Porftolio Website (C&C)

Julesie

Hi guys, you may have seen my post a while back saying i'm looking to get more serious about my photography and see if there was potential for making a career out of it.

I've 6 months off work starting in November and my plan is to get as much experience working as a second photographer/assistant or just photographing people for free in this time. To help promote myself I've created a website that I can show prospective photographers/"clients".

I would really appreciate it if you could cast your eye over it and see if you think it is fit for purpose. I know this isn't the web design forum so not expecting some in depth technical analysis. Anyhoo I leave it to you guys to comment and critique how you like! I've a thick skin so be as brutal as you like.

http://www.julescoleman.com

Cheers!

silverside

my initial thoughts

I like the clean-ish design and white colour theme.

I don't like the tilted angles on the home page, I don't like seeing monkeys and babies on the same page

Your pier / beach shots are nice but are too small / zoomed-out to appreciate fully

I would split your portfolio by theme (e.g. studio portraits / sport / animals / landscape) and select carefully your best photos, you have a lot there but there is no real reason for anyone to browse past the first page as it is structured now.

smelltheglove

I like the simplicity of the site however my main problem would be where you say that some of your favourite shots are not technically your greatest. This would appear that you do not have huge confidence and making it in photography requires a bit of an ego I think. You have to believe you are capable and make others believe you are capable of perfection and this statment may cause some doubt, it may not, but I would remove it just in case.

I would also be more inclined to group the pictures as types, all people together, all statues or sites together and so on. I would also look over the colour balance which varies slightly from one to another, not hugely but you need to ensure that the flow goes well. My site is hardly one to go by but we learn from our mistakes and I myself am expecting my ew site any day now. Most of the time your site is the first point of contact between you are your client and you have to ensure it shows the best and only the best.

If I was you I would enlist some friends and family to pose for you, take them to the park or somewhere nice and get various poses as I dont feel you have enough samples with people to be looking to further yourself int hat direction. Its all about trial and error and finding what you are about, I started doing portraits, weddings, sports, events, music and pretty much everything until I found my feet and realised weddings are for me, it takes time but is worth any hiccups you come across and when you reach your 'destination' you end up enjoying every moment of your work.

Look over other photographers websites, not mine yet though;) and you will be able too see what the norm is and what you require to become a real player!

Julesie

Thanks guys for the feedback so far. I'm working on the categorising of the porfolio as I type! I'm guessing my current Monkey/Baby work is not exactly the perfect mix

Rachel, I get what you are saying about the "technically the greatest" comment. I know what I'm trying to convey but you are right in that it may be construed in the wrong way. I'll remove it.

It's a little bit of a chicken and egg scenario with the website as I know my portfolio needs work (in terms or variety and quality) but the website is designed to give me the opportunity to improve that. Luckily I do have a number of events lined up with photographers in the next couple of weeks that should give me more shots to work with (2 weddings/sports awards ceremony/2 portrait sessions).

edit: Oh and heading out the door now to the Notting Hill carnival... should produce some colorful numbers!

Keep the comments coming!

kjt

Straight off the bat, nice looking site, simple, clean, good use of white space. Networking tools clearly displayed down the bottome left - good job!

You've stopped by at a good time as I'm currently growing my portfolio, which means you can hire me for free.

I just don't know about that, it screams unprofessional! Why not change it from free to 'a low price', '50%' or something like that. At least get your expenses paid for.

I've only scanned the comments above but I think your portfolio was touched on, that definitely needs to be updated/worked on. From your services page it looks like you're mostly specialising in people, yet on the front page the very first image is a monkey.... If I was hiring you, I'd be out of there after seeing the first page. Remember you have less than 5seconds to keep a visitor on your site!

OK - the no no's in my opinion
- Revise your business structure & copy - 'At the moment you can hire me for the princely sum of £0. That is zilch, nada, nothing, zero!' you're just devaluing yourself for the get go!

- Work on your portfolio

- Portfolio page, try get a few more smaller images on the left. You could easily get 10-20 images in there along with the larger image like you have now. It just gives your potential customers more choice and it's one less click to go and see more photos. You have to make it as simple as possible

- Services - As already said revise your copy! "What I Offer...My interest lies in photographing people". Your interest? Are you just interested in photography or do you want to make money out of it?

Make sure you know who your target market is! Are you looking for clients or other photographers to shoot with? On the page you mention how you'd like to be a second shooter... If a couple come to you to do their wedding for free and then see you're happy to be a second shooter at weddings, straight away they'll be thinking 'This guys not good enough to be first shooter at my wedding'.

That little guy down the bottom left doesn't go down well.

- Contact page - This page is perfect at first sight. You need to revise how your contact page validates. If I've just filled out a twenty line message and for some reason forgot to put in my email address (it happens) I won't get any errors and will be brough back to a blank form, just wasting the past 5-10minutes it took to mail you. The form requires better validation

The coding is pretty good but you could try validate it a bit better

I hope you haven't taken any of this the wrong way, I'm just trying to give you a bit of help and where you can get better. I've been designing sites for years so that will give you a bit more of an idea where I'm coming from!

With a few simple tweaks this site could be brilliant!
Have a look at my photography site and you might get a few ideas, it's in the middle of a few major updates.

I hope this helped and all the best!!
Kyle

mrboswell

I agree - looks good, nice and clean/simple.

Don't undersell yourself or you will only attract freeloaders and keep the real customers away.

kjt wrote: »

Straight off the bat, nice looking site, simple, clean, good use of white space. Networking tools clearly displayed down the bottome left - good job!


I just don't know about that, it screams unprofessional! Why not change it from free to 'a low price', '50%' or something like that. At least get your expenses paid for.

I've only scanned the comments above but I think your portfolio was touched on, that definitely needs to be updated/worked on. From your services page it looks like you're mostly specialising in people, yet on the front page the very first image is a monkey.... If I was hiring you, I'd be out of there after seeing the first page. Remember you have less than 5seconds to keep a visitor on your site!

OK - the no no's in my opinion
- Revise your business structure & copy - 'At the moment you can hire me for the princely sum of £0. That is zilch, nada, nothing, zero!' you're just devaluing yourself for the get go!

- Work on your portfolio

- Portfolio page, try get a few more smaller images on the left. You could easily get 10-20 images in there along with the larger image like you have now. It just gives your potential customers more choice and it's one less click to go and see more photos. You have to make it as simple as possible

- Services - As already said revise your copy! "What I Offer...My interest lies in photographing people". Your interest? Are you just interested in photography or do you want to make money out of it?

Make sure you know who your target market is! Are you looking for clients or other photographers to shoot with? On the page you mention how you'd like to be a second shooter... If a couple come to you to do their wedding for free and then see you're happy to be a second shooter at weddings, straight away they'll be thinking 'This guys not good enough to be first shooter at my wedding'.

That little guy down the bottom left doesn't go down well.

- Contact page - This page is perfect at first sight. You need to revise how your contact page validates. If I've just filled out a twenty line message and for some reason forgot to put in my email address (it happens) I won't get any errors and will be brough back to a blank form, just wasting the past 5-10minutes it took to mail you. The form requires better validation

The coding is pretty good but you could try validate it a bit better

I hope you haven't taken any of this the wrong way, I'm just trying to give you a bit of help and where you can get better. I've been designing sites for years so that will give you a bit more of an idea where I'm coming from!

With a few simple tweaks this site could be brilliant!
Have a look at my photography site and you might get a few ideas, it's in the middle of a few major updates.

I hope this helped and all the best!!
Kyle

Julesie

Thanks Kyle, I really appreciate the detailed feedback. The updates to the portfolio and contact pages will definitely be incorporated.

I'll be honest, I'm struggling with how to pitch the site with regards to pricing and business model. You know that if I came here with a site that said I'm charging for weddings (even if it was reasonable/cheap) but that I had never actually done one on a professional basis, I would be absolutely flamed.

This definitely isn't my long term business plan as I will obviously have to start charging at some point to make this viable. But my plan is to spend the next couple of months working for free with other photographers or individuals to build a portfolio I am confident about selling my services on.

Sure that might attract the free loading type but I'm not necessarily looking for repeat business from these people. What I need is the shots, word of mouth referrals and repeat custom would definitely be an added bonus.

Being realistic I have a better chance of someone "allowing" me to photograph their event if I am not asking for cash from them. In my head (and I open to correction here), 10 free gigs with good output would be better than 2 paid gigs with good output.

I have considered offering free coverage and then charging for any prints but again I'm concerned that might just put off potential offers, which will mean it takes longer to get the portfolio together that I need.

If a couple come to you to do their wedding for free and then see you're happy to be a second shooter at weddings, straight away they'll be thinking 'This guys not good enough to be first shooter at my wedding'.

Hmmm... I'm not saying you don't have a point here but in fairness if a couple are getting me for free they must realise (or at least I would make it clear to them) that there is a compromise in terms of my experience levels. I do state on the site that "results may vary". I'm not against changing the text though, what would you recommend? That I don't offer my services as a second photographer? That I charge for being a second photographer?

I do get your general point and I will see what I can change but I perhaps also need to be clearer that this version of the site is to fit my needs right at this moment, which is to build a portfolio. Later I will amend it to fit my needs as a professional photographer looking for work.

kjt

How about just using your website as a portfolio then? Offer a few services and say 'contact me for prices, a large discount applies for the first 50 customers'. Then when people get in touch, you can tell them personally that you'll do it for free. I think that's a better idea then shouting it from the rooftops. Word of mouth is a huge, so for example, you do a wedding and the couple are pretty happy with the results, they could be telling their friend a few months down the line "there's a guy I know doing weddings for free". I don't know, maybe I'm wrong with this view?

I'm definitely not saying to charge for being a second shooter at weddings lol. What I meant is don't put it on your website at all. I don't know many photographers that go looking through other photographers websites, seaching for one's that want to be second shooters. If you want to be a second shooter get in contact with wedding togs directly through their sites. Your potential clients don't need to know you want to be a second shooter!

If you've any questions/quibbles feel free to PM me :-)

Hope that's cleared a few bits up!

Kyle

smelltheglove

Julesie wrote: »

I'll be honest, I'm struggling with how to pitch the site with regards to pricing and business model. You know that if I came here with a site that said I'm charging for weddings (even if it was reasonable/cheap) but that I had never actually done one on a professional basis, I would be absolutely flamed.

You dont need to advertise this on your website, when I started out I went to wedding websites and I found threads about couples not having photographers. There were some upcoming weddings with no photographers due to cost so I offered my services for free to two of them who jumped at the chance. I then had a period of explaining to potential clients that I was beginning and therefor I had extremely low rates, each booking I upped the rate. Now after doing plenty of weddings I have reached a target rate which I am happy with. My clients rarelyask how long i have been in business, I meet with them and 100% of the time, based on the portfolio presented to them I am booked there and then. If the question does arise I answer truthfully and explain that my portfolio speaks for itself so it would not matter if I was in business a year or 20 years the end result would be the same.

maddogcollins

great advice there smelltheglove..good to note for any person starting out i think.

PCPhoto

just wondering - are you in Leixlip or London ?
(boards says Leixlip .... Website says London )

Julesie

PCPhoto wrote: »

just wondering - are you in Leixlip or London ?
(boards says Leixlip .... Website says London )

I'm from Leixlip but I moved to London a year ago.

Boards.ie is my Irish web-home so I like to keep my Irish location. Nothing more sinister there

Julesie

smelltheglove wrote: »

You dont need to advertise this on your website .... My clients rarelyask how long i have been in business, I meet with them and 100% of the time, based on the portfolio presented to them I am booked there and then. If the question does arise I answer truthfully and explain that my portfolio speaks for itself so it would not matter if I was in business a year or 20 years the end result would be the same.

Thanks Rachel and Kyle you've both been immensely helpful!

I'll rework the wording. My biggest fear is someone thinking I'm faking it or trying to present myself as having more experience than I do. I think I now get how I can incorporate it into the site without lying but also without shouting from the rooftops that I'm completely green around the gills!

I'm going to spend the rest of the evening re-jigging it. I'll report back with a revised version!

kjt

Julesie wrote: »

My biggest fear is someone thinking I'm faking it or trying to present myself as having more experience than I do.

Don't worry about that, you have to start somewhere and I've told a few white lies on my site... There's a few on boards that do this a lot, with the help of their clients!

silverside

Jules, if you are in London you should connect with the "London Photography Meetups" group on facebook. Its a good social group to go on photowalks with, and the main 2 guys running it (Warren and Christian) are into wedding photography and might be able to give some tips/contacts/take you on as 2nd photographer. I was on a shoot with Christian a few weeks ago and learnt a lot.

Julesie

silverside wrote: »

Jules, if you are in London you should connect with the "London Photography Meetups" group on facebook.

Will do, thanks for the tip!

Ok, updates for tonight are finished as I do have work to go to in the morning. Roll on Nov 1st (Leave of absence start date! )

So, I have....

- Updated the text on the home page, removed bits about being free
- Broken the portfolio into three sections (people/places/other)
- Added more thumbnails to each portfolio page
- Updated the text on the about page, tried to sound a little more confident in my abilities. Also pointed out that while I'll literally photograph anything (monkeys!) in my spare time, professionally its all about the people

Sounding like a Fianna Fail campaign, a lot done, more to do. I still have to...

- Update services page text
- Revise the graphics on the services page, feels a bit lackluster to me at the moment
- Change photos on front page
- Implement better validation on the contact form.

Anything, I've missed? What do you think of the revised copy, thus far?

sineadw

Howerya Jules You've gotten lots of decent photog advice already, but since I'm unable to sleep I'll stick my oar in too.

From a design point of view, I love it. Really really do. Minimalist and clear and not too fussy - just what I like. I would do another few tweaks though, from a design perspective (that's what I do in my 'real' job)...

Your logo - I love the font, but the kerning needs a bit of work to look more professional IMHO. For instance, there's a much bigger gap between the e and the s in Jules and the m and the a in Coleman. I know that doesn't seem to be a big deal, but its the little touches that make a difference. I'd also give a little bit more space on the left for the logo. I'm on 1024x768 at the moment and the logo ( the entire text through the home page at a second glance actually) is squashed right into the left hand corner. A horizontal breathing space of even 20 pixels would make it feel more 'comfortable' to my eye. Same with the vertical spacing with 'photography' under your name. Maybe not 20 px - a little less.. It'd help the typographic heirarchy I think.

I'd do a subtle rollover on the main sections at the top, just to give a little more feedback to the viewer. I'm all into my HCI Perhaps a colour change similar to your active links colour change. I'd make both a little more obvious too - the change doesn't have enough contrast IMHO. Just a mite stronger there?

I'm getting the tiniest bit of both horizontal and vertical scrolling on 1024x768. I'd try to maybe cut the spacing below the logo/navigation section area and the main body down a little, and watch your width.

Your font on 'welcome' on your first page looks too seriffed (is that a word?) compared to the lovely clean lines of the top section. Looking at your css files, your Headers are styled in Georgia (meh..) and your body text is verdana Its making for too much of a pick n mix of fonts to my eye. Fixed in about 20 seconds though I'd be sticking with Verdana or similar.

LOVE the web 2.0 stuff at the bottom!!

Last thing and then I'll shut up, pleeeeeeeeease justify your text. It looks so much better from a design perspective.

ok... /designer

Julesie

Thanks Sinead, hope you got to sleep in the end!

Love the advice, I agree with all of it. I'm all about the aesthetics but you can't beat a real professional's eye looking over it. Sadly, i'm limited to pretty-ing up powerpoint decks and excel sheets in my real job. Badly formatted stuff makes my eyes bleed!

I'm about to Snow White and the Seven Dwarf it off to work now but i'll be spending tonight putting in the changes in the previous post and yours.

Thanks again!

sineadw

Gis a shout if you're stuck with anything, and let us know when you're done

Julesie

sineadw wrote: »

Gis a shout if you're stuck with anything, and let us know when you're done

Ok, after another long slog tonight, i've made some updates.

- Justified text on all pages
- Made top left logo link to home page
- Amended kerning on logo
- Made active page nav link more prominent
- Added left margin space to content and logo
- Rewrote Services copy
- Removed Mobil photographer graphic from services page
- Added polaroid shots to services page
- Amended width to reduce/eliminate horizontal scroll on 1024x768 screens (need to check this one properly in work tomorrow... Damn my better screens!)

Sinead, I played around with removing the Georgia font and nothing looked right. I tried Verdana but it didn't look professional to my eyes. I'm sure Georgia can be improved upon but it seems that images are the only way forward. Anything else you would suggest?

Also didn't have time to implement the hover link image change. Hopefully I'll get to that tomorrow evening. Along with updating the images on the front page.

Getting there....

kjt

Looking far better man!! Just a few little tweaks, goodbye monkeys and your set!!

smelltheglove

Much better but you may make the links within the text more ovious though, its ok for the likes of us that now these can be links but not everyone does so you might want to make them more noticeable with a blue or an underline or something of that sort. I much prefer the portfolio section seperated.

ttcomet

I really like the design of the site, I am a big fan of the minimalist look. The updates you have done to it have made a big improvement.

The only 2 small issues I have relate to the professionalism of the web 2.0 links and the selection of photos you have.

With the photos you say you do wedding, professional head shots events etc. but there are no images to show this. If you have the money/time maybe do a wedding training shoot or a modelling one and get some shots you can use on your site from that day.

Any friends get married recently? Maybe get them to dress up in their outfits again and shoot a few shots, maybe do a trash the dress session with them for free.

Silverside's idea is also very good, maybe join some of the groups like strobist on flickr and go along to their meet ups just so you get shooting time with models.

The web 2.0 issues below are only minor but a lot of employers are now using social media sites to look up potential employees.

With linkedin, your profession comes up as management consulting (your day job I presume?) I think you need to either change it or create a second profile listing your self as a photographer and use that link on your site.

One of your posts on Twitter refers to looking for torrents for "mad men", I don't think it is a good idea to leave it there. Maybe create a "professional" twitter account and use it to just follow other photographers and only tweet about relevant events to your photography.

Also you should be careful that any posts on facebook or any of the other sites reflect your professionalism, I would go so far as to recommend making a profile for your professional self and keep the other for your friends/family.

Best of luck with getting some second shooter experience.

Julesie

Thanks ttcomet, all valid points.

I do have shoots lined up in the very near future to help bolster my portfolio. A wedding on the 19th September being the first.

I've joined the London Camera club so now have access to two professional studios, darkrooms and all of the groups they run. They have great shoot nights a few times a month. So I have myself signed up for those. I've also joined some of the London based groups on meetup.com and actually went on a shoot to the Notting Hill Carnival at the weekend.

As you found out on linkedin, my day job is currently management consultancy, so im trying to fit all this in around a pretty hectic workday. The idea being that I can hit the ground running when I am off full-time from November.

I can see the site evolving as I do get that experience and have better shots to use to promote myself. Right now I'm kinda in limbo, as I'm trying to appear as professional as possible while also trying to get the experience needed to feel like a professional myself. Catch-22.

I probably will set up a new linkedin, as I haven't given up on the ol' consultancy work just yet. With facebook I take your point about professionalism on board but I think I will keep it to just the one account for now. There isn't anything too salacious up there. May create a seperate twitter one and use it as an announcement/advertising platform.

Thanks again for the advice.