Crit Me!

[leoinnyc]

Hi --
I'm a new member and I'm lookin' for some comments on my website and its portfolio. I am open to criticism on an aspect of it -- the retouching or the site itself, especially from other full-time pros working in big city markets. Thanks very much - leo

my website

[byRo]

Hi there, Leo. Welcome to RetouchPRO

I am not a full-time pro working in big city markets, but I hope I'm still allowed to make some observations.

1) I got a bit thrown off by the navigation. After visiting countless sites, one gets used to a certain way of presenting information (so maybe this is just old habits against paradigm shift here).

The "services / skills" option leads to a page with the sort of information that is usually classified as "bio(graphy)";
The actual "services / skill" information appears at the start of the résumé.

2) Roll-overs in retouching sites are, nowadays, ubiquitous (and besides that, they're all over the place ). So a site that uses the "after" on one page and the "before" on another seems rather awkward. The city "extension" retouch is very interesting but again a simple roll-over would have been a more efficient method than what ever it takes (precious) time to download.

Well, besides these little points - Congratulations on some interesting work you've done.

Rô

[leoinnyc]

and the welcome advice. Keep it up!

[skipc]

You do good work, so take this with a grain of salt

1. The site is fast loading on cable modem.
2. The start page is not as exciting as those which follow, nor does it suggest even a glimpse of your extensive capability. Your clientele would obviously be on a high speed connection so why not some flash on the start page. Your links text needs to be bolder, it is small, bland, and needs rollovers throughout.
3.The Services page reads as a Resume. Services—kill the &Skills, they are apparent when you get into the site—are what you have for sale and might read: Design & Production, Packing Premiums & Display, Retouching and Illustration, and Consulting. Those are your Services. As such it would negate the need for the Portfolio and Consulting pages.
4. Services & Skills, and Resume pages should be consolidated, and rewritten with a short, concise first paragraph that indicates exactly how hot you are, followed by just the high points, then the full resume and client list download pdf for the serious. Clients is fine, the text should be bolder.
5. I have the same criticism of the before and afters as offered above.
Also, having the next/back button in the same position on all pages so you don't have to keep mousing up and down would be helpful.

Hope this helps...skip

[leoinnyc]

this is really great advice. Thank you. I am looking into adding a flash component -- it just seem de rigour (sp?) and I agree about te rollovers -- I think I got "too clever" with the animations, when a simple rollover would suffice. Thanks for the kind words.