Website Critique

<p>Aloha! This is my first time posting, but I wanted to thank all of you for your useful comments and advice. I have learned a lot lurking around here!</p>

<p>I have recently launched my blog and website, and have gotten tons of great feedback! I have booked a few shoots (not too many, but that's more of a marketing issue) and I would really like to fine tune my website and blog. I would really appreciate it if you guys might take a look and give some critiques, on the website and the photos themselves.</p>

<p>http://www.dvelopstudio.com/ The blog and the site are accessible from here. As to the "design" portion of the site, I have removed it for the moment to add to the portfolio, so I apologize for any confusion that may cause.</p>

<p>Thank you!<br /> -Ben</p>

<p>I would take out the duplicate photos from the individual galleries. I didn't see any 'studio' shots in there anywhere...kinda confused me with the name having 'studio' in it. Some of the photos I'm not sure about, the car with the lights all around it was nice, but the guy covering his face kinda killed it. Your pricing schedule talks about getting a silver or gold disk...not sure what the difference is, I guess you explain all that in person. </p>

<p>Thanks for your critique! <br>

The name studio doesn't mean that I own a photographic studio. Dvelop is also a design studio, hence the name: "Photography and Design Studio"</p>

<p>The guy covering his face is actually me lol. I put it in there to show an example of more controlled "production" shoots. I guess i really need a separate gallery for those yeah?</p>

<p>And thanks for catching that!!! The gold/silver thing was a total mess up. The names have been changed and the descriptions of them are further down the pricing page.</p>

<p>Thanks again!!!</p>

<p>I would focus on the images. Your packages include 'edited' pics...what does that mean exactly...retouched, color corrections, etc? Looking at the photos in your 'people' gallery, they are cute poses/subjects, but the lighting is pretty flat, not a lot of contrast to them. Have they been 'edited'? Flash or at least reflectors will help bring out the subject and give better seperation from the backgrounds. I would recommend only having pics in there that really showcase what the potential clients will get, really make them pop. The car pic is a good idea, but will clients want their picture with their face covered? (probably not). I should have clarified on the 'duplicates', there are some you have on the home page that are repeated in the different galleries. I would just put them in one or the other, not both. Makes it seem like you don't have many to pick from.</p>

<p>Hope this doesn't sound too harsh or anything, just feedback. Good luck to you!</p>

<p>I agree with Nathan. I only looked at the people gallery and not all but from what I saw, some of the pics could have been better. On that came to mind is a girl on the beach. Her face was too dark. I'm no pro photographer but I'm a professional customer and since I'm not photogenic I always try to go with the photographer who has the best portfolio that my pocket book can afford in hopes that he/she can make me look 10x better (ha!).</p>

<p>As a web designer, your site is easy to navigate. People won't have a problem with that. The only thing that kind of bugs me, but this is personal taste, is that your clouds are a bit too cutesy for me. I love cute stuff - sometimes I still think Hello Kitty's adorable - but I think for a professional photographer it might be a bit too cute.</p>

<p>The Flash is sweet. The menu on the bottom is not distracting at all. Great site in general!</p>

<p>The design is nice, but I think it suffers from the same disadvantage of all flash websites (slow loading). I'm partial to Wordpress myself :-)</p>

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