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Photo Galleries and Online Presentation TipsPhotography can be a rewarding interest. You can learn a lot of new things (not just about taking pictures) and also develop an appreciation for the beauty of Creation. So how can you make the most of your interest and share it with your friends, family and the public in a way that everyone can enjoy? Well in this article I’m going to present a few tips.Photographic websitesA great way of presenting your images is to use an online gallery such as Panoramio, Picasa or Flickr.Here is one of the photos from my panoramio account. (Right click and select open in new tab to follow links within the frame) Another way is to present your work via your own personal Blog. This is fairly easy to do on websites such as Blogger. The websites that I have mentioned provide free accounts (at the time of writing) and on Flickr you can organise your work into groups and submit your work to public groups where other Flickr members can see your work. PromotionOnce you have got your pictures loaded into your online gallery, you need to let people know about it. You can do that by linking to your online gallery from your own blog; you can also email your friends and let them know about your gallery.A great way to draw attention to your own work is to interact with others online. Post positive comments on other people’s galleries and join in discussion groups and forums. Put up descriptive comments about your photos and write articles about your work. As with anything on the Internet, if you are a child or a teenager then please be very careful about who you meet on the Internet, never agree to a ‘secret’ meeting with a stranger. One great way to share your work with friends, family and the public is to publish your work via a feed. An RSS feed is a bit like an email that lets someone know anytime something has changed on you blog, gallery or website. The websites that I have mentioned above have feeds. With Panoramio you can be notified every time someone posts a new photo by clicking on the star icon (i.e. mark them as a favourite) of that member’s gallery. Quality Vs QuantityKeep your presentations reasonably small. Go for quality over quantity. Don’t just post multiple pictures of the same scene. Macros are nice but a dozen pictures of the same flower can be tedious for someone scrolling through your gallery. Pick the best image and post that. Be savage, I like to be savage even on what images I keep on my hard drive. With digital cameras it is very easy to take thousands of photos but it is not easy to review all of them. Having a large hard drive does not solve the problem because it still takes time to go through them all. Aim to take the highest quality pictures that you can and present them in a way that will interest other people.Self CriticismFriends can be well meaning but just because they say that they like your photos does not mean that you should throw in your day job. Photography is very competitive and it is very hard to make a living from it unless you know what you are doing.Know your own limitations; I know enough about portrait photography to know that I am not it the same league as professional portrait photographers when it comes to taking portraits. Just setting up the lighting and the studio backdrop is an art; then there is the art of relating to your models, getting them to pose in a natural but photogenic way, making them feel relaxed and after the picture has finally been taken, there is the Photoshop work to be done. Be your own worst critic. I’m not saying that you should be harsh and negative about your own work but try to have a balanced view of it. Allow for your own bias and do research and think of ways of improving your images. It’s great to have friends who encourage you but just remember that their knowledge of photography might be more limited than yours and they might be reluctant to hurt your feelings. On the other hand if you have a friend who does say what she/he thinks then try not to get upset with him/her, especially if his/her advice is constructive. Online Galleries and Stock LibrariesOnce you have reached a level where the quality of your work is getting good enough for you to sell it, you might like to try to submit your work to galleries such as ImageKind or a stock library. These kinds of websites will have pages that give you tips on how to market your work. Don’t just ignore these pages, take time to read them and follow the links to other pages such as Google’s webmasters section. I read some advice recently that sounds very sensible, in the January 2008 edition of Shutterbug (pg 38), Maria Piscopo asked Sula for advice for people just getting started and part of her reply was,‘It’s not an easy field or a quick way of getting rich. Be prepared to make a financial investment as well as spending time and energy. Keep a means of supporting yourself while pursuing your dreams.’ |