My Portfolio

[Sermed]

Dear all fellow photographers, I have been doing photogrophy and sharing it with my friends and family on facebook alot of friend have asked me to take this seriously and develop your own site. So inorder to show my work to potential clients, friends and family i have developed the following site, i am not good at it but i have tried what i could find on wordpress and still learning something new about wordpress.

I would aprciate if you guys can give your opinion and sugestion about the site as it will help me in doing a better job with it.

here is the link

Sermed Altaf Photography

[wildbird]

Ask most photographers, and they will tell you taking pics is easy. Hardest thing is the marketing of them to actually make money. Had a look at pics, and while they seem nice, what is stopping someone from just copying them from your website? Also, image names are the file names, makes it look better if they are more descriptive with a caption ie "Rusty bike chain", not _img1234.jpg. Have a look on flickr at similar pics to yours. How do they compare? Why would a person pay for your pics over what they can get for free off flickr? Dont want to discourage, but these are the sort of questions you need to answer. Probably nearly everyone on this site has had friends or family say to them "you know, you should sell those pics, theyr'e great". People who actually make any money from just photography? Very little. Digital cameras are fairly cheap, and with amount of software options etc, alot of people are able to produce images that they are very happy with and wont think about paying money for anything when there is so much out there that they can look at for free on the internet etc... Other sites are redbubble and a whole host of other microstock sites. Check the posts in this forum as well for more advice on using these and read about other peoples experiences. And Good Luck!!

[OsmosisStudios]

Looking at the website itself, there are only a few things I do not like.

1: some (and only some) of your images have watermarks. Either have watermarks, or dont.
2: "Click...Click...Click" written up at the top of each page. it serves no purpose, is distracting and likely confusing.
3: Your contact page: Remove the comments: just have a small paragraph and the form.
4: Your wording. I understand english may not be your first language, but if you're writing in english, it's worth having a few people read it over. The copy text on the main page is good, just needs some slight editing. Your menu, though, needs a bit of a re-work. Take the adjectives off the sections of your portfolio "beautiful" people implies that everyone else is ugly, etc.

Overall though, great presentation and good work.

[LeeR]

I will give you teh same advice I give most people in your shoes: it is far better to have three stunning images than 100 with three great images mixed in. Some of your images are very, very good, but some don't belong in anyone's portfolio. (The rope on the grass, for instance.) I would hone this down to perhaps ten of your very best. Better to leave people wanting more than to show more than they want to see.

[BigFuzzy]

First, you have some really nice photos, well done.
But.. what are you marketing yourself as? You have to have your "thing" Are you specializing in portraits? Are you a landscape photographer? The first portfolio is of "Around Us" which means what to a client? Your first portfolio should be the one you really want to sell people on.
Agreed, I hate the comments on your Contact Me page, especially since many (all?) are from family or friends. You should have a blog for that sort of thing.
I'd like to see bigger versions of your images, but that's a personal thing.

I agree with Os, get rid of the click..click...click thing.. seems out of place.

I think you have lovely images, but I have no clue whatsoever on how you're marketing yourself. What am I, as the client, seeing about who you are. If anything, I'd say you're a travel/landscape photographer since your "people" section are clearly snaps taken while travelling/moving about and not 'portraits' as many would think of them, especially clients. Maybe you should go into stock photography of your great architecture photos (if you can get the rights to actually sell them!).

There's zero personal info on there. I'm not saying you need to put your life story down, but clients want to think they know a bit about you before hiring you, trust me.

Just my two eurocents, good luck!

[BigFuzzy]

Originally Posted by LeeR

I will give you teh same advice I give most people in your shoes: it is far better to have three stunning images than 100 with three great images mixed in. Some of your images are very, very good, but some don't belong in anyone's portfolio. (The rope on the grass, for instance.) I would hone this down to perhaps ten of your very best. Better to leave people wanting more than to show more than they want to see.

Excellent advice (which i should probably follow as well haha!)!!

[Jim Bryant]

I have to agree on what LeeR said. Sometimes we're too close to the images we like, therefore, it's hard to edit down the weak ones. Get some other photographers opinions.
You do have a good eye for design and color. Keep up the good work.

[gturner]

One thing is for sure - I need to take a tour of India.

I agree with the wise heads above

[TFord.LTTP]

Absolutely agree with the above, especially on that there's some striking shots but just as many that could be more. Like the one with the stairs and escalator caught my eye right away and I love the contrast of the blacks and whites in the picture and the flow of the lines but there's nothing that differentiates it from a billion like it. Not sure if it's a station or office building or what but the first thing that came to my mind was either a long exposure of rush hour to show the frantic pace of life that moves through this otherwise serene and almost sterile looking place. Alternatively setting up and waiting for the haggard business man, wrinkled jacket slung over his shoulder, briefcase in hand, to come trudging down the stairs and tell his story, his daily struggle.

Keep up the good work.

[mandyatm]

I just want to let you know that there is a wordpress plugin called WP-copyrightpro that will disable the right-click on your photos. Someone can still take them if they really know how, but it will prevent the casual thieves. Really nice images!