FINALLY --- done with it!

[jams]

<p>After couple weeks of work ... i am DONE with my website! check it out...and some feedback would be nice :)</p>

<p>www.perpixelphotography.com</p>

<p>thanks!</p>

[melissapapajphotography]

<p>I like your new website. The biggest feedback I have is that as a woman, it seems a little impersonal to me. Your bio is very short and not emotional enough...I feel no connection with you and I think that is very important. Also, your pictures look a little too soft...I am thinking that may have happened during the upload process. I love your contact page :) Also, it took a little while to upload your portfolio pictures when I first got on. BTW - I love your shots of the couple in SJC :) Good luck!</p>

[juanita_ramirez]

<p>I'll agree with Melissa and say that some of the pictures do look a little soft--I have found that uploading the exact correct size often fixes any problems with that.</p>

<p>Honestly, I am on the other side of the spectrum from Melissa. I looked over her page to get a reference point, and her bio is quite long, which I'm sure works for her in whatever market she's in. I prefer something a little shorter and more professional. I list publications, educational achievements, actual studios that I have worked for and other hard verifiable facts. It may well come across as a little impersonal or cold, but I want them to know that I'm legit, and a true professional. Short bios like mine seem to be in the minority now, though, so maybe I'm wrong. Even so, I like that my bio reads a little differently than most of the bios of other relatively young female photographers.</p>

<p>Either way is fine, but there's certainly more than one school of thought on how your bio should read.</p>

[william-porter]

<p>I bet it's really nice. But you lost me when the noisy music started playing—and I couldn't figure out how to turn it off. Sorry.</p>

<p>I hate loud music on websites. Maybe it's just me. I guess if I were about to get married I'd be more motivated. </p>

[kate callahan]

<p>I really like the products section ... I think it's a nice display of your albums! And I think your photos are great, too. Personally, I don't find the opening image to be your strongest ... but that's perhaps just personal taste. As far as music goes ... I always like music on a photography site as long as it compliments the mood of the photos. I think your music does that. But, I do agree that the way the first song opens up with the web site is a bit jarring. I think it might work better if you switched the order of the songs, so the second one goes first as it doesn't begin quite so abruptly. Best wishes! - Kate</p>

[fuccisphotos]

<p>I agree with Will, the music is very loud. While having music with lyrics is more modern, unless a site has music that's classical music on the home page and it's subtle, I find it rather irritating. <br>

Second, some of your images are breathtakingly beautiful, others are...not, IMO. The wall-e and eve cake topper juxtaposed with the bride and groom is brilliant. But your homepage image of the bride on the beach, looks washed out and pixely on my screen. She's lost her foot, and to me at least, this image is just a mess. I wouldn't have it on the site at all, let alone the first image you have visitors see. As a bride, while I wouldn't expect the first image I see to be over saturated, an image that feels really happy would probably be what I'd want to see first, at least subliminally.<br>

I'd suggest you have a few friends independently go through and pick out their favorites and least favorites. Find out why they like them, why they don't.<br>

Just to give you a head start on that, here's my suggestions:<br>

while the green color contrast is nice on your first bride portfolio shot, she looks like she's squinting into the sun and looks soft, <br>

I ADORE the next one with her lifting her veil and then with her hubby. They seem slightly overexposed. His suit is coming off a bit grey to me and I'm betting it was black.<br>

Love the bubbles<br>

Ditch the one of the girl looking to the side and then mug shot. Looks like it is just a shot of a random person off the street you encountered one day.<br>

Love the couple looking at each other on the beach<br>

The ones with the guy on the railroad tracks again, look a bit over exposed, getting grey tux again and lost her detail in the dress<br>

Apple ring is interesting<br>

Not sure I'm a fan of the mega lens flair in the set with the bride tossing the bouquet which is good otherwise<br>

Like the perspective on the bridal party shot, but again over exposed. The details are blown out<br>

NOT a fan of flip flop groom shots. They look like they are smelling something stinky <br>

Would like to see a bit more of the makeup face, but still I like it<br>

Love the Asian wedding, I would crop the image a bit tighter if you can<br>

As I said before, ADORE the wall-e shot<br>

In the mostly landscape scene if the cruise ships weren't there I might really like this one<br>

The last image while really artsy, you might want to be careful with the guy with the very long beard/goatee. That might be off-putting to some</p>

<p>Products. Unique presentation. But if you only have 2 products, don't have 6 boxes. Just makes it seem like the other 4 boxes aren't loading properly<br>

For the albums, I like the general idea of having someone hold it. But albums are so very special, at least I feel, having a girl in her sweatshirt in a driveway with hair in her face seems kind of odd to me<br>

On your bio, I'm ok with it being short, but seems odd to have it titled James and then use the pronoun We<br>

The link to your blog takes me to a page that at least in safari cuts off the bottoms of your menu items which doesn't look too professional to me if I was a bride looking for a photographer. Albeit it is on your blog, not the actual site.<br>

Overall, I'd say you definitely have a lot of talent, but I'm not sure the images you have chosen represents that well. When I was looking for a photographer as a bride, I figured if they put up a shot that was not so great it made me wonder how they were a pro, but didn't have anything else better to put up. I know sometimes it's just personal preference, but things like soft focus, pixely shots, etc, those shouldn't be showing up on a pro's site, IMO.<br>

Hopefully that wasn't too brutal and was helpful.</p>

<p> </p>

[craig_big]

The one thing I recommend to everyone is MUSIC! Lots and lots of loud music. The best kind is the music that starts really loud and doesn't include a pause button in an obvious location. The longer that music plays loudly, the better. You want to engross your audience, capture them. Submerge them in the waters of your website's music. That's rule #1.

[jams]

<p>wow thanks for the great response guys! i will be revising it all day today ...once again i really appreciate ite! :)</p>

[fuccisphotos]

<p>sooooo much better selection of photos for your portfolio!</p>

[sfcole]

<p>Is it legal to use music on a business website if that music is not in the public domain? Beethoven would be legal, but I'm wondering about any recent pop music?</p>

[picturesque]

<p>No, it isn't legal unless you have permission or purchased the right to use it that way. Beethoven isn't necessarily legal either. The rights belong to the individual or group that performs the Beethoven piece.</p>

[katrin_d.]

<p>This is going to sound nitpicky but you want to spell check the site. On your pricing section, it currently reads "wedding coverage start at ...", should be "start<strong>s</strong>". I'm completely clueless what I should expect from a "complete collection". Albums? Prints?<br>

Also, the meta description for your "james" page reads "james hong perpixel photo wedding photographer" and yet, the text on the page reads "we". Do I get you when I book with perpixel or somebody else?</p>

<p> </p>

[mikael_karlsson]

<p>Photos good. Music evil. Interestingly enough I'm currently working on a big survey of photo buyers [publishers, editors, freelance photo researchers etc] which isn't the same as brides & grooms naturally. Biggest pet peeve on photographer's website is... wait for it... music!<br /><br />Your images are great, some even outstanding. Music makes me click out after a minute tops. I listen to the radio a lot when I surf and music on websites mess that up for me. Granted I'm no groom [nor bride for sure!] and maybe music on sites is much more accepted these days.</p>

[phyliss_crowe]

<p>If you hover over the fluctuating equalizer in the bottom right corner, you'll get the complete control panel for the music.</p>

<p>And if you could legally use her music, my choice would be KD Lang. That woman's voice is liquid gold. Gives me SUCH goosebumps...</p>

[mikael_karlsson]

<p>Phyliss:<br /><br />You can legally use pretty much all music as long as you license it. Can be a bit costly though, but surely we as photographers should be respectful of other artists and their copyright as we expect others to be of ours.</p>

[lornesunley]

<p>It is a "flash only" web site and nothing appears on a browser when you have flash block on. You should have at least one page that appears if flash is blocked</p>

[lee_richards2]

<p>Your site looks very nice. I would recommend some minor things. </p>

<p> I think your personal photos are a bit off-putting for some people particularly for the MOB and older clients. At least have one picture that shows that you can drop the "gangsta" look and clean up nice. Get a suit or jacket and tie for formal weddings. Otherwise you can be a distraction.</p>

<p>The music is appalling. Light romantic instrumental or classical or none. And a prominent button to turn it off. </p>

<p>As one other poster mentioned, spell and grammar check. </p>

<p>I'm not sure I get the blog. It seems to be a collection of pictures mostly of one wedding. They are nice but you would know better than I the purpose. I would loose the album pics on the blog. </p>

<p> </p>

[fuccisphotos]

<p>James, please please PLEASE take everyone's suggestion and change the music. I just checked back on your site, and I didn't realize my speakers were on as high as they were, and I nearly fell out of my seat the music was so loud. At an ABSOLUTE minimum, have the music ramp up, not just all the sudden BLAST.</p>