"Wow, your pictures just are not very good..."

[sabbath999]

"Wow, your pictures just are not very good..."

That is what I feel like saying after browsing around on a lot of the websites for commercial photographers in my area...

I am comparing them to some of the sites that y'all fellow TPF people put up, and it is night and day... and I am not talking about the quality of the web designs, I am talking about the PICTURES posted as examples.

I am not a pro shooter any more, I left the business years ago... but I think I have a reasonable idea of what a good, well composed, well lit, well processed/postprocessed photo looks like... and these folks just don't. Why in the world somebody would use some of these pictures as advertising is beyond me.

Here is what brought me to this. I have had several people ask me if I would shoot their weddings... but I don't do weddings any more (or anything else commercial at the moment)... so I have been looking around for an affordable, professional looking photographer to recommend, and so far I have found nothing.

Have you ever looked up the websites of some of your competitors (not that these are my competitors, I don't shoot commercially) and cringed?

 

[Big Mike]

My area is filled with FANTASTIC photographers...so when I search, I usually find some outstanding photos and I do cringe but it's because they are my competition.

I have seen a few bad ones, with poor photos on their site...and I agree, it's hard to fathom why they would use crap like that to advertise...or why people would hire them.

 

[wildmaven]

Since I'm just starting out, I look at the websites of a lot of photographers outside of my geographic area (since I'm the only photographer inside my area, ha ha!) to get an idea as to their pricing, packages, etc. I have stumbled across a few who were worse than me, and they say they have been in the business for 20+ years. I guess you can always teach someone to use a camera, but you can't teach them to "see".

 

[Big Mike]

I guess it should be noted that some photographers (especially those who have been in business for 20+ years) may not be digitally inclined and might not be presenting their work digitally, as well as others do.

If they have been in business for 20 years, they must be doing something right. I guess the real measure would be whether or not they make their clients happy.

 

[sabbath999]

Certainly there are good photographers around... One of them is the best, by far, I have ever seen. He doesn't "do" the web... is booked as busy as he wants to be charging triple the rate everybody else does and earning every penny of it. Perhaps my area is just filled with people who charge money for snapshots, I dunno.

 

[Mike Jordan]

The younger generation seems to consider "good" and "bad" differently than many of us did decades ago. What I see as out of focus, poor posing, lousy cropping, wrong orientation (horz vrs. vert), tilted, slanted and just plain crooked, motion blur, poor exposure, etc., etc., etc., would have gotten thrown away back in the 70's but are considered "art" today. And worse it gets, the more it seems new photographers copy it.

Also, anyone that has been in photographery for more than a few months, usually has learned to look at things with "photographic" eyes. While many people that aren't involved in photography look at images with a different set of eyes and mind set. It's the same idea as a mother changing a dirty diaper of their own kid's or having to do it for someone elses.

Mike

 

[petey]

It seems so subjective to me. I see pictures with shadows that some people say ruin the picture, but others say it makes it better. I get confused sometimes. It's like art. I think some pictures just plain work and some don't.

 

[Christie Photo]

...websites for commercial photographers in my area...

In the interest of being accurate... "commercial photographer" usually refers to folks who make photographs for "commerce."

So, commercial photographers are not shooting weddings or making portraits. Commercial photographers make images of products, buildings, factories and the like.... images used for advertising, annual reports, etc.

-Pete

 

[Battou]

In the interest of being accurate... "commercial photographer" usually refers to folks who make photographs for "commerce."

So, commercial photographers are not shooting weddings or making portraits. Commercial photographers make images of products, buildings, factories and the like.... images used for advertising, annual reports, etc.

-Pete

Not to be mean, but by the same standard a professional photographer is one who makes money with their photos. This would mean all the photographers who have decided to get out of the "business" of photography are reverted to amateur status as they are not making money from their photography.

The business Photography is in a sence commerse in and of it self, technicalities may not always apply

 

[sabbath999]

In the interest of being accurate... "commercial photographer" usually refers to folks who make photographs for "commerce."

So, commercial photographers are not shooting weddings or making portraits. Commercial photographers make images of products, buildings, factories and the like.... images used for advertising, annual reports, etc.

-Pete

I totally agree with you, in fact I thought this looking back on my post a couple days later. While Battou is completely correct, since the whole idea behind posting on a forum is communication, I should have been more clear. I am bashing the hack-n-slash wedding/senior/family portrait websites of many of the people around here (by here as in my part of the country, not here as in TPF).

 

[wildmaven]

I guess it should be noted that some photographers (especially those who have been in business for 20+ years) may not be digitally inclined and might not be presenting their work digitally, as well as others do.

If they have been in business for 20 years, they must be doing something right. I guess the real measure would be whether or not they make their clients happy.

Good point. I've found two styles in my local area. One is the really old "by the book" portrait photography, and the other is the more edgy, art style. Since I fall halfway between the two, it's probably why I'm getting so much work.

 

[Christie Photo]

I am bashing the hack-n-slash wedding/senior/family portrait websites of many of the people around here (by here as in my part of the country, not here as in TPF).

Oh... it's not just there. It's pretty wide-spread.

Yet somehow, they keep turning up. Go figure.