Brand spanking new website, what do you think!

Visuelle

So I put the final touches to my site ( Visuelle Photographie ) recently and would appreciate some good honest feedback,

Cheers folks,

magicbastarder

two things spring to mind; first, you don't say where you're based, or else i missed that.
second, there's a typo on the 'the photographer' page - 'art and photographer' should read 'art and photography', i assume?

Visuelle

Thanks for having a look, that item is now sorted and your comments are much appreciated.

mathepac

magicbastarder wrote: »

two things spring to mind; first, you don't say where you're based, or else i missed that. ...

http://www.visuellephoto.com/photographer.html

sNarah

I like it, it looks nice, clean and easy to navigate. Interesting subjects, nice design and inviting colours. So well done.

One small questions - why PhotograhpIE? It sort of made my inner spellingnazi start shouting... Agreed, it works with the "Visuelle" French connotation, but then I see your name is Brian so... Don't know why exactly, that's the only thing that slighty puts me off.

Visuelle

sNarah, thanks for the comments, I am Irish alright but I have a little bit of French in me, mystery solved

humberklog

Visuelle wrote: »

sNarah, thanks for the comments, I am Irish alright but I have a little bit of French in me, mystery solved

Well...not really. Why the funny spelling of Photography? It is very off putting (no mystery).

What I completely miss is the point of the web site. Is it to advertise a genre? Which one? Is it advertise a service? Which one?

I'm looking into devising a website myself at the moment so for the last 6 months I have been looking closely at how and why people do have them. And I'm completely lost here. Sorry I really don't mean to be rude, you have good photos...I just don't know why a web-site is needed where a photo sharing site such as pix.ie or flickr would more than suffice.

Surely this is a blog? Or am I completely out of kilter with what I thought I was keeping up with, what with studying other peoples web-sites (for my own endeavours)?

You do ask: "what do you think?". I think it's a blog.

democrates

It looks great. +1 on the question, what do you wish to achieve with the site? Atm it looks like enthusiast networking/free online beauty spot. If you're after paying jobs in photojournalisme or another area then it's effective to make a clear invitation.

That said we may be at a similar lark, I've been learning by doing through investigative/experimental projects. People can be surprised that I'm not necessarily interested in running headlong into that particular genre but if you've got time to test many waters then happy days, I've been very surprised at how different things are in practice compared to what I'd imagined...

TinyExplosions

I agree with Humberklog in that I don't think it's particularly clear what the aim of the website is. At the moment it seems to just be an online portfolio, which could just as easily be done with pix.ie or flickr or smugmug equally as effectively. You have a small piece on the info page about people being able to buy prints, but it's hidden away a bit and gives no hint as to sizes, prices etc, so is lost in the mix. I don't know if you're looking to get any work out of the website either, as there's not really any strong call to action there or anywhere that says what sort of photography you are trying to do.

It looks nice however, but without an obvious purpose it falls a bit flat imo

In terms of being a spelling/grammer nazi, on your info page you have "All image that you see on this web site" -should be 'images', and again on that page you refer to "on this web site" as well as "This Web site" -I'd remove the capital W in the second instance, and would make it 'website', but that's just me and 'web site' is ok.

alexlyons

not sure i like the way the photos are faded when viewing in thumbnails. Yes its a nice touch, but it makes comparing them very difficult, and also, I and I'm sure others, pick a few that catch my eye and look at them, very hard to do if you cant see the normal colour in them! really nice site though

ozymandius

Seeing as you asked, these were all noticed on the front page -

Islands (Skellig island's) doesn't have an apostrophe. Throw in an uppercase I too.

Also, in Diving Malta there is no apostrophe in 'its' - "renowned for it's diving" - it's the exception to the rule ... same for guys in Diving Borneo and 'For more featured sets ...'.

Possibly I'm being picky, but don't know whether this is a personal blog, or for commercial use.

Does look good, very 'fresh'.

Waking-Dreams

I'm looking into devising a website myself at the moment so for the last 6 months I have been looking closely at how and why people do have them. And I'm completely lost here. Sorry I really don't mean to be rude, you have good photos...I just don't know why a web-site is needed where a photo sharing site such as pix.ie or flickr would more than suffice.

Some people do enjoy having their own 'personalised' web presence too, not just the mass-template variety provided by pix / flickr and such. Your question is like asking why would a band have their own website when a myspace account will do?

Anyways, OP, very nice layout and some great shots. Not too keen on the opaque thumbnails, but personal preference.

enda1

Quote at the bottom,

" Photography . My Art My Passion "

This doesn't look right. I don't like the space between the y in photography and the full-stop. Also I'd prefer a comma in between art and my.

In your drop-down list at the top, each heading is capitalised eg. "Gallery Collections", except the last one "Get in touch". Consistency would be better.

I agree with Waking-Dreams on the thumbnails. For me they don't work washed-out because in the end its a photography website and so the photos should be in their best state.

Lastly in terms of scheme - I don't like the combination of mute velvety wallpaper that is the background/surrounding, paired with the pastel wave which is the bottom border. I think this needs more uniformity and consistency in design intent.

This is just being quite picky though, so I'd like to say very well done on getting out there and putting yourself forward. Nice website overall too. Now I will look at the content!

Final comment I just noticed, instead of "Coming soon", try give an actual date to show the site is active and been regularly maintained.

P.S. last comment I swear! The logo at the top, "Viseule Photographie", should link back to the home page.

Visuelle

All your comments are much appreciated and taken on board, it is good to get a bit of criticism that can change the way you look at things.

At the moment you could say the site is just a portfolio in a way and I am working away in the background to continually enhance this by means of offering services and selling prints.

I am taking it at a slow pace so I can try and get it all right, there are so many people out there selling prints and offering services and to try and be professional about it all I feel there is a great need to show that I have put time and effort into building my own personal site other than just only having a flickr or pix account.

Thanks a lot folks.

magicbastarder

Waking-Dreams wrote: »

Some people do enjoy having their own 'personalised' web presence too, not just the mass-template variety provided by pix / flickr and such. Your question is like asking why would a band have their own website when a myspace account will do?

yep, i'd be of the same opinion; it offers you more control than flickr and the like.

humberklog

Visuelle wrote: »

to try and be professional about it all I feel there is a great need to show that I have put time and effort into building my own personal site other than just only having a flickr or pix account.

Ah...that makes a lot of sense. A way of looking at it that I hadn't figured. I'd always considered a web site to be an arriving point rather a "step-up" point.

Nice one.

TinyExplosions

magicbastarder wrote: »

yep, i'd be of the same opinion; it offers you more control than flickr and the like.

This is true, however if you go with something like Smugmug, you can theme it how you like, and if you go for the higher priced options, you can also easily add selling into the mix, thereby having your cake and eating it in terms of a portfolio/shopfront