We need a site to photograph lathen plaster repairs.

[rod@plasterbrok]

Hi, thanks to positive feed back from many users of this forum, I have been moved to improve our web site.

After quite a few months of inactivity, and lack of a few computer skills, we have found a way to get many pictures on our site, without taking up a huge amount of space and download time.

Over the comming months we will be adding pictures of various plastering methods and repairs. The pictures in thumbnail size enlarge when the mouse passes over. We are also able to include a caption explaining the shot.

While our contracting company does about 15 to 20 homes a month, we only do new homes. Therefore we are looking for some renovation sites to photograph.

In particular I am looking for a site to photgraph lathen plaster repairs in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. I will not be able to do the entire job, but would be happy to give someone a one on one tuition on how to do the repairs, in return.

We would love to get some feed back, on how you see our site and what improvements we can make. You can email me if you like.

To view a page where we have started to include photos go to:
http://www.plasterbrokers.com/tapejoin.html click on paper tape.
http://www.plasterbrokers.com/tips%20patching.html (http://www.plasterbrokers.com/tips%20patching.html) at the bottom of the page.
http://www.plasterbrokers.com/angles.html also bottom of page.

Cheers

Rod

[Barry_White]

Rod

That really is a neat trick for the pictures. That would be really great for the forum rather than waiting for thumbnails to load.

Your site will also be great for forum members wanting to do their own plaster work.

[pawnhead]

Certainly very comprehensive. But don't those pics fully load automatically? They seem to take a little while to load. With thumbnails you have the option of not loading the full sized pic if you don't need to see it.

[rod@plasterbrok]

They are not actually a thumbnail, so they do still take some time to load but not as bad if they were full size.

Originally I did not plan to use too many pics because of loading time. But when you see pic's that can be expanded like that it is worth the risk of a bit of dowd load time. At Least I think that way!

I'm hoping some for some feed back on this.

Cheers

Rod

[flynnsart]

Looks good, and I do like the way the mouse roll over brings up the bigger image.

Donna

[woodbe]

They are not actually a thumbnail, so they do still take some time to load but not as bad if they were full size.

Originally I did not plan to use too many pics because of loading time. But when you see pic's that can be expanded like that it is worth the risk of a bit of dowd load time. At Least I think that way!

I'm hoping some for some feed back on this.

Cheers

Rod

Hi Rod.

Nice site, I've always wondered how to fix plaster... :)

Can I make a suggestion or two?

The images are taking too long to load :o I had a look at one in the hole repair page you linked, (lh6.jpg) and the approximate display dimensions of the image on rollover is Pixel Height 480 x Pixel Width 541 according to my browser, but, the original image (the one that is downloaded when the page is viewed) is Pixel Height 1600 x Pixel Width 1200 and 462Kb. If I resize that image to the display dimensions in your rollover, and 75% quality the file size drops to 84Kb. That will load a lot faster. (I've attached the resized photo, but ubeaut resizes it on upload and the size drops even more to 17Kb at 450x600 pixels...)

Also, You will notice that your rollover images sometimes look squashed. That is because they are displaying a non-square image in a square format. To fix this without altering the webpage, just crop the pictures to square before you resize and upload them to the site.

woodbe.

[rod@plasterbrok]

Thanks woodbee, I am afraid I have stumbled along a bit constructing my site. I'm a plasterer 1st and web builder a very distant 2nd, so I really apreciate this kind of feed back.

Ha, easy isn't it lol I found a web site that resizes pic for free. I will change them all this week as you have suggested.


Cheers,

[woodbe]

Don't worry about it, I bet there aren't many web designers that can fix plaster, you're doing great :)

woodbe.

[rod@plasterbrok]

Thanks woodbe I have resized them all now, the quality has dropped a bit though. Bad enough that my photography is not that great to begin with.

However I think it is a trade off with the loading time and quality.

Cheers
Rod

[woodbe]

Looking good.

The only image I can see that seems to be suffering badly is exangle2.jpg - it's only a thumbnail sized pic, so it breaks up when zoomed.

A couple of the pictures suffer from lack of detail, because the work does not stand out against the background plaster in the flat lighting. eg: butt1.jpg. You could try using a lightsource that shines across the plaster at a low angle rather than the on-camera flash to try and pick up the surface texture a bit...

woodbe.

[rod@plasterbrok]

Thanks Woodbe, I am very grateful for the feed back.

Cheers

Rod

[rod@plasterbrok]

No takes on a site for the crack repairs??

[woodbe]

No takes on a site for the crack repairs??

With image names like butt1.jpg that comment needs explaining :U

woodbe.

[rod@plasterbrok]

Hmm does what I name the image matter?? Dam dont tell me I have to go and rename them all so they make sense to every one else!!

I was keeping the names short so i knew which was which.

Cheers Rod

[woodbe]

No no no. Butt and Crack. Think about it :)

It doesn't matter what name you choose for the images.

woodbe.

[rod@plasterbrok]

LOL I think it was just 2 late last night!!!

By the way. I have found a site for the lath and plaster repair.

cheers