By Manamarak on
Hello All,
I have recently launced a new website aimed at photographers. It is a magazine/learning resource.
Have a look and let me know what you think:
http://www.illustratedphotography.net
http://www.illustratedphotography.net/edblog
There are still some issues with the gallery integration (I am not quite brave enough to allow users to start their own albums etc)
Any ideas and thoughts will be appreciated.
By the way, thanks a heap to all those dedicated coders who have made this dream of mine a reality. I could not have done this without you guys here at Drupal. You have restored my faith in HUMANITY!
Let me know what I can do to help the project, baring in mind my coding ability is quite limited.
Comments
world's #1?
Looks like you've done a lot of work on the site. It's a fantastic start. Most people here know how much work it takes to get the project off the ground... and make it LOOK GOOD.
A simple observation about your tag line:
The Web's #1 Digital Photography Magazine
Not too modest, is it? ;-)
LOL at your last comment. On
LOL at your last comment.
On a serious note, claims like that might run afoul of marketing rules in many countries.
On topic:
First glance it seems to have all that a photo buff would be interested in. The main content area has a good layout and is very appealing with proper use of photos all the way. Eye catching.
The front page look cramped, though. I think my personal taste is turning more and more to two column layouts these days. I need to restate it, the main content area, the middle column, is very nice. I love it. But using three column layout, and fixed width makes it look cramped.
You have a box saying "Pic of the month" with some menu items. I think those would look good as random image, or multi image boxes. For example "Latest entries", why not show them? Show, don't tell. You have used that principle on the front page in the content area, all your lead ins have beautiful photos. You seem to have forgotten it in the navigation column.
Three different designs on one page. The top banner, the second banner and the overall page design doesn't gel. I would remake the top banner, move the menu down below the second banner (if you decide to keep it). I didn't really notice it until I was studying the layout more carefully.
The standard login box of drupal is awfully big.
I miss more information on the photos presented. Where were they taken? What kind of set up was used, why did it turn out as it did?
The gallery 2 integration looks nice, but who took the photos? No credit, no caption.
All in all I think it is a good design, just need some tightening up and minor things I personally don't like. The hard part, of course, is filling it up with content...
Paul K Egell-Johnsen
Paul K Egell-Johnsen
Modesty is a virtue...
Thanks for your comments guys. It has given me some food for thought.
I agree with your comments on my claim to be number 1, perhaps I was a bit bold. I was originally going to say "The little website with big dreams", but remembered my mom telling me never to sell myself short. Anyway, I think of it as a mission statement rather than a statement of fact.
:-)
Anyway, I agree with you Paul, on the point of making the two header sections gel better. I am considering dropping the mid-section on all content pages, and displaying it only on landing pages.
The block on the right teasing the competiton displays the latest contest entry, though at the moment it doesn't change very often, because I've not had too many entrants so far.
Two col v three: you will notice that I only use three columns on landing pages (of which there is only one at present, but more to come.)
The reason there are no captions with photographer names on the pictures is because they would all read the same at present. Ed Sutton, Ed Sutton, Ed Sutton. Don't get me wrong, I like my own name as much as the next guy, but it gets a bit repetitive after a while. And contrary to what you said, I find creating the content quite easy. It's getting the users to come which is harder. At the moment it feels a bit like a show house, with all the features, but needing a family to move in before it becomes a home, know what I mean?
What's that quote from the movie... "If you build it, they will come."
Well, we'll see.
In a few weeks, once I have the next issue sorted and all my CCK and Views pages working, I hope to post again thanking everyone who worked on modules I have used and giving a few pointers to those who might like to follow my modest leads.
Keep the comments comming, they are always welcome and appreciated.
Great start and look
This website reflects a great deal of work and good content. The theme was great and blew me away. Very undrupal in my opinion. What theme did you use and did you have to modify it a great deal?
Some comments and food for thought on the usability etc.
1) I like your tag line "Great digital photography tips, monthly photo contests,
Photoshop tutorials and indulgence in photos". However, I was not sure what you mean by "indulgence in photos". Perhaps that can be better stated.
Try also to get the idea of "camera huggers aka enthusiastists" now have a place ot hang out and share stories, photos (later).
2) There's a lot empty space after the read more. Would try to tighten that up if possible.
3) The read more is very good but it does tell how users can comment, talk to each other and discuss things.
4) Turn on the Comments module on your photo tips too. They appear to be book nodes but still one can comment on them. Your stories have comments turned on. That would be totally in line with your about us statement about users talking etc.
5) The About us block on the right side of the front page is not adding value. Lots of small words that no one will take the time to read. Remember folk scan on line and besides they have scanned your tag line and already know what they can do.
Funny thing though, there's no info on who you are? People always like to see who's behind a site- at least I do.
Consider substituting the Recent Comments block and your existing blog posts block in place of the About us Block instead. That will get more content in front of people faster and get your blog posts above the fold where it can be seen.
6) You may want to allow anonymous visitors to comment until u get some momemtum. Keep the spammers and bots under control by using the Captcha, Gotacha, and Spam modules.
7) Great Photos but no information on using them or buying them. Tell users if they are for $ale or what restrictions are.
8) Photo contest is cool but what does the winner get?
9) Consider using the Adsense and Adsense injector modules. Would only use text ads that blend into your website though and insert ads at end (adsense injector does this) and in middle (doesn't)
Good luck and hope this helps you.
Ads & Posts
2 questions please, the first about Adsense injector module, it seems it doesn't recognize images in "image nodes" as part of the "%body" & so it inserts ads before the image, any way to fix that?
2nd question, I was checking illustratedphotography, really a nice site, I like those posts displayed in two columns, how can a php noob like me do that please?
Thanks for your time :)
Check setting on Adsense Injector and Adsense Modules
First go to the Adsense Injector module and enable the Image Node you are referring to under "Select Node Types for Insertion."
Then go to the Adsense Module and click on "Google Adsense link" (4th link) and make sure that the "visibility settings" are not blocking the Image Node type.
See if the above makes a difference. The above is based on my understanding of what you are trying to do i.e. and image/photo followed by Adsense Advertisement, right? If that does not work, there still may be a way with the Contemplate Module. Come back if the above fails.
2nd question- maybe views but this is over my head, sorry.
First go to the Adsense
All above done & Adsnense actually visible in image nodes but when I insert the adsense code after the %body tag, the node title & description are displayed above the ad but the image is under it, same happens in teasers: teaser above adsense block & image thumbnail under it .. that let me think "Adsense Injector" is not optimized to work with images nodes??
I hope it's clear, will give you an example, this is the code I used first in ads injector:
The 2nd block [adsense:468x60:1:1] (in a perfect world) should show below node content, but in images nodes here's what I get:
As I said earlier, the image is not recognized as part of the %body tag, so now I just kept the first floated ad box [adsense:120x240:1:1] & for the 2nd I inserted the code in the page.tpl.php
Thanks for your help :)
Thanks for the complement
Kirikoo,
Thanks, the two column design at http://www.illustratedphotography.net is implemented using Views and CCK. I used the theming wizard to create the design.
You will be glad to know that I have very little experience with PHP, and have done the whole site with the minimum of coding knowledge.
Hello and congratulations on
Hello and congratulations on your site, you are doing a very good job.
Now, as an Open Source lover I have a question.
I know that Photoshop is the preferred application for digital imaging, but do you have any plans for posting tips on Gimp or any other options? They are free, and if you plan on covering amateurs, they might appreciate an affordable option.
There is also Xara of course.
Also, I can see that you are encouraging people to start in the photography world. I have been thinking for a while to take some photography courses, but I don't think I will have the 'time' to do it.
Now, you have this 'Basic Photography' tutorial which you are starting, and by the way, it looks very nice, do you think that you could make the user's portfolios in a way that I can tag my pictures so that you or other users know in which part of the tutorial I am, and you know provide tips or even score the images.
This could be useful even for people who are taking courses somewhere else.
I haven't really looked for this type of tutorial on line, I was browsing your site and thought it would be nice, plus, I know that Drupal is capable of doing it.
If you have that already, I did not see it.
So, let me know what you think.
Geeks Socializing
http://inTribu.com
Great ideas
Wow, that's why I love the drupal community so much, not only do people employ their own time in developing such a magnificent platform, they also take the time to really interact with your site and offer suggestions and comments.
I am definitely looking into ways of tagging images and implementing some of your ideas, so check back in the future.
Also, regarding the open source software, I did start off with Photoshop simply because it is the package I use professionally, so I know it best, but I do have plans to review open source editing software, the first feature will look at the different packages and the pro's and cons of each. This article will be included in the March or April edition.
Now a question from me: The site aims to be a sort of fusion between a online magazine (call it an ezine if you like) and a community based website. So far I have run into two potential problems though: Number one, I feel that I should do more to let users know when the 'magazine' content will be update next, but have refrained from putting a 'next edition available' type button on the home page for fear of leaving people thinking that the forums and galleries are also only updated once a month. Does anybody have any ideas how I could convey this information without causing confusion?
Number two, my user interaction rate is quite low. The number of hits generated by the site is growing steadily and is currently in the region of 100 unique visitors per day, and the bounce rate is below 50%, I even have a steady trickle users taking time out to register, but there seems to be a lack of participation: the gallery is very quite and comments in the forums are rare. Is this normal for a site of this size, or should I be worried? Perhaps the site is not user friendly, or the image upload process is confusing? I could really use some input here.
Also, regarding the earlier comment advising me to open all book pages for comments. I have considered this advice long and hard, and have decided that I will stick to my plan of seperating editorial and user-generated content. I can, however see the benefits of the suggestion, and have decided to add a section in the forums specifically for the discussion of each article published on the site. More on this to come in the March edition.
Your ideas and input is appreciated.
I am glad that you find the
I am glad that you find the input useful, that is one of the must powerful advantages of open source. it's community.
Your questions:
You can tag each article with the publication issue (date, number or name, you pick one), then you can create a view and users can filter by edition and in the future that can be a good way to navigate through your site.
You can post an image or plain text indicating when the next edition will come, there is even a javascript countdown if you want to add some drama to it : ) and you can make it clear "Remember that discussion boards and galleries are open 24/7", but I think that people will know, I would not worry too much.
I don't know for the image uploads, I have not tried it yet, but since I am a drupal user I might not find it confusing.
Regarding the forums, it was hard for me to find them, you need to add a clear link to them, may be in the Primary Links and you can also create more categories, see here: http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/
You can use one of the forums to let people upload the pictures for the online tutorial, and get recommendations from there, I am not sure if you can limit only one forum to receive uploads or images, but you can also create a new content type just for this, that way the galleries will probably be used only for more professional/finished works.
I am not an online editor, but you might get recommendations from one, if you want to work with editions, you might want to make it more clear of which edition am I looking at or which section, maybe a directory listing, the articles look nice, I am reading some of them, but it is hard for me to know what I have read, what am I missing or where am I going, again, I am not an editor, so this is just the point of view of the beholder.
I would not go so far with the ads and I don't like the colors but see here: http://www.apogeephoto.com/f_articles.shtml
User feedback is a great tool and in my experience, you SHOULD let people talk directly in the article, you will have a really hard time linking the forums with the articles one by one, I think that there is a module that will let you separate the comments and they will not be displayed underneath your article, but on a separate page 'Discution' or something, I will be using that in a near future, right now I can't tell you much of it.
Let me know what you think.
Regards,
Felipe
Geeks Socializing
http://inTribu.com
Long live Drupal
Thank you Felipe, your input and contributions to the site has been tremendously valuable. I dare say you helped me kick start a bit of interest in the site, and I have a few more active and registered users.
I am also planning on implementing the javascript clock idea you have advised me to. I think it is a good idea, and will give users an incentive to check back.
I am currently hard at work on the March issue, and also had a few errors in the way Internet Explorer was displaying my views based pages.
By the way, Felipe, if you really are thinking of buying a camera, I will be happy to offer you some input on what to get and maybe even where to shop.
Recent updates to the engine of the site include implementing the pathauto module, which works great, and I'm glad to see that similiar capabilities have been added to drupal 6.
In answer to an earlier question regarding the theme, it is a customization of the Multiflex theme, which I like because it is clean and easy to use, yet nicely customizable, big thank you to cdoyle, seems to be responsible for the drupal port of Wolfgang's theme.
We are also working on extending the forums and customizing the look and feel, but more on this to come.
I would also like to note that this is my first ever drupal site, and that I have absolutely no knowledge of PHP or any expertise of html and css beyond the bare bones basics. To be quite honest, the entire site was built with an array of books spread out around my computer desk.
I think that goes a long way to proving how powerful and easy drupal is to use.
LONG LIVE DRUPAL
Thank you again to everyone who makes the cms and community such a great place to work with.
Great, I am glad that I have
Great, I am glad that I have been able to help you. I will certainly be using your help in a little while : ) and you will be seeing a lot of me once I get my camera. I am talking with some friends here for more input about support here and options, but any help you can give me will be greatly appreciated, I will probably end up buying it online.
I am glad for you, and you are right, that really says a lot about how easy this cms is and versatile.
Keep up the good work, you up to something really good!!
I have some more things to tell you, but I will use your forums or maybe email.
Best regards,
Felipe
Geeks Socializing
http://inTribu.com
Gimp Review
Hello Felipe,
Just wanted to let you know that I have done the review of Gimp you requested. Have a look and tell me what you think.
Question on adding photos and galleries
Hi Manamarak
Glad to see that things are moving along for your site. I also want to allow users to add photos on my site and need some help.
I understand that you are using the Gallery and Gallery2. Can you tell me what kind of input page you are using to guide the user in adding a photo and/or gallery. It looks like you created a new content type. Can you elaborate on what other modules help you to do this and to display the users gallery and all of the galleries?
Thanks
I have a little trouble
I have a little trouble understanding your question.
You are right, I do have gallery2 installed, to get it to work, I had to install the Gallery2 standalone program, and then the Gallery2 module created by
When you have these two things installed and working, then the input page, where users upload their images, is created for you. I did not have to create a new content type to do this.
The key factor is to get Gallery2 installed and working. You can download it from
http://gallery.menalto.com/
Once you have the standalone gallery installed and working, install the Gallery module for Drupal and get the two to interact.
From there on in it is all a matter of customizing the settings.
I am not sure if this answers your questions, but would be happy to elaborate if you can clarify exactly what you need to know.
Thanks
I just wanted to be sure that there was nothing else besides Gallery running as far as adding a folder.
No problem
Glad to be of assistance
New view
I've just added a new view to the top of the front page which shows the latest pictures uploaded by users. I just wanted to know what everyone thought of it.
Your comments are welcome.
Ed
I like it
It's above the fold and gets people to see how they can interact with your site right away. How did you get the photos in the header?
Also you might want to investigate the inline registration module at http://drupal.org/project/inline_registration. I'm using it on my site since it allows anonymous users to upload photos etc. in a single step.
Thomas, sorry for the slow
Thomas,
sorry for the slow reply.
It's now been a while since I've done it, but as I recall it used views, views bonus pack and so on.
I'll just try to figure out how I did it and report back...
upgrading to drupal 6
We are currently updating the site and migrating to Drupal 6, so a lot of work is going on behind the scenes.
I am just stumped on which gallery use.
As it is a photography site, the Gallery2 integration looks very tempting, but I have had problems with it in the past.
Using acidfree at the moment, but it doesn't quite do what I want it too. There seems to be an issue with when users rename their root user album.
Any ideas?
Uhmm, does anyone know of a
Uhmm, does anyone know of a place I can find a comparisson between gallery modules?
Edited first post to
Edited first post to correctly reflect the site's URL.