SITE REVIEW: Fine Art Photography

Be happy to review it again when you are done. PM me anytime.

Breeze do you have any interest in a flash gallery? If so I would suggest slide show pro and if you don't want to mess with the xml you could also use slide show pro director. If you are interested, in ssp shoot me a pm.

As far as the design on the site goes I like it. Color scheme is good and I really like the lighting and background around the title. I do agree with ATNO though I thought it was a fancy "my art" no idea it was fine. Also I feel a little like the color scheme is different in the header/footer areas and the content area. You pull the red into the border but the rest of the center is gray. I'm not sure if it would work or not but did you try doing your image in a brown duo or monotone and the text to a tan? Not guaranteeing it will look good just something I would try. That way you could continue the red, white , tan throughout. Really good job though on the layout and nice type choice.

Ok, here is a list of things to consider.

1. Gray text on a black background is difficult for some people to read.

2. Underline the links. No matter how "artsy" it is not to underline links, you need to do it anyway. Build to the lowest common denominator. Not everyone will know you want them to click there.

(Suggestion for point 1 and 2. Make the text the brighter white and make the links orange or red.)

3. The 1st call to action on the page leads to another website. Yes, I know you have a profile there. Use just the link directly to your profile and take out the one to their home page. You do not want your first call to action to take the user away from your website. Also, have it open in a new window so you have not lost them altogether. That is called a "traffic hole".

4. I see you are planning a links page. As some young people might say, "That's so 1995".

If it is just going to be a hobby website, you can ignore most of what I told you here. I specialize in Internet Business Websites. If you plan to use the website professionally, do some affiliate marketing, or otherwise make money with the website, then you need to go over these suggestions and possibly make some changes.

Here are some tips.

1. Define your goals. If you want them to buy or download your pictures, that is a goal. If you want them to contact you to do photography or to purchase photos by phone or by contact form, those are goals.

2. Plan your website around those goals and make sure you are leading your visitor directly to where you want them to go.

3. Linking to other people's profiles and websites defeats the goal of websites that have goals in mind.

Like I said before, if it is going to be a hobby website, then ignore most of this. If it is going to be a professional website with the goal of making money or achieving a specific purpose, then don't think of all the great places you can send your visitors to, think about how to convert them into leads or sales.

For instance, my girlfriend, no matter how beautiful she may be, could not have a link from a website where I was trying to make money.

Again, please remember, my focus is on business when reviewing a website. If the focus is not about business for you, then I'm the worst person to review the site. The thing about the gray text still applies though.

Hope that helps.

@Breeze: I really like your site Breeze... I really do, but the first thing that came across my mind when I came to your site is that it's a bit too gothic (Using "medieval: as if belonging to the Middle Ages; old-fashioned and unenlightened;" as the definition from google's 'define' tool).

Even though, I like it that way... but the links... the really dark red on the black background (The voided link that the user is on) is quiet hard to read... and to make it worse, that part of the background has a red tinge to it.

Gray text is fine with me... kind of fits the design... just make it a bit lighter maybe... try #AAAAAA, #BBBBBB, or #CCCCCC. (From dark to lighter respectively).

About links... you can have them underlined and then un-underline it at hover, or keep them as is, but underline them at hover... or just change the colors like namecritic suggested.

I like for the fact that as soon as I get to the site, I know that the site is all about fine art photography.

The design kind of looks empty to me, but it's simple... I like that about it... it's simple.

I generally like designs that have more to it, but if you've ever read my requests for design reviews... they are either too busy, some 1960's weird thing, or something horrible entirely, so don't take this part of the review too seriously

Are you going to use purgehosting for free sub-domain hosting or are you going to get a regular host (Paid hosting with your own domain)? Just wondering.

I like your logo image at the top (The image that says "Fine Art Photography Aaron Bradford" at the very top center)...

That's about it with this review of mine... good luck... great design

I think it looks great. Classy and clean which is fitting for a fine art photographer. The first thing I noticed other than the copyright statement mentioned in previous posts was that your name (Aaron Bradford) right below the 'Photographer' in your header seems too small.

To me if your name is your brand, you should make it stand out slightly more. It's a good font choice and the spacing is good between the characters but the font size just seems too small to me.

I understand the look your going for and think it's great but in between the 'Photographer' of the header and the main navigation it seems squeezed.

My 2 cents.

Other than that. Good work!

regarding your "handwriting". That png file is interesting to say the least. The transparency "background" isn't totally transparent, per se, but it's odd that only the black background works and makes it look pretty slick. It's just hard to read plus there are some aliasing issues with it. Rather than a manual scanned "handwritten" text, which is what I assume is the effect you were looking for, there are a lot of good script fonts that can still make it look "artsy" yet legible. This is one example with Palace Script MT. I actually used this particular font at work for "Signatures" on company emails for all of our employees and it's been well received.