Noob needs nitpicking

[Edgewalker81]

Please let me know what you think.

This isn't my first work ever, but it is the first that I was paid to do.

 

http://www.magicphotography.com

 

Let's hope it's the start of a series of steadily improving work...

[akitchin]

i'm definitely not the prime critiquer in these here parts, but i'll offer my few thoughts as i was traveling the site:

 

i assume you're adding that bottom padding manually, to avoid shorter pages looking "dwarfed."  i don't really think this is necessary, and it makes the longer pages a pain to reach the bottom.  if possible, perhaps shift the padding to the floated left column, so that it will be overriden by the content box.  i'm not a CSS guru, so i can't even tell you if this is feasible.

 

the nav font is good, if a little difficult to see due to its size.  the times new roman in the content, however (and the footer), doesn't feel right.  this may be personal taste, since i'm generally not a fan of times on websites.

 

the frame around headers is a little boring when used so frequently, and your text always sits slightly higher than centre.  while this is a nitpick, it drives me INSANE when text that's meant to be centered is off by even only a few pixels.  i want to reach into the monitor and put it right when i see it.

 

when the framed header is at the top of a content page, it feels like it sits uncomfortably close to the top border.  i would suggest adding a bit of top padding to avoid this.

 

the site feels a little too narrow for the content.  either do something to give it more content by adjusting the current components (like the left-hand nav) or widen it.  let's be honest, most people don't use 800x600 anymore.

 

FAQ bothers me, only because i have to click the question to get the answer.  personal taste, although i realize if you were to list the answers on the page, it would take a lot of vertical room.

 

finally, the indenting of the paragraphs is a bit bothersome, only because with such short paragraphs and such vertical paragraph separation, you don't really gain much with the indentation.  it's also inconsistent.

[php_tom]

First of all, not bad. But one minor thing: It looks like you're using the same picture frame border for navigation, headers, and sample photos. As akitchin points out, it's a bit much. I'd take the photo frame border off of the nav areas, use something else. For headers, I'd use Regu;ar text (a bit smaller than what you've got now) with the squiggly things at the bottom of the page on either side. Or at the very least, use a few different photo frame styles.

 

Otherwise I like it. The shadows on the page look nice.

[maxudaskin]

I like everything, just download the font listed below and use flash to make the Quick Links.

 

Click Here to Download the Font

[Daniel0]

It looks pretty good, but Times New Roman sort of ruins it a bit. It's perhaps a bit too narrow too.

 

On Students & Parents the page is shifted a bit to the right.

 

For the FAQ: If you want the answers to be hidden, then you should have a hidden div under the question and when you click the question then you should toggle the div on/off (not hidden/hidden).

[Edgewalker81]

Thank you all for your wonderful critique and comments - I have found a lot of it very helpful, and it has drawn attention to things I probably wouldn't have thought of on my own.

 

Unfortunately, some of the things mentioned were also things that irk *me* but that my boss won't let me change.  Some of the font issues for example (small, fitting) are because he insists on running Windows with 120dpi fonts, and wants all the fonts to look right on *his* computer.  Many of those problems occur even if I specify fonts by pixel size.

 

Despite that, there are a lot of really great opinions that I will probably implement in some form. 

 

Thanks!  If I ever need this again I know where to come.