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Portfolio review please


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Please can I have a review of my SMALL portfolio.

I have one sale, a fair few views and hardly any zooms.

Also know it needs to be bigger but only have weekends to take photos.

Thanks in anticipation

Janet

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Hi Janet,

 

Your photos look bright and colourful on my monitor, so I guess your technical procedures are fine. Too often when people ask for a review their photos look dull or dark, but yours look OK to me.

 

Some of your shots need a wee bit more impact, for example there is a couple of photos of Morris dancers who don't seem to be doing very much, you need to see them leaping in the air, or waving their hankies above their heads, or take characterful close ups of their faces etc. Get down low with a wide angle lens to emphasise the action.

 

You have lots of bird photos, but there is lots of competition from good people in this area, take a look at what the others are doing. I'm not saying that they won't sell but you probably need to find a new slant to be successful in this area.

 

It's never ceases to surprise me what sells and you only find out by taking a variety of subjects and having the courage to upload. As you say 321 is not a lot of photos in this game and you have done well to have sold a few already. However you may need to increase your port to 3210 before you start to see regular sales.

 

 

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I don't have any expertise on what sells, but my purely personal opinion on your photos: 1. Some look a bit over-exposed - watch out for blown out highlights; better to underexpose and lift the shadows later. 2. In some cases subjects are slightly cut off at the edge of the frame - line up frame edges with pleasing and natural cut off points - picture buyers can crop later if they need to. 3. Quite a few subjects are extensively covered already (e.g. Big Ben, farm animals, common bird species) - think about how to make your shots different, e.g. by exceptional technical quality, unusual animal behaviour, distinctive light quality or post-processing, etc. 4. Put more accurate description in the captions, e.g. what colour or variety the flower is, what the sign says, the fact that the blue tit is on a hand, etc. But generally I think your photos look great and you have a nice personal style.

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In addition to what the others have stated above about the lighting, I think your composition can improve. 

 

JPH9PK: You chopped their heads off

JF87PN: Dutch angle doesn't work here I think

J4AHEJ : Cutting the red bus off. This image belongs in the trash, wait another 30 seconds and another bus would go by perfectly in the frame on the busy Strand.

You get the point...


Also, lots of tilted horizons. Remember that the best images are with plenty of space around the subject so the buyer can crop accordingly. With a tight crop, the buyer will probably look elsewhere unless the image is super special.

 

Nice start, keep going!

 

 

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Hi All.

Thank you so much for the advise and encouragement and Brasilnut I get the point, but I need to learn not to rush things and slow down to re-assess the composition. Still learning about captions and keywords. Trying to practice on tilted horizons and leaving space around the edges.

Robert and Brasilnut thank you for nice words

Bryan, Maybe I need to retire to get out and about more.

Thanks again and happy snapping

Janet

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Quote

Trying to practice on tilted horizons and leaving space around the edges.

 

A wise photographer friend gave me a great advice once which I'll never forget.

 

He said "Always crop in post-processing, never when taking the shot." In other words, if you have a powerful enough camera it's fine to shoot quite wide and then crop. I use a full-frame and that really helps.

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Thanks again Brasilnut that's really good advice, although I'm not sure what full frame means as I only have an entry level Nikon d3200 and Tameron 70-300m lens plus the usual kit lens.

At the moment I only use Pixlr for any processing as all the others are a bit expensive.(limited budget)

 

Janet

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1 hour ago, Janet said:

I only use Pixlr

 

The biggest change you can make immediately in image quality is to shoot in RAW format and convert using software. Lightroom is available with a one-off purchase. There are others including free ones.

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3 hours ago, Janet said:

Hi All.

Thank you so much for the advise and encouragement and Brasilnut I get the point, but I need to learn not to rush things and slow down to re-assess the composition. Still learning about captions and keywords. Trying to practice on tilted horizons and leaving space around the edges.

Robert and Brasilnut thank you for nice words

Bryan, Maybe I need to retire to get out and about more.

Thanks again and happy snapping

Janet

 

Remember the old adage, its not the equipment, its the person using it that counts.

 

I use a consumer level camera most of the time as well.  Canon 650D with the kit lens and a consumer 70-250 zoom.  But both lenses have image stabilization.  90% of my images are taken with it.  I also have a Sony RX100 M2.  I now use it most of the time.  Mirrorless so small and lightweight.  Love it.

 

Post processing is extremely important to your final images if you want to compete in the big 110 million image pool that is Alamy.  Simple things like correcting your horizons can be done with it.  Try the subscription of Photoshop and Lightroom.  Shoot RAW and do all processing with your RAW image. Big learning curve but well worth the effort and money.

 

Jill

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3 minutes ago, Jill Morgan said:

 

Remember the old adage, its not the equipment, its the person using it that counts.

 

I use a consumer level camera most of the time as well.  Canon 650D with the kit lens and a consumer 70-250 zoom.  But both lenses have image stabilization.  90% of my images are taken with it.  I also have a Sony RX100 M2.  I now use it most of the time.  Mirrorless so small and lightweight.  Love it.

 

Post processing is extremely important to your final images if you want to compete in the big 110 million image pool that is Alamy.  Simple things like correcting your horizons can be done with it.  Try the subscription of Photoshop and Lightroom.  Shoot RAW and do all processing with your RAW image. Big learning curve but well worth the effort and money.

 

Jill

 

Absolutely agree that the TOG is more important than the gear. I have a full frame Canon, but I use a small mirrorless Sony for virtually all of my stock shooting .

 

Rather than spend money on Photoshop and Lightroom however, you might explore the raw converter that, presumably, comes with your camera. I used the equivalent Canon software for years. Alternatively there are a few people here who successfully use Photoshop Elements, which is a cut down version of Photoshop and a good deal cheaper. 

 

You can either buy (some) Adobe software outright or pay a rental. Personally I won't touch rental, but each to their own. I currently use a purchased up to date copy of LR and and have a very elderly purchased copy of Photoshop. You have to dig deep within the Adobe firmament in order to locate stand alone purchasable copies, as the company wants to hook you with rental, but they do exist for LR and, I think, Elements.

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GIMP is a free alternative to Photoshop and Lightroom. I haven't ever tried it but I think I'm going to have to explore it for my wife who also runs a big iMac downstairs and her latest operating system update seems to have knackered a lot of her software. Good thinking Apple!

 

someone on the forum is bound to be up to speed on GIMP I think it runs on PCs as well as Macs

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Cheers Robert, I tried it a while ago but needed more time to get to grips with, I had forgotten that one, but I think now there are tutorials on utube.

It seems to work very similar to PS and LR. 

Janet

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Well, I've never heard of it referred to as Dutch Angle but I do see it from time to time on Alamy, but hardly ever in print. It seems to me as a kind of desperate resort of a photographer who is short on technique or equipment and hopes a daft angle may rescue them. It doesn't!

 

Let's be charitable and suggest you tripped in mid-shot!  I wouldn't have commented if Jeff hadn't so cruelly pointed it out.

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I tried a few of those angle shots way...way back in my beginning when they seemed to be done a bit.  Never much liked the results, but I wanted to cover bases. I should ferret them out and delete them. Yet, one did sell. A food image.

Betty

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8 hours ago, Janet said:

Thanks again Brasilnut that's really good advice, although I'm not sure what full frame means as I only have an entry level Nikon d3200 and Tameron 70-300m lens plus the usual kit lens.

At the moment I only use Pixlr for any processing as all the others are a bit expensive.(limited budget)

 

Janet

Janet, this might explain the difference between a crop camera like you and I shoot vs a full frame. A full frame shoots like a film camera.

A crop camera comes in handy shooting birds and small wildlife. I've had both kinds, and prefer a crop camera.  A 50mm lens on full frame shoots 50mm. A 50 mm lens on your Nikon shoots like a 75mm lens. Your subject looks farther away through a full frame camera.- Betty

 

"If you are using a crop frame camera the sensor is cropping out the edges of the frame, which is effectively increasing the focal length. The amount of difference in the field of view or focal length with a crop sensor is measured by its “Multiplier.” For example, a Nikon APS-C crop sensor has a 1.5x multiplier."

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25 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

I tried a few of those angle shots way...way back in my beginning when they seemed to be done a bit.  Never much liked the results, but I wanted to cover bases. I should ferret them out and delete them. Yet, one did sell. A food image.

Betty

Big deal, I have 4 angled images.  So I sold one of four, but that was ages ago.

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Thanks Robert but I am not desperate just trying to do something different if it doesn't work won't do it again.

Betty, thank you for a comprehensive explaination I think I get it now.

So out today to put all ideas into practice and see what I come up with.

Thanks again

Happy snapping

Janet

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19 hours ago, Robert M Estall said:

Well, I've never heard of it referred to as Dutch Angle but I do see it from time to time on Alamy, but hardly ever in print. It seems to me as a kind of desperate resort of a photographer who is short on technique or equipment and hopes a daft angle may rescue them. It doesn't!

 

Let's be charitable and suggest you tripped in mid-shot!  I wouldn't have commented if Jeff hadn't so cruelly pointed it out.

 

Ouch!  A tad harsh, Robert, don't you think?

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Thank you Geoff for the useful suggestions I'll have a look through and try to add more detail to captions and tags although if it's in the caption should I use a tag as well.

Happy snapping 

Janet

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