails.
5) your footer disappears on the stage shots page

I hope this helps.
 
Pinkbikerbabe said:
With me being a former web designer this I feel I can comment on I have had a good look at the site.

  1. The overall look off the site is clean, with a well presented layout. And screams professional quality.
  2. The images load at a respectable speed ( at least they do on my PC )
  3. The JGW photography page, is short and sweet but to the point. And provides potential clients with the relevant details they need. With out it being two long winded which is spot on for me.
  4. The actor portfolio page, again is a well presented layout. With detailed information and also great that it features some testimonials.
My overall conclusion, if I was looking for a photographer with in the fields you work in. I would be giving straight on the phone to discuss my photo shoot requirements.
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Wow, thank you, great feedback. I'll order another box of invoice paper asap!

Thanks,
Jenny
 
Bhoy_Whunder said:
I like the overall clean feel. Loading times are good for me.
A few things:
1) The opening images in the slider need to be your best stuff. The first image that loads is a headshot of a lady with a terrible shadow under her nose. (I know were not here for critique but I think it needs changed)
2) some variety on the slider as well woudl be good. Im looking at lots of pics of the same person. Need to show some different stuff. get some of your stage pics on there as they are good.
3) you specialise in actor/stage work - you have a landscapes option on the footer menu on the main page, seems a bit irrelevant.
4) Show your email address somewhere. Gives people more options to contact you rather than use the contact form, some people have their own ways of doing things and like to compose their own emails.
5) your footer disappears on the stage shots page

I hope this helps.
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Thank you
1) Whoops, I agree, removed that one.
2) I'm arranging shoots in the next couple of weeks to expand the portfolio. I'd ideally like just 1 per subject. I've been debating about mixing the portraits and stage pics for a while, you've convinced me.
3) I guess I just find it hard to give up on this landscape work, point taken. It deserves a separate site.
4) If you click on "send email" here, http://www.jgw-photography.co.uk/contact.html my email address shows, it's just hidden from spammers.
5) Amazing, you're very thorough, I had missed that!

Thank you very much, great help :)
Jenny
 
Glad to help. I know some feedback can sound harsh but it does improve things. I recently added my website onto one of these website feedback sites (criticue) and people utterly savaged it. Its all web designers and other website builders, they go to town and notice all these wee things.
 
Pete Allen said:
have you tried resizing the images, I'm betting you've uploaded hi res at 300ppi, try resizing to fit your holder and save them at 72ppi.
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PPI is irrelevant for viewing on the web as you cant change the pixel desity of the screen, its part of the hardware. I tend to export my images from lightroom at 1500px along the long edge and constrain the file size to less than 200Kb. Works plenty quick enough and gives a nice image size on screen.
 
Blasted said:
PPI is irrelevant for viewing on the web as you cant change the pixel desity of the screen, its part of the hardware. I tend to export my images from lightroom at 1500px along the long edge and constrain the file size to less than 200Kb. Works plenty quick enough and gives a nice image size on screen.
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Pete Allen said:
Agreed but, it does make a difference to the file size.
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Pete is referring to a previous incarnation of my website before I started hosting with Zenfolio :)

Give it a try now, Pete!
 
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Much faster now although, it takes around 4 or 5 seconds for the first image to appear, I guess that's acceptable so long as you're happy with it.
 
Pete Allen said:
Much faster now although, it takes around 4 or 5 seconds for the first image to appear, I guess that's acceptable so long as you're happy with it.
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Thanks, Pete, though I agree it's not perfect. I tried a lot of alternatives before opting for Zenfolio, and I've tried a few since. I can't afford to have a bespoke site and although I am/was a web developer, I'd had enough and I don't want that distraction.
 
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