Photography website

[sapper6fd]

...The only person who treated him with any sort of respect of dignity was Rexbocat gsgary and cgipson1 and pixmedic.

Geezzz... If I had a feeling, it would be hurt!

Sorry, missed you there. Just went over the posts on the previous pages quickly!

 

[fotomumma09]

^^ this

Sarah,
Welcome to TPF! I checked out your website and think you are off to a good start. You have some shots that I am sure you are very proud of. To be honest none of them appear to be professional quality. The good thing is if you have a desire to learn and grow and a passion for photography you can build on what you already have! I would like to encourage you to stick around as there is a lot of information (stickies with great tutorials). Believe it or not there are some people on TPF who genuinely like helping others as long as they have a willingness to learn! Try not to feel deflated but keep at it! Rudeness and belittling is never an appropriate form of honestly so just ignore it.

Dannielle

Have you been drinking ?

I'm sorry, did you write something, I was ignoring you

 

[Tony S]

Like pixmedic I don't often go to links, but I did on this one.

I like the overall layout of your site. Where things are is clear and to the point, when clicking on buttons it loads up the next page pretty quick.

The images inside the portfolios need some work. A lot of the portrait shots are under exposed and have issues with shadows and hot spots.

The bug animals portfolio shows what I would call normal snapshots, everything is bullseyed right in the center of the images. Mostly more of the same from the misc., and flowers porfolio.

The landscape portfolio has some promising images that could use tweaking or reshooting at better times of the day. Keep an eye our for tilting horizons with water or if trees/towers are in the image.

Scrap the Iphone portfolio, that one does nothing at all the help your collection.

All the images in the Yosemite portfolio are soft, with no detail. Blown highlights, dark shadows, and a bluish color caste hurt most of the images. I would get rid of this set also as it does not show your very best.

Keep pluggin away, with your website only show the very best of your photography. You really need to do a good in depth self review/critique of your images before you put them up for all to see, especially if you are trying to market them or yourself.

 

[terri]

^^ this

Sarah,
Welcome to TPF! I checked out your website and think you are off to a good start. You have some shots that I am sure you are very proud of. To be honest none of them appear to be professional quality. The good thing is if you have a desire to learn and grow and a passion for photography you can build on what you already have! I would like to encourage you to stick around as there is a lot of information (stickies with great tutorials). Believe it or not there are some people on TPF who genuinely like helping others as long as they have a willingness to learn! Try not to feel deflated but keep at it! Rudeness and belittling is never an appropriate form of honestly so just ignore it.

Dannielle

Have you been drinking ?

Some people don't require a shot of anything to attempt to be pleasant while letting others down easy. She DID say "none of them appear to be professional quality", which is honest without being harsh.

Some of what has been said here to this new member is inexcusable.

Hope none of you pop open, puffing yourselves up like you do at the expense of someone else. :thumbdown:

Duly noted....

 

[PhotoWrangler]

Maybe start with learning how to take professional photos...

Sweety, you have absolutely NO PLACE to be telling people how to take professional photos... Especially when you've been posting things like this:

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...9739-second-portrait-attempt.html#post2720155

 

[MTVision]

Sweety, you have absolutely NO PLACE to be telling people how to take professional photos... Especially when you've been posting things like this:

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/people-photography/299739-second-portrait-attempt.html#post2720155

???

 

[sarahhearn]

Thank you all for making me feel more welcome to this section versus the professional area. I obviously didn't pick the right place to start at and not to mention the wrong time.
I took all your information and plan to focus on those and try to fix some images. I do like to play with colors... which can be good but in this case... can hurt.
And yep my profile picture was from my Iphone. I dont have a good picture of me done yet but I will change that as well.
Thank you all for your comments

 

[cgipson1]

Maybe start with learning how to take professional photos...

Sweety, you have absolutely NO PLACE to be telling people how to take professional photos... Especially when you've been posting things like this:

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...9739-second-portrait-attempt.html#post2720155

Christopher... while I agree with you totally, the link you chose does not belong to that individual!

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

Another warm welcome for a new member who is a soon to be member of another forum.... Some times the level of arrogance here makes me shake my head.

How about some constructive criticism? How about not blasting someone on their first post to the point where they feel like they have been raped for asking a question. They don’t know what the forums are like here, nor do they know how many posts like this come from new members.

Why not just bypass the thread if you don’t like what has been posted?

Because this happens every other day, and half of these people are linking to their Facebook photography page, and never come back. In fact, sometimes mods just delete/hide these threads outright. Granted, I was a little harsh, but I assumed the thread would be deleted before it went a couple pages .

When I see someone's first post on this forum saying "here's my website check me out and tell all you friends", it gets old.

 

[haynie90]

Poor lighting, harsh shadows, distractions in pictures (such as cars and powerlines in landscapes/sunsets), missed focus, over and under exposure.
There was a great point in a book i read and i will try to find the title as a reference but a key that he pointed out was in order to look proffesional only advertise your most proffesional looking photos, until you have reached that point a website, portfolio, or anything of the sort should be your last concern. Your major concern now should be experience, practice, general C&C of your photos here on the forum, and enjoying your hobby. Photography shouldnt be a part of your life if the only concern you have is to make money, it should be because you truly enjoy it and will do it no matter how much money you bring in. The passion you have for photography will show in your photos, eventually. Everything takes time. I have googled how to bring in extra cash working at home as my wife is a stay at home mom and it disgusts me at how the majority of the blogs about this subject list photography in they're top 10. Do what you love and love what you do, it will show. I am in no way very experienced nor consider my photos to be proffesional quality. I did not buy my camera to start a buisness, i do it because i love it and always will no matter what.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

Well, maybe if you looked to see that i JUST JOINED... that I haven't even had a few minutes to join in and talk with everyone. I didnt know that this site was filled with a bunch of rude people. MY MISTAKE. I guess maybe i will need to be rude to all of your posts to work my way in... monkey see monkey do...

Just one rude people: me.

PS: nice big words, just so you know (and I can't stress this enough) NO ONE CARES.

about what?

oh and before you make yourself look like a douche, maybe give people a chance to join in... you know... longer than an hour.

Oh, so if I gave you longer than an hour, you'd have realized by osmosis that it's distasteful to join a forum full of photographers and self-advertise as your first post? Call me a cynic.

People do sleep and people are busy. Maybe I had time to post real quick and then come back later in the day to make time for everyone else. Nice going.

Apparently not too busy to join the forum and post an advertisement to get your photography "out there".

Oh and if you couldn't tell... my name introduces itself.

Welcome to the forum!

 

[swiftparkour94]

Thank you all for making me feel more welcome to this section versus the professional area. I obviously didn't pick the right place to start at and not to mention the wrong time.
I took all your information and plan to focus on those and try to fix some images. I do like to play with colors... which can be good but in this case... can hurt.
And yep my profile picture was from my Iphone. I dont have a good picture of me done yet but I will change that as well.
Thank you all for your comments

Don't worry about fixing up the pictures, shoot more and shoot lots considering the knowledge we've given you. If all you have is an iPhone for now, who cares? That's what you have for now til you can afford better cameras, take full advantage of the opportunity to use and exploit it. You can't learn much in reguards to manual settings, exposures, etc. but what's very important to learn is composition, rule of thirds, lighting, and so forth

 

[Tight Knot]

Welcome to the forum Sarah.

Glad to see the rudeness of some didn't scare you away .
I am right on the verge of transitioning from hobbyist to semi-professional (but will always remain a hobbyist who loves to shoot for my own pleasure).
I came to this forum knowing very little, and have learned so much from people here (as well as taking courses in photography). It is really a worthwhile forum, just ignore the snarky comments.
The most important piece of advice for composition that I got when I started was:
1: Choose a theme for the photograph, ie. what is the subject of the photo? What do you want people to see?
2: Focus attention on your subject
3: Simplify the subject and photo. Remove any unwanted or distracting elements, like power lines or objects that make the eye wander from the subject.

Of course the next thing is look up different links to understand how to use the rule of thirds, and I believe that the iphone has a rule of 3rds overlay that you can use.

And next is the most difficult part, learning lighting and exposure. Unlike having an eye for photography, which generally comes naturally (and is exceptionally difficult for people who don't have it to learn it), and it appears that you do have a good eye, lighting and exposure can definitely be learned, because it is a science (there are also art aspects to it, but first learn the basics of the science, and the art will come).

Best of luck with your hobby (new or not) and best of luck fulfilling your dreams.

And just remember, photography is one area that IS legal to shoot people for fun and profit, and won't get you sent away for 10 - life (in most cases ).

 

[KmH]

Having an eye for photography can indeed be learned, and learned fairly easily. No doubt there are a few people born with it.

Of those born with an eye for photography, even fewer actually become photographers. Of those few that become photographers, even fewer become successful in the business of photography, usually because they lack business acumen and/or sufficient technical photographic knowledge to make the camera/lens/light do what they need done.

 

[Tight Knot]

Having an eye for photography can indeed be learned, and learned fairly easily. No doubt there are a few people born with it.

Of those born with an eye for photography, even fewer actually become photographers. Of those few that become photographers, even fewer become successful in the business of photography, usually because they lack business acumen and/or sufficient technical photographic knowledge to make the camera/lens/light do what they need done.

Hi KmH,

I agree that very few people who have a natural eye for photography become successful photographers because of the reasons you mentioned. But I still feel that the difference between a good photographer and a great photographer is whether a person has a natural eye or not. Can it be learned? Absolutely, but not easily. Can someone who doesn't have a natural eye become as good as someone who does? Yes, but with a lot more effort.
Successful financially usually requires a good business sense and an excellent foundation in the science of photography.