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aaron_j_ban

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    sphere magazine...what happened?

    in Portraits & Fashion

    Posted

    hey folks, we're still around. This seems to be a very old post but nevertheless, it's showing up 2nd in a google search so i thought I should answer it.

    <p />

    We've currently got issue 003 online: <a href="http://www.spheremag.com" target="_blank">www.spheremag.com</a> and issue 004 is coming out in the next couple of weeks.

    <p />

    Keep checking back and I'll be sure to keep the Photo forum updated.

    <p />

    Thanks :)

    <p />

    AJB

    Sphere Magazine - Issue 002

    in Portraits & Fashion

    Posted

    hey folks, thanks for the feedback.

     

    To address a couple of things. Peter, I think you really need to investigate because, on a slow day, I've clocked the download at no more than 20secs. Which is pushing the envelope but if people are going to wait they're going to wait, if they're not, they're not.

     

    I certainly do want feedback, positive, negative, whatever. It just burns me when someone comes in an attacks the medium itself. That's just stupid. It's as though you show someone a photo and they reply by screaming at you about how much they hate photography. If you hate Flash then fine, don't look at it. But, if that is the case then I sure as hell don't want to listen to you coming in here and bitching about how much you hate Flash and screwing up the flow of my thread that I wanted to use to gain feedback on the MAGAZINE, not the medium within which it was published.

     

    Also, there's a way to present a critique. The point of critique is not to attack but to build and suggest. It's very plain (and base for that matter) when someone is just ranting rather than critiqing and I've heard enough of that BS to last me a lifetime. However, most people present balanced, intelligent comments so I'm greatful for that.

     

    To help clear things up, the content of the magazine breaks down like so: fashion, beauty, fashion design, design, art, health, media, random. Generally in that order and importance. Not ever section will appear in every issue and random (the Chicken recipe) will always throw you off. It's like the prize in the Cracker Jack box.

     

    This issue it was that recipe because last issue we had a lady email us to see if we could send her a back issue of Sphere from 1975. This really confused us and we discovered that Sphere was a homemaking magazine in the 70's. She'd been trying to hunt down this recipe for 30 years. That's determination.

     

    Also, the navigation is linear because we're still evaluating the flow. Right now we have about a 75% readthrough rate. We want to improve on that but we also want to make sure we don't make any drastic changes until we define why the other 25% aren't making it all the way through. And you'd be surprised how many different answers we get to that.

     

    Anyway, thanks for the feedback folks, it really is appreciated.

     

    AJB

    Sphere Magazine - Issue 002

    in Portraits & Fashion

    Posted

    hey folks, thanks for the replies. To respond to a few:

     

    Eric, you may have a popup blocker in effect. There is no forced newsletter signup. I find that to be just rude myself. Check to make sure you don't have anything blocking the popup.

     

    Derek, if you don't like Flash then don't like it. But why come in here and whine about it? I like it and so do about 30K other people that viewed the last issue.

     

    Thanks Thomas.

     

    Jim, you're looking for reasons to bitch. The purpose of the TOC was to show what was in the rest of the issue, it's not intended to be a guide through the issue because the file is linear. I saw no reason to include the short little sections (Read, Listen, Go, etc.) because they aren't feature articles and are secondary content.

     

    As for the load time, the server may be running slow today because it's being hit very hard. Otherwise, you should get broadband because this is not a dial-up site. If you've got broadband access the load time should be no longer than 5 seconds.

     

    I can also name-drop Tolstoy, congratulations on reading although I would never understand why you would read USA Today.

     

    Commission? Why? Because you like to find reasons to complain?

     

    Brad, thanks for the comments. I understand your frustration with the fullscreen pop. I'm not a big fan of them either. BUT, I had no choice in this case because of the dimensions. In order to ensure that everyone saw the full dimensions of the book without scrollbars I needed to buy myself some extra real-estate at the top of the browser. Some folks have their browser still set to "factory" config. which means I would lose about 150 px at the top. I really really needed that space so I decided to go with the full-screen pop. Keep in mind that about 40% of users still have their resolution set to 800*600.

     

    Also, I couldn't reduce the size of the book because then it would throw off my design grid and also screw up the 1/3 ratio from a regular printed magazine which would mess with the translation of 9*12's and pre-existing print ads into this format.

     

    Trust me though, as soon as I see the res. stats for 800*600 drop below 15% I'll change it asap.

     

    Thanks Thomas. It's partly our fault because I've been hesitant to add in big pointing flashing arrows saying "click here !!!". There's a couple of things about the magazine functionality-wise that could be missed. One is that you don't actually have to drag the pages to flip, you can just single-click anywhere on the white borders and the flip effect will go. You can also click really fast to get through a bunch of pages, you don't need to wait until the effect is done. Yes, Arash's site is under construction, I've been bugging him to get one online but we'll get to that soon enough.

     

    Bruce, not sure about F7 install errors. What's the error that you're getting when you try to install? Also, you may want to do a manual uninstall of F6 before you install F7, perhaps there's something left behind that's tripping it up.

     

    Derek, seriously, if you don't like it then don't look at it. Why waste your time to come in here and bitch? Shit, get something to do.

     

    Elliot, I've just checked it out and rechecked the code and everything for the "Current Issue" button is fine. I'm not sure the problem that you're having but I'm guessing that it has to do with cacheing. If it keeps up please email me: ajb@spheremag.com and let me know. Thanks for including your browser specs, that really does help me with trouble-shooting.

     

    Thanks again for the comments folks. Keep em coming (at least the intelligent critiques and praise, if you're gonna bitch about flash then go here: www.macromedia.com)

    big time fashion photographers

    in Portraits & Fashion

    Posted

    Check out these sites:

    <p />

    <a href="www.jedroot.com" target="_blank">www.jedroot.com</a><br />

    <a href="www.miconworldwide.com" target="_blank">www.miconworldwide.com</a><br />

    <a href="www.clmus.com" target="_blank">www.clmus.com</a><br />

    <a href="www.managementartists.com" target="_blank">www.managementartists.com</a><br />

    <a href="www.mslogan.net" target="_blank">www.mslogan.net</a><br />

    <a href="www.art-department.com" target="_blank">www.art-department.com</a><br />

    <a href="www.tiffanywhitford.com" target="_blank">www.tiffanywhitford.com</a><br />

    <a href="www.davidgardiner.co.uk" target="_blank">www.davidgardiner.co.uk</a><br />

    <a href="www.vernonjolly.com" target="_blank">www.vernonjolly.com</a><br />

    <a href="www.mfilomeno.com" target="_blank">www.mfilomeno.com</a><br />

    <p />

    be sure to look for Raphael Mazzucco, Fabio Chizzola, Michael Thompson, David Ferrua and Peter Lindbergh.

    <p />

    Hope that helps.

    <p />

    AJB

    Sphere Magazine Launches

    in Portraits & Fashion

    Posted

    that I don't know. We were mainly focused on Eccentris because of hte fashion angle, but Earth Pilgrim is obviously excellent as well.

     

    I would assume yes because that's what he shoots with (I think). I know for sure that it's not digital. That's definately for sure :)

     

    AJB

    Sphere Magazine Launches

    in Portraits & Fashion

    Posted

    oiy, keeping up with this thread is a fulltime job. Just one little note for today, we've actually achieved an 18% clickthrough rate on our ads (normal is 2% at best) and we've got a 40% bookmark rate. Both very good.

     

    And actually James I can track individual impressions because I also built a custom stats and tracking application (I've been working with Flash for a long time). We got just over 1000 visits today and 85% went through the entire book. I'm happy with that.

    Sphere Magazine Launches

    in Portraits & Fashion

    Posted

    hey all, thanks very much for your feedback. It is all appreciated.

     

    To address some of the issues that have been expressed:

     

     

    1. The entire site must download because I personally hate it when I click and get "Loading" everytime I turn a page.

     

    2. It's built entirely in flash because of the advertising we offer. The ability to stream audio and video right in the ad requires that Flash be used because FlashVideo and FlashAudio has by far the highest player penetration.

     

    3. It's linear because it prevents the ability to skip ads. Which is our only source of revenue and keeps this going. So, although I'd like to have the ability to skip sections I can't do that. That's just business and that's just life.

     

    4. The page flip effect is being judged. We haven't decided to remove it because the majority of people find it fantastic. Especially those in our target market. I'm quite surprised by this but the majority of the feedback is positive.

     

    5. Lastly, Jakob Nielsen is a bit of a nutter. Look at his site, it's damn ugly. If he designed Vogue do you think anyone would buy it?

     

    Thanks again,

     

    AJB

    Sphere Magazine Launches

    in Portraits & Fashion

    Posted

    lol, James, it's obvious that you don't know much about web design. Flash is a very powerful tool that can be used to create flowing, seamless interfaces which will actually increase the usability of a site when done properly.

     

    Disabling Flash because of a few bad flash sites you've seen is kinda like pulling out your eyeballs because somebody took a bad photo.

     

    Thanks for your feedback.

     

    AJB

    Anyone shoot Fashion?

    in Portraits & Fashion

    Posted

    Hey John, I'd like to see a forum strictly for fashion as well. As it stands right now all the forums that have to do with photography are really messed up as far as usability is concerned. As a web developer I might just make a board myself strictly for fashion photography.

    How Was This Lighting Achieved?

    in Portraits & Fashion

    Posted

    hey L, thanks for the comment on my site. It's my "day job", I run a design and development firm here in Toronto.

     

    As for the results I want you're exactly right. I forgot how much there was to forget about when you're on a shoot. And, because I'm doing on fashion and beauty stuff (why would I want to photograph anything other than beautiful women? :) the pace of the shoots is pretty damn fast so things have fallen between the cracks.

     

    I'm working on doing better planning for my lighting and more test-shooting of the rig before I "start" the actual shoot. I'm thinking about investing in a laptop so I can do onsite previews before I shoot. Have to see how business goes in the next few months though ;)

     

    and Tom, yeah, that is right I guess, but now that I read it I feel mean. I don't want to be a prick but I've been hanging out in online forums for years and years now and there's a real negative vibe in here. With that said, everyone here seems very knowledgable and keen to share the info, just need some ground rules is all.

    How Was This Lighting Achieved Number Two

    in Portraits & Fashion

    Posted

    thanks again BG, and you too Chris. That's what I thought it was, but what threw me off was how well lit the model was on the underside. Perhaps it was bounce from the floor or maybe they use a reflector in a magic kind of way? Don't really know. Can't wait to rent a studio and do some testing to find out. What I really love is the falloff going up the drop. I like how it gradients to a darker shade.

     

    Hans, relax. And, if you're going to be a smartass then don't reply to my posts. Is there an ignore feature on this board?

    How Was This Lighting Achieved?

    in Portraits & Fashion

    Posted

    hey folks, thanks for the answers. I'm assuming that it's two lights. One giant softbox from the top/front and then one smaller fill box directly from the front.

     

    Also, although I'm new here I'd have to say that a few of you need to chill out. Why the negativity? I can't remember who the photographer is that took this shot, but I do remember that I got it from Art Department's site. So, right after you get repped by Art Department then come back and shoot your mouth off about how this wins the "bad lighting award". Perhaps less time posting in a forum and more time doing better work?

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