How can I get more clients??

[The_Traveler]

I'd like to think my website, photography, skills are pretty good (PLEASE critique my photos!).
Help me please, and feel free to critique me in every way possible.

May I edit and repost a couple of your pictures?
(your profile says no editing)

 

[Tee]

Two comments:

1. Find another word for "passion" in your about me. It's overused and associates with the mom with a camera clique.

2. You have a degree in art with a concentration in photography? Was the business angle never touched upon? I truly don't know. I just can't imagine one getting a concentration in photography and the subject of running a business never coming up, even in casual conversation. What exactly did the concentration in photography concentrate on? Did you learn studio lighting, posing, etc?

 

[W.Y.Photo]

Two comments:

1. Find another word for "passion" in your about me. It's overused and associates with the mom with a camera clique.

2. You have a degree in art with a concentration in photography? Was the business angle never touched upon? I truly don't know. I just can't imagine one getting a concentration in photography and the subject of running a business never coming up, even in casual conversation. What exactly did the concentration in photography concentrate on? Did you learn studio lighting, posing, etc?

Whats everyone's problem with the word passion? I have a deep burning passion for that word!!!

Thank you a lot for the suggestions! I've been having a lot of trouble getting the color on my photos to align with the way they look on my macbook and in photoshop. When I open my website on my iPhone or iPad the colors are significantly washed out. Even when I posted them here, the saturation significantly decreased in comparison to my original photos.

Make no mistake: you will have forum-based experts telling you that Adobe RGB and wide-gamut this and uber-wide-gamut this is "the way". Uhhhhh...no. That's the way anal-retentive, closed-loop, one-man band type shooters work, and they loooove to tell others how great it is to have those extra colors, you know--for "some day". Always worried about theoretical color spaces and infinite shades of esoteric, peripheral hues, instead of creating images that do not look like crap on everybody else's machines.

This just solved alot of my problems. I was one of the photographers that fell into this idea of Adobe RGB is the way to go.After producing one image with s-rgb exclusively I realized that the colors are WAY better on other screens such as my tablet. Just wanted to say thanks because you have saved me countless nights trying to figure out how to get colors to match up!

I'm not gunna go too deep into this but just know that if you ever produce images for high quality printing you will want to re-process them in Adobe-RGB, sRGB is most definatly the best way to process for web and digital display but for Prints on quality printers adobe will give you much more variation and quality in color.

I recommend processing everything in sRBG so you can display to the web and then saving the lightroom edits and photoshop layers to reuse if you ever decide to print your images using a larger color space.

 

[lauraceja]

Yeah, Lew! Please go ahead and edit some of them. I recently purchased a few Kubota actions and Totally Rad Lightroom presets as well, so maybe that'll help me a little more. Also, I moved my old "about me" to the blog area of my website because it's not as professional as I would like, and wrote a condensed version in its place. Also, the sRGB comment really helped me! I'm editing my photos over again (they are RAW), and making sure that they are edited in sRGB to keep the colors as consistent as possible. Also, my goal is to become a wedding and portrait photographer, but am willing to take photos of anything right now as I get started. Should I not even bother taking family photos or newborn--since that's not what I want to be considered as.

 

[W.Y.Photo]

If its not what you want to do than definitely don't include it. If you don't mind doing it but would rather not publicize yourself as a family portrait photographer than you can let potential clients know in other ways, like through word of mouth. (ask other clients if they have friends or family who would like portraits done)

 

[unpopular]

Make no mistake: you will have forum-based experts telling you that Adobe RGB and wide-gamut this and uber-wide-gamut this is "the way". Uhhhhh...no. That's the way anal-retentive, closed-loop, one-man band type shooters work, and they loooove to tell others how great it is to have those extra colors, you know--for "some day". Always worried about theoretical color spaces and infinite shades of esoteric, peripheral hues, instead of creating images that do not look like crap on everybody else's machines.

This is a bit like saying shoot jpeg because learning raw processing is just too hard.

Here is a better idea, learn color management and make an informed decision about what color workflow is better suited.

 

[Derrel]

Make no mistake: you will have forum-based experts telling you that Adobe RGB and wide-gamut this and uber-wide-gamut this is "the way". Uhhhhh...no. That's the way anal-retentive, closed-loop, one-man band type shooters work, and they loooove to tell others how great it is to have those extra colors, you know--for "some day". Always worried about theoretical color spaces and infinite shades of esoteric, peripheral hues, instead of creating images that do not look like crap on everybody else's machines.

This is a bit like saying shoot jpeg because learning raw processing is just too hard.

Here is a better idea, learn color management and make an informed decision about what color workflow is better suited.

That way your work can look like crap when OTHER people view it and print it! Again, the one-man-band guys are weighing in here...when you shoot for a WIDE audience, you need to go to what most machines, most browsers, and most printing out places are actually expecting. sRGB has become the de facto standard across society. Again, the people who operate in closed-loop conditions are trying to give you bad advice--exactly as I predicted they would.

 

[W.Y.Photo]

^This threads gunna get shut down if you guys keep arguing about s vs adobe on here. (Lets make a separate thread about it, shall we?)


Edit: I dawgone done it: http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...rum/367770-srgb-vs-adobe-rgb.html#post3304835

 

[robbins.photo]

That way your work can look like crap when OTHER people view it and print it! Again, the one-man-band guys are weighing in here...when you shoot for a WIDE audience, you need to go to what most machines, most browsers, and most printing out places are actually expecting. sRGB has become the de facto standard across society. Again, the people who operate in closed-loop conditions are trying to give you bad advice--exactly as I predicted they would.

Oh Pshaw.. this whole internet thing? Total fad. It will never catch on.

 

[W.Y.Photo]

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...rum/367770-srgb-vs-adobe-rgb.html#post3304835

^ I made a thread for this guys


Lets get back on topic..

Laura, how many clients have you worked with in the past? It would be good for you to keep in touch and direct them to your website so that they may show their friends and families.

 

[The_Traveler]

Come on, Derrel, no one is saying that.
What everyone is saying is that understanding color management is important and knowing that work meant for quick view in browser needs to be in sRGB but a wider spectrum can be useful.
Stop trying to make yourself right only by disparaging other people's opinion.

 

[The_Traveler]

#1 - like the idea but her face is behind the flare

#2 - over-exposed and processed so there is way too much color noise. She merges with the background and there is just no detail in her face.
(and is in RGB on the web.)

#3 - overexposed , oof and she is looking down at her feet, but you've cut them off for no reason. When there is lots of space at the sides but you clip the head or the feet, it looks like a framing error. I understand you want a 'look' but oof isn't always a good look.

#4 way over-exposed, blanched out terribly, in focus but under-processed.
Very flat because she is in the deep shade.
She has skin blemishes and they show.

This can be edited some but her skin is so flat in the shade that the end result isn't great.
Better makeup and better light is needed.

 

[Derrel]

Come on, Derrel, no one is saying that.
What everyone is saying is that understanding color management is important and knowing that work meant for quick view in browser needs to be in sRGB but a wider spectrum can be useful.
Stop trying to make yourself right only by disparaging other people's opinion.

Lara mentioned that she has a real problem with her images on-line looking washed out and, well...sub-par.

Considering that the MAJORITY of people are viewing on color-space unaware Windoze browsers, she NEEDS to get everything into sRGB, so the VAST MAJORITY of clients, and printers, and computers where her work will be shown and viewed looks "right"...maning "as-edited", meaning "as she intended", her work to look. Again...stop being a cantankerous old fart who does not seem to grasp the very fundamental secret to selling images to a mass audience: you need to make your images look GOOD on OTHER PEOPLES' computers; on OTHER peoples' phones; on OTHER peoples' machine prints. I have very clearly drawn a distinction between one-man-band, closed-loop image manipulation and selling and shooting for a wide audience.

Why is it sooooo difficult for one man to grasp this fundamental aspect of selling,promoting, and working on the world wide web, with images shown on COLOR-profile-unaware Windows machines, and printed out on Fuji and Noritsu printers which do FABULOUS work from sRGB files?

I am disparaging the opinions of people who have no clue about how to sell photography to a mass audience, and how to ensure the most-effective presentation of an image across the widest variety of platforms. I believe I am correct on how to do what it is I am talking about.

Seemingly, you're unfamiliar with selling images to multiple clients, or with how to make a workflow that ensures CONSISTENT image appearance across the widest possible audience on the widest number of displalys and devices. Maybe you have a reading comprehension problem? Or are simply unfamiliar with how people actually view and use photos these days? You can do what you do, if you're a one-man operation with everything optimized for "your" computer and "your" hardware. Lara is experiencing a very common issue, and I've told her how to avoid it, entirely.

 

[tirediron]

OKAY... 'nuf's enough!! The OP asked about increasing her client base, NOT for a dissertation on the merits of one colour-space over another. Please confine all future responses to the actual question, mmmkay?

Thanks!

Come on, Derrel, no one is saying that.
What everyone is saying is that understanding color management is important and knowing that work meant for quick view in browser needs to be in sRGB but a wider spectrum can be useful.
Stop trying to make yourself right only by disparaging other people's opinion.

Lara mentioned that she has a real problem with her images on-line looking washed out and, well...sub-par.

Considering that the MAJORITY of people are viewing on color-space unaware Windoze browsers, she NEEDS to get everything into sRGB, so the VAST MAJORITY of clients, and printers, and computers where her work will be shown and viewed looks "right"...maning "as-edited", meaning "as she intended", her work to look. Again...stop being a cantankerous old fart who does not seem to grasp the very fundamental secret to selling images to a mass audience: you need to make your images look GOOD on OTHER PEOPLES' computers; on OTHER peoples' phones; on OTHER peoples' machine prints. I have very clearly drawn a distinction between one-man-band, closed-loop image manipulation and selling and shooting for a wide audience.

Why is it sooooo difficult for one man to grasp this fundamental aspect of selling,promoting, and working on the world wide web, with images shown on COLOR-profile-unaware Windows machines, and printed out on Fuji and Noritsu printers which do FABULOUS work from sRGB files?

I am disparaging the opinions of people who have no clue about how to sell photography to a mass audience, and how to ensure the most-effective presentation of an image across the widest variety of platforms. I believe I am correct on how to do what it is I am talking about.

Seemingly, you're unfamiliar with selling images to multiple clients, or with how to make a workflow that ensures CONSISTENT image appearance across the widest possible audience on the widest number of displalys and devices. Maybe you have a reading comprehension problem? Or are simply unfamiliar with how people actually view and use photos these days? You can do what you do, if you're a one-man operation with everything optimized for "your" computer and "your" hardware. Lara is experiencing a very common issue, and I've told her how to avoid it, entirely.

And always I think that I am speaking so clearly...