Hey Oppo, I Need Your Feedback

"CounterTorqueSteer" (countertorquesteer) 04/03/2015 at 10:34 • Filed to: Photography, Portfolio

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I am putting together a portfolio. As of now it is pretty rough, but I'd love some constructive feedback. Also, let me know how the site works on your computer/mobile device. Thanks! !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Party-vi > CounterTorqueSteer 04/03/2015 at 10:40

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I'm digging your car photos. Make sure you have permission to host those RGIII and WHEW photos on your site for promotional purposes.

Funktheduck > CounterTorqueSteer 04/03/2015 at 10:46

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Everything worked on mobile for me. You need a home page of some sort.

CounterTorqueSteer > Party-vi 04/03/2015 at 10:46

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Fortunately, I have all of the rights to the photos. The RGIII photos were taken at an event not associated with the Redskins, and I fully own the rights to the WHEW photos.

505Turbeaux > CounterTorqueSteer 04/03/2015 at 10:47

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I wouldn't lead with your concert photos unless you plan on that being your focus. Or unless you have some color ones you would feature in there. At first blush it isnt gripping with the BW on black background. Good pics though.

Also on my chromebook the focus floats around, so I would run some responsive html in there so it scales. this is a friend of mine's site, and see how it responds to tablet or desktop http://knipser.com/

CounterTorqueSteer > Funktheduck 04/03/2015 at 10:47

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thanks!

RWS Motorsport > CounterTorqueSteer 04/03/2015 at 11:05

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I like it, very nice, simple and clean. (really nice pictures too :) ) Only possible suggestion, could you add like a little preview for the slider, or maybe some smaller pictures of a catalog. With the number of pictures on it now, the current system works really well, but as your catalog grows it might become abit less easy to navigate.

CounterTorqueSteer > RWS Motorsport 04/03/2015 at 11:08

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Thank you so much :) That's a great suggestion.

JGrabowMSt > CounterTorqueSteer 04/03/2015 at 11:18

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The concert photos look staged, so I'm not sure I would lead with them unless you have actual concert photos, and I'd try to include something with a crowd shot. The existing ones just look like stock photos. One of my ex-girlfriend's fathers was a stock photographer, and from how long I talked to them and the whole 9 yards, like others have said, use a different cover page. You can include thumbnails, but try to avoid big photos.

From this portfolio, what are you looking to use it for? Are you selling services, are you just looking to showcase your talents, are you presenting it for a job interview? I didn't really check, but did you resize everything to be the same size, or are you just using a constraining box to auto-resize the photos to fit? I went to college for digital media, and having a slow, crappy internet connection at home, I would suggest picking a resolution, and making sure anything you upload will match that resolution. Use smaller file formats and also link across different platforms using the same media, for example upload the same picture to Instagram, your website as well as flickr. You can even hot link between flickr and another webpage to reduce what gets hosted where (that and Flickr's storage limit is insane, so take advantage of it).

For the website specifically though, I would probably look to use a white background instead of black, or a lighter grey, it's just a little easier on the eyes. The font is good, but I'd probably make it just a little bigger and easier to read at a glance. The extra time someone spends navigating or trying to read things can be a big turn off. Horizontal scrolling is a good thing though. Pretty ubiquitous across tablets, phones and computers at this point, very intuitive for touch screens as well. I would just aim for slightly smaller pictures, larger text, and make sure you pick a resolution to use (1280x720 is a good resolution to start with, just add black bars where the images may be cropped). When you pick a resolution to use now, it's much easier to keep space under control, but it also means less data, faster loading and above all else, it ensures that the images will always be able to display in a browser window without extra scrolling. An expand feature or just a note somewhere about larger resolutions available upon request is the easiest way to make sure you don't have to fumble around with nitpicky people. I would add a few more photos to each album though if you can. 15-20 would be a good number to start, and try to keep the variety up when you can. Even if you don't like a photo, someone else might love it.

Also, what is your backup method for the photos, and if you're offering services, how do you deliver them? Do you provide an FTP link, a flash drive, a private photo album? Do you provide raw copies as well? Most importantly, what is your personal backup method? Do you use Carbonite, Amazon photo backup, a backup hard drive at home? Having an on-hand as well as off-site backup to everything is THE way to do it. Disaster recovery is only as hard as you let it be. This is far ahead in the future, but consider it now. Backing up is cheap, data recovery is not.

CounterTorqueSteer > Funktheduck 04/03/2015 at 14:47

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there we go. I worked on it a bit

CounterTorqueSteer > JGrabowMSt 04/03/2015 at 14:48

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I updated it a bit based on your recommendations.

Funktheduck > CounterTorqueSteer 04/03/2015 at 14:51

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Better but now the drop down menu just has the homepage on it. May be beneficial to have a title for each link. I understand what you're going for but when you make a website you have to assume its a drunk 90 year old using it. The contact picture is clever but may be a little obtuse for some. Also, since it's your portfolio you probably don't want to use a stock image.

Still on mobile