So about once a year I find myself rebuilding or upgrading my website. I am working through that process now and would love some input.
I host with Smugmug so am stuck with certain "quirks" of their system, but am trying to make it look as unsmugmugized as I can. Does it look smugmugized?
I also changed the logo / header -- too much?
What about navigation? Simple enough? I like simple.
The Proofs area is VERY smugmugized, but I don't know how to fix that -- James? Any smugmuggers?
Thanks for your time, guys, I appreciate your opinions.
Cindi
Edit: Oh yeah, and I still need to put some intelligent sounding blah blah on the bio page.
No offence, and don't take this the wrong way, but i think the whole thing is terrible.
I'd advise to get away from your host and start from scratch if that's possible.
Wow, I didn't think it was that bad. It's not great, maybe not even that good, but I've seen much worse.
I really hate the red and blue faces in the header on the homepage, and you shouldn't put galleries up that are password protected; either let everyone see, or get rid of them.
Your site is not bad at all, fellow Smugmugger here you can take a look at my site //www.lamontphotography.com, now I dont know css at all but from reading alot and asking a bunch of questions I made my site pretty clean and simple. I got rid of some of the smugmug footers. Made my header a little smaller than yours and got rid of the slideshow buttons among some other things. Some of the smugmug features or smugmug look you cant change but you can change quite alot from reading the dgrin.com website.
Thanks for the opinion, Ben. I'm not interested in changing my host right now. It is important to me to have online fulfillment for clients and smugmug is by far the best I've seen so far. Also, I have over 5,000 images uploaded with them right now and I REALLY don't want to migrate all of that. That's why I'm trying to make the most I can with what I have already paid for.
Could you say specifically what bothers you about it? The whole thing is terrible isn't very constructive, perhaps its something I can fix.
Wow, I didn't think it was that bad. It's not great, maybe not even that good, but I've seen much worse.
I really hate the red and blue faces in the header on the homepage, and you shouldn't put galleries up that are password protected; either let everyone see, or get rid of them.
I changed the header. The password protected galleries are for clients - some don't want their images viewable by public.
It's a good site. The only thing I didn't like was the scrolling thumbnails at galleries, as here, for example. Yes, the scrolling stops on hovering, but it's extremely distracting, and drags my eyes away from the main picture I'm viewing. If you like the scrolling and don't want to get rid of it, what about putting the thumbs below the image you're viewing, like a filmstrip?
It's a good site. The only thing I didn't like was the scrolling thumbnails at galleries, as here, for example. Yes, the scrolling stops on hovering, but it's extremely distracting, and drags my eyes away from the main picture I'm viewing. If you like the scrolling and don't want to get rid of it, what about putting the thumbs below the image you're viewing, like a filmstrip?
I don't know how to move that :( I'll check dgrin.
Rex helped me to make many of the changes that bugged me most. The site (imo) looks much more fresh now and I like the navigation. Thanks again, James. :D
I know you have disabled right clicking to stop downloading, but there is a save this photo button that alowed me to download the full 3.6mb photo. Is that something that you realy want?
I know you have disabled right clicking to stop downloading, but their is a save this photo button that alowed me to download the full 3.6mb photo. Is that something that you realy want?
Steve
Well now. Excellent observation! lol Will find the solution to that.
Cindi to fix the Save photo problem you need to go in to customize the certain gallery. Make sure the Yes is selected under the Protected category. Let me know.
Cindi to fix the Save photo problem you need to go in to customize the certain gallery. Make sure the Yes is selected under the Protected category. Let me know.
Rex, I think the Protect refers to the right-click protect, which is marked.
Idnic, I think what you need to do is go into the Customize Gallery and click "Originals - No" and then save the customization. Larges should be set to "yes" as that is the size used for the slideshows, and mediums usually aren't big enough for the slideshows.
Cindi to fix the Save photo problem you need to go in to customize the certain gallery. Make sure the Yes is selected under the Protected category. Let me know.
Rex, I think the Protect refers to the right-click protect, which is marked.
Idnic, I think what you need to do is go into the Customize Gallery and click "Originals - No" and then save the customization. Larges should be set to "yes" as that is the size used for the slideshows, and mediums usually aren't big enough for the slideshows.
