Please Take a look at New Website

[cricket1961]

Hello Everyone

My website went live finally last week.
I would greatly appreciate it if when you have some time, that you could check it out and pass on some feedback.

It is a flash site and images are large, just to be forewarned.
One capability that is there but you won't see is that I can upload images
and the photographers can do their markups right there. Big time saver! No more sending jpgs back and forth.

Thanks

Chris

[pavel123]

Great looking cite.
Couple of comments:
- Once you click on "enter", the next page opens in new tab (new window for EI). I personally hate then a page tries to open new tab 'cause I usually have too many open in the first place.
-Navigating through "showcase" and "thumbnail" is is next to impossible

[Frank Lopes]

I visited your website and here are my impressions. These are my personal opinions so don't take this for "gospel" :-)

The site

is based on Flash. It is a turn off for me. It takes forever for the images to show and one can't bookmark internal pages for future reference.
The website uses a "splash screen" that does nothing to enhance the experience of visiting the site.

Once I clicked on the the "ENTER" link, first, it created a pop-up (a no-no in my opinion) and second, made the pop-up fill my entire screen. I find that bad manners and intrusive.

Took me a while to figure out that the "slide" button at the bottom of each image needed to be moved to see the transitions from before to after. I kept on clicking it and nothing would happen. This mechanism has potential but needs to be more obvious so the users know that the "slide" link does not mean a slide show but a "slider" button".

The 2 links in the "links" page don't appear to do anything. Are those just references?

Nice touch on the "Text Size + -" link. It saved me from having to change the video resolution to be able to read the text. I would, however, use a bigger font as the default font.

The content

I thought the content was quite good. You have nice photos and the quality
of the retouching work is very nice. To fully judge the work that you did, as a potential customer, I would rather have the before and after side by side. But that is just my opinion. A couple of images I thought the work had gone a bit to far, but then again it is a matter of opinion. Overall, I thought you did a very good job retouching.

Overall

As a Flash showcase piece, it is a terrific site. As a potential customer, however, I found to be to much work to judge the quality of your work.

Just my 2 cents...

Originally Posted by cricket1961

Hello Everyone
I would greatly appreciate it if when you have some time, that you could check it out and pass on some feedback.

[soleah]

Just a quick view of your site, didn't go around much. But I hope this helps.

- You can ditch the "enter" page altogether. Unless you want to inform your audience first of the hardware/software requirements before proceeding, this page isn't necessary. One less page to click.
- Personally, a prominent website id would be nice for all the pages.
- Some nav buttons are a bit confusing. Like the "slide" button, I don't know what it does.

[cricket1961]

First off, thanks for all the comments about the navigation of the site.
I will see what I can do about making the "slide" a bit more intuitive for seeing the before and after.

Pavel

I am not sure what you mean that navigating through the showcase and thumbnails is next to impossible. Right now there is no interactivity between the tow. They are seperate portals, one for those who wish to click directly on a image and one for those who like to scroll through. Are you saying that they should somehow interact?

Frank

I am not a big lover of flash either. However it is the only way that I could lock people out of taking the images. That I know of anyway. It is also essential for the backend to work.

The splash screen is to negate any computer background from causing a undesireable color effect on the viewing of the images. People are paying a good deal of money per image for my retouching and I don't need to have potential customers seeing a blue or red cast etc from someones background. Basic color management.

The links on the links page did not work for you? Which browser? They worked fine just now when I checked after reading your post. Went right to the books on Amazon.
Thanks for the comments on my retouching. All images go as far as the client wants them to.

Soleah

Thanks for the comments also.

The "slide" is for dragging back and forth to see before and after.

Thanks for all the comments about the website it self everyone. Some good, honest, constructive criticism. Exactly what I was looking for.

Chris

[Frank Lopes]

Did not work on FireFox 1.5 or IE 7

Originally Posted by cricket1961

...The links on the links page did not work for you? Which browser?

[MargaretM]

Hi Cricket - I took a quick look and although your images look great once loaded, everything is too slow. Used to be a 20sec rule on websites - if your viewer does not get what they are looking for in 20 secs they are gone. I think that is even less now. With your intro. and the lack of highly obvious navigation, I think your site is too cumbersome. Skip the intro entirely - just wasting your viewers time. Your website is very arty lookiing but not very functional - you need a good compromise between these two things. If you want viewers to come back, give them what they are looking for quickly.
Others have mentioned the new window opening up after hitting ENTER - the only time this is acceptable is if the link leaves your site; then after closing out, viewers are back at your site. As I said before the images look great - just concentrate on the zoom zoom factor - viewers zooming thru your site.
MargaretM

[cricket1961]

Thanks Margaret

The only people who will be viewing these pretty much will people with t1 or higher speeds. You make a great point for the 20 second rule. On my cable access each image opens in less than 3 sec.

Chris

[goose443]

Originally Posted by cricket1961

I am not a big lover of flash either. However it is the only way that I could lock people out of taking the images. That I know of anyway.

Flash won't stop people from taking the images. All they have to do is printscreen or screen grab. You should be aware of this. If it is a problem for you, you may consider watermarking your work. Just be aware that by using flash you are not reducing your risk of images being stolen.

[cricket1961]

Thanks for the screen grab tip. I'll have to write something in to prevent that also I guess.

It's never easy is it.

Chris

[chrishoggy]

Just so you know, all your images are there to download in full high res. No need to screenshot, as you can just browse the directory and download them. Try putting some restrictions on the directories

[Frank Lopes]

There is nothing you can do to stop someone from taking the images if they decide to get the images...you can make it harder... but not stop them completely...

Having said that, the casual visitor will probably not have the talent or the time to get the images... which means that ultimately your code will do what you are after: makes it harder to get the images.

Originally Posted by cricket1961

Thanks for the screen grab tip. I'll have to write something in to prevent that also I guess.
It's never easy is it.
Chris

[dvaught]

You have some great work. You have great photography to start with so that is a plus, but you capture color and lighting very elegantly. I'd like to see some diversity though unless you only do people. My guess is you are good at more than just skin though.

Having to slide the "history bar" to see the before image gets old. I suggest doing rollovers. I am not a fan of having to navigate to a page then having to navigate again on that page to see the original, then again to see the final and so on. But that is just my .02

[cricket1961]

Thank you Chris and David for your input.
Chris

I have turned off indexing on my site whichwill hinder more, but not eliminate the possibilities. The images are not really sufficient res for print, but you never knowwhat people will accept. Watermarks will be the next step.

David

Navigation about more navigation duly noted. I had hooped to have possible the ability to see things half way also which is not possible with a simple rollover.
Thanks for the comments on the images. And while yes I do so much more than skin, I, in my infinite shortsightedness, have really only kept the skin images for my portfolio. It is what I am really known for.
I did work for a Ad Agency for a while, BrannWilton in Ct, but I have very few of those images left.

Live and learn I guess.

Chris

[chrishoggy]

Check in your hosting control panel for hot linking restrictions. In my Cpanel I can stop hot linking and direct access via url. This will close it down a little more. The other way is to have the images server-side, and have the flash pull them from your home folder, rather than your public_html (or www) folder

[cricket1961]

Thanks for all your input everyone.

One thing that I am curious about is that no one commented on the "zoom" capabilities that are built into each image. Is it that no one tried because of the bandwidth issue?

Thanks again!

Chris

[stopa]

Hello Chris!

First thing I click, it was the enlargement- for me it is most important thing! To see how yours works look really close. It is most important matter for clients. (In my case I send hi-res works only for e-mail).

I don't thing you should be aware of coping, or taking off your images. Even if it will happen, what it changes for you?

It is realty nice to know your works, and to talk to.
Thanks for shearing with us your portfolio.

BDW: I was designing my site for several years, and always was afraid of something, what people will think, what if some-one will not like it... So I know how hard is to make your very own web site, it is so exciting like meeting with client for the first time.
Grate work! Thanks again.

[LESider]

Hi Chris,
First I like to say I really dislike flash websites but yours is the exception to that.
I really like your presentation and the enlargement function is really nice.
I really think that you could do a roll over and it might be more impressive to the client looking to hire you as you see the the before and after quickly and to the point. The slider is more impressive for the retouch student who can slowly look at the transformation and see where D&B was used and liquify ect. I think you might get alot of unwanted bandwidth usage as a result.
Great examples and work.

I look forward to the seminar at the photoexpo and hope their is some time after to meet you.