# Website launched!



## cervantes (Aug 25, 2014)

Dear Friends on CR!

I have been a regular visitor and a member on CR for a while now. I started visiting this site when I was a total beginner and learned a great deal from the vast knowledge of some of the members here.

Now I'm proud to announce that my website was launched a couple of months ago, and since the testing phase is over I'd like to ask you guys to stop by and take a look.

Additionally to some of my images, my article about configuring the 5D3 AF for fast action that I posted here last year, has found a permanent place on the site.

You can find my site here: www.focrates.com

If you have comments, ideas for improvements or anything else to share shoot me a mail, PM or leave a comment here.

Thank you very much and I'm looking forward to hearing from you!
Best wishes!


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## localhost (Aug 25, 2014)

Nice site! Love the post processing article as well 

Cheers


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## cervantes (Aug 25, 2014)

Thanks!

An article series about my travel experiences to Estonia will also be added soon!

BR


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## Saybia (Aug 25, 2014)

Hi,

very nice site, I really liked gear section with the "what i like" and "what i don't like" part.
From your name I assume you are German? If yes, you should consider having proper website credits (Impressum), because unfortunately it is quite easy to get sued (Abmahnanwälte!) if you don't have it.

Cheers!


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## kireeti (Aug 25, 2014)

Thanks cervantes.
As pointed by CR member localhost, nice pics and a very good article about PP.

Cheers
RD


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## MarcPool (Aug 25, 2014)

Tried to visit your site but F-Secure antivirus doesn't allow me to. Seems your site has been reported as being hazardous.


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## Click (Aug 25, 2014)

Hello cervantes

Very nice site. Great pictures. Well done.

Cheers.


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## DARSON (Aug 25, 2014)

Very nice website Servantes. Congrats
I liked article about 5D MK III
Directory from top menu ( Home and Gallery) is not working - just a little thing that I noticed.  
Waiting for some more interesting articles
Regards


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## vulie504 (Aug 25, 2014)

I just read your post processing article and it's very helpful as I am trying to learn all about editing/RAW. Quick question, when shooting a high contrast scene is it better to expose for the highlights and pull the shadows? Or is it best to expose evenly as possible for both the highlights and shadows.


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## cervantes (Aug 25, 2014)

First of all, thanks guys for all your feedback!

@Saybia: Thanks for the valuable hint! I wanted to check that but somehow forgot along the way. I'll definately look into that. Im actually Austrian and as far as I know it is basically not necessary to have a "Impressum" for non-commercial sites.

@MarcPool: Ok, thanks for the Info. I'm not sure what I can do about that right now. What I know is that the site is not hazardous (because I created it : ) and that it is unlikely that it has been hacked because it is brand new and had only ~100 visitors (until today) - so who would care hacking it? Additionally it is strictly only HTML - no PHP, Java or any other fancy stuff.

@DARSON: Ok, I've noticed problems with the menu on certain browsers. Would you tell me which browser you use? Thanks!

@vulie504: I'll probably do a future article about proper exposure - specifically for action photography. The key is to use the brightest exposure possible without clipping highlights.
Basically I always expose in a way that I can see a bit of overexposure warnings (these are the black blinking areas when you review the image on the camera LCD - you need to turn on that feature in the menu). These warnings are quite sensitive and there is no information lost if you see just a few of them.


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## mackguyver (Aug 25, 2014)

Nice site design and I like the gear page as well, and agree 100% with your assessments. My only suggestion would be to narrow down the Vienna gallery to your best shots, as you have done with the other gallery. It's not easy, but it's often better to have a page of your best shots vs. a couple pages of many shots. I'm equally guilty on my site so it's not meant as criticism. The overall site design is really nice, the articles are both excellent, and I can tell how much work you've put into it. Also, please let us know when you post new articles.


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## leGreve (Aug 25, 2014)

Kill you darlings.......... You have waaaaay too many photos of the same birds. I didnt bother going to page 2 simply because of that.

What makes a photo great is how it seperates itself from what else is around and a photo doesnt become twice as great or 10 times as great because you add similar photos.
Learn to choose one photo out of 10..... Or 20. Discard the rest.


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## MarcPool (Aug 25, 2014)

@Cervantes, currently looking at your website on my home Mac no strange antivirus crap at home. Not a clue why it didn't work at the office.

Did a small test using safari, chrome and firefox could not reproduce the problem Darson told you about on my Mac.

Like the design, but I don't like the use of Italic in the top menu. Makes it harder to read on mobile devices. And design wise there really is no point to using it.


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## gwflauto (Aug 25, 2014)

I have enjoyed reading on your site. The pictures I do like. But as le Greve said, way too many pictures of the same bird. Less would be more!


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## GammyKnee (Aug 25, 2014)

Love your articles (great writing style BTW), excellent shots of course, and the site itself is well structured and easy to navigate. Loads nice and quickly too!

The only thing I would say, and bear in mind that this an entirely subjective thing, is that the "boxed" style (clearly outlined fixed width content area) along with the finish and arrangement of the navigation links looks a little retro to me. Like I said though, this is just my personal preference.


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## John MARK (Aug 25, 2014)

Hi Benjamin,

Just visited your site and really enjoyed it.

Congrats for the hard work involved and very clear explanations given in the tech articles.

I fully agree with several previous comments on the necessity of picking THE best picture in a series of similar ones.

Exactly what you did for the one displayed on your home page, which is a jewel shot to my eyes 

I also love your macro shots in the "Best of" gallery section.


And yes, it's a heartbreaking and time consuming task to "kill your darlings" as leGreve said !

I don't know for you, but I spend MUCH more time on selecting pictures among many similar ones (so many criteria to consider) than on post-processing the keepers.

And for this initial selection work, *FastStone Image Viewer* is really my friend, given that I shoot (RAW + jpeg) and use its more detailed jpeg rendering during the comparison steps.


Cheers


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## DARSON (Aug 25, 2014)

cervantes said:


> @DARSON: Ok, I've noticed problems with the menu on certain browsers. Would you tell me which browser you use? Thanks!



I'm using newest Firefox on Mac


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## BL (Aug 25, 2014)

cervantes,

your article on AF for fast action is superb. Thanks you for sharing that!!


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## PhotographerJim (Aug 25, 2014)

Nice work! I love your About Me page, I also am a hobbyist photographer and I appreciated reading that.


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## cervantes (Aug 26, 2014)

Wow, thanks for all the suggestions and kind words!
I'm updating my site right now and I've made some of the changes you recommended. Most importantly I cleaned up the Vienna gallery.

There will be new articles in a couple of weeks - when they arrive I'll post it definately here on CR.
I would be most honoured if you simply checked out my site every couple of weeks though.

Thanks!


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## Logan (Aug 26, 2014)

is there some reason its so narrow? it only fills the middle 1/3 of my screen. (16:9)

disregard "malicious website" warnings from antivirus programs. its not 1995 not sure why people even have them. they just breed complacency and cause people trouble with false positives.


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## Too_Many_Hobbies (Aug 26, 2014)

Thanks so much for sharing! This is the first I've ever read about the dual button focusing for switching between zones. I only have the 70d and 6d as the 5d III is still a little too pricey for me, but I'd love to try this out if/when I get a 5D series camera or maybe the new 7DII if it has that ability (which by the rumors it seems to me like it would).

I also would love to have exposure compensation available in M with auto ISO!


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## Quasimodo (Aug 26, 2014)

Nice site, thanks for sharing


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## cervantes (Aug 27, 2014)

Logan said:


> is there some reason its so narrow? it only fills the middle 1/3 of my screen. (16:9)
> 
> disregard "malicious website" warnings from antivirus programs. its not 1995 not sure why people even have them. they just breed complacency and cause people trouble with false positives.



Yes, there is: A website can be designed to have a fixed or dynamic width. As you can imagine dynamic width means that all the pages need to dynamically adapt to the width of your browser window. It takes some experience and a lot of effort (and testing) to get this right. I'm a complete beginner when it comes to webdesign - as a matter of fact I was basically finished creating this site only two weeks after I first read what HTML and CSS actually is.
My site width is fixed, as I have limited time and resources to invest and rather spend those on quality content than website appearance. Additionally I'm in good company - a lot of popular sites (such as CR) have a fixed site width). It only fills 1/3 of your screen since I designed it to be readable on small screens - think mobile devices.



GammyKnee said:


> Love your articles (great writing style BTW), excellent shots of course, and the site itself is well structured and easy to navigate. Loads nice and quickly too!
> 
> The only thing I would say, and bear in mind that this an entirely subjective thing, is that the "boxed" style (clearly outlined fixed width content area) along with the finish and arrangement of the navigation links looks a little retro to me. Like I said though, this is just my personal preference.



Thanks very much! Yea I know it looks retro, but as I said web design is none of my talents so I created a layout that is simple and working.


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## sagittariansrock (Aug 31, 2014)

Great news! Already bookmarked the site.
Now I don't have to remember which CR thread your great technical articles are hidden in (and here's hoping you'll keep writing more)!
Congrats, the site looks nice


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## westr70 (Aug 31, 2014)

Congratulations. I set up my 5dMkIII the way you suggested for BIF, or at least I think I did. Can't wait to try it tomorrow.


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## Michael_pfh (Aug 31, 2014)

Very nice site, enjoyed my visit.


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