Another new website at DVinfo.net

Waldemar Winkler · March 9th, 2007, 07:13 PM

I've been able to avoid the website thing for most of my career to date. Just talking to designers felt like being on the inside of a tennis ball during a match. Made the whole thing very intimidating. I finally got the courage to face the issue and, since I couldn't find a designer who listened, built my own. Used the easiest application I could find.

Please visit:

http://www.winklervideography.com

and critique.

Thank you.

Jim Stork · March 10th, 2007, 12:00 AM

Wade thanks for taking a look at my site, I already made the changes to the text. good idea. I really enjoyed your site, easy to get around! The immersive real estate video was great. Do you have a specialized camera that can do that, or do you stitch a series of photos together?

Jon Omiatek · March 10th, 2007, 12:38 AM

Just a suggestion, but down res your graphics on your site. It will load faster. I have DSL and it took a while to load. Secondly, if you are interested in free web searches, I would use plan text since graphics are not searchable.

I like the layout, easy to get around.

I use a macromedia product call Fireworks but I would assume photoshop would work as well. I just think Fireworks is easier. If I am not using plain txt and would like a certian font, graphics are the way to go. I usually compress them to a gif at the lowest quality that I find acceptable.
Fireworks makes roll overs easy to create as well.

Good luck,

Jon

Waldemar Winkler · March 10th, 2007, 09:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Stork

Wade thanks for taking a look at my site, I already made the changes to the text. good idea. I really enjoyed your site, easy to get around! The immersive real estate video was great. Do you have a specialized camera that can do that, or do you stitch a series of photos together?

Thanks for the feedback on my site. My goal was ease of navigation, visually intersting, and (hopefully) appropriate text for searches. Not really sure If I succeeded in that regard.

The VR "movie" is stitching images together, but don't expect the simple stitcher features of Photoshop or similar apps to do the job. You need an application that allows precise adjustments. I use VRWORX.
The"movie" is a combination of Camera, lens, a special tripod head, and specialized software. If you purchased the best of the best, figure $2000 - $3000 investment. However, just about any digital camera will do the job. Key is having the right tripod head and the right software.

Visit the following site for loads of information:

http://www.ivrpa.org

Robert M Wright · March 10th, 2007, 09:26 AM

The resolution of the images isn't to high, but they could be significantly more compressed, with very minimal (if any) loss in perceived visual quality. I'd suggest using JPEG. If I recall correctly, PNG isn't supported by some browsers that are still commonly used.

Waldemar Winkler · March 10th, 2007, 09:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon Omiatek

Just a suggestion, but down res your graphics on your site. It will load faster. I have DSL and it took a while to load. Secondly, if you are interested in free web searches, I would use plan text since graphics are not searchable.

I like the layout, easy to get around.

I use a macromedia product call Fireworks but I would assume photoshop would work as well. I just think Fireworks is easier. If I am not using plain txt and would like a certian font, graphics are the way to go. I usually compress them to a gif at the lowest quality that I find acceptable.
Fireworks makes roll overs easy to create as well.

Good luck,

Jon

I've been wondering about the graphics issue. My DSL is among the slowest, 250k. At least I know it is not my connection. I'll work on graphics resolution a bit more.

The text fonts I use are supposed to be web standard, and I avoided incorporating text into a graphic to encourage searches. I've noticed a lot of sites have a lot of words and phrases way down at the bottom of their pages. One Denver videographer must have hundreds of these words at the bottom of his site. The text color so closely matches the background it is almost not visible. Is there any real value to this tactic? Or is it just tasteless?

Thanks for the hint regarding fireworks. I'll look into it. I'm currently using iWeb, which does some really neat things at the expense of some flexibility.

Waldemar Winkler · March 10th, 2007, 09:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robert M Wright

The resolution of the images isn't to high, but they could be significantly more compressed, with very minimal (if any) loss in perceived visual quality. I'd suggest using JPEG. If I recall correctly, PNG isn't supported by some browsers that are still commonly used.

Are you referring to the "still" images? The landscapes and floral/fauna images were shot with a still camera and made "web ready" through Photoshop. Virtually all of the people "stills" were frame grabs from video and saved as jpegs. I'm currently using iWeb to build the site. I'm not sure, but I believe it converts all images to PNG by default. IWeb does neat things at some expense. The sample videos are all MP4.

Robert M Wright · March 10th, 2007, 09:52 AM

Yes, I was referring to the still images. For example, the first image you see on the first (index) page is a 648x402 PNG, with a file size of 360K. I would think that image would look just fine as a JPEG, compressed to a half or a third of that file size.

Robert M Wright · March 10th, 2007, 09:59 AM

To get the same text into the page, that you are superimposing over images (as text), you could incorporate the text into the images and use the ALT attribute for the IMG tags instead (and be assured of how the text will display).

Robert M Wright · March 10th, 2007, 10:02 AM

I'm pretty old school when it comes to web pages. I always edited html manually with notepad (and it's been a few years since I've done any websites). I never did learn to use any of the automated editors.

Vince Lucena · March 13th, 2007, 02:08 PM

I would suggest you add your Waldemar...... tag line to the front or as your "Title" on each html page, also add your keywords and discription meta tags in your source code to increase searchability.

down the road,,
Submit your site to Google Maps via the Business area. It will take a few weeks for approval and processing.

Dawn Brennan · March 13th, 2007, 08:36 PM

Nice set up and great layout, however there seems to be a problem with your menu at the top. Not sure if it is just my computer, but your "Respected Vendors" did not appear at all until I rolled over it once, but then it stayed, and your "Legal Video" is only there when I roll over, but it is gone when I roll out. (this is all from your Home Page)

Just a note on top of that, I have been sitting here for a couple minutes and it still says there is 1 image downloading. Definitely something to look at...

You have a really nice start though!

March 9th, 2007, 07:13 PM	#1
Waldemar Winkler Major Player Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Durango, Colorado, USA Posts: 711	Another new website I've been able to avoid the website thing for most of my career to date. Just talking to designers felt like being on the inside of a tennis ball during a match. Made the whole thing very intimidating. I finally got the courage to face the issue and, since I couldn't find a designer who listened, built my own. Used the easiest application I could find. Please visit: http://www.winklervideography.com and critique. Thank you. __________________ Waldemar

March 13th, 2007, 02:08 PM	#11
Vince Lucena Regular Crew Join Date: May 2006 Location: Virginia Beach, Va Posts: 91	I would suggest you add your Waldemar...... tag line to the front or as your "Title" on each html page, also add your keywords and discription meta tags in your source code to increase searchability. down the road,, Submit your site to Google Maps via the Business area. It will take a few weeks for approval and processing. __________________ ......................... MotionOne Studios http://www.MotionOne.tv

March 10th, 2007, 12:00 AM	#2
Jim Stork New Boot Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: WA Posts: 13	Wade thanks for taking a look at my site, I already made the changes to the text. good idea. I really enjoyed your site, easy to get around! The immersive real estate video was great. Do you have a specialized camera that can do that, or do you stitch a series of photos together?

March 10th, 2007, 12:38 AM	#3
Jon Omiatek Major Player Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Columbus, Ohio Posts: 755	Just a suggestion, but down res your graphics on your site. It will load faster. I have DSL and it took a while to load. Secondly, if you are interested in free web searches, I would use plan text since graphics are not searchable. I like the layout, easy to get around. I use a macromedia product call Fireworks but I would assume photoshop would work as well. I just think Fireworks is easier. If I am not using plain txt and would like a certian font, graphics are the way to go. I usually compress them to a gif at the lowest quality that I find acceptable. Fireworks makes roll overs easy to create as well. Good luck, Jon

March 10th, 2007, 09:26 AM	#5
Robert M Wright Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Minnesota (USA) Posts: 2,171	The resolution of the images isn't to high, but they could be significantly more compressed, with very minimal (if any) loss in perceived visual quality. I'd suggest using JPEG. If I recall correctly, PNG isn't supported by some browsers that are still commonly used.

March 10th, 2007, 09:52 AM	#8
Robert M Wright Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Minnesota (USA) Posts: 2,171	Yes, I was referring to the still images. For example, the first image you see on the first (index) page is a 648x402 PNG, with a file size of 360K. I would think that image would look just fine as a JPEG, compressed to a half or a third of that file size.

March 10th, 2007, 09:59 AM	#9
Robert M Wright Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Minnesota (USA) Posts: 2,171	To get the same text into the page, that you are superimposing over images (as text), you could incorporate the text into the images and use the ALT attribute for the IMG tags instead (and be assured of how the text will display).

March 10th, 2007, 10:02 AM	#10
Robert M Wright Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Minnesota (USA) Posts: 2,171	I'm pretty old school when it comes to web pages. I always edited html manually with notepad (and it's been a few years since I've done any websites). I never did learn to use any of the automated editors.

March 13th, 2007, 08:36 PM	#12
Dawn Brennan Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Posts: 193	Nice set up and great layout, however there seems to be a problem with your menu at the top. Not sure if it is just my computer, but your "Respected Vendors" did not appear at all until I rolled over it once, but then it stayed, and your "Legal Video" is only there when I roll over, but it is gone when I roll out. (this is all from your Home Page) Just a note on top of that, I have been sitting here for a couple minutes and it still says there is 1 image downloading. Definitely something to look at... You have a really nice start though!