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Could you critique my portfolio


tirkad

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I will leave it to others to comment on your subjects and composition, but my general feeling about your photos is that they're too grey. See if you can get more color, shape, highlight and shadow in them. 

 

And please don't think "wrong." It's not "wrong," it's just not as great as it will be next time.

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I'm also new here on Alamy, but I'm on other sites for somewhat longer. There is no absolute verdict about a photo. Brian Philippe and John are right about the grey sky of San Diego. But then, lets assume all other stock pics are with blue skies, why make what others have already made? I think the grey sky does well on some of the pics with homeless people and traffic jams. By nature I am sinister, I like sinister pics, I make sinister pics. Believe it or not, they also sell. 

 

Browse trough stockphotos and pay attention to what is not there. If you find somethign, keep it as your dearest secret and start making stock photos of it. There is always room to improve, but do not take a bad critique of a picture or a group of pictures as something absolute.

One pic I submitted to Some Stock site was rejected with a rude comment from the file inspector. Basically the inspector sugested me to fin other tihings to do than photos. I Submitted it to another stock agency, where it got past the file inspector, and it has sold quite well on that other site. OK, somebody could be collecting pictures gone bad for something about photograpy, but why then download it 5 seprarate times in 2 months? That even with a stock photo site that has major issues keeping itself totether, and had several days of downtime in that time period.

 

Alamy sales may not be so common than sales on some other sites, but they pay better. I can see you signed up just about the start of the "Silly time", that "Silly time" should be   juat about to end now. 

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+1 to everything Philippe said. 

 

I think you need more colourful images, and some improvements in composition.  For every subject you shoot, think of how a customer might use the image, and try to capture it for those needs.   For example, if someone was looking for images of San Diego to include in a travel book, what types of images would they want?  Probably bright and colourful images of popular landmarks and sightseeing spots, and other interesting areas in the city.   Images taken on dull days, with little of interest in the photo, probably won't sell that well.   

 

Not that all images have to be with blue skies and sunshine - I have sold photos of rainy days, but they were still colourful and had people in the image and told a story (one was used for a story on high precipitation levels in one particular area).

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Philippe, as usual, hits the nail upon the head. A trifle harsh perhaps, but correct.

 

From a brief look, far too many similar shots, for example of the TCL Chinese Theatre. As  a general rule, one landscape and one portrait (if feasible), from the same viewpoint, is enough. 

 

Grey sky shots do sometimes sell, for sure, but most users are wanting blue sky, white cloud, sunshine  pics. Think about the buyer, are they using the photo to promote a place or denigrate it?

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Like this one of people returning to the mainland after a nice holiday on the Isle of Wight.

 

 

wight-sun-vehicle-and-passenger-ferry-ta

 

 

Thankfully I was on the ferry going in the opposite direction to start my holiday, and very nice it was too.

 

Allan

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Those grey skies remind me of just how overcast the IOW can be. Nice place but spent far too many years there as a kid! :-(

 

 

Strange but when I have been there the skies were mostly blue and when looking to the mainland the skies were overcast.

 

Allan

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Thank you all for your comments.

 

First of all i ve been in San Diego just for two days and unfortunately weather was bad.

 

Also i understand that in Alamy customers want color corrected images, not color graded. All my images have filtered with various film presets. Thats why some of my images are grey because i want them with that color.

 

I will upload some more images with just color corected and try with that way. Thank you all for your comments.

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  • 3 months later...

I am nobody and probably need more advice than I can give, but from the point of view of someone who wants to help, I will try to give an opinion. That should be taken with caution since I am a newbie also.

 

Besides the sky problem and obvious exposure problems, I do think that many of your photos lack a clear subject. It is always good to ask oneself, before taking photo, what is that you want to say, or show, with that photo. Familiarize yourself with the rules of composition, and try to work with simpler subjects. Instead of the entire "street view of Sandiego Shore area",  find something in it to become your focal point, and that tells the message that you want to give. 

 

The photos below are clear examples:

 

street-view-in-san-diego-shore-area-g3xg

 

street-view-in-san-diego-shore-area-g3xg

 

 

What is the subject of these photos? What story do you want to tell? Can you narrow it down to one element?  Are you trying to show the sidewalk before the street? The intersection? The buildings in the horizon? Whatever is what you want to show you have to frame it in such a way that the subject of the photo will be clear to the viewer. If you don't know what the subject of your photo is, don't expect that the customer will. 

 

There are many books and other sources of help with regards to composition, with clear, illustrated examples of how to approach a scene and work it in towards your subject. Read those books, practice a lot. Without a clear grasp of that you will go nowhere. I have also been guilty of producing and sometimes submitting images with poor composition, and I have a lot of images on the deletion row due to that. Once your images are online, however, it takes about 6 months to get rid of them. Better to think before you submit. 

 

Best regards and hopefully this will help!

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