Hi all,
I've done a few critiques of peoples images here and I only have two or three on my Fstoppers portfolio so I thought I'd put my website url on here: http;//www.simpler-life.com . A usual, any constructive criticism more than welcome. I just want to be a better photographer!
If I were you, I'd quickly straighten all the tilted horizon photos in your portfolio before putting yourself into tougher scrutiny.
Thanks Bill, Could you tell me which photo's you mean please? I've just looked through them again and couldn't see it but then I always struggle with spotting that for some reason! (of all the things right?)
Ignoring the barely tilted ones ( a thing most non ADHD peple won't notice :D ) here's one or two with obvious tilting:
http://static1.squarespace.com/static/55d2da2de4b0ec95c9e6a211/55d2da85e...
http://static1.squarespace.com/static/55d2da2de4b0ec95c9e6a211/55d2da85e...
Lot of GREAT ones!
Thanks!
This one needs to go: http://static1.squarespace.com/static/55d2da2de4b0ec95c9e6a211/55d2da85e...
It simply lacks definition ( where did you focus on ? ) and the composition/framing doesn't work for it mainly because the sky is a burned plain whiteout.
This one should give way too, as the previous shot which is a different perspective/frame to it is much better: http://static1.squarespace.com/static/55d2da2de4b0ec95c9e6a211/55d2da85e...
Avoid having duplicate photos, while they might both look nice, it "takes away" your "professional quality" when others look at your portfolio, it gives the impression of a "chance shooter" and a non-determined photographer who cannot decide between two shots of his own.
Looking at the whole portfolio I can't help but feel a lack of "definitive style" and see the photos getting repetitive.
Try changing your location, surely you must have some nice looking locations in a 100miles radius.
For this shot for example, the composition chosen doesn't work, neither the Black & White processing ( black and white needs high contrast or pure lines to be effective most of the time ):
http://static1.squarespace.com/static/55d2da2de4b0ec95c9e6a211/55d2da85e...
Also watch out during processing to avoid creating fringing/halos ( white glow or color spots between objects and the sky/sea ) like the white halo you can see surrounding the dock in this photo:
http://static1.squarespace.com/static/55d2da2de4b0ec95c9e6a211/55d2da85e...
Be careful when sharpening, using clarity, doing heavy shadows & highlights recovery adjustments, if using exposure blending make sure your masks are created properly and leave no "gaps" for halos, etc.
Awesome, Thanks so much for taking the time to do that critique! Much appreciated!
Even I learned a ton from you comments. Thanks and good luck with your stuff Paul.
Paul,
I sense you want photography input...but the first thing that impacted me was the size of the images on your page...they seem small for the page space...especially the vertical images. I try to alternate vertical / landscape images on my pages to deal with the dead space visually. I also try to separate similar images to give more style space to the website. I have a problem with having to many images...but I review them as I generate new images to add, but my pages still comes across quite busy. Bill has some good advise on some of your images. Study his gallery. I do. What are your goals for the website?
Mike
Yeah, the whole site's getting a little unweildy. Thanks for the idea about alternating the images, I think I need to dedicate some more time tidying it up. I was looking at Bill's work earlier and was blown away by some of the images! At the moment, the goal for my website is to eventually start selling prints online and a portfolio for the outlets I'm targeting (cafe's etc) to sell prints on a commission basis.
There are many styles available to present images on a page as I'm sure you've seen. I picked 500px's Tesselation design so I could mix both vertical and landscape images and fill the page. Clicking any image brings it up to a nice viewing size. Just a thought to share. You can check out my image pages at http://photosmlacy.500px.com/ if interested to see how that format looks.