Thread: Help on design colors

Hi All,
I am trying to decide on layout for my site. What I am looking for is comments on colors layout etc. When I finalize site I will then look for links etc.
www.quantumphotography.net is the first start I had. I was not enthused on black as I am trying to achieve a professional looking site.

I then changed to a layout of a different style. The following page is a few pics I took for a friend. www.quantumphotography.net/bestfriends.html I personally think this one is better, but a few comments from family I am now not sure.

I would like your valued opinions. Keywords and titles etc are still all to be done, I am mainly trying for a color scheme and layout at the moment, before finalising it all.

Thank you in advance
Darren

Hi there,

I personally like the new layout, design and logo of the front page much better but, this is only personal, don't like the green. But I don't like the black either.

I have a gallery on another account with more than 800 photos in it and I tend to use colours that highlight the photos in a particular gallery. I tend to group them so this is feasibele ... but there are a lot of was to present your photos ... take a look around at what others are doing, get some ideas and go from there ...

Forgive me my confusion, but I am not sure what the second site is for ... Quantum Photography or Best Friends Kennels or both? Or are you playing with ideas ...?

Hi White sheperd, no i do not do kennels. This was a customer. It was only to show new color scheme.

Thanks for reply
Darren

Hi Darren,

The Colors are very plain and to me it is just an ok site.

You have to improve it by turning it into a Sticky Site
where visitors would want to spend time exploring the site.

The first suggestion and I think it is an important one is to
remove this "http://www.bridgeby.com.au/" as it immediately
despatches your visitor to another site "which is Bye Bye Darren"

The Thumbs are so tiny I had to squint to view them. You photos
are nothing much to view. They are not very *****. All this counts in the overall presentation.

As for colors my preference is towards rich pastel colors not dull flat colors to bring out the pages. Make every page different as if your visitors are entering a new site every time they change pages.
Do not leave the background white as the PC computer screen is already glaring for those with glasses and poor eyes. Use a nice pastel soothing color.

This can go on all night so why dont you Google and Yahoo some Photography sites to obtain Ideas and also download nice free images which you can use as your backgrounds and also visit php sites and other sites offering free background images.

I just renewed my hosting with VH for the second year and my site is still not online. It has taken me a long time to find my direction and what I want My site to be is not one of the 20 million look alike that you find on the web today.

Be different thats the way to go.

Here's my two cents: I like the stars theme and the blue color. Could you expand that so as to replace the plain black background? And put your best foot forward by displaying your best photographs in front.
And add two more pictures to each side in order balance it better.

http://www.koolspaces.com
The Best myspaces on myspace.com

Hi Zuriatman,
Thank you for the reply. I will address a few of your points. The bridgeby was simply a link to there site, but i understand what your saying.
The photos I know were of nothing important the customer just wanted a few shots of his business. I only had them as to fit on the page for now but they do enlarge with the lightbox feature??? Also I have decreased them in size for quick loading, so I do not know a way around this to have quick loading page yet show large ***** pictures.

I am not 100 sure about all pages being different??? Would you not keep nav buttons and headers the same, I could understand background pics being different. When you mention background pics, are you meaning where the white area is or the grey background area on the left and right???

I must agree with the not looking like the other million sites around, this is the same comment my mother said.

Koolspaces thank you for your 2 cents...lol... I initially did stars all over the back ground but it got a bit too much.

I look forward to a few more comments and suggestions, before I totally go back to the drawing board.

Thank you again.

Hi, prefer the lighter green to the black. Only a personal view! But I would avoid using the light box for any more than 1-2 images. With the images on that page at the moment, it is at well over 1 Meg & really could be made to about 2-300kb for the whole page with a bit of work with the images.

Good luck.

Originally Posted by Collectors-info

Hi, prefer the lighter green to the black. Only a personal view! But I would avoid using the light box for any more than 1-2 images. With the images on that page at the moment, it is at well over 1 Meg & really could be made to about 2-300kb for the whole page with a bit of work with the images.

Good luck.

Hi Chris,
Thanks for that info. Can I ask how you tell the size of a whole page, I was actually trying to find out how, but for the life of me I couldnt find it. If your saying not to use light box for more then 1 or 2 images, what would be the best way to show a few pics??? I am aware of pix resizer etc but how do you suggest making the pages 300kb yet still keeping the images ***** and viewable??? Thank you for your time.

Hi. With light box it doesn’t reduce the thumbnails in KB’s, it just squeezes the physical size of the image. That’s why thy always look a bit crinkly when made into to smaller thumbnail. It’s a bit like you taking an A4 sheet of paper & making it into a ball. Its smaller but still the same weight, but doesn’t look quite so nice. This is how the light box works.



Right clicking on an image will give you the size in most cases. Or there are many sites like this one that will test the pages. http://webxact.watchfire.com/ But don’t take them as gospel as I find may of these sites don’t read images very well.



As for making an image galleries, it depends on how fussy you are. With light box you end up with large kb crinkly thumbnails, but a nice large image. With the gallery you get smaller kb thumbnails But not the greatest looking thumbnail image. I personally think you can make your own gallery with pop ups that will show the images off far better. Or use some of the purpose made software out there that will give a professional finish.

But a big no, no, is using the tabs on the side of the image to reduce or enlarge the size of the image.



Good luck.

Hi Darren,

I have to disagree with Chris on the Lightbox.
It is my favourite album creator and you can design around it.
I have done more than 20 albums and I just love it.

Set your images to the size you want your viewer to see.
My preference is 500 to 600 pixels. When you import them into light box
you can resize the thumbs manually using the corner ear.

The most important to me is your page background and the design of your
page + color and add-ons that U use on the page.



The lightbox program is the centerpiece where you house all the thumbs.
I have done columns of five with 15, 600pixels images and it loads in a snap
without any problem. The format size of my Jpg images is set to max 100%.

Hi Darren,

Here is an example of what I am talking about.

Originally Posted by zuriatman

Hi Darren,

I have to disagree with Chris on the Lightbox.
It is my favourite album creator and you can design around it.
I have done more than 20 albums and I just love it.

Set your images to the size you want your viewer to see.
My preference is 500 to 600 pixels. When you import them into light box
you can resize the thumbs manually using the corner ear.

The most important to me is your page background and the design of your
page + color and add-ons that U use on the page.



The lightbox program is the centerpiece where you house all the thumbs.
I have done columns of five with 15, 600pixels images and it loads in a snap
without any problem. The format size of my Jpg images is set to max 100%.

Hi’ya Zuriatman. (Just a curiosity posting)
Have you any links to the working albums/light boxes you have made. I have never seen one load quickly or with clear thumbnail images. Unless there are just a few low kb images. (Well not what I would except as clear)
I just want to make sure that I am not miss-leading anyone with my comments. This is all remembering that I have a 1.5meg connection, which is slow, but faster than the majority of the world.

Thanks,

Hi,ya Chris,

All my web pages and albums are still in Blue Voda I have not published my website yet. It has been a year since I started working on them.

The focal point of my website is my family tree. The orchid galleries and stamp galleries are just my hobbies to help alleviate the boredom of a genealogy website to visitors.

I am rushing to complete my web site. At the moment I am resolving the security of my genealogy database and I do not want to publish until all links and security issues that I have can be resolved.

You can view my photos by going to Epson Photocenter and view my albums.

You will see that almost all of my digital photos are extremely ***** and I
upload them to my online album between 400 to 600 pixels H in dimension.
The Epson server is a bit slow but they have provided me with 100MB of free storage space.

As far as loading is concerned I think it is the ISP Server that is mostly responsible for the slow loading. Their upload speed is slow. Voda Host Servers are fast in excess of 150mbps to 250 mbps I think [Read it in one of the threads].

I view most sites with both Firefox and IE with a screen resolution 1280 x 960 pixels [32Bit] using a Dell 20" flat screen monitor. I have a one gigabyte connection which also helps to speed the process of loading. But I find Firefox is a wee bit faster than IE.

Abu.

I have a one gigabyte connection which also helps to speed the process of loading. But I find Firefox is a wee bit faster than IE.

Wow! I must admit I didn’t know you could get this sort of connecting for the net. So for you to view everything must be almost instantaneous. It will be nice when the UK catches up with the rest of the fast world.
Max you can get here is 8 meg & that’s assuming you live on the roof of the telephone exchange & make dinner for the engineers every day & take them to the pub every night.lol. You can pay for special faster connections/services (But it costs a fortune here)
If you have this connection & your visitors that viewing have fast connections there would be no problem.
But with the light boxd I have found that the thumbnails get very distorted, & especially if the image has straight/diagonal or detailed lines of any sort. Plus for my connection speed, a very slow loading page if too many images.

Oh Well! Good luck.

PS, The link to your images seems to be down at the mo.


Sorry, the photo you're looking for is not in this album. The album owner may have moved or deleted the photo. Please check with the owner to verify that you have the correct url and try again.

If you require further assistance, please contact Member Support. Please include a brief description of your problem and this error number: #1008

I too like the lightbox and with the proper settings it works quite successfully .. there is a box to tick to maintain image ratio, you can set your thumbnails to a certain size or variable ...

I've used it successfully

I myself, (like white shepherd) don't care for the green

I like your star header ...

so maybe incorporate those colours into everything ...

here is a sample and I made and a few nav buttons which you can install on your computer C:/programfiles/bluevoda/navbars

and then you can use one button for a mouseover nav button - if you like ... (there is one down on the bottom right)

I didn't copy all your pics, so you will see some with red x's ...

Have a look here ...

CORRECTION!

Hi all,

The Voda Host servers speed is 100 mbps and not as earlier stated above.

Hi,

I tested the link it was OK.

Try this one:

http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/Albu...&a=32574328&f=

I've used it successfully

Hi,Lady.
Sorry but the information you have given is not correct. Your successful page is over 1500kb (1.5meg) in thumbnails alone & this defiantly not good practice. Most web designers will aim for a page at a max of 300kb & preferably less.
No image should really be more than 35-40kb for fast loading . If above this, thumbnails should be used at about 4-8kb max & linked to an image of no more than 250kb at about 800x600. This should also preferably be a lot less.
The reason your page is fine for yourself is? 1. you have great internet infrastructure in Canada & 2. its already in your computers cache. The cache alone will save 90% of the load time in comparison to a new visitor's loading time when on a 1st visit. Took my machine about 18seconds to load this page. Admittedly at only a 1.5meg connection. But still far to slow.
Try running any good site through a page test & see if you can find one at more than 300kb.
Any eBay page with 30 thumbnails and all the rest of the page will very rarely be over 200 kb it total.
Sorry! But 1500kb = is far too large for a web page.
The other thing about the light box is the thumbnail images it produces. Have a look at the one on your page at over 300kb & see if this one below is any different at less than 5kb. ? I know which one I would go for. You can even read the writting on this one? But only just. lol.
If users are happy with using this as a gallery this is fine. But if it’s for a photography site & you want to let your visitors have fast loading pages with good quality thumbnails. Then defiantly not this particular version of the light box. For a few images its a great tool, but for a web gallery, no way.

hmmm ... only in Canada eh! Anyone else can use smaller and optimized pictures in the lightbox, I am a fan of it .. ive tested the page throughout different countries and we are okay on this, it's what we are doing for this one, I dunno if this has to do with the fact that the larger images do not need to load instantly, the page still comes in and the images last naturally ... I've also used it on other sites and it also works quite nicely and I've done things differently on those ones, and I've seen a few or more examples here in Vodaland too ... sorry, I'm a fan ... lol

Sorry Lady Eye, I was here first while U were asleep so I could not resist the urge to banter with Chris.

Hi Chris,

You cant use one set of standard for every webpage or site.
It is Quantity vs Quality and the product you are promoting.

Ebay cater's for the mass market and would want the the upload to be fast
as they want more viewers to view the same pages and move on as they have thousands of pages they want their visitor to view. I would say their moto would be "U Dont like it move on to the next offer" [just My guess]

When promoting a Photography or Art sites it is quality of the presentation that counts.

The photographs and art works that you present should be of the best quality.

The viewable size should be large enough with very good clarity for the viewer to appreciate. If you want to sell your stock photos whether USD1 a piece or USD750 for an art piece the viewer satisfaction is of utmost importance otherwise they wont buy your products.

So a small size which is fast loading or a large size which is slower loading
depends on your marketing approach to selling your own products.

The thumbs in lightbox can be adjusted manually for clarity as it is only a means of id to a larger picture which is what the viewer wants to really see.

If 1500 KB is too large find a way around it. U cant mix them all up like a
"salad". At least the 1000 island salad taste really nice, but if you are to mix "Design" + "Selling" + "Customer Product Appreciation" & "Buying" for "speed loading". I just cant buy your argument.

There are so many separate issues one must consider and plan when designing and presenting any product line.

Hi Darren,

Are you following this friendly banter? There are so many pointers which you can pick up and use as an answer to your questions.

I certainly am am just taking it all in. I am sitting down at the moment doing a whole new design on some pointers of replies so far. I thank you all and will reply to any questions.

I am looking forward to anymore replies, and watch with intent.

This post is far from over......lol

Darren

Hello again all. Please take a look at new design I am working on for my site. Your opinions of colors layout etc. I know it is only one page, but i am just after a response as to the new scheme. www.quantumphotography.net/test.php

I feel this new design gives a touch of professionalism????? I hope.
Look forward to your thoughts.
Darren

love it .... great start ... can't wait to see where you go from here ....

There you are, you have got it. That is a really nice restart.
My comment is add more contrast or lighten the color slightly to your background. Give a little radiance so that your centerpiece will stand out more prominently.

To all that have replied, Thank You. I have redone the site, and have done most pages. Please give opinions on new site.

I have now the daunting task of naming all the pages, keywords, meta and all that. I want to make sure the design is right. I feel i have it professional looking now and different to the normal sites around....hopefully..

Thanks again
Darren

Darren,

The color of your header "Quantum Photography" should be changed to white or any other very light pastel color. The present visibility is very poor and so is your copyright notice.

Hi Zuriatman,
Thank you for the reply. I am out for the day, but will have a play tonight. My thoughts were a bit of the same but i had the thought of my photos are the main thing not my header. The copyright notice doesnt really stop anyone nowadays but i will make it a bit larger.

Thanks again.
Darren

Hey Darren,

I really like the new look, but dito to zuriatman on a slight size increase on all.

Cheers,

Thanks for the comments, I have changed the color of the heading, and increased the size of the copyright notice. Does it look ok now.

Any comments on the rest of the site???

Also can anyone tell me why in Firefox and some other browsers it does not show the blending of the page???????

Ta Darren

That's it. Now come on, I'm keen to see the other pages... This is like giving me my christmas present at easter and telling me I can't open it. (LOL)

Cheers,

Originally Posted by PlayItByBeer

That's it. Now come on, I'm keen to see the other pages... This is like giving me my christmas present at easter and telling me I can't open it. (LOL)

Cheers,

My god I was laughing so hard I nearly fell off my chair. I will endeavour to get more pages done, now I have the main design sorted.

Is it beer o'clock yet?

There aren't many pubs open at this time and the good looking girls have turned into pumpkins… it’s after 12.
Cheers,