Looking for feedback on my photography website

Ok, this is might be a mistake knowing TGR, but there are some really talented and smart Mags on here, so here goes.

I'm trying to take my photography from a hobby that occasionally makes money, to a viable business that can provide real revenue and help support myself and my family. I'm leaving the 9-5 grind next week to go out on my own, and hopefully photography can be a big part of it.

I just re-did my website, so I'd love any and all feedback (good, bad, funny or otherwise) about it. Does it work, does it not, is it missing something? Need a photographer?

Thanks in advance.

http://www.philherbertphotography.com

Bonus: here is my other website that is more focused on marketing and strategy

Any more pictures of the Stull wife? She looks like she could be fun.

Decent site, everything loads fast and it’s easy to navigate. Good luck man.


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

Ha. Not that kind of site

My $.02:

It's clean as a gallery, but it's not real clear what you're looking for, besides showing me your pretty pictures. Do you want me to hire you for personal/family portraits or shoots? Or commercial shoots? Do you have a standard rate sheet? If the site is meant to be an advertisement rather than simply a gallery, and you want me to do a thing (like hire you), (1) give me a big button or signal that leads me directly to doing the thing, and (2) give me as much information as you can that might lead me to that decision (e.g. if I can see on your rate sheet that I can afford you off the bat, rather than needing to email you for one, you've streamlined things and removed a barrier that might otherwise keep me from following through).

Thanks. I think you're right.

I don't want it to feel salesly at all since I don't think that it will be my primary lead generator (at least at first) and I want an easy way for people I talk with to be able to look at my work without it feeling slimy, but I think I erred too far in that direction. Definitely need to add some direction there.

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Originally Posted by Supermoon

Ha. Not that kind of site

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When I first read the thread title, I thought it said
"Looking for feedback on my pornography website"

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Originally Posted by adrenalated

When I first read the thread title, I thought it said
"Looking for feedback on my pornography website"

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Hahaha. It not a very good pron website.

My initial thoughts:

- I like the layout and the simplicity of the site. You've picked good, solid photos to highlight and it's clear you're a solid photographer.
- That said, I'm not sure what you're offering. The biggest thing- to me- is to create a page, or a section of a page (or whatever) telling me what you're selling. Your photos are good, obviously, but they're kind of all over the place and you don't seem to have a focus. Not that it's a bad thing, but you're not pointing the customer towards an obvious solution for their problem.
- Whatever you do decide to sell- make that the focus of your portfolio. If you want to do more portraits, make your favorite portrait shots the focus of the main page and the overall theme of the site. It doesn't have to be ALL that you focus on, but make sure people can see what you're selling even if it's not blatant.
- One little nit: I see you've got a link to your consulting website at the bottom of the photo site. You should make that link open a new tab, not take me away from looking at your photography site.
- After reading the "About Phil" on your consulting site, you should do something similar on your photography site. Tell more of a story, tell us about you, and why we should hire you. Unfortunately, there are a million photographers out there who want to be hired for cool projects, so tell us why you're that dude.
- I'm looking at your site on a desktop using Chrome, and the header looks abnormally tall. It takes up almost 1/3 of the window... make that smaller.
- For the Portraits main image (on the home page), I'd put an actual portrait in there, not a picture of feet. The basketball or the selfie shot both look more dynamic than the feet picture.
- Just my opinion, but same with the Travel section. You've got some much more interesting pictures in the gallery below than the skateboard picture as the feature.

Making money at photography is a tough road. You have some nice pictures, but really, no one wants pictures from your vacations, they want to look at their own pictures. It’s unfortunate, but everyone has a digital camera, even if it is just a cell phone.

It’s possible to still scratch out a minimum wage existence from shooting weddings and senior portraits, but just barely. Yes, there are a few superstars that make a decent living, but they are the exception. You are competing against a horde of young housewives with their new digital camera with the same business plan.

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Originally Posted by smmokan

My initial thoughts:

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Thanks man. All really good and helpful stuff. Going to dive into some updates tonight.

Do you think that I should have less photos or types of photos? Or just add some copy and buttons, etc to make my emphasis more clear?

I'm trying to strike a balance between showing enough and showing too much. Editing down my own work is always really tricky for me. I tend to go from one extreme to the other.

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Originally Posted by billyk

It’s possible to still scratch out a minimum wage existence from shooting weddings and senior portraits, but just barely. Yes, there are a few superstars that make a decent living, but they are the exception. You are competing against a horde of young housewives with their new digital camera with the same business plan.

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No doubt. I have no illusions about the industry. It's a lot more about building a business, building relationships and good customer service than just the photography side of it anymore. That's where some of my consulting and marketing experience can really be a benefit that lots of pure artists don't have.

I would think hard about the work you ultimately want

And about why people go to your website

I don’t know shit about the pay system for photographers, but my guess is, if you’re advertising based on fee, you’re commodifying your services which puts you into a particular world. I doubt Jimmy Chin has a rate sheet on his web site.

My personal view is that you’re selling your artistic vision showing only the killer shots that make people say, “holy shit that’s nice!”. Anything less than that isn’t worth putting up on the web. Edit them waaay down

People go to your website to confirm you are an awesome photog. If they want to talk business, that’s what your contact info is for. (but def have your rates ready to go for whatever services you plan)

Just IMHO
Ymmv

Quick glance I'll review more later.

I liked the splash page. In firefox the header appears a normal height to me (I read the replies first)

I liked the lack of rate sheet. You're getting your feet wet and your open to a wide variety of opportunities. You're exactly the time of person I'd hire. Not yet a superstar but solid background, probably willing to spend a few non-billed hours depending on size of gig.

neg- puptraits goes to a locked page, no good you'd lose 50% of people right there, and it's before About in the menu, hide it somewhere on a second page.

I would remove your marketing page link for now, and or hide it as per above. There's not going to be that much cross over at the moment to risk losing one or the other. People like to hire specialists more than generalists. General photography ok, photog and marketing, meh

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Originally Posted by Rideski

Quick glance I'll review more later.

I liked the splash page. In firefox the header appears a normal height to me (I read the replies first)

I liked the lack of rate sheet. You're getting your feet wet and your open to a wide variety of opportunities. You're exactly the time of person I'd hire. Not yet a superstar but solid background, probably willing to spend a few non-billed hours depending on size of gig.

neg- puptraits goes to a locked page, no good you'd lose 50% of people right there, and it's before About in the menu, hide it somewhere on a second page.

I would remove your marketing page link for now, and or hide it as per above. There's not going to be that much cross over at the moment to risk losing one or the other. People like to hire specialists more than generalists. General photography ok, photog and marketing, meh

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Thanks! Yeah, I’m working on it now so I’ve cleaned up some of the smaller things already.

Thanks for the feedback. The Puptraits page should be unlocked now. I’m not sure why, but when I’m editing a page, half the time a password gets added to it when I commit the changes.

Oh, I thought it was for locked low res client photo proof roll for them to choose from .

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Originally Posted by Rideski

Oh, I thought it was for locked low res client photo proof roll for them to choose from .

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Nope, just user error! :)

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Originally Posted by acinpdx

I would think hard about the work you ultimately want

And about why people go to your website

I don’t know shit about the pay system for photographers, but my guess is, if you’re advertising based on fee, you’re commodifying your services which puts you into a particular world. I doubt Jimmy Chin has a rate sheet on his web site.

My personal view is that you’re selling your artistic vision showing only the killer shots that make people say, “holy shit that’s nice!”. Anything less than that isn’t worth putting up on the web. Edit them waaay down

People go to your website to confirm you are an awesome photog. If they want to talk business, that’s what your contact info is for. (but def have your rates ready to go for whatever services you plan)

Just IMHO
Ymmv

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Hey AC, how do you handle this for your biz? (You’re an architect right?)

Do you ever generate leads off your site, or is it just used as a validation after you’ve met potential clients?

I’m guessing you don’t post rates, which is the direction I’m going as well.

You don’t have to post rates, but you definitely should tell people what you’re offering as a service.

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Originally Posted by smmokan

You don’t have to post rates, but you definitely should tell people what you’re offering as a service.

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Yeah. Definitely. That’s the missing piece for sure.

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Originally Posted by Supermoon

Hey AC, how do you handle this for your biz? (You’re an architect right?)

Do you ever generate leads off your site, or is it just used as a validation after you’ve met potential clients?

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yes, architect

occasionally, someone will say "i found your website" independently, but usually they go there specifically to see what we do once they hear of us. (us is two people, btw)

we've tried previously to advertise in various manners, but, when each job is a one-off, its hard to target the right audience with any specificity. We made a decision to stay small so we can't just broadcast to everyone when we don't have the bandwidth to provide service in that way. So, relationships with contractors, real estate folks, developers are really the way to connect for us, and of course old clients & their neighbors/family.

your contacts with the marketing world seem like a good in for you
what is the direction you are most interested in?

[ETA] i think it's ok to hold back on some B+ work on the website...usually people will like something despite it not being relevant to their project, and you can follow up with "here's a shot from a project like yours" once you've talked to them. So, you still have only the A work posted even if it shorts your breadth of service a little.

After checking your site out a little more thoroughly and unfortunately confirming there is no pornography anywhere to be found, here's my thoughts. Keep in mind I know shit about professional photography.

1) the text on the About Me page needs to be a darker color with better contrast. It looks great on a quality monitor (like a photographer like you probably has) but on a somewhat lower quality moniter (such as one of my work ones) I can't read it. Like, at all.

2) your site does a fantastic job of showing that you're a talented and well rounded photographer, but other than one or two lines of text, does very little to define any sort of specialty or focus. Maybe you want to market yourself as a do-it-all photographer, but my gut is that most clients are going to want a photographer that is a specialist in the genre of photography that they need shot. For instance I'm probably not going to hire a wedding photographer to shoot marketing photos for an industrial manufacturer or an action sports guy to shoot my wedding even if that person is totally capable of doing it. I'm going to hire someone that is focused on what I want.

3) to expand on #2, if you define a few categories of photography you want to specialize in, I would create tabs/galleries specifically highlighting each subject area. Maybe up to three. Then trim away all the other extraneous stuff that doesn't relate to those categories, or at least relegate them to an "Other" tab somewhere.

4) I don't think a rate sheet is necessary

suggestions (by no means accurate or right, just my reaction...take with a grain of uninformed salt):

The Home page & the Collections page compete with each other. Reduce it down to one or the other. Then cut down on the number of shots in that zone to the headers for the different typologies. Make a selection of images available under each typology (action, lifestyle, travel, etc)

Maybe Home presents "telling visual stories" & no more; keep it brief & compelling.

And Collections presents the typologies you are most interested in shooting. You don't have to say this, but you show the work you want.

Make the Puptraits accessible solely by the link on your Meet Phil page, not its own tab. Or do a separate website.

I was torn on this one: Maybe give some credence to your established pro status with the corporate client logos, like from the marketing site? (did you do any photos for them?) They could go at the bottom of your About page.


The consulting site seems more on task. I can see how you started there and began to develop this one, but this one needs to grow on its own legs.

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Originally Posted by acinpdx

suggestions (by no means accurate or right, just my reaction...take with a grain of uninformed salt):

The Home page & the Collections page compete with each other. Reduce it down to one or the other. Then cut down on the number of shots in that zone to the headers for the different typologies. Make a selection of images available under each typology (action, lifestyle, travel, etc)

Maybe Home presents "telling visual stories" & no more; keep it brief & compelling.

And Collections presents the typologies you are most interested in shooting. You don't have to say this, but you show the work you want.

Make the Puptraits accessible solely by the link on your Meet Phil page, not its own tab. Or do a separate website.

I was torn on this one: Maybe give some credence to your established pro status with the corporate client logos, like from the marketing site? (did you do any photos for them?) They could go at the bottom of your About page.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by adrenalated

3) to expand on #2, if you define a few categories of photography you want to specialize in, I would create tabs/galleries specifically highlighting each subject area. Maybe up to three. Then trim away all the other extraneous stuff that doesn't relate to those categories, or at least relegate them to an "Other" tab somewhere.

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Thanks again everyone for your feedback. Combined with some non-TGR feedback (*gasp!*) I spent a few days tinkering around. I like hearing from non-photographers about this stuff because it's easy to make a website that is built to impress your colleagues and competitors, and not your future clients.

Changed some sections, moved things around. I cut down and de-emphasized the galleries as well, and I think it's much better than where it started. Good enough for now, at least.

I am trying to strike a balance between specific enough for people to get what I do, and not too specific to eliminate me from opportunities. The type of work I want to do long term, and the type of work I'm likely to get starting out are not necessarily the same thing, so I'm trying to balance it out. (One of the reasons I'm keeping Puptraits on the main nav).

Only four days of cube life to go...

I am using chrome in windows 10

Main page, I scrolled to the bottom, "Stay up to date"
Cannot click to anything, = Gonna kill ya.

You are a good Photographer, not a Web designer. but?

Some nice shots in there but they are low resolution. There might be a way to click on a photo I like and see the real high res image Maybe?

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Originally Posted by MTT

I am using chrome in windows 10

Main page, I scrolled to the bottom, "Stay up to date"
Cannot click to anything, = Gonna kill ya.

You are a good Photographer, not a Web designer. but?

Some nice shots in there but they are low resolution. There might be a way to click on a photo I like and see the real high res image Maybe?

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Thanks MTT.

Are you saying the icons and links in the footer don't work for you? Works for me on all the devices I tested.

In the galleries you can expand the photos, but in the case study area you can't. I don't know how to fix that in the template I'm using, but I'll look into it. I'm also not sure how high of res I want to post them as they are client photos and aren't all watermarked. My personal work I don't really care if they get out there.

Hey Supermoon,

I like your page a lot and I think the font and such give you the classic / serious look you are after.
But I have a few points of critique of course:

Sometimes the header Images / Captions and the menu take up a lot of screen space and you see just one image but with a caption right in the middle. I would like to access the content with less scrolling (viewing it on a 27" screen).

Maybe you want to check out one of my favorite portfolio pages: https://www.samuelzeller.ch/personal-work/ (you see all the images are plain image without disturbance and you navigate to the different images without a lot of scrolling or looking pas menus and headers). Maybe you want to reconsider even the use of watermarks - with so many images in one place this becomes a bit redundant. Also try to be even more strict with your selection, there are a lot of images and maybe you would come across more "precise" if you leave out some more that are not the very very best of yours.

Anyways: good page and a lot of great images.

I'm a bit late to the party here so you likely made many of the suggested changes.
I think your site looks great. Easy to navigate around and very clean. I too would have a hard time deciding which photos to include on my site if I ever made one like this.

Speaking of, I may have to borrow some of your design if I ever decide to actually go full pro. We're not in the same market so it shouldn't be a problem ;).

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Originally Posted by From_the_NEK

Speaking of, I may have to borrow some of your design if I ever decide to actually go full pro. We're not in the same market so it shouldn't be a problem ;).

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Haha. No secret sauce to the website. It’s just a Squarespace template.

I used to build websites for a living with teams of writers, designers and developers. If you don’t have a 100k budget and six months of time, I think they are the best option to get a site launched. It’s like $16 a month.

Happy to answer questions if you or anyone want to build one.

If this thread becomes one where others post up their sites or portfolios for feedback I’d be totally cool with that too. No need for this thread to die if others want the same info.

Why'd you decide on squarespace vs. wordpress + plugins?

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Originally Posted by Cravenmorhead

Why'd you decide on squarespace vs. wordpress + plugins?

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Mostly ease of maintenance and security. Keeping WP dialed in is a lot of work if you run multiple plugins. i don't have really any coding chops beyond HTML and CSS, so fixing a plugin that breaks due to a WP security patch is beyond my skill set. I'd rather spend my time working on website content instead of the back end. If I wanted/needed any crazy functionality I may have gone a different direction, but for the limited functions I need I think a self-hosted CMS was overkill.

All I can say Phil is I wish you the very best of luck and success!

Thanks man!