Hi everyone,
I just spent about two months, full-time, completely rebuilding my new website from the ground up. I built it using Adobe Muse, a design tool I can highly recommend. You might enjoy checking it out just to see what you can do in Muse without having to master HTML5, CSS3, JQuery, Spry, etc. etc. etc. The url is http://www.glennrandall.com. There are a number of new images on the site (as well as many older ones) but the three you might find most interesting are from my Sunrise from the Summit series. I'll post one here, which I call South Maroon Peak Panorama. Here are the urls of the three new images:
First and foremost, your imagery is fantastic. Asking for feedback about your new site; I assume you understand we are all at different stages of our own website development and we all have different tastes. Personally, I prefer a dark or a darker neutral background color to exploit the color in photography. A long time ago, I made the choice to be known for color. That’s what I want to be famous for, thus….at the time of my website development I went with a black background. Occasionally I ponder a more neutral gray background but in the end I like the drama of a black background.
You went with white, which on my calibrated monitor is bright white. Thus imagery color does not "pop" to “my eye.” Color is there but I don’t get emotional viewing the images. White backgrounds remind me of daylight and I connect more with a more dynamic/neutral light we strive for in the mornings and evenings. Also, you have selected up to 5 different font colors (white, black, grey, maroon, and bright blue) to frame your beautiful images. It seems too busy for my eye. The slide show seems "herky jerky" or a little cluncky for my taste too.
The above is my opinion and I’ll be the first one to admit I could likely be on an island all by myself.
Again your images are stunning.
Posted by Amy Lindsey on April 8, 2013 at 11:45 PM
I'm kinda with Kane on this one. My A.D.D. makes concentrating difficult enough without added distractions like the background B&W image. I'd personally prefer a darker background to the images, as Kane said, for the "pop" factor. The images are beautiful, of course, but I found my eyes wandering around the page after a quick glance at the main image. Perhaps I'm getting old and my eyesight isn't that of a teenager (I'm only in my 30s!), but I find the font under the images to be too small. Maybe bump it up a size? Fantastic images!
Posted by Glenn Randall on April 8, 2013 at 11:48 PM
Hi Kane,
Thanks for your detailed and thoughtful comments. I'll have to consider if I've used too many typeface colors. Anyone agree with Kane on this point? Muse lets you assign a paragraph style to text on the site, so I could make a global change to the color of the font used for a particular type of text and have the change ripple through the entire site.
As for the color of the background: I understand the appeal of black. Certainly images can appear to have a greater dynamic range on black. But black is also a very intrusive color. I used black mats for my image Sunrise Aspen (which is basically a black and orange photo) and it has sold well for years. But I tried black mats on a best-selling floral shot, Columbine Along the Trail to Arapaho Pass, and it seemed way too much. The black was completely out of character with the delicate petals. It seemed, to me at least, to be way too "heavy," almost funereal, for that subject.
As for the slide show: would it help if I increased the transition time between each slide? That again is easy to do. I put captions on the slide show because I wanted potential customers to be able to identify which shot they wanted exactly, instead of just calling me and saying, "I want the one with flowers and mountains." Are the captions an issue, in your view?
Again, thanks for taking the time to comment. If you have any further feedback, I'd be delighted to hear it.
Great imagery, Glenn. Really love the summit series and the perseverance aspect of acquiring those shots!
I agree with Kane about the variety of font colors. Most web designers say to stick with 1-2 fonts and font colors. This decreases the feeling of complexity when viewing a website and allows the viewer's eyes to concentrate on what's important, the images. I also find my eyes continually moving up to the blue band at the top and bottom of each page because of its brightness and eye-catching color, which means its taking my eyes away from the outstanding imagery on the page. Perhaps a light gray would be better to match the faded background b&w image. One other thing bothers me as a viewer and that is the transparency of the scrolling page. I first found it to be an interesting and different aspect. But after viewing multiple pages, found it to be rather annoying. My thought here would be similar to Kane's, and that is to make that scrolling background a darker color. I'm a fan of a warm medium to dark gray, finding black to be, like you said "too funereal", while a warmish gray to be more alive. Hope that helps!
Very useful critiques from my peers here. I agree with most of them, too.
The first thing I noticed was the bright white background as I've not seen one in some time from a photographer.
Do bear in mind that what a photographer's (and/or website designer's) eye perceives may have no relation to what a potential customer may or may not like.
Regarding the slideshow, I think that the transition time is spot on, and I happen to like the captions.
Finally, your South Maroon Peak panorama is simply gorgeous! Just about perfect in every way, and the 'developement' was excellent considering the extreme dynamic range you must have encountered. That must be one helluva nice large print!
Posted by Monika Chace on April 9, 2013 at 10:09 PM
Glenn, I, too, think that your new site, while the images are beautiful, is just too busy for my taste. I understand that you were probably trying to match your logo colors with font colors, but it comes off as forced. The other thing that strikes me is the mix of serf & sans serif fonts. The amount of information on the home page seems like a lot. One possibility to clean it up a bit is to put your contact information only under your 'contact me' button. You give clear instructions on how to work the slideshow (which, BTW, loads quickly on our extremely slow connection at home, so kudos for that!), but I think you could have something about "click on any image for for information" instead of having "more info" under each thumbnail. I hope this is helpful.
Posted by Glenn Randall on April 10, 2013 at 10:36 PM
Many thanks to everyone for all the thoughtful comments. I'll experiment with different images and densities in the browser fill image and in the opacity of the main page fill to make the background image less distracting. I do like having an image back there, rather than some plain black or gray background, which I find boring or oppressive. Monika, thanks for your comments. I intended to use Arial throughout the site. If another typeface crept in, it was a mistake. Could you point out the inconsistent type face? One of my goals for the new site was to make navigation effortless, which is why I have both a link to more information under the thumbnails on the home page, and made the slide show hero images into links that go to the same place. Not everyone reads directions even if the directions are staring them in the face. For the same reason, I wanted my contact information, and a link to join my mailing list, on every page. It drives me nuts when I visit websites where I have to search to figure out how to reach the company, or where all I can get is an email address. I think it adds credibility to a one-person company to have a physical address and phone number prominently displayed everywhere. Thanks again!
Posted by Monika Chace on April 11, 2013 at 9:34 AM
Glenn, compare your font on your logo & top nav bar with the rest.
Posted by Glenn Randall on April 11, 2013 at 4:25 PM
Hi Monika,
You are remarkably observant! Thanks for catching this error. I've changed the font of the header and footer navigation bar as well as my logo (which I had created several years ago and dropped in without thinking about typeface consistency.) Those fonts now match the rest of the site. I also changed the slide show instructions to a tooltip, which cleans up the home page a bit. And I significantly lightened up the browser fill image so it is much less distracting. As a result, the browser fill image now bleeds through the main page less. Maybe I'm too proud of my baby to see its remaining flaws, but I think the site is looking good, thanks in part to all the constructive feedback from everyone on the forum. Thanks!
Posted by Jack Brauer on April 17, 2013 at 11:22 AM
I'm a litte late on this one, but just wanted to say HOLY CRAP what an awesome photo from South Maroon Peak!!!! Such an awesome shot from an awesome effort. Props to you!!!
Posted by Glenn Randall on April 17, 2013 at 11:54 AM
Thanks for the compliments, Jack. They mean a lot coming from such a talented photographer as yourself.
Discussion
12 repliesI just spent about two months, full-time, completely rebuilding my new website from the ground up. I built it using Adobe Muse, a design tool I can highly recommend. You might enjoy checking it out just to see what you can do in Muse without having to master HTML5, CSS3, JQuery, Spry, etc. etc. etc. The url is http://www.glennrandall.com. There are a number of new images on the site (as well as many older ones) but the three you might find most interesting are from my Sunrise from the Summit series. I'll post one here, which I call South Maroon Peak Panorama. Here are the urls of the three new images:
http://www.glennrandall.com/south-maroon-peak-panorama.html
http://www.glennrandall.com/sunrise-from-pyramid-peak.html
http://www.glennrandall.com/milky-way-over-grays-peak-from-torreys-peak.html
Feedback on both the site and the images is of course welcome. Thanks in advance to everyone who takes the time to comment!
Joe Rogers
You went with white, which on my calibrated monitor is bright white. Thus imagery color does not "pop" to “my eye.” Color is there but I don’t get emotional viewing the images. White backgrounds remind me of daylight and I connect more with a more dynamic/neutral light we strive for in the mornings and evenings. Also, you have selected up to 5 different font colors (white, black, grey, maroon, and bright blue) to frame your beautiful images. It seems too busy for my eye. The slide show seems "herky jerky" or a little cluncky for my taste too.
The above is my opinion and I’ll be the first one to admit I could likely be on an island all by myself.
Again your images are stunning.
Thanks for your detailed and thoughtful comments. I'll have to consider if I've used too many typeface colors. Anyone agree with Kane on this point? Muse lets you assign a paragraph style to text on the site, so I could make a global change to the color of the font used for a particular type of text and have the change ripple through the entire site.
As for the color of the background: I understand the appeal of black. Certainly images can appear to have a greater dynamic range on black. But black is also a very intrusive color. I used black mats for my image Sunrise Aspen (which is basically a black and orange photo) and it has sold well for years. But I tried black mats on a best-selling floral shot, Columbine Along the Trail to Arapaho Pass, and it seemed way too much. The black was completely out of character with the delicate petals. It seemed, to me at least, to be way too "heavy," almost funereal, for that subject.
As for the slide show: would it help if I increased the transition time between each slide? That again is easy to do. I put captions on the slide show because I wanted potential customers to be able to identify which shot they wanted exactly, instead of just calling me and saying, "I want the one with flowers and mountains." Are the captions an issue, in your view?
Again, thanks for taking the time to comment. If you have any further feedback, I'd be delighted to hear it.
I agree with Kane about the variety of font colors. Most web designers say to stick with 1-2 fonts and font colors. This decreases the feeling of complexity when viewing a website and allows the viewer's eyes to concentrate on what's important, the images. I also find my eyes continually moving up to the blue band at the top and bottom of each page because of its brightness and eye-catching color, which means its taking my eyes away from the outstanding imagery on the page. Perhaps a light gray would be better to match the faded background b&w image. One other thing bothers me as a viewer and that is the transparency of the scrolling page. I first found it to be an interesting and different aspect. But after viewing multiple pages, found it to be rather annoying. My thought here would be similar to Kane's, and that is to make that scrolling background a darker color. I'm a fan of a warm medium to dark gray, finding black to be, like you said "too funereal", while a warmish gray to be more alive. Hope that helps!
The first thing I noticed was the bright white background as I've not seen one in some time from a photographer.
Do bear in mind that what a photographer's (and/or website designer's) eye perceives may have no relation to what a potential customer may or may not like.
Regarding the slideshow, I think that the transition time is spot on, and I happen to like the captions.
Finally, your South Maroon Peak panorama is simply gorgeous! Just about perfect in every way, and the 'developement' was excellent considering the extreme dynamic range you must have encountered. That must be one helluva nice large print!
You are remarkably observant! Thanks for catching this error. I've changed the font of the header and footer navigation bar as well as my logo (which I had created several years ago and dropped in without thinking about typeface consistency.) Those fonts now match the rest of the site. I also changed the slide show instructions to a tooltip, which cleans up the home page a bit. And I significantly lightened up the browser fill image so it is much less distracting. As a result, the browser fill image now bleeds through the main page less. Maybe I'm too proud of my baby to see its remaining flaws, but I think the site is looking good, thanks in part to all the constructive feedback from everyone on the forum. Thanks!