building a photo-website, comments or advice?

[jonasv]

G'day RFF,

I'm trying to 'break into' photojournalism, trying to do small assignments here and there and bigger ones in foreign countries if possible, for small newspapers, magazines or NGO's. I know I need a decent website but I can't really afford to hire anyone to build mine so I made an effort to create something myself (I'm horrible with computers though).

It's mostly finished now, only the galleries aren't done yet, but the site itself is done. I would like some comments if possible - do you like the overall look? Is it easy to navigate? Is there anything missing?

The "Single images" categories (Portraits and Assorted) will probably stay like they are now, just pictures with a couple of words: name of person or event, location and year. Of course I will upload a lot more pictures, right now it's 10 in the portrait category and 1 in the assorted category, I think I'm going for a selection of 15-20 in each, but I'll do that in a couple of days.

The "Stories" category should be different, but unlike "Single images" it's not finished yet. Each story (10 to 20 images) will have a separate gallery (for now there's only one, but I will upload more) and the photo's won't be randomly ordered but in such way they tell a story when viewing the complete story. Each photo will be accompagnied by a block of text (5-15 lines) that gives information behind the picture (in a journalistic manner). None of this is done yet, I just uploaded a few pictures in the Romania-story to test and make sure everything's working. They are not in the correct order yet, the title and texts are missing and there will come many more photos in that story.


I tried following the KISS-principle; everything is simple HTML except the simpleviewer-galleries (for which you need macromedia flash) and the lay-out is pretty simple. Only two clicks will take you anywhere on the site. All pages except "contact" have photos on them. No colors - not in the photos and not in the lay-out. I like b&w...

So, the link is

http://www.freewebs.com/jvphototest

(this is just for now, when the site is completely finished I will move it to professional webspace and register a .com URL, probably www.jonasvincken.com)

Would appreciate any hints on what I could improve, or just any comment.

Thanks a lot in advance & best wishes!

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

Looks good. Think about a .eu rather than a .com URL.

 

[ffttklackdedeng]

Your story pictures are really great, Jonas! I would definitely appreciate some text to these.

Since you want critics 🙂 :

- I did not find any intuitive way to navigate the way up (is there any besides of the browser's back button?)
- I would prefer a lighter or even darker background color than the one in the main level (like the one in the galleries section)
- have you tried some very gentle texture on the background? I mean something that is very very subtle and barely visible but still there, instead of the 'sterile' one tone now. I mean your pictures are rather raw and grainy, so maybe this would be worth a try (in case you didn't try yet)
- when I make usm on pics with 'frames' I always make a selection just a bit inside of the frame and apply usm only to the inner content, otherways you get usm 'artifacts' on the frame border when the inside is middle grey etc (e.g portrait no. 8).. but this is maybe not important at all
- I miss some 'mission statement' telling a bit about your goals

ok, I tried to be picky but your site looks really good!

regards, Robert

 

[jonasv]

Jon, thanks. What are the benefits of an .eu domain over .com? I think I prefer .com as it's just more common and recognisable. For example if I remember an URL more or less but forgot the extension, the first thing I'll try is always .com, if you see what I mean.

Your story pictures are really great, Jonas! I would definitely appreciate some text to these.

Since you want critics 🙂 :

- I did not find any intuitive way to navigate the way up (is there any besides of the browser's back button?)
- I would prefer a lighter or even darker background color than the one in the main level (like the one in the galleries section)
- have you tried some very gentle texture on the background? I mean something that is very very subtle and barely visible but still there, instead of the 'sterile' one tone now. I mean your pictures are rather raw and grainy, so maybe this would be worth a try (in case you didn't try yet)
- when I make usm on pics with 'frames' I always make a selection just a bit inside of the frame and apply usm only to the inner content, otherways you get usm 'artifacts' on the frame border when the inside is middle grey etc (e.g portrait no. 8).. but this is maybe not important at all
- I miss some 'mission statement' telling a bit about your goals

ok, I tried to be picky but your site looks really good!

regards, Robert

Robert, thanks for both the suggestions and the comments on my photos.

I have made the background darker (same as in the gallery) and I agree, it looks a lot better now. I also tried some texture but I think it looks better with a clean background.
As for navigating, on each page you can click "index" which will take you back to the main page. Only in the gallery this isn't possible yet, but I'm trying to do this as well (hard for a computer novice as simpleviewer is a prefab program and I'm not sure I can change anything in it apart from the basics such as colors, text, pictures, ...).
An "about" sections is probably a good idea, I will add some text to the contact/about page later. It does seem weird though. I'm only nineteen and I've been into photography for less than a year; writing about myself or my "mission" seems so pompous and bordering on arrogance... But I'll try!

Thanks for the help!

 

[ampguy]

Great photos, and the web site looks like it's off to a good start.

 

[methinks]

I used to dabble with SimpleViewer and then found Slideshow Pro which was just what I wanted and comes heartily recommended if you perhaps want something a little cleverer.
I'm sure with a bit of tweaking you could enlarge the flash space and then have each category as one of your stories...

Here's the link:
http://www.slideshowpro.net/

and here's how I used it on (a while ago now, really needs an update! )
http://www.methinksphoto.co.uk
Btw, I used it very minimally, there is a lot more you can do with navigation, sounds etc...

 

[Todd.Hanz]

nice stuff, what focal length on the story pics...looks 28mm-ish?

I like the simple viewer, it's uncluttered looking, can you add text to that program?

Todd

 

[sf]

#1 advice point : learn Flash

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

Yes, .com seems more common than .eu so long as people stay on .com . I'm moving my sites to .eu as there are more names available there and the .eu gives a nice flavour. In my opinion.

 

[dostacos]

G'day RFF,

I'm trying to 'break into' photojournalism, trying to do small assignments here and there and bigger ones in foreign countries if possible, for small newspapers, magazines or NGO's. I know I need a decent website but I can't really afford to hire anyone to build mine so I made an effort to create something myself (I'm horrible with computers though).

It's mostly finished now, only the galleries aren't done yet, but the site itself is done. I would like some comments if possible - do you like the overall look? Is it easy to navigate? Is there anything missing?

The "Single images" categories (Portraits and Assorted) will probably stay like they are now, just pictures with a couple of words: name of person or event, location and year. Of course I will upload a lot more pictures, right now it's 10 in the portrait category and 1 in the assorted category, I think I'm going for a selection of 15-20 in each, but I'll do that in a couple of days.

The "Stories" category should be different, but unlike "Single images" it's not finished yet. Each story (10 to 20 images) will have a separate gallery (for now there's only one, but I will upload more) and the photo's won't be randomly ordered but in such way they tell a story when viewing the complete story. Each photo will be accompagnied by a block of text (5-15 lines) that gives information behind the picture (in a journalistic manner). None of this is done yet, I just uploaded a few pictures in the Romania-story to test and make sure everything's working. They are not in the correct order yet, the title and texts are missing and there will come many more photos in that story.


I tried following the KISS-principle; everything is simple HTML except the simpleviewer-galleries (for which you need macromedia flash) and the lay-out is pretty simple. Only two clicks will take you anywhere on the site. All pages except "contact" have photos on them. No colors - not in the photos and not in the lay-out. I like b&w...

So, the link is

http://www.freewebs.com/jvphototest

(this is just for now, when the site is completely finished I will move it to professional webspace and register a .com URL, probably www.jonasvincken.com)

Would appreciate any hints on what I could improve, or just any comment.

Thanks a lot in advance & best wishes!

remove "assorted" as a folder for your shots, change it to street shots or buildings, or historic landmarks [and add some more shots 😉 ]

Do you plan on only shooting B&W? if not throw in some color.

Having said that, I like the site and the pictures [not all I would normally think of as "portraits".

I think of portraits as more flattering shots, that the subject wanted and paid for. The shots are good [love the Casian Romaina shot] but not what I would expect. I would also suggest getting some women in the portraits section as well.

my comments are regarding content of the photo work the site itself is similar to other professional sites, so I would say ya hit a home run on the technical merits of the site itself😀

 

[dostacos]

As for navigating, on each page you can click "index" which will take you back

how about home instead of index, that is the traditional default to the beginning. I would use index to take us back to the page with the folders of pictures OR back to the list of picture stories.

This would be a two link issue then one that takes the viewer back to the front page and a second that takes us back to the beginning of that section of the site. [you will end up with more folders in the stories [each story being it's own folder] and each group of pictures [portraits, transportation, buildings etc.]

as for the mission statement, why are you setting up the site? to show off your [very good] photos OR to build a business.

oh, and PLEASE take what I say in a positive light, that is how it is meant.

 

[Socke]

I use Wordpress with Menalto Gallery 2, a nice combination of editing tools with a great gallery. You can upload to Gallery2 from Windows XP, Picasa, a java applet, ftp whatever. Pretty convenient compared to other galleries.

It's themeable so you can give it your own style, has a RFF feed, supports google maps for geotagging your articles, and and and.

And a big plus for me, it doesn't need a flash plugin and thus works over slower internetconections like the one I use on weekends.

 

[jonasv]

methinks, thanks for the link. It definitely looks nice.

Socke, sounds nice, I'll have to look into that as well. Might take some time for computer-illiterate me!

nice stuff, what focal length on the story pics...looks 28mm-ish?

I like the simple viewer, it's uncluttered looking, can you add text to that program?

Todd

Thanks. It's a 24mm for most of the shots - a few with 85mm. Carrying nothing but two small primes is so liberating...

I like simpleviewer too for it's smooth and uncluttered appearance. As far as I know you can't add text that pops up over photos, but you can add text outside of the photo. Where it says "Romania 2006. Text to be added", I can (and will) add individual texts for each photo. If you need something more advanced perhaps you could look at the link provided in a post above, SlideShow Pro. Personally, at first sight I seem to prefer the lay-out of SimpleViewer, especially because it seems easier to navigate between photos: there's an overview of the pictures in the gallery (the amount of rows and columns is selectable), you can click different pictures, you can click the next and previous arrows on each picture and you can simply scroll with your mouse.

 

[AusDLK]

Take a look at my site: www.david-keenan.com.

I created it in about three days using Coppermine. I think that site is clean to look at and easy to navigate and have had feedback to that affect. I still want to personalize it further but it's pretty decent as is IMHO.

I have the benefit of being a programmer in my non-photographic life so I was able to make many modification to the provided "gallery vii" theme that I started with.

I started with Simpleviewer engine that your site currently employs but I found it too limited and do not want my viewers to have to install Flash.

Your images are quite strong by the way. If I can be of assistance further let me know.

 

[jonasv]

Dan, thank you very much for the lengthy reply and critique. Don't worry, I'm certainly not taking this in a bad way, on the contrary: I appreciate it very much.

You are right about "index". Originally it said "home", I can't remember why I changed it in the first place, but I'll change it back now. Thanks! I'll think about the other navigation options you suggested. There won't be that many categories though: yes, quite a few stories but in the "single images" category it will stay like it is now; portraits and assorted.

I think you may have missed one important detail, it's a photojournalism website and not a photography website. I don't want categories for buildings, landscape, street, etc. 95% of my photojournalistic work is either a portrait or a "story", a longer documentary. Only a very small amount of pictures are something else: a meeting, a happening, an event, ... Those can go in "assorted". I don't want to showcase anything else (like street photographs, taken just for my own pleasure) and this should be the least important category anyway since it's not really the work I want to do.

I want to keep this site small enough: 15-20 pictures in both the portrait and assorted categories and maybe 3 or 4 stories. Even that is a lot in my opinion, it should not be a gallery with all my photographs but rather something in between a photosite and a portfolio, something which I refer potential clients to.

Thanks for the comments on the portrait photos. They are not meant to be glamour shots or portrait shots in the traditional meaning, with the intention of making the subject look good. Potential clients aren't aspiring models or girls that want some nice pictures of themselves, but rather (small, for now) magazines and newspapers that need photographs to accompagny articles or interviews. I don't think photojournalistic portraits should be flattering, rather interesting and telling something about the person photographed.
The people in the pictures are a middle-east-journalist, two painters, an NGO-leader, a university-professor, an ex-mayor, ... All pictures taken for publications, not for me or the person depicted. The lack of women shots is purely coincidence, I simply haven't had many assignments to photograph women yet.



David, I had seen your site before, it's definitely nice. I think it may be a bi too much for mine since I'm planning on keeping the selection of photographs rather limited, so I don't need that many categories and options like you do. Furthermore I'm pretty computer-illiterate... 🙄 Oh, and I figured very few computers don't have flash installed...? Thanks for the comment on my photos and the offer to help. I'll keep it in mind should I have any questions!




Thanks all, and best regards!

 

[Chaser]

hey JVX,
If you stick with simple viewer you may try to check out http://www.stegmann.dk/mikkel/porta/
it seems to automate some stuff pretty well and makes putting a link back to your main site easy.... I don't like the little graphic it puts with the galleries in the address bar but for now it made doing some of the work a bit easier for me...

www.chaseallgood.com

It is not the best site but it gets the job done...and was easy enough for me to make even with my extremely limited knowledge of web design.

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

Jonas: This isn't for you as you have already made your site and it's working well. This for anybody else trying something similar...

Look into Expressions. It's not software; it's a web-based photo gallery service with a ton of templates which can be customized. Cost is US $3 per month. Customer care / help is wonderful.

 

[IGMeanwell]

You don't neccesarily have to learn flash

if you have the money you can do what Magnum does and use Livebooks

Though it would probably be cheaper to learn flash and use your own software

but those sites tend to be very sleak and really good image protection

 

[petebown]

My own gallery uses a piece of software called Gallery. Its a free download from http://gallery.menalto.com/

Its very similar to Coppermine, but I think Gallery looks cleaner.

I prefer version 1.5 to version 2, both of which are current. Version 2 requires the use of MySQL and not all web servers provide it. Version 1.5 is therefore a lot easier to set up.

The software allows you to upload images in a similar way to the gallery here. It will resize images automatically and can carry out some limited image manipulation.

My own gallery is at http://www.empusa.co.uk/gallery/

I've used this software on a number of commercial web sites and it works very well.

 

[jonasv]

Thanks Chase for the suggestion. I'll definitely look into that. Very nice galleries, by the way!

Thanks Pete as well.

And IGMeanwell thanks for the suggestion but between $1000 and $4000 website costs for a nineteen-year-old student is not really realistic...