New professional needs critique and advice?!

Greg Neal

Hello. My name is Gregory Neal, I am fairly new to the SmugMug community, and I need your critique and advice. I have so far created two galleries on the 'Mug, with more to load in the coming weeks. However, after 2-3 months on the site, I have NO sales even though I have had large volume of visits. If you can take the time, perhaps you could visit my galleries at http://GregNealPhotography.SmugMug.com and "critique" either my work and/or the presentation/pricing/technical aspects; please tell me positive or negative, good or bad --- I am trying to make a career of photography and develop myself and my images and create unique prints that can hopefully be used in a variety of markets, including gallery showings, CD artwork, upscale retail, etc. I am still shooting film, but hope to "go digital" in the near future, more for the convenience and the better end result regarding better resolution and other tech aspects.

Thank you for anything you can offer, and I appreciate your sincere attention and reply.

Gregory Neal
Charlotte NC

Michiel de Brieder

Gregory,

firstly, what I will be saying will be from my own point of view. I've been photographing for about 2,5 years now, so I don't have 25 years of experience. Note: this will be purely commenting from my taste.

Now, to the gallery. The work looks nice. But most shots, IMHO, lack the spirit for me to buy any. Many shots are quite straightforward.... I admire your aspiration to make a career of photography, but to be very blunt right now, the work is not unique...
This is purely my opinion...
On the technical side of the presentation:

1. Show your prices. I couldn't see any prices and formats that can be ordered to accompany the photos.
2. Be careful and restrict users from viewing original filesizes. I could rip off a picture if I was dishonest and print it myself.
3. I viewed some at full size (in the nature gallery) and they were quite hazy, perhaps a little extra contrast and a little sharpening will improve the photos much.

These were just some things that came to my mind quickly when viewing your gallery. I might have some more quirks, but I'm wokring on my graduation project right now so I haven't got that much time on my hands
I think if you're very aspiring that you'll have to set-up another system to show your galleries. Smug is okay, but IMO you really must change the interface! I'm working on a gallery myself, I haven't done much work as of yet, but the general idea will be like this:
http://www.digital-eye.nl
Where clicking on the gallery link will expand the menu (Galleries->Nature, Portraits, Landscapes etc) When clicking those links, thumbnails will appear at the top and people can click them to view a larger size image (always 800x533 or 533x800 with normal photos, panorama photos will be evaluated by myself which size does justice but is small enough to prevent ripping the photo for printing)
Okay, enough b$tching from me, I hope I wasn't too harsh, but you asked for honesty. Let me know how things evolve!
Ciao

wxwax

greg, welcome to dgrin. It's great to have you here and participating.

I think Michael gave you very reasonable feedback.

I guess I have one question I have about your goal: is it to make art, or to generate sales? Because one can sometimes heavily influence the other. By which I mean, if you wish to generate sales, you may find yourself shooting and post-processing your work to make it more universally appealing, rather than following your own inner vision.

Which is my way of saying that a lot of your images appear to be dark. I don't know if that's a conscious style, or just the result of a bad scan.

I also think that your choice of content is only moderately interesting, and that you may still be working on finding your "eye" for developing a style.

I don't pretend to be an expert, just someone interested in this stuff. I'd strongly suggest digging around here, and finding links to accomplished, successful professional photographers. Check out their work for ideas on composition, lighting, post processing etc. Their visions and execution are intimidating!

Good luck, and I hope join us often here at dgrin.

Sam

Gregory,

I read this last night but was too tired to respond. Michiel, pretty much sums up my first impression, and remember all you get is a first impression.

Some additional thoughts: Way too many photos. For me to consider buying, or even hanging on my wall for free, it has to do something for me, it has to have some uniqueness.

I think, (It's only my opinion, and I do have a different view of the world) It's better to concentrate on something unique. It would be better to have a really unique photo that comes up a little short on the technical side, than a technically perfect yet boring photo.

When you look at the world, what makes you go WOW! Try to capture that. If the photo makes you go WOW, chances are it will do the same for someone else.

As a side note, I would be interested to see how many photos are actually sold online. I don't mean for 25 cents.

I for one would have some difficulty buying a photo online from someone I didn't know. Again I am talking about a fair price and a photo, not a 25 cent download.

Sam

ginger_55

OK, this gives me an opening to once more say that I would like the prices more visible on the smugmug page. I have said that before, and I was practically blown off the planet. So, I thought, OK, I don't sell much and whatever.

I had to carefully talk my daughter through, on the phone, how to order the pictures and how to find out the prices. She manages a microbiology lab, she is not an idiot.

I will reiterate: I would not buy without immediately seeing the prices, I would go somewhere else, unless it were my kid or something, but as a consumer of art or something like that, I have a very short attention span. I buy lots of books and things on the internet, I know of what I speak.

OK, now I agree on the photos, and I don't know why. I know the North Carolina area, the mountain shots are familiar. They might sell but only in a shop in the mountains to tourists anxious for a memory of their visit. I would not expect them to sell on smugmug.

I have the same problem, I live in Charleston, SC. The best chance I have of selling photos is through a local shop to tourists, or even to a resident, probably as a gift.

That is my opinion only.

My gallery is a mess, I am trying to clean it up, but not working hard enough at it. I plan to only have prints that are for sale visible to the public sometime, I am about 1/3 of the way through. I plan to hide everything from the public then bring it back out.

You can check out my stuff from the Charleston area at gingersnap.smugmug.com

Some might even be of Charlotte or DC, if I still have family things on, but my scenics, pictures I would sell, they are of this area. I have not been to the mountains since I started digital work.

ginger

Michiel de Brieder

Sam wrote:

When you look at the world, what makes you go WOW! Try to capture that. If the photo makes you go WOW, chances are it will do the same for someone else.

Hear hear on this one!!! First be the artist you want to be. There are always people who appreciate that in someone and will buy stuff if they can't create it themselves! A vision true to your own is probably the best asset to show in photography as a form of art

Sam wrote:

I for one would have some difficulty buying a photo online from someone I didn't know. Again I am talking about a fair price and a photo, not a 25 cent download.

On this part I disagree, I've bought stuff from people I didn't know over the internet I see photos as being the same thing. There are some guys I'd really want to buy a photo from (if I ever get to chill on the lens lust) and that I don't know, only from some posts at a forum... My 2 cents on this one
Ciao

Christian

I'm still learning a lot about photography so I can't help you much there, but sales is something else. You really need to know who your target customers are. As others have pointed out there probably isn't much of a draw for these type of photos from a general consumer. I'n my honest opinion most landscape photography doesn't generate a lot of business to the general art lover without being absolutely, in every sense of the word, phenominal. However, travel guides, magazines, tourist centers, etc love this type of stuff, but aren't likely to be visiting smugmug to find their next photo. There are a number of books out there on comercial photography that explain how to solicite your photos to these type of organizations, but you definately have to go to them, they won't come to you.
Perhaps a good thread would be to ask who has been sucessful using smugmug to generate cash flow, and what subject matter they use, and technique for generating business. One I know of shoots local events and then passes out cards directing them to his site where they can get copies of what he's just taken.

evil eggplant

I agree
I agree with the critique given to your work. I also agree with what your goals are.

It is amazing what passes for "fine art" out here. Anyone can hang a shingle out here, many do.

I have seen mediocre snapshots being passed off as fine art. people actually buy the stuff. The photographer knows what to do to sell his work. that is his primary motivation.

I have also seen beautiful work get hardly a glance.

mercphoto

evil eggplant wrote:

I have seen mediocre snapshots being passed off as fine art. people actually buy the stuff. The photographer knows what to do to sell his work. that is his primary motivation.

I have also seen beautiful work get hardly a glance.

This is why sales and business skills are so important if you want to make money, at anything. Its where I feel the least competent myself.

fish

Geez...you guys are brutal! Might as well say "you're ugly and your mother dresses you funny."


I think you've got a good start. Needs some work on technique, but the towering success factors for a professional is passion and drive. Keep working at it!

dugmar

Ginger,

Couldn't agree with you more. In order to get a price, you have to dig past 3-4 pages. Visible price sheet right on the gallery would sell more prints, bottom line.

Doug

ginger_55 wrote:

OK, this gives me an opening to once more say that I would like the prices more visible on the smugmug page. I have said that before, and I was practically blown off the planet. So, I thought, OK, I don't sell much and whatever.
ginger

yvonne

fish wrote:

Geez...you guys are brutal! Might as well say "you're ugly and your mother dresses you funny."

QUOTE]

Not really.

I think the comments have actually been fair and honest.

I also think, that ANYONE, no matter how good their photos are, who just sticks their images in a online gallery and hopes the world will come to him to buy them is in for a long wait. There are thousands of photographic galleries on display and images for sale on the web. Just joining the list isnt' going to generate sales, in my view.

Also, Greg, I think you need to calibrate your monitor. All of the images look to me like they've been adjusted with too much "brightness", like they have a milky vail over them. It dampens the colours and makes the images look flat. I reckon that is a major contributor to why people aren't being hit by any "wow" factor.

marlof

I agree with a lot of the sentiments expressed here. As for the quality of the pictures, I guess that what we're looking at is something completely different than what you're looking at at home. For instance the picture of the rose looks like it's of a print, that has been scanned in with a scanner, although either the print or the scanner were not exactly clean. If I'd buy that picture online, I'd get a print of that digital image, not of the original negative you have at home. This would keep me from buying the print. So next to what the others have all said, make sure that the presentation of your pictures is as immaculate as possible. After all, most people tend to buy more in a shop where the goods are well displayed.