Blurred background - good or bad?

[jackmoskovita]

@PaulOB PaulOB

Wow… just found out my Photography website was one of six selected for review online, YouTube. The review is from England. He said some nice things and gave me idea’s to improve it, especially my contact page and other ideas for improvement. You can tell he looked at everything, one complaint was the blurred background behind the photos. I like it but he didn’t… what is your take on what he said?

My review is fourth out of six and starts at 34:42
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aXT_cjorLg

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[PaulOB]

@jackmoskovita

You can tell he looked at everything, one complaint was the blurred background behind the photos. I like it but he didn’t… what is your take on what he said

I think it was a pretty fair review. Some good points mentioned.

Regarding the large background image effect then I suppose it could be a bit overwhelming.but you are never going to please everybody. I believe originally I gave you a much more blurred image effect which I think would be better or perhaps the background image could be grayscale and that leaves the coloured one in focus.

I wasn’t really sure why you had a separate gallery on a new page but I guess it could be better for slower connections.

At the end of the day these are really design questions and I’m not a graphic designer. I’m more interested in the code and usability

[jackmoskovita]

Well PaulOB, I’m not after graphic designers, but people like you that like these kinds of photos.
That said, I do like the blurred effect and it was more pronounced on his really large screen. I think the average folks are more like in the 20-32" range. I use both laptops and a 42" screen. But I notice more and more people using their cell phones nowadays. So my site looks good on those… either way horizonal for photo filling the frame or vertical for showing the whole page. I might try the more blurred effect to see how that looks and defiantly change my “About” page to “Contact” page and refine that like he suggested.

As for the the other galleries on my website I was trying a different simpler effect for different people, but eventually will change them to the same as main page which I like best.

Oh! If a person like the reviewer said, don’t like the blurred background all they have to do is click on my Slideshow which shows the same pics with white background, so I think I cover both areas.

Thanks for your input. BTW, how do I make the background more blurred, I’d like to experiment.

[PaulOB]

@jackmoskovita

how do I make the background more blurred, I’d like to experiment.

Increase the blur filter value like this.

/* background image to cover viewport */
.bodybg:after {
	content: "";
	position: fixed;
	z-index: 0;
	left: 0;
	right: 0;
	top: 0;
	bottom: 0;
	background: no-repeat 50% 50%;
	background-size: cover;
	background-image: var(--body-bg);
	filter: blur(17px);
	transition: .5s ease;
}

Or in grayscale like this.

/

* background image to cover viewport */
.bodybg:after {
	content: "";
	position: fixed;
	z-index: 0;
	left: 0;
	right: 0;
	top: 0;
	bottom: 0;
	background: no-repeat 50% 50%;
	background-size: cover;
	background-image: var(--body-bg);
	/*filter: blur(7px);*/
  -webkit-filter: grayscale(1);
  filter: grayscale(1);
	transition: .5s ease;
}

[Gandalf]

If it helps, I prefer the grey-scale version. I feel as though there’s something wrong with my eyes with the blurred one.

[jackmoskovita]

Grandalf, PaulOB, I will try both, more blurred as I really like the blurred effect, but I’ll also try the grayscale just to see what it looks like. I think my contact page should be a priority too.