Deviantart

[a_auger]

Hello everyone,

I've had a Deviantart account for some time, but never really used it for setting up/posting a gallery. I'm thinking of posting some of my better photos up there. Does anyone have any experiences with a dA account? If you do, what are your impressions? I'd like to hear anything good or bad you've got to say.

I'd also like to mention that I'm not looking for recognition or selling prints or anything, but I figured that if people I know (outside of my close friends/family) enjoy seeing my photos, so why not putting it out there for others to enjoy?

 

[Overread]

Go for it.

Deviantart is a major online host for artwork, including photography and has a well established photographic community. It tends to be more focused toward other forms of artwork (drawing, sketching, painting - both traditional scanned and digital) as a site. You've also for flickr which is similar, but focused purely toward photography.

Honestly any major image host like those mentioned is a good choice.

 

[JoeW]

Hello everyone,

I've had a Deviantart account for some time, but never really used it for setting up/posting a gallery. I'm thinking of posting some of my better photos up there. Does anyone have any experiences with a dA account? If you do, what are your impressions? I'd like to hear anything good or bad you've got to say.

I'd also like to mention that I'm not looking for recognition or selling prints or anything, but I figured that if people I know (outside of my close friends/family) enjoy seeing my photos, so why not putting it out there for others to enjoy?

A number of pluses and minuses with DA.

1. It is a well-known artistic online community. Lots of diversity from poetry to painting to print-making and of course photography.
2. It's a grab bag. Most of what is there is amateurish. Photos of someone's naked girlfriend or their penis. A lot of selfies. Poetry by a HS student explaining how their life will end b/c someone was cruel in the cafeteria. Drawing of their favorite cartoon superhero. And then a really great photo. And then someone selling jewelry made out of cheap beads and dental floss. If you don't mind being associated as part of that (and having friends sign on to see your photos and get some nudes and some cheesy attempts at art), it's worth using.
3. 200 free photos without a fee. And you don't have to downsize them.
4. You can in theory sell art there. But it's very easy for people to copy art (unless you watermark it) from that site.
5. Not a great site for searching or networking. View it as a conglomeration of a bunch of artists of varying levels simultaneously putting galleries up...like a library with (at best) a crude and inexact filing system.

 

[Overread]

Joe to be fair many of your points are the same for anywhere on the net.

2) Grab bag - pretty much all are this. You get some newer sites that get popular for a while with the "higher skilled" however in general unless the site has some form of gatekeeper sorting accepted and rejected photos/members then they'll all be a grab-bag of good to bad

4) Same for anywhere on the net - heck even if you use those fancy "can't right click and save" codes anyone can view the photo so they can just press "print screen" and bam got your photo. Most hosts though allow you to only show smaller sized photos (up to around 1K pixels on teh longest side) and then restrict access to the larger sizes; whilst watermarks can at least allow you to spread your name over the net as a reference if it gets copied and distributed around (course if htey edit or crop it out it won't work - but then its a payoff - do you cover the whole thing in watermarks so no one can see anything but watermarks or have a more discreet on that at least shows your name and can be sourced back to you).

5) Mostly the same for the big sites - plus the same for the whole net. If you want attention you've got to work and invest into marketing yourself.

 

[a_auger]

It's not like I *want* attention from posting these, it's just that from the positive comments I've been receiving around me, I thought I'd show some of my work. I'm well aware of the mixed bag of good and not-so good stuff that is posted on dA every day...

As for sharing pictures, I already post watermarked web-size pictures here and elsewhere (FB and Photobucket mostly), so showing those on a site like dA is not an issue. I also never post full-size pics of anything unless I have a very specific reason to.

Also, I know you can sell your photos as prints. From what I've read of their print store agreement, it's somewhat of a "post it and forget it" kind of thing. If anyone's interested in buying something of mine, they're free to do so through the site and I don't have to do a thing once an image is submitted. I don't really expect any money from this, but it's always nice to make a few bucks if something sells. My skill level isn't anywhere near pro-level like some of the fine photographers who post here, and I don't want to market myself as a business or anything, but if someone somewhere likes my work and wants a print, why not?