[Pavel]

Frankly, I do not know what I am doing. Right now, I am trying to populate the site with photos, offer work for sale, get some rudimentary security in place etc. I am not yet after pretty. I am struggling with functional. Please comment on photos there and provide suggestions here (be blunt please) about improving the site. Thanks

Pavel

P.S. The link is below.

[matthew]

First things:

Under the thumbnail for each gallery, click on the "settings" link. In that next page, under "Security & Privacy", click on "no" for external links, "yes" for protected, and limit the size to Large or eXtra Large.



Next, come up with a watermark. You should have a hidden gallery somewhere (click "unlisted") and you can use it for odds and ends like the graphics that you need for watermark. (You probably already have this, but naturally I can't tell.) Create something in photoshop that has the information you want – name and email, for example - and save it as a .PNG file with a transparent background. (You'll probably need to experiment with the size of the lettering and the size of the blank transparent canvas to get one you like, so expect to make many of these.) Select one of these in that gallery, click on 'tools', and select 'make into watermark'. (It's a little buried.) Then you get to change where it's placed and its opacity.

And you can change your watermark and apply the new one to an entire gallery at any time, and as often as you want to. So there's no need to get it perfect the first time.

You can also clone settings from one gallery to the other – I've never actually bothered, but I heard it's possible – so if you set up one, the rest are easy.

But: it looks good. I've only done a quick inspection so far, but I like what I see.

[Pavel]

Thanks Matthew. Some of these things are on my list - but I did not know about the external links and it is easy to fix. Creating a watermark is a challenge, but i hope i can do it. I am also working on the title. Right now, the header (Muller Art Photography) is too big. I just placed it in, but I have to rework that. Clearly the site is still a mess. Not all my prices are set. What do you think of those?

P

[matthew]

Not all my prices are set. What do you think of those?

I can't even begin to have informed opinions on that. My only suggestion would be to look at the prices of the galleries that are selling your work, and take your cues from them. I wouldn't think that undercutting them would be a good idea, at least not by much – but being higher might be tough for people to buy without seeing them.

As I think more about it, I could see a good argument for pricing work sold on-line for less than the gallery prices, as those ones are prints that you've made (and approved) yourself instead of being automatic reprints. But I might still make sure that they are different sizes from what the gallery has.

[Pavel]

no other comments?

P

[NT73]

On some shots (e.g. castle) I get a lot of info, and others nothing (spiral steps/thingy). If I was a buyer I would want to know what the photo was of, or representing.
Sizes are OK, but getting to them is strange. (the pop out windows).
I don't like those, as just as you start to read, they pop back again. :|

[matthew]

It did occur to me last night that there's one big reason why your on-line prices should be lower than your gallery prices – matting.

(I'm not sure how I missed that the first time around…)

It's interesting that some photos show a link to see the photo in its original gallery – and those same photos are having a hard time appearing in the main viewer window. It looks like there are still some quirks in Smugmug's file handling.

[Pavel]

NT, I am slowly creating the text for each photo I post and I also provide a printed version of that, of the artist statement and bio with each photo I sell through galleries. I hope to have a story for each soon. I am still not a master of smugmug and so I do not know what to do about the popups, but i will look into that. I will also check about the effect of displaying by reference - I want to have just one copy of a photo uploaded and to share that in more than one gallery if needed.

Matthew, I did implement the watermark - took me for ever, as I feared - I know nothing of these things. As to the external linking - I feel that this may draw people to my gallery, so I am not yet blocking it. The cost is something I will revisit and talk to you more about - also check prevailing prices. For now, I just wanted to have something in place and so I did things by the seat of my pants. I will talk to you more about prices and any feedback (up, down) is welcome.

Thank you guys.

[Toad]

I'll be interested in how this works out. I do a few art shows of my photos, but I don't have any experience with online sales.

One reason that online sales should be less expensive than galleries, is that a gallery will charge you somewhere between 30% and 60% of the gross for hosting your show.

[Pavel]

Robert, I frankly do not expect that I will sell much online. However, I felt that I need a site suited for displaying my photos in good size and well, yet at the same time providing the security. If I do sell something online, it will be fine. However I suspect that I will not be able to compete on price, quality or choice with the likes of Getty, istockphoto etc.

[Toad]

Great work in your galleries, Pavel. I'm surprised how few of these that I have seen before.

[Zig]

My, that's some special work you have there Pavel: outstanding, impeccably-crafted and I'm sure the result of a huge amount of work.
I admit I find the text a little bothersome with its popping-up habit...and the lack of formatting/indenting of it is rather visually offputting: which seems to be a part of the scripting..a shame, as you clearly convey that you are an informative photographer who is keen to communicate with his audience.
A bigger shame than this is that a readiness to communicate well(which you exemplify), is often "pearls before swine" in terms of a generation that looks without seeing, hears without listening and has the attention-span of a retarded goldfish.
My advice would be (unbidden!..forgive me!): cut your losses, reduce your workload and regain motivation by reducing the amount of text...or have the option to redirect the more intelligent sector of your viewership to somewhere else that is more about you. At present, it may be that you're wishing them to engage with you as well as your images. The images more than stand on their own in terms of impact and excellence.

[Pavel]

@Robert, it has been my long-term intention to post more here. However Flickr has a number of specialized learning resources and so I tended to post there. My galleries on Flickr are extensive but basically intended for learning. Posting here requires different sizing and so I posted less here, even the comments I receive here are always of high standard. Smugmug is intended as a display site for sales. Inertia prevented me from posting more here.

@Shaun, blunt comments and unsolicited advice are always welcome by me. After all I dispense a lot of it myself. About pop-up text - I tried to find a place to turn it off, but did not find it. I do like to have a text to go with photos intended for sale. I noticed that people like photos better if they know more about them and i have been encouraged both by non-photographers, some good photographers and gallery owners to include them. It is a pain, but I have written a pile of them and I do not have that many more to do ...

In terms my photo inertia, it is driven more by cold and wet, rainy weather and absence of leaves on the trees. The flowers are small and close to the ground and I would have to kneel or lie in the mud and i am no longer THAT dedicated.

Thank you both for comments

Pavel

[nia]

Hi Pavel, I have just seen and visited your new website. Your galleries like a great visual voyage! I loved most of them, but one of them was so impressive for me, "Enchanted Village. A view from Kasperk Castle, Czech Republic"... Dear Pavel, what a wonderful landscape photograph. And it took me into the memories... Once we were in Czech Republic with my father and we made a little trip from Prague to Brno by car... I was very young at that time. I never forget the views... Like a great paintings.

Good Luck for your new website,
Thanks and Love,
nia

[Pavel]

Thank you Nia for taking time to look. That photo is very popular on Flickr. It has well over 2000 views, more than double of my next most popular photo. So obviously you have a good taste. I know the road you took well, although it may not yet been a highway at the time you took it. I find Czech republic very photogenic, if you forgive me my bias. Take care.

Pavel