JoomlArt Forums 32,862 posts

[darrenf Friend darrenfJoin date: December 2009Posts: 158Downloads:0Uploads:3 Thanks: 9 Thanked: 9 times in 1 posts]

#151550

Hi guys, I have just launched my site based on the above mentioned template. I would like to express my thanks to everyone who has helped me along the way with bug solving. 😀

Special thanks to tienhc for taking your time :-*

The URL to my site is http://www.darrenf.com
It show cases my photography portfolio as well as a photography blog.
I’m still fine tuning some stuff and still is in the process of understand the k2 component better so don’t be surprise if you guys see some new stuff added or remove in the next few weeks/months.

Cheers
Joomlart

[sunrise Friend sunriseJoin date: February 2007Posts: 920Downloads:0Uploads:5 Thanks: 103 Thanked: 166 times in 114 posts]

#346551

Cheers Darren,

Nice site and very nice photography. I din’t really hvae many comments, except that on my computer, there was an error message on the home page:

XML Parsing Error at 89:1. Error 27: Undeclared entity warning

Best of luck

[sunrise Friend sunriseJoin date: February 2007Posts: 920Downloads:0Uploads:5 Thanks: 103 Thanked: 166 times in 114 posts]

#346552

Hi again Darren, I just looked some more and saw that you had pcitures from Thailand. Do you go there often. I live there. It is a great place. And again, nice pictures.

[sfpkent Friend sfpkentJoin date: October 2008Posts: 829Downloads:0Uploads:100 Thanks: 310 Thanked: 75 times in 1 posts]

#346555

Very beautiul website..I love it.

[darrenf Friend darrenfJoin date: December 2009Posts: 158Downloads:0Uploads:3 Thanks: 9 Thanked: 9 times in 1 posts]

#346564

@sfpkent
Thanks for the feedback! 😀

@sunrise
Yes, I woke up this morning and noticed that as well. I also noticed that my twitter module wasn’t working at that time.
“XML Parsing Error at 89:1. Error 27: Undeclared entity warning”

For some reason, the error disappeared after I refreshed the page and I didn’t see it again. Do let me know if you still see it.

I don’t go there often but it so happened that I went there twice last near for photography assignments. Might be going there again this year end to cover another event.

1 user says Thank You to darrenf for this useful post

1. jamesc

[Phill Moderator PhillJoin date: February 2014Posts: 7013Downloads:40Uploads:77 Thanks: 917 Thanked: 2206 times in 1818 posts]

#346580

I have that error too. It means something isn’t communicating correctly with an external site. This means your site is also taking a long time to load. Try switching off the twitter module and any other modules that recieve an external feed. If that speeds things up and clears the errot then you need to look at that module and why it is happening. It could be a configuration problem or even a hosting setup problem (maybe blocking a port).

[darrenf Friend darrenfJoin date: December 2009Posts: 158Downloads:0Uploads:3 Thanks: 9 Thanked: 9 times in 1 posts]

#346593

Hmm ok. Well, so far, it hasn’t appeared again. Hope it stays that way. 😀

[sunrise Friend sunriseJoin date: February 2007Posts: 920Downloads:0Uploads:5 Thanks: 103 Thanked: 166 times in 114 posts]

#346597

I looked again Darren, and now there was nothing. I tried to google for the phrase “XML Parsing Error at 89:1. Error 27: Undeclared entity warning” and got several sites that have nothing to do with this, and probably they too have had that show up on their sites.

[uniquebiz Friend uniquebizJoin date: February 2010Posts: 596Downloads:0Uploads:40 Thanks: 33 Thanked: 156 times in 119 posts]

#346600

darrenf;181240Hi guys, I have just launched my site based on the above mentioned template. I would like to express my thanks to everyone who has helped me along the way with bug solving. 😀

Special thanks to tienhc for taking your time :-*

The URL to my site is http://www.darrenf.com
It show cases my photography portfolio as well as a blog (which I haven’t added in the content).
I’m still fine tuning some stuff and still is in the process of understand the k2 component better so don’t be surprise if you guys see some new stuff added or remove in the next few weeks/months.

Cheers
Joomlart

You’ve done very well Darren, congratulations! I have 1 suggestion, I have poor eyesight and need glasses I’m having difficulties reading the vertical text between photos due to colour maybe some gray white outlining to enhance?

For me the huge filesizes of the images are slowing the load times for the front page. Most seem to be above 200 k each way too big and adding about 15 seconds to the load time – pulling two images from the site and exporting as a 8 bit png with alpha transparency (using Fireworks) I reduced fashion and glamour from 387.02 KB size to 95.58 with no discernible loss of transparency or colour, event photography from 255.93 to 63.1 k using same parameters

Just an experiment & an observation, Darren it’s a great site regardless, Well Done!
Blessings Shannon

[sunrise Friend sunriseJoin date: February 2007Posts: 920Downloads:0Uploads:5 Thanks: 103 Thanked: 166 times in 114 posts]

#346605

Good work there Shannon. IF I need help reducing pictures I know who to ask. I usually use Photoshop and png 24 bit for shadow transparencies. I never used Fireworks. I’ll have to try that.

[darrenf Friend darrenfJoin date: December 2009Posts: 158Downloads:0Uploads:3 Thanks: 9 Thanked: 9 times in 1 posts]

#346919

@uniquebiz
Thanks for the suggestions! Regarding the use of fireworks, was there really no noticeable difference? I compared a quality 10 versus quality 12 in photoshop and noticed some differences in my pictures. Especially so for pictures with like the red picture under portfolio>>beauty and hair.
Due to that, some pictures were left at quality 12. I would love to do the compression if there is really no noticeable quality drop. I haven’t tested with fireworks because I don’t own an original copy of it.

@sunrise
Yeah, I only use photoshop too 😀
However, I was at the adobe cs5 launched and they did say that using fireworks was the best way to reduce the size of images for the web.

1 user says Thank You to darrenf for this useful post

1. jamesc

[uniquebiz Friend uniquebizJoin date: February 2010Posts: 596Downloads:0Uploads:40 Thanks: 33 Thanked: 156 times in 119 posts]

#346929

darrenf;182649@uniquebiz
Thanks for the suggestions! Regarding the use of fireworks, was there really no noticeable difference? I compared a quality 10 versus quality 12 in photoshop and noticed some differences in my pictures. Especially so for pictures with like the red picture under portfolio>>beauty and hair.
Due to that, some pictures were left at quality 12. I would love to do the compression if there is really no noticeable quality drop. I haven’t tested with fireworks because I don’t own an original copy of it.

@sunrise
Yeah, I only use photoshop too 😀
However, I was at the adobe cs5 launched and they did say that using fireworks was the best way to reduce the size of images for the web.

Hi Guys
I use fireworks due to total lack of how to use PS knowledge:) and the fact that Fireworks was developed for web design and has a native .png format. It has a great export wizard that allows you to see the output file size of it’s selected format against a gif or jpeg so you can select the lower filesize and compare quality etc

Also you can select transparency in gif/png from that list etc. I found that dropping a 24 bit .png to 8 bit reduced filesize but not quality at least my eyes can’t detect it and as web graphics are usually at 72 dpi no point in having a 4000 x 4000 600 dpi graphic 😉

You can download a 30 day non limited trial from adobe here, You may need to create an account to gain access, PM me if you want more info and a few video tutorials to get you started

Blessings Shannon

2 users say Thank You to uniquebiz for this useful post

1. sunrise
2. jamesc

[sunrise Friend sunriseJoin date: February 2007Posts: 920Downloads:0Uploads:5 Thanks: 103 Thanked: 166 times in 114 posts]

#346934

Thanks for the advice Shannon.

So far I have used Photoshop only, but I will try Fireworks and see how it compares. I don’t actually do that much to the pictures in Photoshop, but usually I do a little tweaking with Levels to get better contrast and then a just a bit of sharpening with Unsharp Mask. This usually takes me about a minute per picture, but sometimes makes quite a bit of a difference depending on the quality of the original.

I understand though, that for a Photography website, you may want to have a little higher quality on the pictures, but I don’t higher than 72 dpi makes no difference on the web. I think it is better to do any editing of colors or contrast or ruduction of size yourself rather than relying on programs to do so automatically.

[jamesc Friend jamescJoin date: April 2010Posts: 4Downloads:0Uploads:0 Thanks: 5]

#347202

Very fantastic and beautiful website! good work and embedded text in Photos is beautifully done.

____________________
Cleanscape
Cleaning Company, Cleaning Services

[uniquebiz Friend uniquebizJoin date: February 2010Posts: 596Downloads:0Uploads:40 Thanks: 33 Thanked: 156 times in 119 posts]

#347206

sunrise;182667Thanks for the advice Shannon.

So far I have used Photoshop only, but I will try Fireworks and see how it compares. I don’t actually do that much to the pictures in Photoshop, but usually I do a little tweaking with Levels to get better contrast and then a just a bit of sharpening with Unsharp Mask. This usually takes me about a minute per picture, but sometimes makes quite a bit of a difference depending on the quality of the original.

I understand though, that for a Photography website, you may want to have a little higher quality on the pictures, but I don’t higher than 72 dpi makes no difference on the web. I think it is better to do any editing of colors or contrast or ruduction of size yourself rather than relying on programs to do so automatically.

Hi Sunrise
I’m finding a need to reduce image sizes from many clients due to digital cameras generally taking a huge 2500 x 2500 image at hi res, I now include in my contract and bring to the clients attn: ‘please set your digital camera to take shots at 640 x480’ which most camera have as an option while it’s still a big file it’s easier to reduce etc

The other thing I like with Fireworks is the adjust colours filter it does a very good job of balancing brightness and contrast which some cameras have problems with when taking the shot. I find it’s rare to have to override the filters first effort.

Just a comment on how I use Fireworks

Blessings Shannon

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