Beginner Professional Critique

[NDevon]

Ha I thought it was snow! As I said - what do I know!

The site looks nice - dark background, fonts, image sizes are good. Just mull over my suggestions, use them to get you thinking, you don't have to do any of it but it might give you a start.

Be confident in your work, tel me what I can buy for what price, don't let me tell you what you are going to sell me. Think of restaurants, if you have a menu with 500 items on where does the customer start? They will choose something eventually but it wastes everyone's time. Give them a really nice menu with 8 or ten starters, main courses and deserts and the restaurant saves money and the customer chooses more quickly. I bet they don't walk out without eating.

Obviously it's different for you, but the analogy is worth considering because you do have a menu, and if you add it all together with the number of pictures the number of potential items you could sell is actually staggering.

It's always hard to be critical of your own work, but as I said your pictures are really nice in my opinion. Let's be honest it's unlikely a photographer would be buying your pics - right? So hold off with all the photographer talk, and share the emotion and you reasons for taking the pic and what you like about website is far from bad, I've seen a lot worse many times over, you have most of the basic stuff working for you, it just needs tidying - changing text and links and which picture goes where is the easy stuff.

I wish you all the best, fell free to message me if I can talk anything over with you.

 

[James Blonde]

Thanks again Marc for your time

Cutting down the number of options is probably going to be quite easy to be honest! I know there are too many sizes and too many paper options, mounts and overlays, etc etc. The logic was I wanted the customer to get exactly what they wanted, and the printers offered so many options, but why would the customer know what they want, other than a nice picture? So I reckon I could get it down to 2 or 3 sizes, and I can pick a photographic paper and a premium paper, and it'll be mounted. Simple! It'll make everyone's life easier!

You've probably sat and thought "I really must update the news section on my website" but didn't know what to add, and then as time moves on it gets harder to add something. News sections are rarely a good idea unless they are regularly updated and going to be read. You have a profil page, you can keep that updated (you move around the country now and then, and you travel so you could put little updates about that in there. But the 'news page' just clutters the site

Yep, that comes from the site having a blog option and me thinking I should probably use it! It's useful if I've got something to say, but it's not like I use it much, and not sure anyone is interested anyway!

The other thing about the gallery & store is I really didn't like all the thumbnail images. I really liked to see the large images, and I liked being able to read about them, then suddenly the site took a sharp turn in a different direction when I wanted to see what was for sale. I also noticed many images had a similar image next to them, just slightly different. You choose. It's your picture, which looks best? At that point taking away the similar images you'd reduce the numbers a little, I'd hen cull further taking away pictures that are from a different location but similar, so you end up with a smaller portfolio of really lovely images that you are proud of. You could always have a link to 'further work' that takes me to another gallery with all the pics you've just removed, not thumbnails hopefully, maybe 4, 6 or 8 to a page, easy to navigate.

This is one of the things I'm not happy with, and seems to be a limitation of the hosting / eCommerce package I'm using - it's a bit clunky and old fashioned, and the templates really don't show images at their best and in a way I'm happy with, or link through the way I'd ideally want. I have an idea of what I want, but I really struggle to get it with this package, But it's cheap, has eCommerce features, protects my images and links directly with the printers. Given the volumes of prints I'm selling (one every 6 months if I'm lucky, and I'm paying £5.99 a month) it's not worth paying more for a different company (closer to £30 a month), and I'm not really technical enough any more to set up my own site, database, protect the images, link in an eCommerce package, etc. Having said that, an old acquaintance who's less technical than me has just set up a nice site with some open source eCommerce modules and suchlike, so maybe there is hope for me if I get bored over the winter!

If each of the pictures you have left has some text about it and is displayed in the relevant section with a price I think the site would look a lot more professional - a gallery. You will have lost 2 links but maybe added another for 'further work'. I'd make the 'contact' button seperate, move it out of the menu, it should be on each page and easy to find still, but you will have a clear clean menu of things people want to click.

I need to rework the menu names. They were set up at a time when the titles made some sense. I'd just had a trip to the Lakes, I lived in the South West, I regularly visited the Borders, had a few wider trips to parts of Scotland that didn't fit in the Borders, had some nice overseas landscapes from holidays and then had a ton of other photos I knew people liked. They don't make so much sense any more

Personally I'd work on the 'profile' page, take out all the technical stuff about 'raw' and what camera you use. Sell yourself. Write more about your photos - how long it takes you to find the perfect shot and how you go about it, your travels - where do you want to go next, if people realise these are not just snaps someone has taken on a hike and actually there is a lot of planning, thought and effort plus a lot of work once you get back you give the picture some value.

I'm a bit crap at creative writing, and I hate writing in third person, which is why I guess I've stuck to functional, verging on technical. Maybe I should get someone else to write something for that? Thought for the day.... I'll give it a shot myself and see if I can do better.

Be more selective about which picture is displayed where. Change them with the seasons - there is a winter image when the site first loads, as far as I'm aware it's summer. Dare I ask how long that image has been on there loading first? Plan when you will change the images, there is nothing wrong with the same image loading each time but it should be replaced fairly frequently.

Again, partly a limitation of the hosting package and how it groups and displays images on different parts of the site, but partly the fact I've added, but not removed, images as it's not as straight forward as it should be. I need to be more proactive though. Also why you'll see near duplicate images.

It's really important to constantly work on the site. High end stores on the high street will be changing their window displays monthly, if not more often, they will be checking on them daily, it is their advert, the first thing people see. Change yours with the seasons, but have several for each season so they change every few weeks or so. Is is why the news section of the site doesn't work. If you were using it to show off your latest picture and the story behind it that would be great, as long as it was updated monthly. Once the news hasn't been updated for a month it starts to look like the site isn't cared for. There is a trick to this. Get your 'news' for the next few months ready, spend a little while getting it all set, then publish the items on a select date. If your site software allows scheduling you may well find you can set it all up,so every few weeks a new item is published in the news. I wouldn't call it 'news' but it would be an interesting addition to the site.

That's a good thought actually. the "News" section is a Wordpress blog, which does have scheduling features I think. If I can be more proactive with it over the next 6 months, and use it to launch photos onto the site, then maybe it makes a case for keeping it. If I don't over the next 6 months, I just ditch it.

Sorry for all the words, feel free to ignore everything I said, I just thought I'd give a few pointers from a different perspective. I can't help you with the way you take and edit your pictures - I'll leave that to the photographers!

No, thank you! Useful words indeed!

 

[James Blonde]

OK, well I've added some critiques... Alas my laptop isn't working, so I can't add any images of my own till tonight :/

 

[Lerxst]

I'm a bit crap at creative writing, and I hate writing in third person, which is why I guess I've stuck to functional, verging on technical. Maybe I should get someone else to write something for that? Thought for the day.... I'll give it a shot myself and see if I can do better.

It's funny that you mention difficulty writing in the third person as I believe that the Blues guitarist John Lee Hooker always talked about himself in the third person! Writing good copy is an art in itself and I'm no expert but I gave it about five minutes to rework your profile to lose some of the "technical" stuff and sell yourself more.

"From an early age Scott Rae gained an appreciation of the landscape around his hometown of Peebles on the Scottish Borders which fired his passion for exploring the countryside. Working across various locations within and outside the United Kingdom over the past 20 years have given Scott exposure to the varied and beautiful landscapes that make the UK a photographer's paradise. This love of the British countryside and a passion for photography has been the driving force in his work.

Scott is now based in the Peebles area where he is turning his artistic dreams into reality.

Drawing on his extensive experience Scott has captured the beauty and majesty of the British landscape, creating images that would grace any home giving pleasure for years to come."

It's not too shabby for 5 minutes and still better than the output of this site (I blame Lewis Collard for that link )

In terms of "paid" critique you could look at taking a one-to-one workshop with a professional landscape photographer as part of the process would be to discuss your images followed by several hours of on location work which in itself may prove invaluable experience. I've been tempted to try a session with Carla Regler as I like her work but I'll have to wait until I can get a digital slr as I'm still a 35mm shooter.

Other than that the site looks fine, just needs a few "tweaks" as discussed in previous posts. I just wish my pictures were half as good!

 

[Phil V]

I'm a bit crap at creative writing, and I hate writing in third person, which is why I guess I've stuck to functional, verging on technical. Maybe I should get someone else to write something for that? Thought for the day.... I'll give it a shot myself and see if I can do better.

Why try then?

Writing in the first person connects to an audience better.

Have a look at a dozen websites and if you can find one engaging one written in the 3rd person I'll be surprised.

Your name is at the top of the page, you're selling 'your vision', who better to sell it than you?

 

[juggler]

Critiquing other's images is a very good way to learn about your own work.

This, times a gazillion. It's much easier to dissect someone else's work than your own and a good place to learn to be critical with your own.

People as a subject doesn't have to be studio though

Conversely studio doesn't have to be people. Still lives and product photography are properly challenging.

Thanks for engaging with me in this, it's appreciated!

I do tend to process my IR B&W (I very rarely process colour images into B&W... dunno why?) as full contrast and structure, then up the structure (and maybe knock a little off the contrast) as I like the detail, so they are definitely not so subtle.

Your processing is distinctive but not at all to my taste, especially the b&w stuff. The high structure and contrast often kill much of the sense of depth and 3 dimensionality while the heavy vignettes don't do much to restore it. But then I rarely shoot landscapes and never IR.

 

[James Blonde]

Thanks Simon!

This, times a gazillion. It's much easier to dissect someone else's work than your own and a good place to learn to be critical with your own.

Yes, I've started and it is helping I think!

Conversely studio doesn't have to be people. Still lives and product photography are properly challenging.

I think people are the real out-of-comfort-zone challenge for me in general - studio or candid. Things don't move, you don't have to talk to them or make them comfortable, they can't criticise, and you can generally keep going back to them!

Your processing is distinctive but not at all to my taste, especially the b&w stuff. The high structure and contrast often kill much of the sense of depth and 3 dimensionality while the heavy vignettes don't do much to restore it. But then I rarely shoot landscapes and never IR.

I think a common theme I'm seeing about my work is too much structure and detail. I know I'm keeping it on the right side of tone mapping / HDR, but still pushing it (too far) into the hyper-realistic zone, ironically in the belief it gave a greater sense of depth and 3 dimensionality! Hmm, that's something I need to get my head around better I think :/

 

[juggler]

in the belief it gave a greater sense of depth and 3 dimensionality! Hmm, that's something I need to get my head around better I think :/

Other folk will have other views. That said...

I think that your high structure / detail extraction / shadow recovery / whatever you want to call it means that all parts of many of your images have the same tonal range. That can make them look flat; there's just no variation. Areas of high contrast draw the eye - but if everywhere has high contrast an image can be difficult to absorb.

As a slight aside, that's why we often try to avoid high contrast at the edge of the frame. The crudest way to reduce contrast at the edge of the frame is to add a vignette - and that's one reason I don't like them. They can be a substitute for 'good' composition, as well as being an obvious signpost that an image could be better. I do sometimes find myself using them, though.

It's worth researching aerial perspective - as used in art, not airborne photography. Crudely, you can give a sense of depth by rendering more distant things with less contrast. Your Coniston Dawn pic illustrates it nicely