Is this background too distracting?

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Noir*Boudoir

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I've been trying to work out a way of showcasing some of my individual garments in a gallery with links to my new web site.

the main website is fairly sparse... but I wanted to use some vintage imagery in the formatting. I concocted a background from a 40s French mag photo story to go with the 'Noir Boudoir' theme.

Take a look

now this isn't a garment showcase as yet, but cd you tell me if you think this background is going to be too distracting behind dress details on the plain white inset panel? (it's going to be a separate page for each garment, not a whole bunch together).

Thanks for all thoughts...

Lin
 
Hey Lin :hiya: (your website's looking fab - had a peep earlier)

I really like that effect. I thought I wouldn't, because I generally prefer simpler backgrounds....I think the blue tint ensures the eye is drawn to what is in the centre. I'm not so sure about if the item is a bright colour - the background might look better in black and white then.....hmmmmm

*ponders*

Maybe if the table background was a complimentary colour?

Liz
 
BTW, how did you get the center photo to move while the background is static?

I absolutely love that shade of blue, it really does contrast well. But i am wondering....and maybe it is just my strangeness and its totally devil's advocate....but I find myself looking and trying to read the quotes, et al in the background. They command my attention just as equally as the center image. Maybe if you fade it out just a touch so people get the whole flavor of the background, and can see the images, but not be as overly intrigued as I am and not remember what the main image says. maybe i am trying to say textural? or maybe there is a way that you can fade it out just slightly, but leave some images clearer. It does make the picture pop out in the center, but at the same time it is of competing interest.

If you were doing the background behind say a photo of you for an "about" page, etc, i would leave it amped.

Your site is turning out very cool! Now i have to get to work!
 
Thanks both of you!! Aha, great minds think...

You know, I know it's easy for me to say this now, but when I was patching this together last night, I kind of wondered whether fading it out (extra brightness, less contrast) would be a good idea. Then when I stuck it up there, I kind of forgot about it. Good thing you thought of it Chris!

Liz, you are <i>spot on</i> with the thought about different shades. I'd initially thought I'd desaturate it, take all the blue out and leave it completely black and white.

But constructing this mock-up made me think about the dress I had in mind to show - quite a vivid pink print, and I wondered about changing the shade somehow. More pink would be OTT, but maybe something else...

I'm kind of undecided tho', cos fading it to a soft pastel might defeat the Film Noir vibe...

I think I might take both yr suggestions and try the fading and the B&W together, then do some variations that may or may not work.

That blue is the natural shade it's settled at digitally - the camera must have brought out more of the ink pigment, whereas the original mag pages look far more dingy...

The story is some kind of sub-Fu Manchu stolen-antiquity-kidnapped-gal matinee series. I secretly want people to read some of the text! Unfortunately I only have the one issue, so I don't know how it ends (but could make a reasonable guess).

The main website is still more of an easy-peasy template based construction. Unfortunately I haven't really got any great graphics programmes (the Gimp freeware is what I work with :BAGUSE: , it's a bit DIY) so it still looks a bit anonymous. I'm going to gradually replace them with ones I've written myself, as the templates are frustratingly unwieldy...

But I think I might keep the central pages fairly sparse to offset the detail on the specific links.

Liz, your opening webpage looks dramatic and utterly professional - I bet the rest will look fabulous.

Sorry for rambling on... Please, further style consultations on this point are welcome - but be warned I'm going to inflict more of this on you... sorry!

Lin

ps. Chris - that fixed background thing is something I've seen a few people do on their ebay ME pages. It's a simple html tag to add to the background properties. Let me go copy it and I'll add it here.
 
I think it's spot on. The centre of the page does stand out and grab your initial attention with the straight forward white centre against the blue patterned backing. But you do eventually notice the super cool groovy images in the background. I really do think it's spot on! And I do think it would affect it if you made the background graytones. It's fab as it is. I'd stick with it.

love, moons and starrs,
Senti.*
 
Hey, thanks Senti! :clapping:

You know, given that I kind of <i>want</i> people to take a look at it, to get the message about the theme, I think I may <i>not</i> fade it too much.

I think the options I'll keep at the back of my head are: padding the white table more in order to separate the dress pic from the background, if it's starting to look too much.

And maybe keeping black and white and... green?? versions in back up in case the colours really, <i>really</i> don't work.

There's another independent vintage seller's website where she's got a really cool novelty print background - every now and then I find myself peering at it thinking 'where did she get that? whatever it is, I want it!' - but after you've looked at a few listings, you get used to it and check out the clothes with more attention.

Chris - I saw of post of yours quickly, and then I didn't - was I hallucinating?

Anyway, I bet this is info that Debs actually gave in the html workshop - I haven't checked it all yet. This is what I have for my background, and I've emboldened the bit that matters:

< BODY <b>bgProperties=fixed</b> bgColor=#000000 background=http://gallery.noirboudoir.com/templatematerial/noirwallpaper.jpg >

Oh, it's so risky, this website construction - one gets to inflict all one's pernickety little obsessions on the world...heh.

L
 
Gah - I'm going to go back and forth between fade...no fade...fade...

One of these days I won't be working on a dim laptop monitor with a touch pad mouse either - I think it makes a difference how clear your screen is too..
 
maybe that's it Lin...

have different colors.

and about the table...what about doing a neutral color instead of stark white on that..even if it is ever so slightly bisque or buff or beige or something .then the transition to the background would be easier on the eyes...so there are two elements and not three things. does that make any sense? it will contribute to almost the sepia tinged black and white of the picture versus fighting it.

or am i just all mixed up and making zero sense?
 
OK, I've slightly inkified it by desaturating slightly and actually darkening... but looking at it, it doesn't seem to make much difference.

I take your point about the contrast, Chris - I don't really want to introduce more shades into this, but perhaps using the kind of 'antiquewhite' shade will take off a little of the sharpness?

It kind of gets a bit too pixelated if I desaturate it too much, I've realised... I need a more complex picture editor with sepia/B&W options. Here's about as desaturated as seems OK:

<img src="http://gallery.noirboudoir.com/templatematerial/noirwallpaperdarker.jpg" height=400>
 
And here it is desaturated and lightened - I dunno, I'm less keen on this somehow...

<img src="http://gallery.noirboudoir.com/templatematerial/noirwallpaperlighter.jpg" height=400>
 
If I were you I'd have a few of the schemes I'm most happy with ready to use for different situations. There's always bound to be a situation where different background ideas will suit different things. So have a few options. If something isn't quite right, use one of the other options.

I used to have a really cool thing on my Adobe Photodeluxe programme that was specifically there to convert images for use as backgrounds. It made them just the right contrast/shade/fuzziness etc for them to look good but not overpower what was placed on top of it. But of course thanks to the powers of the internet the flippin' thing has updated itself without my permission and can I find that feature - can I heck! :( Flamin' internet! Grrrrr.

Why oh why did I go broadband?! I can't ever disconnect myself properly now. *everything* automatically upgrades itself and I don't know how to use half the programmes on my copmputer now. The most irritating thing at the moment is that everytime I play windows media files (music I've paid to download) during anything going on internet wise on my computer (automatic updates, emails downloading themselves, instant messages coming through, the scandisk thingy doing it's scanning) the windows media player has an error and switches itself off! It'll play anything *but* windows media files, but it won't play it's own stuff during internet happenings without dying on me!

Will computers ever get easier? *sigh* sorry... end of rant! LOL!

love, moons and starrs,
Senti.*
 
I take your point about the contrast, Chris - I don't really want to introduce more shades into this, but perhaps using the kind of 'antiquewhite' shade will take off a little of the sharpness?

I think that is what i meant. the border around the picture is very prominent and if it were toned down a bit, you might not need worry about toning down the background to where you don't like it. The more that i think of it with the deep bright blue and the more delicateness of the nuances of the black and white in the image, making it more off white, etc, may soften the contrast a bit versus the image contrasting with the border as well so the border is a border and not another thing.

I put my finger over the white border for a minute just to see and the background and the picture look a lot more like a photo and an interesting matte that way. if it is a white without that sharp yellow in it, i think it will work.

(just my crazy ideas....don't mind me...i am a craxy person).

Again, i don't know if that makes any sense one bit.
 
well....um....my tired ol eyes can't deal with all the buziness when I'm researching auctions and shopping around...... I find that the more on the page, the less time I seem to spend. Don't really know why... I know the younger generations are accustomed to this quick or multi-imaging because of the past years trends in fast paced imaging.

So ... if the fashions are tended towards "young set buyers" you'll probably really grab 'em. But for me.... prefer something softer in the background.

Here's an idea too: if you do use a faded look, you can aways frame your image with a bold border too. That would also draw the eyes to center.

just a couple thoughts...
 
Thanks for that Barbara - and you're right, it really does depend on your market. I think quite a lot of my stuff would be going to younger buyers, buyers involved in certain semi-underground retro scenes/trends, or based in Media-land (i.e. London. I hope). So I guess they might not be scared off by striking imagery... ?

The gothic sellers on Ebay habitually use big graphics and black backgrounds with contrasting neon/bright imagery and that hits their market perfectly. I'm not quite in that mode tho...

Oh, and this isn't for an auction listing. I'm increasingly inclined to keep auction listings entirely plain, as I too get very bugged by heavy files and too much going on.

This is as display extensions to my online Mall sales - smaller selection to look thru, taken the trouble to explore/browse, hopefully less impatient...

:)
 
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