I finally have a web page up. Sure would appreciate some honest but friendly critiques.

http://www.davesdfr.com

Straight forward and easy to navigate, Dave. When I saw your header ("Digital Film Recovery") my first thought was that you recovered files from bad memory cards. I hope you will add more before and after samples as you build your portfolio.

Thanks for that Swampy. I have more to add as soon as I can get them ready, but at this point I really wanted to get the site live. Also, there are some before and after images in the 3 links on the main page. I will eventually move most of that to the Gallery, but I already had that as I did it for a demo CD. :grin:

Thoughts from a non-pro (and then some!):
Good clean design, not too artsy, navigation buttons stand out (a little too much for my taste, but hey . . .) nicely.

Like it did Swampy,"Digital Film Recovery" gave me pause. Lots of interpretations for that phrase that don't match what you're doing, which is photo preservation by digital means. Don't ask me how to get that into a catchy company name, though:o:.

I had a couple of carps. I'd limit the front page to just the top part, with links to the subsequent exposition. Don't know how representative I am, but to me a site that requires scrolling down repeatedly to see all of the first page seems amateurish. And I'm with Swampy about the gallery. Needs before/after shots. Again, I'm maybe not representative, but I get really annoyed at having to download pdfs to see things. I hope those are just a temporary expedience.

All in all, the site is well organized. It seems to have all the information a prospective customer would like to have, in an easily accessible form (except for those dratted pdfs:) ).

Carole

The photos on this page all came from 35mm slides that had been in storage. The slides contain a lot a dust and scratches, and had lots of fading. The photos were restored, removing the dust and scratches, and color correction, and tone adjustements were made to bring them back close to there original condition.

Try:

These photos are from 35mm slides that were faded, scratched and covered in dust after years in storage. We removed the dust and scratches and adjusted the color and tone to bring them back close to their original condition.

Margaret

Friendly: the blue buttons are hard for me to read. The inner shadow effect makes the text look blurry. They are also blocky and clunky.
A lot of your text is large and a lot is bolded. You really don't see that much anymore. The site has a "1995" look to it. Sorry, but that was my immediate take on the site. Early web design had a lot of large buttons, bevels, larger text, bolded text.
Sites related to photography ought to be sleek and "design-ery" in my friendly opinion.

Thank Lurch, and winwintoo. Excellent feedback. I really appreciate the suggestions. The statement on the Gallery page is fixed, and it looks like I really need to hop on getting rid of the PDFs. Yes, that was only temporary. I worked on the site all weekend, and wanted to have it up before going back to work tomorow, and I already had the PDFs. Anyway, this is the kind of constructive feedback that I really value, so I really thank you for taking the time to take a look.

Building a website is not for the faint-hearted. I have the technical skills (most of them anyway) to get a website up and running, but i lack the "flair" for web design. I admire anyone who just goes for it.

Margaret

Ok folks, I appreciate your comments, and I got the hint on the buttons. What do you think of something like this? :grin:

Also, the PDFs are gone, and the Gallery has been added to.

The button/tabs look much better. Now if you desaturated the blue some . . .

Hi Dave

i visited your website and would like to give my comment the website is pretty good and clear. Your headline Dave Digital Film recovery at first glance gave me the impression that your services are only for the new era of digital photos it is not until one read further down that one noticed you do offer services for restoring old photos etc, i am sure you know what your services are but it is not quiet clear for someone looking in if you know what i mean you just need to sort out the section of your services and put them in a clearer order, the photos seems to be in all direction. but all in all your website is good and clear. i found as a newbie having to design a website and then offering a service is quiet hard as i have just packed up my city office job and started fresh with photo restoring, but i am getting there you would too and as well always be proud of what you've achieved.

regards

sergio

http://photo-makeover.biz

Dave,

Just revisited your web site. It's getting better all the time. One more small suggestion - since your gallery pages are long and must be scrolled down to see the whole set of images, it would be really nice to have page navigation links at the bottom as well as at the top.

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Thanks Sergio, and Lurch. I am considering changing the name to Dave's Digital Foto Restoration. Actually my focus is more about scanning, restoring, and preserving old photo's digitally, since it is a non-destructive method. I am also working on a redesign of the site that might be more in line with the work, but I am still trying to lay it out. Although I am leaning towards making it a bit more artistic looking, I don't want to make it so artistic that I put off my target audience of which many are senior citizens, and as such still not completely comfortable with the web.

Thanks for your comments. It really helps me to sort things out. :masked: