would like to use this storyboard to start advertising my photography

[LynnG]

[IMG][/IMG]

Hello all,

I'm not sure if this is the correct forum, but would like some other eyes and honest opinions of the quality of my work. I did a bridal/wedding shoot, my first real one, a couple of weeks ago and wanting to get a portfolio together and start advertising myself for more work outside of friends and family. I've taken about 11,000 shots in the last 12 months and find I'm (currently) happy with the results of a shoot, time taken to get a good percentage of nice shots. I'd like to use this little storyboard for advertising.

I am looking for honesty, even brutality I can take it!

Thanks in advance, Lynn

[Nakean]

Great images! The bottom left is great but seems to pull my attention from everything else. You may want to place that where you want your readers' eyes to follow. Perhaps under your text. Is your text your trademark watermark? I feel like it should either be a photo or multiple photos fully or completely out of them providing it's own space and attention. Lastly bottom right image doesn't feel as if it belongs to me. Do you have any super wide shots like this with the bride in it? My 2c Good luck!

[zona5101]

What is this piece going to be? A postcard? Or a home page on your website? Business card??

[LynnG]

Thanks for your replies!

Originally Posted by zona5101

What is this piece going to be? A postcard? Or a home page on your website? Business card??

I am thinking this will be a postcard or a flyer, but also wanting to start putting my portfolio on a website. I'm finding it hard to determine if the quality of the images are to the point of being ready to 'put out there' yet.

Originally Posted by Nakean

Great images! The bottom left is great but seems to pull my attention from everything else. You may want to place that where you want your readers' eyes to follow. Perhaps under your text. Is your text your trademark watermark? I feel like it should either be a photo or multiple photos fully or completely out of them providing it's own space and attention. Lastly bottom right image doesn't feel as if it belongs to me. Do you have any super wide shots like this with the bride in it? My 2c Good luck!

Are you saying the watermark should be only in the black or covering all the images? And that bottom right image actually does have the bride in it....maybe I need to crop a bit more for this collection, she is pretty small in it. Thanks for your thoughts, I had not considered those points!

Thanks again,
Lynn

[scootermcq]

Originally Posted by LynnG

I'm finding it hard to determine if the quality of the images are to the point of being ready to 'put out there' yet.

I think so.... some appeal to me more than others, but that is the same with anyone's portfolio. These look like they are all a photo shoot and not an actual wedding. Are they from a wedding? If so, a couple with the groom would make it more realistic, and not make it look like a "model in a wedding dress" shoot to build a portfolio

Originally Posted by LynnG

And that bottom right image actually does have the bride in it....maybe I need to crop a bit more for this collection, she is pretty small in it.
Thanks again,
Lynn

Yeah, that was kinda like playing where's Waldo? I thought the same thing, "what do trees have to do with this?" It was not until you said there was a bride, that I saw her. I think it is white dress & birch trees that really make it hard.

[autofocus]

Where's your contact information?...phone number, email, website, etc. And are you only promoting wedding business?..Are you planning on doing portraits? If so, I would add those to the mix and eliminate some of the bride shots. Below is an example of what we did. However, this is a large display we use at exhibits


Poster by vmontalbano, on Flickr

[ChrisAdval]

Originally Posted by LynnG

[IMG][/IMG]

Hello all,

I'm not sure if this is the correct forum, but would like some other eyes and honest opinions of the quality of my work. I did a bridal/wedding shoot, my first real one, a couple of weeks ago and wanting to get a portfolio together and start advertising myself for more work outside of friends and family. I've taken about 11,000 shots in the last 12 months and find I'm (currently) happy with the results of a shoot, time taken to get a good percentage of nice shots. I'd like to use this little storyboard for advertising.

I am looking for honesty, even brutality I can take it!

Thanks in advance, Lynn

Do you have individual flickr links to each photo? It's really difficult to properly critique all of the photos within this one photo. But I'll still will try to critique it my best.

Photo 1 and 2 (top left and right)
I would have blurred out the background a bit more.

Photo 3 (button left)
Sun flare is a bit over powering. I would avoid flare hitting the face or subjects at all.

Photo 4 (bottom middle)
Pose not appealing, arms cut off.

Photo 5 (bottom right)
Too much environment, if this is about the environment then this could work well but if its about the person in the photo maybe 50-60% tighter shot would work better.

Need a better designed logo, do not let it touch the photos, less is more....

[LynnG]

Just got back from our vacation....Thank you all so much for the opinions! I am pretty lost when it comes to advertising and thought I might try a different storyboard for each kind of photography I do, but I do like the example posted of a variety very much and will work on something similar to that now that I see it and all your opinions. I have spent hours trying to figure out a logo/watermark and keep frustrating myself....bah!

Where's Waldo? Ha....maybe that one will have to be on it's own somewhere! I was nervous about this wedding and had limited time for photos and still starting out so this is not a wedding shoot....the bride and I went out the evening before the wedding and shot these.

Again, thanks for the feedback!
Lynn

[BigFuzzy]

Hi Lynn,
Without commenting on the images themselves (they seem fine), the first thing I noticed is that they're all from the same shoot.

If I saw this as an advertisement of your work I'd think that you'd only ever done one shoot and wouldn't be sure you could do it again. I want to see that a photographer can duplicate the results time and time again (which you should be able to do).

Plus I hate the logo. It seems like text from MS Paint or something like that. The rest of the card feels pretty good then you have what feels like a pixelated low quality text that is your logo. I'd work on that. Some nice clean elegant font.

Hope that helps (granted it's only one opinion)

[LynnG]

Thanks BigFuzzy and everyone else

I think this is all good for me to hear. What I did not want to hear is that this is not a good logo...lol. I detest this part of it!

Thanks again for the feedback everyone,
Lynn