My portfolio.

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Ok, had a chance to look through some of the animal shots, I stuck with those since they are a little more in my own personal wheelhouse. The first pic, puppy dog - the eyes are pretty heavily shadowed and it makes them appear soft as a result. All in all it's a pretty good pic, if you have access to photoshop normally what I do for pictures like this is copy the eyes to a seperate layer and use the shadow/highlight tool to reduce some of the shadow and then blend that layer back into the original. I do this a lot for gorilla pics in particular, they have very heavy set brows and as a result their eyes are generally pretty heavily shaded.

The second pic, ready to pounce - I would probably have framed this one a little differently. I think this would benefit from a closer crop on the cat, the extra branches on either side really aren't adding a lot to the photo. Also if possible less space above the cat and more space below, since he's "pouncing" from above.

On the bird shots, again if you can crop these a bit closer that would be my recommendation - not really much in the background on these that really stands out so making the bird a larger percentage of the image would probably be my recommendation.

All in all some pretty nice shots there though, a lot of potential. And that having been said, "GET OFF MY LAWN!". Lol.. sorry, but I really do live for that.
 
I must admit I'm a little confused with the comments asking the OP to post photos rather than a link to his website.

This section of the website is described as:
"Personal and Professional Photography Websites
Promote your personal and professional photography web sites by posting information about them here!"


The OP is looking for opinions about his website ... which seems to be exactly what this section is supposed to be about.:confused:
I am unclear as to why he is being told to post photos instead????

That's pretty much what I asked myself...

The simple answer to this is that comments on people's web sites are generally about the overall look and functionality of the site, as opposed to the pictures on that site.
The pictures might be mentioned vis a vis their appropriateness and size but they are a small part of a web site review.
500px is NOT a personal or professional website; it is an image hosting service. The OP has no control over anything other than the images he posts. The intent of this particular forum is actually to allow for critique on individual's websites and to make suggestions for changes or improvements.
the PORTFOLIO IS 100% mine. THe ONLY connection it has to 50px.com is that their name is in it because they host it. I have 100% site editablitily over it. So it counts as my own, ontop of the fact that there is about 1 or 2 or maybe 3 threads under me a person who did the 100% same exact thing as me. Now if you look in that thread, EVERYONE clicked the link to her 500px portfolio. So all this discussion is absolute idiocracy. I can understand if you don't have time or want to click the link. But please don't start coming up with nonesense. FYI, you must not know the first thing about 500px either, because they are a professional site. And a 500px portfolio is 100x different from their actual site.

[h=2]@Pixelrabbbit. People say flickr is good, but I just can't get myself to use it.. Not only would I have to upload all my photos again, but i'd have to also spend more time on that, and I hate flickr and everything yahoo stands for. I'm so tied up with working on my actually .com website, my 500px, photos, researching, learning, and since i'm 15... Chores.. Lol. Thanks for the suggestion but I really wouldn't want to go to flickr..[/h]
@The_Travler. I understand, however as other said this part of the forum is mean't for links. The portfolio is an actual professional site that I have all control of, thus making it my website. If people don't want to crit the photos, I guess I can understand that as it does take time. But I assumed anyone who even looks in this part of the forum would be looking to crit websites..

@memento " because I'm at work on a work computer on a work network and don't know or trust this person and have no idea what I'm 'clicking' on nor where it's going to send me." Then you can wait until you are home or something instead of causing trouble?

@Robbins. I see exactly where you are coming from. I can try cropping, but these were originally hand held "snapshots" that I didn't think would be good. Thus being handheld my camera doesn't handle cropping too great. The one bird on the bird feeder ones is cropped, and look how bad the pixels look. But I will certainly pay more attention when I take photos, not just to take them, but also be in the position of the story i'm telling. Like with the cat, I could have right away said to myself, " if he's going to pounce, I should have him higher in the picture.. and so on. So I thank you, very useful insight.

Ok ok, i'm going. DON'T SHOOT!
:lmao:
 
@memento " because I'm at work on a work computer on a work network and don't know or trust this person and have no idea what I'm 'clicking' on nor where it's going to send me." Then you can wait until you are home or something instead of causing trouble?

I don't feel like I'm causing any trouble. I'm just explaining why people don't like to click random links on an internet forum.
And no I can't wait until I get home. If I don't want to click a random link at work, why would I want to on my personal computer?
Clearly your link is legit, judging by other's comments but I'm not interested.
Good luck in your future!
 
@Robbins. I see exactly where you are coming from. I can try cropping, but these were originally hand held "snapshots" that I didn't think would be good. Thus being handheld my camera doesn't handle cropping too great. The one bird on the bird feeder ones is cropped, and look how bad the pixels look. But I will certainly pay more attention when I take photos, not just to take them, but also be in the position of the story i'm telling. Like with the cat, I could have right away said to myself, " if he's going to pounce, I should have him higher in the picture.. and so on. So I thank you, very useful insight.

Ok ok, i'm going. DON'T SHOOT!
:lmao:

No worries, nobody gets the shots they want everytime. Believe me, wish I had a dime for every time I shot something in the field and thought, Oh my! Now that is going to be a spectacular shot! Then I get home and look at it and it's.. meh. Yup, not much I can do to save that one.. lol.

Not sure what image editor your using, but one thing I've found that helps a lot in cropping is to load the image in it's original size and copy the entire image in it's original size. On my D5200 the file size starts at something like 6000 x 4000 - it's just huge. So I take the original 6000x4000 picture, once I have it copied into the cut and past buffer I then resize the file to 3000 x 2000, and then paste the original 6000x4000 image back into the smaller frame. Gives you a pretty dramatic crop without IQ loss, and then you can resize the original image from there as needed. I don't generally need that much of a crop so I usually end up reducing the size of the original, rather than trying to increase it.

The smaller file size is more than enough - way more than enough really for computer backgrounds, viewing on the web, etc - so it works pretty well.

On the issue of handheld, well pretty much everything I shoot is handheld. I have a monopod and a tripod but it's a very rare thing for me to carry either. Trick to shooting handheld is to keep your shutter speed up and learn how to brace yourself when possible to get the steadiest shot you can. In general you want a shutter speed at least equal to the focal length your shooting at or higher to avoid blur from camera shake, so if your shooting at 200 mm you want a shutter speed that's 1/200 or higher, etc.

When I can I actually prefer to shoot at shutter speeds that are 3x or even 4x my focal length - not always possible but when I have enough light it really does make a noticeable difference in the final results. So if I'm shooting at 200 mm and I can get my shutter speed up to 1/600 or 1/800 without the ISO getting way to high, I will.

Hope that helps. :)
 
@memento " because I'm at work on a work computer on a work network and don't know or trust this person and have no idea what I'm 'clicking' on nor where it's going to send me." Then you can wait until you are home or something instead of causing trouble?

I don't feel like I'm causing any trouble. I'm just explaining why people don't like to click random links on an internet forum.
And no I can't wait until I get home. If I don't want to click a random link at work, why would I want to on my personal computer?
Clearly your link is legit, judging by other's comments but I'm not interested.
Good luck in your future!

Shhhh, it's okay. He's 15 (apparently). He knows everything. :greenpbl:

Didn't *you* have all the logic when you were 15 Momento? I did. What's wrong with you? :sexywink: :biglaugh: :hug::
 
@memento " because I'm at work on a work computer on a work network and don't know or trust this person and have no idea what I'm 'clicking' on nor where it's going to send me." Then you can wait until you are home or something instead of causing trouble?

I don't feel like I'm causing any trouble. I'm just explaining why people don't like to click random links on an internet forum.
And no I can't wait until I get home. If I don't want to click a random link at work, why would I want to on my personal computer?
Clearly your link is legit, judging by other's comments but I'm not interested.
Good luck in your future!

Shhhh, it's okay. He's 15 (apparently). He knows everything. :greenpbl:

Didn't *you* have all the logic when you were 15 Momento? I did. What's wrong with you? :sexywink: :biglaugh: :hug::
You push it to far. Grow up.
 
I was a little put off by the religious aspect of the home page. Seems unnecessary. And the macro stuff is nice... I guess... I'm not really into that so I'm not much of a judge. The reaction I got from the other gallery was... Is everything centered? You need to work on making your compositions a bit more dynamic.

My 2 cents.
You were "put off" because he mentioned God?? Why does that bother you?
You'll be surprised how many people will avoid someone because of his/her religion.. I've seen people fired for mentioning God, so to me it is no surprise.

He asked for opinions on his portfolio. I gave mine. Not everyone is a believer in such things and when you lead with that, it sets a tone, an expectation of what's to come. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with what he or others believe, I just don't think it belongs in a portfolio. You wouldn't put that on a resume, why would you lead-off your portfolio with it.

I was a little put off by the religious aspect of the home page. Seems unnecessary. And the macro stuff is nice... I guess... I'm not really into that so I'm not much of a judge. The reaction I got from the other gallery was... Is everything centered? You need to work on making your compositions a bit more dynamic.

My 2 cents.
Wow !!! You have 3 flickr pages and not a single comment.

I made that page less than a week ago. Feel free to be my first.
 
I would personally work on your selection process. Your portfolio should be a small collection of your VERY BEST work, not just everything you shoot. That said, you could easily make a decent more focused portfolio with what's on your page. I'd personally recommend narrowing it down to around 50 images, or say 20 per category if you don't want to show off a particular niche.

May I also mention that it seems like a very bad practice to review somebody's website based only on screenshots - user experience is just as important as appearance. An amazing looking website that is far too slow to load and hard to navigate is useless.
 
I would personally work on your selection process. Your portfolio should be a small collection of your VERY BEST work, not just everything you shoot. That said, you could easily make a decent more focused portfolio with what's on your page. I'd personally recommend narrowing it down to around 50 images, or say 20 per category if you don't want to show off a particular niche.

May I also mention that it seems like a very bad practice to review somebody's website based only on screenshots - user experience is just as important as appearance. An amazing looking website that is far too slow to load and hard to navigate is useless.
Screen shots? I hope you clicked the link :p Also, I did edit it, I put everything in more/different categories. And sorted them as well. So if you didn't see the new version then take a look again and see if it's better :)
 
Maybe you should wait until you finish your website which would contain your best work ?

Many people have critiqued websites .. offering help on improving it, making it more apparent for customers and help drive the customer to want to use services.
 
"Life", TPF is a forum that's probably 80% social, 20% photography. Whatever your merits as a photographer, telling long-standing members of the forum (including at least one moderator) to "grow up" or call their comments "nonsense" isn't going to win you many fans or make people want to help you. There ARE members in this forum who can help a lot, and give excellent advice. However, your attitude, as expressed in your replies, does not seem (at least to me) to invite people to willingly contribute their time and knowledge so that you can benefit. Your age is quite irrelevant as far as your abilities are concerned, but it does reveal a certain immaturity in terms of your interaction with others. As far as limiting your own options (flickr, yahoo) due to your perceptions of the organizations that they belong to, you may find that much of what you come in contact with may be tainted in one form or another. The way the world works is much dirtier and messier than we usually want to acknowledge.

The band-width limitations you experience are real, but they are irrelevant to most people who have access to the internet. If people find that this is a significant friction point, they may choose to skip interacting with you, even though it may not be directly due to you or be under your control. You inform people on your site that you are "available for hire". If you are truly as remote as you imply, does that mean that people will need to trek to your location for photo-shoots, or are you planning to drive out/fly out to wherever the shoot should happen? Once the shoot is done, people often exchange images to make sure that everyone's on the same page. If you have limitations on the bandwidth, how will you make that work? Basically, be very careful about promising what you'll have difficulty delivering.
 
If e.rose IS a mod, then that is bad for the forum. I'm not going to suck up to a person, well I don't even need to go there. And yes if someone hires me, I CAN fly, they just need ot pay the ticket. And for hire is also for locals, because i'm advertised locally. So a lot of local people are the ones who do/will see my website. It will be a long time before I come close to needing to fly for photoshoots..

@ astro that will take a while because i'm running into a problem with files on there..
 
No e-rose isn't a moderator. Look at the avatar/aliases on the left and underneath it can be a description .. like "Watch the "Birdy!
Site Moderator" and all around great guy.

Is the basic structure of your website up and going .. sans photos ?


ooh .. duh .. you have a link to it in your signature now.
 
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