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  • denisegoldbergdenisegoldberg Administrators Posts: 14,234 moderator
    edited May 8, 2015
    Tom Foster wrote: »
    I'm not sure what you mean by the background image jumping as it doesn't seem to do it on either my desktop, laptop or my phone. Is it just on your tablet that that occurs? Is it still doing it? I've had a fiddle around with the settings and deleted some CSS but as I haven't been able to replicate it it's difficult for me to fix!

    I'm traveling right now and only have my tablet with me. The background image is still jumping for me on the tablet. It doesn't jump on my phone but I still see the page with a white background before the photo fills in.

    I will check my desktop when I get home. I did see the background bounce there yesterday though.

    --- Denise
  • Tom FosterTom Foster Registered Users Posts: 289 Major grins
    edited May 9, 2015
    I'm traveling right now and only have my tablet with me. The background image is still jumping for me on the tablet. It doesn't jump on my phone but I still see the page with a white background before the photo fills in.

    I will check my desktop when I get home. I did see the background bounce there yesterday though.

    --- Denise

    Not sure what to do about that, don't think I have any CSS that would cause such a thing! ne_nau.gif Maybe it's just because it takes a while to load the photo? Otherwise I'm stumped!

    Also Lille Ulven your webpage link in your signature is broken! :)
  • Lille UlvenLille Ulven Registered Users Posts: 567 Major grins
    edited May 9, 2015
    Thanks Tom - now my signature is working... helps to have not only opening quotation marks but the closing ones as well :D

    Thinking about 6...
    Maybe it could work for you the way I have it? With links (and no counters) to G+ / Pinterest / FB / Blog in the bottom of my page and the FB-likes above that in the Galleries? If I am not completely mistaken you can change the buttons for the links into rectangular ones instead of the round ones, not sure if you can add some text via CSS here as well... Maybe that would help make it less looking like a duplicate?

    And yes, I can see what Denise is talking about with the "jumping" - it takes a while before your first photos on your homepage are loaded. I cannot say why though... but it looks a little bit as if the smugmug server is not one of the fastest right now, as it also takes a while on my page to load the initial carousel - if I remember correctly they said they had fixed it during this week, so I assume one more server that is not responding as it should... If I can find that thread again, I'll post there as well.

    But your site looks much tidier now :)
    https://www.lilleulven.smugmug.com - The Photos of my travels
  • Lille UlvenLille Ulven Registered Users Posts: 567 Major grins
    edited May 12, 2015
    @Tom I did mail with the support of smug mug and did some more testing - it looks like the delays in showing your homepage-photos (as well as mine) is related to a not too fast internet connection. It worked just fine when I tried it from a different network.
    https://www.lilleulven.smugmug.com - The Photos of my travels
  • jemostromjemostrom Registered Users Posts: 136 Major grins
    edited May 12, 2015
    I'm currently playing with my smugmug site redoing it from scratch (which explains the lack of galleries/photos). It's a personal site since photography is just a hobby of mine and the audience, if someone actually looks at the site :D, is probably my family. SEO etc is not important to me.

    Anyway, I would appreciate if someone would take a look and comment on how it looks to you, the address is www.mfoto.se (and I do understand that the site being in Swedish is a problem).

    One thing that might pose a problem when I start adding more galleries is the navigation. Right now, I've chosen to have some selected photos on the front page (non-linked) and then let people find the galleries by selecting them from the "Album" menu. That menu have a number general categories "sport" (sports), "evenemang" (events) (I will probably add more later) which then show the actual galleries as sub-menus. I think these sub-menus can become too long but right now I don't know how to handle this in a better way (it works for small number of galleries). I would appreciate suggestions/ideas for this.
    Jan Erik Moström
  • denisegoldbergdenisegoldberg Administrators Posts: 14,234 moderator
    edited May 12, 2015
    @Tom I did mail with the support of smug mug and did some more testing - it looks like the delays in showing your homepage-photos (as well as mine) is related to a not too fast internet connection. It worked just fine when I tried it from a different network.
    I don't believe that is true - I see the lag from my computer at home. My internet connection is contracted at 75 Mbps both up and down. I just ran a speed test and my connection currently shows as 84.22 Mbps down and 91.58 Mbps up. I don't believe the lag in showing the background is related to the internet connection speed.

    --- Denise
  • denisegoldbergdenisegoldberg Administrators Posts: 14,234 moderator
    edited May 12, 2015
    jemostrom wrote: »
    I'm currently playing with my smugmug site redoing it from scratch (which explains the lack of galleries/photos). It's a personal site since photography is just a hobby of mine and the audience, if someone actually looks at the site :D, is probably my family. SEO etc is not important to me.

    Anyway, I would appreciate if someone would take a look and comment on how it looks to you, the address is www.mfoto.se (and I do understand that the site being in Swedish is a problem).

    One thing that might pose a problem when I start adding more galleries is the navigation. Right now, I've chosen to have some selected photos on the front page (non-linked) and then let people find the galleries by selecting them from the "Album" menu. That menu have a number general categories "sport" (sports), "evenemang" (events) (I will probably add more later) which then show the actual galleries as sub-menus. I think these sub-menus can become too long but right now I don't know how to handle this in a better way (it works for small number of galleries). I would appreciate suggestions/ideas for this.
    What is the purpose of the photos on your home page? The reason I ask is that there isn't currently any action possible from there. I can't click on a photo to either see it in a larger format or to go to the gallery in which it lives.

    Once I enter a gallery I have no idea what I am looking at. Have you considered using the breadcrumb? That helps with navigation and with giving the viewer some sense of which gallery is displayed. If you choose not to use the breadcrumb then I'd recommend always adding the display of a gallery title, perhaps in the gallery description.

    --- Denise
  • jemostromjemostrom Registered Users Posts: 136 Major grins
    edited May 13, 2015
    What is the purpose of the photos on your home page? The reason I ask is that there isn't currently any action possible from there. I can't click on a photo to either see it in a larger format or to go to the gallery in which it lives.

    Once I enter a gallery I have no idea what I am looking at. Have you considered using the breadcrumb? That helps with navigation and with giving the viewer some sense of which gallery is displayed. If you choose not to use the breadcrumb then I'd recommend always adding the display of a gallery title, perhaps in the gallery description.

    --- Denise

    Thanks for taking a look and you're completely correct in your comments.

    I'm currently displaying the photos from a gallery that I don't want people to go to and that's why the links aren't enabled. I'll be switching this to a keyword-based view soon and then I should be able to enable the links again.

    Personally I don't like the breadcrumbs, I think they look pretty ugly. But you're absolutely correct in that the user should know more about what they are looking at. I've made some changes (and discovered some other issues) and I will probably play around a bit more during the weekend to make sure thing works for my visitors (if anyone :D).

    Thanks again for the comments.
    Jan Erik Moström
  • boomeraklboomerakl Registered Users Posts: 2 Beginner grinner
    edited May 25, 2015
    Our new site - www.nashopics.com
    two of us that shoot south of Sydney have decided to use Smugmug as our gallery platform.
    website is www.nashopics.com.

    i'm still tweaking things as i discover different customization options, but would love some other eyes over the site & your opinions.

    i presently have a page which is showing in the gallery list, which i'd rather wasn't there as it's a page, not a gallery. i will work it out eventually, but if one of you happen to know the solution it would be appreciated. thumb.gif
  • denisegoldbergdenisegoldberg Administrators Posts: 14,234 moderator
    edited May 25, 2015
    boomerakl wrote: »
    two of us that shoot south of Sydney have decided to use Smugmug as our gallery platform.
    website is www.nashopics.com.
    Welcome to SmugMug and to DGrin!

    It looks like you have a good start on your page, but as usual I have some suggestions.

    First, look at the space used by your header. There is quite a bit of empty white space above your logo and menu. That's OK on a large monitor but probably not OK on a smaller device. I'd recommend using http://quirktools.com/screenfly/ to look at your site on different devices - especially those that you don't easily have access to. I looked at your site there on several mobile phones and the header looks OK - but it retains the empty space on 10" netbooks. I would recommend minimizing that.

    Look again at the space you have specified in your header for the menu entries. On my large screen monitor the menu entries are in a double line until I have stretched the browser window to use most of the width of the screen.

    You might consider using different content on your home page than you do on your browse page. Right now they are very similar.

    Your search page is very simple, just the search. Have you considered building a page that contains both search and keyword entries?

    You have chosen to gray out the images on your browse page. I know it may be just me, but I've never understood how a dim image will entice a viewer to click on it.

    I assume the page you reference is your Terms & Conditions page. If you change that page to Visibility: Unlisted the page will show only if you explicitly reference it. It will no longer show on your browse page. I don't know how you selected it to show on your home page - if you clicked to include it you will need to deselect it there.

    --- Denise
  • boomeraklboomerakl Registered Users Posts: 2 Beginner grinner
    edited May 25, 2015
    Welcome to SmugMug and to DGrin!

    It looks like you have a good start on your page, but as usual I have some suggestions.

    First, look at the space used by your header. There is quite a bit of empty white space above your logo and menu. That's OK on a large monitor but probably not OK on a smaller device. I'd recommend using http://quirktools.com/screenfly/ to look at your site on different devices - especially those that you don't easily have access to. I looked at your site there on several mobile phones and the header looks OK - but it retains the empty space on 10" netbooks. I would recommend minimizing that.

    Look again at the space you have specified in your header for the menu entries. On my large screen monitor the menu entries are in a double line until I have stretched the browser window to use most of the width of the screen.

    You might consider using different content on your home page than you do on your browse page. Right now they are very similar.

    Your search page is very simple, just the search. Have you considered building a page that contains both search and keyword entries?

    You have chosen to gray out the images on your browse page. I know it may be just me, but I've never understood how a dim image will entice a viewer to click on it.

    I assume the page you reference is your Terms & Conditions page. If you change that page to Visibility: Unlisted the page will show only if you explicitly reference it. It will no longer show on your browse page. I don't know how you selected it to show on your home page - if you clicked to include it you will need to deselect it there.

    --- Denise

    Thanks Denise!

    as I said above, it's great to have another set of eyes take a look, & I do appreciate the comments you've made.

    off to make some changes! thumb.gif
  • gschlactgschlact Registered Users Posts: 56 Big grins
    edited May 29, 2015
    I'm always happy to share my site!
    --- Denise
    Denise,
    I checked out your site. Can you explain how you created this gallery page with text between images? http://www.denisegoldberg.com/Travel-stories/Thoughts-on-traveling-by/i-98FfqrZ
  • denisegoldbergdenisegoldberg Administrators Posts: 14,234 moderator
    edited May 29, 2015
    gschlact wrote: »
    Denise,
    I checked out your site. Can you explain how you created this gallery page with text between images? http://www.denisegoldberg.com/Travel-stories/Thoughts-on-traveling-by/i-98FfqrZ
    Hi gshlact -
    That is a gallery locked into Journal style. The text was entered into the Caption for the photo. This is a second gallery using the same technique, this one using bold text, links, and spacing between paragraphs - http://www.denisegoldberg.com/Travel-stories/Wandering-assisted-by-2-feet/.

    This gallery is similar but an example where I am using both the Title and Caption for the photo - http://www.denisegoldberg.com/Medley/galleries-by-date/n-GzNHG/. It is also a gallery locked into the style Journal. The bold text immediately under the photo is in the Title, the next line with a link to the gallery is in the Caption.

    --- Denise
  • fuguefugue Registered Users Posts: 31 Big grins
    edited May 30, 2015
    Bonita Photos
    Hi,

    I am becoming an obsessive SmugMug tweaker, but I think my site is beginning to generate the look and feel I want. I would welcome any thoughts or comments. Of course, I will keep tweaking anyway.

    Thanks.

    Bill
    www.bonitaphotos.com
    Bill Hough
    Bonita Photos
    Capturing the beauty around us

    http://www.bonitaphotos.com
  • denisegoldbergdenisegoldberg Administrators Posts: 14,234 moderator
    edited May 30, 2015
    fugue wrote: »
    Overall your site looks good - but you may want to rethink your home page. With some images it is fine, but with others the image makes the menu very difficult to read. Either make sure all of the images allow the words to show or place a solid background behind the menu and site logo.

    Your about page uses first person in the Artist Statement and third person in the Bio. I suppose that makes a certain amount of sense but I found the switch between the two to be quite jarring. Of course it's possible it's just me - but if I had that reaction I suspect others will as well.

    I don't think the square images of your Images page does your photos justice. I prefer to see the photos in their actual aspect ratio (as shown on the other pages in your site), not cut off into squares.

    --- Denise
  • fuguefugue Registered Users Posts: 31 Big grins
    edited May 30, 2015
    Overall your site looks good - but you may want to rethink your home page. With some images it is fine, but with others the image makes the menu very difficult to read. Either make sure all of the images allow the words to show or place a solid background behind the menu and site logo.

    Your about page uses first person in the Artist Statement and third person in the Bio. I suppose that makes a certain amount of sense but I found the switch between the two to be quite jarring. Of course it's possible it's just me - but if I had that reaction I suspect others will as well.

    I don't think the square images of your Images page does your photos justice. I prefer to see the photos in their actual aspect ratio (as shown on the other pages in your site), not cut off into squares.

    --- Denise
    Thank you, Denise. As usual, you suggestions are excellent.

    Regarding the square images on my Image page, how do I change them to actual aspect ratio?

    Bill
    Bill Hough
    Bonita Photos
    Capturing the beauty around us

    http://www.bonitaphotos.com
  • denisegoldbergdenisegoldberg Administrators Posts: 14,234 moderator
    edited May 31, 2015
    fugue wrote: »
    Thank you, Denise. As usual, you suggestions are excellent.

    Regarding the square images on my Image page, how do I change them to actual aspect ratio?

    Bill
    Bill -
    I'm not sure how you set up that page. Is that simply a folder content element? If it is a folder content element then you can edit the page element and change the layout to a different option.

    --- Denise
  • fuguefugue Registered Users Posts: 31 Big grins
    edited May 31, 2015
    Bill -
    I'm not sure how you set up that page. Is that simply a folder content element? If it is a folder content element then you can edit the page element and change the layout to a different option.

    --- Denise

    Denise,

    Thank you for your advise. Today I'll work on changing the home slides so the menu will work better. You are terrific!
    Bill Hough
    Bonita Photos
    Capturing the beauty around us

    http://www.bonitaphotos.com
  • GazGaz Registered Users Posts: 3 Beginner grinner
    edited May 31, 2015
    hi im new here !!
    im busy customising my smugmug hosted site ..ill keep tweaking :D:D your welcome to have a look mwink.gif

    www.gazphotography.com
  • rrlymanrrlyman Registered Users Posts: 8 Big grins
    edited June 1, 2015
    Face-taggged photos
    I wrote a program in C# that can put 300+ GIFs on a large monitor. Each GIF frame is one year of each student's life. The photos were face-tagged in Windows Live Photo Gallery and then they are run through my program extracting the face images and sorting them by year. The program also puts name labels under the chin of each person in group photos.

    http://uhs65.smugmug.com/People-Folder/Little-Gifs/

    The source code is available if anyone wants it.
  • juanherediajuanheredia Registered Users Posts: 345 Major grins
    edited June 3, 2015
    Wow, amazing program, congrats!. I like it. I didn't even know that smugmug supported GIFs. I'd like to have the source course if you don't mind.
  • Tom FosterTom Foster Registered Users Posts: 289 Major grins
    edited June 3, 2015
    Made some changes to my site. I've changed the background and eliminated the sidebar by moving the menu to the top and the social icons to the bottom. What do you think? Hopefully this makes things look more 'streamlined' and neater!

    Tom Foster Photos
  • denisegoldbergdenisegoldberg Administrators Posts: 14,234 moderator
    edited June 3, 2015
    Tom Foster wrote: »
    Made some changes to my site. I've changed the background and eliminated the sidebar by moving the menu to the top and the social icons to the bottom. What do you think? Hopefully this makes things look more 'streamlined' and neater!

    Tom Foster Photos
    I like the change. Moving the menu to the top gives your viewer a larger space to enjoy your photos.

    --- Denise
  • denisegoldbergdenisegoldberg Administrators Posts: 14,234 moderator
    edited June 3, 2015
    Gaz wrote: »
    Overall your site looks good.

    I'm a bit surprised by this announcement at the top of your Lake District Mono Collection:
    IMPORTANT ONLY ORDER PRINT SIZES 6" X 4", 9" X 6", 12" X 8", 15" X 10", 18" X 12" AND 24" X 16" FOR PHOTOS IN THIS COLLECTION
    Have you considered using a pricelist for that collection that only allows selection of those sizes?

    Your About page feels a bit odd to me. Your viewers shouldn't need to hover over the photo to read the text. In addition to the hover the viewer needs to use a scroll bar to see all of the text. It should be immediately presented and not require viewer interaction.

    --- Denise
  • jerryrjerryr Registered Users Posts: 595 Major grins
    edited June 6, 2015
    Gaz wrote: »
    im busy customising my smugmug hosted site ..ill keep tweaking :D:D your welcome to have a look mwink.gif

    www.gazphotography.com


    Welcome to Dgrin !!
    - Excellent selection of images for your homepage slideshow !
    - Recommendation - for the published section, if you can add links to the companies and even specifically to published work on-line that would be a bonus :)http://www.gazphotography.com/Published

    Good job Overall - jerry
  • AndrewvegaphotographyAndrewvegaphotography Registered Users Posts: 2 Beginner grinner
    edited June 9, 2015
    Revamped site
    Here's my new revamped site:
    www.andrewvega.com
    still more tweaks to go, but I wanted a clean look for my business, so made the background image uniform, so foe all but the homepage I lowered the opacity with a white center where content goes so it pops out (Wish a body like this was an inbedded option).
    Made the banner link to home and contact page to open in new window, which I created with woofoo. Links on the bottom are call to actions to my contact page, but still working on a cleaner look. Another for my smugmug wishlist.
    Also working a new portfolio page with less images to lower response time. Next up are a few resource pages for my clients and linking to external blog. Im also working on a footer and looking for a way to have a content feed just with reviews! Would love to find help there!
  • juanherediajuanheredia Registered Users Posts: 345 Major grins
    edited June 10, 2015
    Here's my new revamped site:
    www.andrewvega.com
    still more tweaks to go, but I wanted a clean look for my business, so made the background image uniform, so foe all but the homepage I lowered the opacity with a white center where content goes so it pops out (Wish a body like this was an inbedded option).
    Made the banner link to home and contact page to open in new window, which I created with woofoo. Links on the bottom are call to actions to my contact page, but still working on a cleaner look. Another for my smugmug wishlist.
    Also working a new portfolio page with less images to lower response time. Next up are a few resource pages for my clients and linking to external blog. Im also working on a footer and looking for a way to have a content feed just with reviews! Would love to find help there!

    Nice site, simple and clean. I'd like to suggest you fix the contact page, because it's opening in a new window (tab), in the other side the white blackground in the contact page makes a little difficult to read the textboxes to fill.
  • denisegoldbergdenisegoldberg Administrators Posts: 14,234 moderator
    edited June 10, 2015
    Your background image works nicely on your home page but I find it quite distracting on the other pages on your site. I would recommend removing the background image from all pages except for your home page.

    Your contact page opens in a new browser tab. When a web site opens new browser tabs without my requesting them I usually close the entire site. It should be up to the viewer if a new tab is opened.

    You have chosen to use thumbnail style on your Portfolio page. This means that you have images where the people's heads are cut off. Is this how you want to present images of people?

    --- Denise
  • Lille UlvenLille Ulven Registered Users Posts: 567 Major grins
    edited June 10, 2015
    denisegoldberg - sorry for brief highjacking this thread - do you remember when you had a look at Tom Foster's site earlier in this thread if you had Flash turned on or off? (I mean the tests when you said his photos on his homepage were slow to load, which we discussed somewhere around here too.) I know it is a weird question but my best friend just had some trouble with my carousel loading and strangely turning flash on resolved that one... so I wonder if it would be the same for you. (If it is maybe someone from the official help team should have a look at this...)
    https://www.lilleulven.smugmug.com - The Photos of my travels
  • denisegoldbergdenisegoldberg Administrators Posts: 14,234 moderator
    edited June 10, 2015
    denisegoldberg - sorry for brief highjacking this thread - do you remember when you had a look at Tom Foster's site earlier in this thread if you had Flash turned on or off? (I mean the tests when you said his photos on his homepage were slow to load, which we discussed somewhere around here too.) I know it is a weird question but my best friend just had some trouble with my carousel loading and strangely turning flash on resolved that one... so I wonder if it would be the same for you. (If it is maybe someone from the official help team should have a look at this...)
    I didn't touch Flash; it's not disabled - and the slow loading was in three different browsers.

    --- Denise
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