Hi folks - just updated my old website, better scans, new layout etc. I had some difficulty with the FTP upload and the presence of my old site which kept popping up instead of the new one, but with a lot of fiddling (not any kind of expert here!) I hope its fixed and any residual links from the old site should redirect to the new one.
I'd appreciate it if a few of you could have a glance at it and give me some feedback re the following:
Brightness and colour - made on a Mac and colour calibrated LCD monitor, but would appreciate comments from PC users and anyone on a CRT regarding how it looks.
Navigation - is it logical or did you get into any cul-de-sacs?
Download speed - I've tried to keep the files reasonably small to make it work fast - I have broadband but have tried to keep dial-up folks in mind so if anyone with dial-up connection wants to give some specific comments about the speed of appearance that would be really appreciated.
Anything else that strikes you as odd or not right I'd appreciate a heads-up on.
There's no jumping stuff or adverts and no spam nonsense, just pictures.
Thanks folks - really prompt responses and very helpful.
Tom - wasn't sure what to do with this one - I deliberately set it up so it would present a full image for a particular month, then you can navigate back to previous months with the link under the text in the sidebar if you are interested. Seemed 'fairly' logical, but I agree it might be confusing if you click across the top and suddenly an image appears rather than a menu. See if anyone else finds it non-intuitive.
Thanks so far.
How thoughtless of me! UKNP is there now
Posted by Philip Kirkham on December 5, 2006 at 10:55 AM
Hello John
Nice site, works OK for me, including image of the month. If you're ever on Bute, give me a call, I live there now.
Best wishes
Phil
Posted by Mark sellings on December 5, 2006 at 11:39 AM
Hi John,
Lovely images - a really interesting portfolio, especially the no-body deer!
I too found the Image of the month confusing - why not jsut make the link bigger/more obvious - you coul even make the image itself a link - people tend to hover over the image and if its a link will probably click it to see where it goes...
You could even use this for all the images - put a 'Back' link on the image so you can easily just go back and forth between images & menu pages...
Cheers
Mark
Posted by John Chapman on December 5, 2006 at 11:49 AM
Hi John
great site and easy to get around.
Posted by John MacTavish on December 5, 2006 at 12:23 PM
Looks good John.
A bit different from your old site, but just as interesting.
Works well on Safari, firefox and internet explorer here, on a variety of screens from a 17" laptop, 24" lcd, and 21" CRT. I'm colour blind, but all the screens look to be similar, with just variations in brightness being the only differences.
Are you still based in Ft William?
John
Edit:
Maybe a thing to look at would be to open linked sites in a new browser tab or window.
Hello folks - thanks for the bouquets and brickbats! All points taken on board.
Will give some thought to the links to and on the Image of the Month portion. However really pleased to hear it looks ok on various systems and monitors, as I always dread having some Mac-only 'perfect' appearance way out here on the edge of the universe with all the other Mac users and some Linux bods for company whilst waaaay over there near the sun its all so much much brighter for the PC users.....well you know what I mean!
John - no have moved across country to Inverness, and after 40 odd years in the shadow of Ben Nevis am really amazed at the dry weather and lack of midges - astonishing, I can sit outside in the summer without a bag over my head. Mind you it has been suggested that a bag over my head in winter would be a good idea too...hmm.
Really appreciate you feedback people, many thanks.
Michael Sayles - thanks for the honest feedback. The hind's head is one of several images from Alladale that show a part of highland estate management that many people are uncomfortable with, and I wont patronize you with the all the arguments about why its necessary, which I am certain you will have heard many many times before (and I know Pete C has fired the Tooth & Claw leader in here so there will have been opportunity to make your feelings heard). It IS an uncomfortable image, and yes it is a provocative image, but it's certainly a radical project thats going on at Alladale, with several issues that will need careful consideration (if wolves are reintroduced are they classed as zoo animals or as wild animals - will the vet need to be called if they get some injury? etc etc etc). No easy answers, but lots of difficult questions.
Re thumbnails versus full images - I understand your comment. I have mixed feeling but think that showing a whole image but really really small is pointless as people cant actually see anything whereas a portion of the full image is at least (almost) legible and gives a flavour of whats going to be revealed. I've wrestled with this one myself and remain kind-of on the fence but with one leg on the side of showing only a wee bittie.
Thanks folks.
Posted by Graeme Lee on December 5, 2006 at 3:05 PM
Hi John,
I too think the site is really good. Nicely laid out and very easy to navigate. Good colours, fonts etc. Easy on my strained eyes!! I too prefer the whole image when presented as a thumbnail, but see what you're saying. Thumbnails are there to entice viewers to look at the large image and cropped thumbs sometimes look like the image has been poorly composed and I'm sure I've passed over images that haven't grabbed my attention on occasions Just my opinion
oh and a typo on http://www.john.macpherson.btinternet.co.uk/technicalinforma.html
Brian - yes all my own efforts. This one took about 4 days in total - but working pretty solidly. The software - Softpress System's Freeway Pro - is excellent (and from a UK company too). It's very intuitive and with good instructions (excellent manual). You do need to adopt a logical and methodical approach and have a good plan before you start as its easy to box yourself into a corner with designing a site. But the layout and design tools are very good so it does take some of the pain out of it.
Image prep is easy - all the images are output automatically from iView MediaPro's 'Send Email' functions which allows you to fire out images as jpgs in various resolutions and qualities to suit your needs. As the images are already sat in the MediaPro database it's the best way to do it. I just fire out the email, save it to Drafts and then 'Save Images' to the desired folder and thats it done - quick and easy. No need to get involved with Photoshop unless you really want to. Freeway resizes to suit the onscreen dimensions you want, cropping or scaling to suit. And to help in the process you can create a new Catalog Set in MediaPro to hold your images intended for the web so you'll have list of what you've used and can set up 'New Work' or 'Image of the Month' folders etc to keep you organized.
Works fine for me, but there's loads of other approaches to doing it - all of which are equally good.
I found the site informative,easy to navigate and generally very professional looking with an interesting and diverse assortment of images.
Enjoyed browsing through all of your galleries and found the included narrative with each image a real added bonus.
Brightness and colour looks fine on my PC and CRT screen.
Discussion
19 repliesI'd appreciate it if a few of you could have a glance at it and give me some feedback re the following:
Links - anything noticeable thats obviously wayward?
Brightness and colour - made on a Mac and colour calibrated LCD monitor, but would appreciate comments from PC users and anyone on a CRT regarding how it looks.
Navigation - is it logical or did you get into any cul-de-sacs?
Download speed - I've tried to keep the files reasonably small to make it work fast - I have broadband but have tried to keep dial-up folks in mind so if anyone with dial-up connection wants to give some specific comments about the speed of appearance that would be really appreciated.
Anything else that strikes you as odd or not right I'd appreciate a heads-up on.
There's no jumping stuff or adverts and no spam nonsense, just pictures.
Many thanks indeed.
Here:
http://www.john-macpherson-photography.com
Great site, all looks good to me. I was pretty shocked with the Alladale Estate picture of the hind, very very striking indeed.
Cheers
Brian
I must say the photo of the deer's head was a bit grim
My only crit is that I personally don't like it when a thumbnail is only a 'portion' of the whole image. But that's just my own personal taste.
Great work - a site to be proud of.
Michael S
At least our comments will cause of flood of visits to the site, as everyone will want to see what we're on about!
I enjoyed looking at it, well laid out, very quick with many superb images. I use PC and it looks fine to me!
David
Site looks good, the Image of the Month page didn't appear to display correct (no menu) - worth a look.
Also couldn't find the link to UKNP
T
Tom - wasn't sure what to do with this one - I deliberately set it up so it would present a full image for a particular month, then you can navigate back to previous months with the link under the text in the sidebar if you are interested. Seemed 'fairly' logical, but I agree it might be confusing if you click across the top and suddenly an image appears rather than a menu. See if anyone else finds it non-intuitive.
Thanks so far.
How thoughtless of me! UKNP is there now
Nice site, works OK for me, including image of the month. If you're ever on Bute, give me a call, I live there now.
Best wishes
Phil
Lovely images - a really interesting portfolio, especially the no-body deer!
I too found the Image of the month confusing - why not jsut make the link bigger/more obvious - you coul even make the image itself a link - people tend to hover over the image and if its a link will probably click it to see where it goes...
You could even use this for all the images - put a 'Back' link on the image so you can easily just go back and forth between images & menu pages...
Cheers
Mark
great site and easy to get around.
A bit different from your old site, but just as interesting.
Works well on Safari, firefox and internet explorer here, on a variety of screens from a 17" laptop, 24" lcd, and 21" CRT. I'm colour blind, but all the screens look to be similar, with just variations in brightness being the only differences.
Are you still based in Ft William?
John
Edit:
Maybe a thing to look at would be to open linked sites in a new browser tab or window.
Will give some thought to the links to and on the Image of the Month portion. However really pleased to hear it looks ok on various systems and monitors, as I always dread having some Mac-only 'perfect' appearance way out here on the edge of the universe with all the other Mac users and some Linux bods for company whilst waaaay over there near the sun its all so much much brighter for the PC users.....well you know what I mean!
John - no have moved across country to Inverness, and after 40 odd years in the shadow of Ben Nevis am really amazed at the dry weather and lack of midges - astonishing, I can sit outside in the summer without a bag over my head. Mind you it has been suggested that a bag over my head in winter would be a good idea too...hmm.
Really appreciate you feedback people, many thanks.
Re thumbnails versus full images - I understand your comment. I have mixed feeling but think that showing a whole image but really really small is pointless as people cant actually see anything whereas a portion of the full image is at least (almost) legible and gives a flavour of whats going to be revealed. I've wrestled with this one myself and remain kind-of on the fence but with one leg on the side of showing only a wee bittie.
Thanks folks.
I too think the site is really good. Nicely laid out and very easy to navigate. Good colours, fonts etc. Easy on my strained eyes!! I too prefer the whole image when presented as a thumbnail, but see what you're saying. Thumbnails are there to entice viewers to look at the large image and cropped thumbs sometimes look like the image has been poorly composed and I'm sure I've passed over images that haven't grabbed my attention on occasions Just my opinion
oh and a typo on http://www.john.macpherson.btinternet.co.uk/technicalinforma.html
"It is fully isulated and fitted"
Good site though and cracking images
Graeme
Did you design the site yourself by the way ??? im finding it really hard to do mine it drives me mad
Brian
Image prep is easy - all the images are output automatically from iView MediaPro's 'Send Email' functions which allows you to fire out images as jpgs in various resolutions and qualities to suit your needs. As the images are already sat in the MediaPro database it's the best way to do it. I just fire out the email, save it to Drafts and then 'Save Images' to the desired folder and thats it done - quick and easy. No need to get involved with Photoshop unless you really want to. Freeway resizes to suit the onscreen dimensions you want, cropping or scaling to suit. And to help in the process you can create a new Catalog Set in MediaPro to hold your images intended for the web so you'll have list of what you've used and can set up 'New Work' or 'Image of the Month' folders etc to keep you organized.
Works fine for me, but there's loads of other approaches to doing it - all of which are equally good.
Enjoyed browsing through all of your galleries and found the included narrative with each image a real added bonus.
Brightness and colour looks fine on my PC and CRT screen.