Please critique my fairly new website:

[R Dinwiddie]

But, be kind!

http://www.dazzleimaging.biz

[kliph]

I am very much a laymen when it comes to restoring old photos, heck, I have never done any. I think you have done a great job with the pictures. I thought that your site was very easy to navigate. I felt like I got a sense of what you are trying to do. My only negative thoughts are I have no way of knowing if I can afford you if I am looking for your type of service. I know you state that each photo is unique and has different challenges, but, I was not crazy about not knowing a rough estimate. Maybe you could post some before and afters with a price list of what extremes would cost?
I wish you the best in your endeavors and congrats on having the courage to put your site up for critique.

[R Dinwiddie]

Kliph,
Thank you for your kind words and insights. I have been hesitant about putting prices on what I do, but I think you are right. I need to at least give some type of approximations. I would like to know if others have struggled with this and invite your input as well.
Rhonda

[aartist]

Nice website! Lot of thought went into it.

I just post my price and give an example of what type of damage that would apply to.
If the customer's photograph is beyond that amount of damage I let them know right away that it falls beyond the given example and then let them know the restore price of their photo. I have had to say, economically their photo is beyond repair unless they are prepared to pay substantially more than the example pricing.

[R Dinwiddie]

Thank you aartist! I would like to know what you and other professionals think my restorations are worth. Please make suggestions in U.S. Dollars. I live/work in Southern California where sales tax is very high and which must be charged on physical products such as a print or image file stored on a CD. I am hoping to do most, if not all, of my business by e-mail so that sales tax is zero (0).

[photogryl]

Rhonda, I am new to this forum, but wanted to add my bon mots to aartist's. Only Doug Nelson knows how picky I am about language and semantics , so please know that I think you have done a very effective and correct job text-wise, especially in describing the sorry state that so many old photos are in these days. You have done some amazing restoration work! This site should become (lo/cho) butter on your bread. Your work reminds me of a clever method I learned from a service bureau staffer who restored a family photo: she cloned or copied and pasted a daughter's eyes to replace the damaged ones of her mother!
I am sure you are familiar with the concept, of which it goes without saying to flop opposite body parts. You retouchers have nothing on medical transplant teams.
Anyway, good show, very well done, and best of luck to you!

[R Dinwiddie]

(Lo/cho) butter on my bread? I don't get it, but thank you so much for the warm wishes.

[R Dinwiddie]

P.S. -- And, may good fortune land on your doorstep as well.

[photogryl]

Speaking in heart-healthy (low cholesterol) terms, that you may live long to do many restorations!

[R Dinwiddie]

I have just completed revamping my website to meet the expectation of seeing some type of price structure. Well, please take a look: http://www.dazzleimaging.net

For the quality of the services that I provide, please tell me if you think I am over- or under-charging. Thanks again to all of you who previously responded with your thoughts.

Cheers! Rhonda

[aartist]

Great website look!

Ramblings, "my perception"

the price structure is more complicated than I would think most customers want to see.
My brain says, lose the .98 when stating "from". Lose the "firm" also.

Some photos appear worse but are easier to restore from our point of view.
Such as your first photo, which is the cheapest but looks really hard to correct.
Make sure your lowest to highest price photo restore examples appear to
warrant the spread in price from the customer's point of view.

[R Dinwiddie]

Believe it or not, the first WAS easiest for me to correct, as are ALL color, exposure and contrast faded photos. Did you click on each photo pair to bring up the details of the problems needing correction? Anyway, they have ALL been placed in a carefully graduated spectrum of difficulty level for my abilities, workflow techniques and proprietary methods.

[R Dinwiddie]

Aartist, you are a good critic, and you offer excellent advice. I am still not totally familiar with navigating RetouchPro, so let me know how I can also see some examples of your work. Do you have a website? What is your specialty?

Sometimes I make things far more complicated than they need to be. The price structure is now more simplified on my site, and, I believe, much easier to understand. Also, please take a look at the explanation of photo restoration pricing on my Services page. Thank you so much for your help. Additional suggestions from you and other members are still welcome and encouraged.

Rhonda
Dazzle Imaging at http://www.dazzleimaging.net

[aartist]

R Dinwiddie, I do restoration also.
Take suggestions with a grain of salt, as you must decide what works best for you.
Sometimes input is helpful and sometimes its not.
Only trying to be helpful and hope you much success!

Your work is superb...

[R Dinwiddie]

Oops! I failed to save/publish the changes that I made to my Services page that I told you about in my last post, and I lost them, so you didn't see them. All is redone and now published.

Aartist, you have been very helpful in spurring me on to make clear communication a top priority on my site. Thank you so much for your kindness. Rhonda

[twopoint0]

R-
I'll leave the retouching critique to others, but the words "Photo Black Magic" are negative and somewhat offensive. The fact that there's a before and after of a woman of color right next to that title just makes it worse.
-S

[R Dinwiddie]

I am very sorry if you find the term offensive, but it is certainly not intended. It is a common term, and if you'll do a Google search you will find just how common it is. It is used on my site only to emphasize the almost miraculous character of the work that I do and has nothing to do with the color of anyone's skin. I love people of any color, period. If that were not true, I would have no customers among "people of color." As it is, you will notice that a very high percentage of my customers are in this group, and I have many testimonials from them praising my work. To me there is just one race, the human race. The tag line will remain unchanged.

[R Dinwiddie]

In addition, if you will use the navigation bar to check out all 5 pages, you will see that the tag line, "Photo Black Magic," is used in the same position on all five, but it is next to photos of people with different skin colors on the different pages including my own on my "About Me" page. Do you really think that some kind of racial epithet was intended, knowing this? If you do, I can only sigh in disbelief. I think that people who are overly sensitive on these kinds of issues need to thoroughly check things out before making these kinds of comments.

[R Dinwiddie]

Not to be "beating a dead horse," but it just so happens that I am in growing business relationship with a professional photographer for whom I will soon be her webmistress. We are good friends and are frequently in contact with each other on a weekly, if not daily, basis offering one another suggestions for improving our businesses. She is a top-notch African-American business woman who knows me well and for whom I have provided numerous photo-editing services. As she also is excellent in English grammar, punctuation and sentence structure, I asked her to review my site for any improvements that she might suggest. That was about a week ago. She has seen it and has offered no suggestions. I showed her your post, and she just laughed hysterically. Need I say more? I won't, unless someone else would like to offer their "two cents" worth.

[twopoint0]

Well, I was going to drop this... If you re-read my post, you'll see the issue was not about the black woman- it was an aside.
I believe you asked for critiques of your website. Perhaps you were just seeking positive reinforcement for your work- of which I still won't comment.
I guess the mention of Black Magic in California is not a big deal, but for most of the country it's a turn off.
You can plaster pentagrams all over your site as far as I'm concerned. I was giving you an honest opinion about an impression I had when I viewed your site.
In any case, I wish you success.

[R Dinwiddie]

Thank you, and I wish you the same. And, even though you did not invite a comment on your retouching, I will offer it. It all looks good to me.

For the rest of the "audience" not in the state of California, please relay your "impressions." Does the "Photo Black Magic" tag line carry a negative impression for you? I will reconsider removing or changing it if there are as many as 20% negative responses among 10 or more. And, please identify what part of the USA or the world you are from. Again, thanks in advance to everyone.

[aartist]

Photo Magic
Where your photo meets it's better half. <-----LOVE THIS

There can be a negative feeling attached to "Black Magic", not because of color but because it's associated with "bad" magic or magic that can harm. I overlooked it and I'm in the Mid-West but some may make another connection as twopoint0 says. I did not.

[DannyRaphael]

Prepare for additional equine whipping!

I replied to your other thread (on work itself) before seeing this one on "site content."

Based on my initial look at the selection of b/a examples, my first take was you specialized in African-American restorations, all exceptionally well done I might add. Not a problem; just an observation.

Then I noticed the "Black Magic" tag. In these days of trying to show more racial and gender awareness / respect than in the past, "Black Magic" raised a red flag with me too. [fwiw: I'm Caucasian]

Although I have zero doubts about your intentions, your colleague laughed it off and the Google research is supportive, none of that will mean squat to a potential customer who could be turned off. If it wuz me I'd consider using something else, like "Photo Magic!" to avoid any possibility of misunderstanding.

My .02.

[R Dinwiddie]

A big thank you to Aartist and Danny for your impressions. If there are any African-American members who would like to contribute, please, by all means do.

[R Dinwiddie]

Well, although I'm still not convinced that anyone would really take offense at the "Photo Black Magic" tag line, rather than take any chances at all, I've decided to replace it with "Where Your Photo Meets Its Better Half" on all of my pages. I would never have caught that impression, but, since several of you have, it's "better to be safe than sorry." Thank you fellow members for great advice. And, I apologize to 2pointO for whipping a horse that wouldn't die.

Rhonda

[twopoint0]

Rhonda- Apology accepted! It stands to your character to accept and to actually act on advice you don't necessarily agree with.
I've taken criticism many times over the years from clients. I would defend my work, but eventually realized that if they're paying the tab, I better follow their direction, even if they were wrong. At the end of the day, it's all about making a living, which I hope you will be successful in, as long as you're not competing with me! .
-Steve

[R Dinwiddie]

Steve, you are a classy guy. I really appreciate your warm wishes for success even though I was so negative toward your thoughts at first. It's marvelous to see all of the cooperation here even knowing that it can result in growing competition. I'm thinking that there are probably very many more practical ways in which we all could cooperate to brighten the emotional and financial bottom lines for all of us at the same. Many heads are better than one, and networking for the benefit of all is a wonderfully stimulating and creative adventure. I love this group, and I am so happy I joined.

Rhonda

Rhonda