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Kombisaurus · Oct 23, 2011, 00:11

Ok ST-ers, it's time for me to overhaul my photography website and I need your opinions.
My current site (digitalkinetics.smugmug.com) is too generic, a bit too "smugmuggy" and contains personal photos as well as paid work. This needs to change, and I'll need a new domain to move to.

So I intend to create a new website purely for paid work. I want it to be very simple, clean, professional, and above all gorgeous.
It only needs to contain a portfolio to showcase my very best work (20-30 images), list my services (with 5-6 examples per service), and provide contact details with a feedback form.
I might add a blog or some static articles later, but that's all. Everything else (galleries for clients, etc) will be hidden from the public. Other photos (such as travel and personal photos, and the stuff I post here) will be hosted elsewhere.

Here are links to a couple of Joomla templates for photography websites I'm considering:

1. http://www.bestofjoomla.com/index2.php?option=com_bestoftemplate&task=demo&no_html=1&id=4281

2. http://livedemo00.template-help.com/joomla_34802/

I think the second example definately looks better with the photos that are there, but remember in either case it will be my photos there, not the sample ones.
Both templates have a number of practical considerations to take into account which will affect the choice of photos I can use for the background, but in both cases I think I can make it work.

So what are your opinions?

Also if anyone has any other template/skin recommendations (Joomla or otherwise) then I'd love to hear about them. I'd prefer to stick to one of the more popular free windows-based content management systems such as Joomla, DotNetNuke, or Tandem Server. I've used DNN before and while it's okay, it's a bit slow and clunky for my liking. Having said that, if there's a compelling reason to switch to a Linux based CMS such as Drupal or Mambo then that's not out of the question.

Thanks. Smile

***shuttertalk*** · Oct 23, 2011, 05:25

Hey Adrian,

I haven't played with Joomla in a while but I used it to manage my previous church's website, and it was quite a pain and clunky to use. Things that should be straightforward took a few hoops to jump through - for example inserting images - you had to upload the image into asset management first, then add it to your article. Also stuff like dynamic content blocks on your home page took a bit of head scratching and manipulating both in the back end and tinkering with themes before they showed up. I'm sure they've made improvements since then though.

I highly recommend wordpress though - it's simple to set up and use, superbly designed, infinitely extensible through the community plugins, and quite straightforward to modify themes. Although people usually associate wordpress with blog-type sites, there are plenty of themes that cater towards portfolio and photo type sites, and it's flexible enough to be customised and used in different ways.

Here's a sample of what I'm talking about:
http://www.tripwiremagazine.com/2011/07/...hemes.html

Anyway, hope that helps. Let me know too, if I can help in any way...

EnglishBob · Oct 23, 2011, 08:59

Not on topic for which of the two, but I have had problems with Joomla in the past as well. And, I also use wordpress to run three different websites.

Of the two you posted links too, I can only see the second, the first 404's.

Toad · Oct 23, 2011, 10:45

Kombi:

I think that templates are definitely the way to go. I don't really have an opinion on which one would be better because they look so different with somebody else's photos in them that its hard to get a grasp on how they will appear with yours.

I would steer away from including too many photos on your site - I think 5 to 6 per service is too many. 1 to 3 examples is enough to set the tone. My personal philosophy is that a website is a "brochure" and not a "catalog". You want to have enough stuff to peak the potential buyer's interest without swamping him/her. I also personally like to have a website that is static in nature for the most part. When i have a customer (or I want to show a group of photos to some friends), I place them in a separate password protected folder not accessible from the publicly accesible web pages.

Your experience may vary - but I say "keep it simple". Web surfers have short attention spans - less is more. Check out my website to see what I mean by a "brochure". There isn't much content but it leaves an impression of depth and breadth (without actually providing any).

Just my $.02

Kombisaurus · Oct 23, 2011, 11:08

Thanks for the feedback guys. All excellent advice. Exactly what I was hoping for.

Jules, I had dismissed WordPress as being a bit too restrictive and "dumbed down" to use as a CMS, but I've since looked deeper into it (and Joomla) and I think Wordpress will do everything I need, and do it in a more user-friendly way than Joomla as you mentioned.
Craig's vote against Joomla just seems to back this up.

I haven't yet had any experience with Joomla, but it seemed like a decent all-purpose kind of CMS with a huge user base (so it must be doing something right, right?). I'm not looking for a beast I need to get my hands too dirty with, so Drupal doesn't really interest me despite a number of great reviews. I've done a few sites with DotNetNuke before (even developed a couple of my own DNN Modules), but I find it quite clunky and cumbersome.

So WordPress is now on top of the list.

Rob, I'm thinking along the same lines as you regarding keeping the site not much more than a brochure and point of contact and hiding all the client-based or frequently-updated galleries. I also agree with the "less is more" principle, but it sounds like your idea of "less" is even less than mine. Tongue

I'll build the site and then see how many images work well on it.

I have to keep reminding myself that the purpose of this site is not to display my photography, it is to make people want to pick up the phone and book me! As such, the site (and me) needs branding and a consistent style to differentiate it from the crowd, and this is every bit as important as the photos themselves.

Here are a couple of WordPress templates I'm now considering:

http://studiozen.imaginemthemes.com/wp/

http://demo.udfrance.com/STUDIO8/dark/

I really like the headings in the Studio8 template, and this could work nicely to showcase different services I offer. The only problem being that services such as "Corporate Events" don't really lend themselves to powerful images the way "Weddings" or "Sports" or "Portraits" can (although I just had an excellent idea to fix that...).

Kombisaurus · Oct 23, 2011, 11:43

hmm.. I might have found a winner! Big Grin

http://themes.themegoods.com/dk_wp/

Kombisaurus · Oct 23, 2011, 13:39

Incidently Jules, I might have a favour to ask you regarding ShutterTalk if you don't mind...
Currently my SmugMug galleries all run through digitalkinetics.smugmug.com, but this will change once I get my new site up and running as I want to reuse digitalkinetics.smugmug.com for another purpose. When I do this it will break all the links to photos I've posted here.

Is it easy for you to run a global search/replace on the forum database to point all my image links to my new site in one go? Don't do it if it's going to be a pain, but it's the kind of function that might be tucked away in the site admin for shuttertalk and only take 10 seconds.
In fact here's a post that describes performing the exact function on a PunBB database using a simple SQL statement (note the post is dated 2005 so it may no longer be relevent).
http://punbb.informer.com/forums/topic/9...e-somehow/

If it is a really simple function and you don't mind doing it, then I'd really appreciate it thanks. Big Grin

But only if it's not a hassle.

You would need to do a search on the following text:
http://www.digitalkinetics.org
and replace it with:
http://digitalkinetics.smugmug.com

That should point all links directly to the galleries on Smugmug's own site which will be fine for all past photos I've posted.

Thanks Big Grin

***shuttertalk*** · Oct 23, 2011, 17:14

Looks like you've made a great decision. Drupal was mentioned somewhere, so just my 2c - it's powerful, but it's a beast to customise and maintain in the backend. The front page / articles section of ST runs on Drupal and I wish I had gone wordpress from the beginning. You're right in terms of Drupal and Joomla - they're catering towards complex sites with a lot of flexibility for customisation but you really need to put a lot of effort into setting it up. Wordpress works very well out of the box, and is very user friendly and simple to maintain as well, but still very extensible due to the plethora of community plugins and themes - and is perfect for small sites and one man teams.

That theme you found is just sexy, Adrian - love it!

Shouldn't be a problem with the search and replace - I'll look into it when I get home from work tonight.

Toad · Oct 24, 2011, 00:36

Kombisaurus Wrote:hmm.. I might have found a winner!

http://themes.themegoods.com/dk_wp/

Looks very nice. Large photos and subtle links.

One question: Are the animations done with Flash or SIlverlight? If so, the website won't be viewable on iPhones/iPads.

Pavel · Oct 24, 2011, 06:21

Adrian - I spent some time on your current website - there are some superb photos there. I liked the fact that they were often a bit out of the "ordinary competent" range swith well worn out theme and that there were some fresh themes. Technically, the photos were first class. Yest, the site is definitely reeking of SmuMug, but is that really a bad thing?

The first link (best of...) gave me an error 404

The second link i did not find so very different from SmugMug and I wonder whether making large changes to get such a similar look is really worth the cost/effort.

In general, I tend to believe that it is the photo that really attract/hold attention and sell, provided the site is not distracting or too clanky to use. Smugmug interface is not the best, I think, but it offers unobtrusive viewing, giving viewer the the opportunity to focus attention on your art.

matthew · Oct 24, 2011, 06:41

Adrian, I don't have any expertise to add, but I do really like that theme. And following Robert's point, I tried it on the iPhone that I just happened to have lying around, and it loaded fine.

Kombisaurus · Nov 9, 2011, 23:17

Thanks again people for all your input.
Toad, no flash or silverlight in sight. As Matthew confirmed, it works fine on iPhone, and I can confirm it works and looks great on an iPad as well. Thanks also Pavel for taking the time to take a look around my old site and those suggestions.

So I've been working hard on my new site over the last fortnight and I think (hope) it's ready for a bit of a critique... Big Grin

I'm interested in and would really appreciate hearing any opinions, comments, and suggestions regarding the site design, content, performance, strategy, blog, and even the decision on such things as the services I'm offering. All constructive criticism is well received.

The address is: BroughtonPhoto.com.au

I've moved it from a US to an Australian-based server to maximize performance for local visitors (who are my potential clients). This made quite an improvement to performance here, but I hope it hasn't degraded performance too much for people in other countries.

So do your worst. And thanks in advance!

***shuttertalk*** · Nov 10, 2011, 05:51

Looks fantastic Adrian... the full screen photos really make the site pop! Plus, the photos are fantastic too! Big Grin

Toad · Nov 10, 2011, 09:19

Looks fantastic, kombi. Really first class. I particularly like the home page slideshow - the large scale and tight crops really pull you into the site.

Kombisaurus · Nov 10, 2011, 10:50

Thanks guys.

I'm mostly really happy with it, althougth there are some minor things I'd like to improve.
I don't like the way the thumbnails scroll automatically for the main slideshow, I'd prefer some mechanism you need to click to get them to scroll (scroll-bar or up/down buttons).
And strangely none of the galleries display captions or descriptions for any of the photos they display.
Both these things are limitations of the theme I'm using, but I actually really like most of the other elements of the theme so I don't want to change.
I think I might have to go digging through the source files and turn it into a bit of a frankenstein theme.

Putting yourself in the role of a potential client, is there anything about the site that you would be disappointed with? Anything you think is missing? Anything that stands out and particularly impressed you? Does it differentiate me from other photographers? Is it memorable? What sort of client do you think it's likely to attract?

***shuttertalk*** · Nov 10, 2011, 17:41

Kombisaurus · Nov 11, 2011, 04:49

Oh wow Jules, thanks so much!
Sorry for the hassle. It sounds like you did a lot more than just run a simple search/replace script. You shouldn't have gone to the trouble of checking all the links, etc.. that's my job!
But I really do appreciate that you did. I'll go and tidy up a couple of those loose ends.
Thanks again! I owe you a beer or three.

And... wow.. looking at those links. There's a couple of blasts from the past in there! Big Grin

smarti77 · Nov 13, 2011, 00:22

Adrian. I haven't been to shuttertalk for quite a while, but I wanted to let you know that your new site looks amazing.
From a client's point of view I think you've nailed it. The opening screen with your choice of the first featured image is very professional and appealing.
I love the full screen image setup. Hitting F11 works very well too.

Initially I found that the scroll bar of images took away from some of the images slightly. For example it hides some of the faces in the 5th image. I eventually worked out that hovering the mouse over the firefox toolbar and tabs hides the scroll bar of images nicely.

All of the tabs, About, Service, Blog and Contact all look great and shows your wide range of work very well.
Overall it stands out very well from other photog's sites.. though using a template may encourage others to copy it... (which is very tempting).
Great work.

Kombisaurus · Nov 13, 2011, 11:58

Hey Smarti, it's great to hear from you, and looking at your work on RedBubble, clearly you've been busy since you were last here. Your photography is looking great!

That's really kind of you to take the time to look critically at my site. Although I still want to fine-tune a couple of things, I'm pretty happy that there are no gaping holes that will instantly turn people away. But none of it means a thing unless I can actually convert it into an increase in business. Next thing; marketing.

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