I was shocked when I came to NPN yesterday and it loaded up as white! I thought my browser was not loading correctly. Not sure what drove this decision, and personally I liked the site colors as they were, it was easy on the eyes, the colors did not compete with the photos, was dark, but not to dark allowing the brightness of the photos to be the star, the contrast was not as stark as the dark option available now and the color harmony was pleasing. Just wondering what others think?
Youssef, like everything at my “ripe” old age change, especially, in the digital world gets me lost easily. Once I poked around for awhile I’m starting to get a bit use to the new look. I will say I could never work with “light” view at all. As I use a black screen background in PS the “dark” version seems OK at this point. I was totally fine with the previous color and it was easy to navigate thru.
Anyway, I did finally post an image and it seems to be fine with the “dark”.
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You can choose the dark mode, but here on my laptop, the icon for that doesn’t appear. It does on the phone though. Strange.
I like the dark version better as well rather than the white version, but the previous colors were nicer.
Hey Youssef, thanks for sharing this. I totally get why it was a shock, opening the site and suddenly seeing white when you’re used to a darker, softer look can feel pretty jarring.
The move to a light default was intentional as part of a broader refresh and to better align with the direction of NPN overall (including the main site), but that doesn’t mean the concerns aren’t valid. I also agree with you on the contrast in the dark theme, it was pushing too hard. I’ve already dialed that back a bit to soften things and get closer to the balance we had before. If you have a chance, let me know if it feels better now.
Paul, appreciate you chiming in too. I know change can be disorienting at first (especially in the digital world), and I’m glad the dark theme is working for you now. I personally process on a light background, so my eyes are kind of trained that way, but I know that’s definitely not universal. One thing worth noting is that the lightbox still uses a dark background no matter which theme you’re on, so images should still feel grounded there.
Really appreciate both of you taking the time to give thoughtful feedback, this helps fine-tune things.
Thanks for explaining David. And yes the dark version feels better now.
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David, for my 2 cents, I’d like the light better if it were a light grey rather than white. The latest dark does look good. Glad to see that you’re thinking carefully about the site. While I understand from a programating point of view why it’s easiest to go by latest comment, I do wonder if that could be changed to use the posting date/time of the original.
Hey Mark, it’s actually not pure white but a slight grey, pure white below for reference. It’s a delicate balance, but if I go much further everything becomes muddy. I do wish we could sort the homepage by posting date, but it’s just not possible unfortunately.
Like Youssef, I got a bit of a shock to see the white. I immediately went searching to find how to get it back to the dark. I much prefer the dark mode.
Did the image size parameters change??
JPEG at 1500px on the longest edge with image quality of 6 or 60
Am trying to post a new photo and can’t get it done - the file upload seems to disappear and I get this message -
Strange. I’ve put 2500px images up and larger and although sometimes they get compressed, they load. Any ideas?
Kris, I saw that problem also. I assumed that it was some generic software error, so I went away and came back later. Then posting went normally… I was using 2000 px long axis.
David, I hear you about posting date. Clearly the main software is designed to give “latest ping” results. However if you go to a specific gallery, the images are sorted by posted date and time, so there is a subroutine that displays by posting date, just not in the main overview. To me that suggests the if you wanted to spend the money, you could possibly hire someone to make the needed changes. Although, I could see there also being copyright/use issues preventing someone from making such modifications.
David, I really like the new, fresh look of the site and Nature Vision. Well done!
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I have to confess its been a while since I’ve been here. Probably since late spring of 2025. Lots of family stuff going on and in October 2025 I finally moved over to Sony mirrorless platform and sold all my Sony A-MOUNT cameras and accessories. I kept stuff like flash that can cross over. Anyway, I digress.
I just got email about the new magazine look so I logged on and boy was I surprised. Like some have said change can be challenging especially at older age (75 in April).
Not sure yet what the dark vs light is all about so can’t comment. I would like to ask if it’s necessary to subscribe to the magazine so critique subscription will stay active? I’m primarily interested in the critique side. However, I will probably like to browse at the magazine occasionally.
Mark Seaver, when you were referencing sorting by the posting date are you talking about imagegs, i.e., date posted vs date taken?
I hope you all didn’t mind I just jumped in? I feel like newbie so feel free to let me have it if I’m out of line.
Regards
P. S.
To my post. I want to say that it was not just all the familia stuff going on that kept me away from NPN but I felt loss whenever I would visit. I have to confess that most of the time my visiting NPN was with my cell phone because, it’s the device I have at hand most of the time when I have free time, even though I have 2 Kindles and a very nice flip 13" laptop.
But also, I wouldn’t visit because I didn’t and still don’t, know how to effectively navigate the site. When I first joined the site it was very simple because it was primarily just for getting critiques. After NPN changed hands, no offense David, the site rapidly changed becoming much more sophisticated. Perhaps there are others like me that could benefit from a self guided tutorial?
Regards,
GEGJR
Kris, it looks like you were not using the submission form and somehow had the main critiques category selected rather than one of the subcategories, and nobody has permission to post there, at least for now. Not sure how you got there, but I’m fairly certain that’s what happened, if that makes any sense! The new system we’ve been discussing will make this issue go away.
Unfortunately, no. That’s just how the software works for the homepage and can’t be modified, at least at this. point. Hopefully it will change in the future.
Hi George, good to see you back. You do not need to be subscribed to both, you can subscribe to just NPN or vice versa. You can purchase single issues of Nature Vision if you prefer.
Regarding navigation of the site, I would recommend you bookmark this page https://community.naturephotographers.network/c/image-critiques to get back to critiques quickly. We’re working on ways to simplify the site, but it is still very much focused on critique.
Once we finish up all the improvements, I would be happy to create a walkthrough video.
Me neither. I just want to submit an image as usual and could swear I chose Flora as the category. Couldn’t do it again if I tried probably.
I don’t want to come across as complaining, and I’m truly grateful for NPN being around but I just wanted to share a small piece of feedback. Personally, I preferred the previous look for one main reason. With the new design, I find the green highlight color, such as the badges under photos, and link in text, doesn’t stand out enough from the background. I often overlook it, which makes navigation a bit harder for me than it used to be.
Maybe, I’m having a harder time adapting to change now that I’m not as young as I once was, so I’ll give it time and who knows I may grow to like it.
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@Tom_Nevesely I probably have the most mold growing on me than everyone else on NPN and see your point on the badges and even just noticed the background in your comment being hard to make out. Not sure anything can be done there, but a good point for sure.