Reply To: Let me have it.. But as nice as possible ;) haha

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I’ll go first.

I pulled up the Facebook photos page and started clicking through. The great thing is that I don’t see horrid, unforgivable photos. I’d say you are well on your way…but I can offer some tips to help you look more professional and possibly train your eye.

Crayon/marker/comic sans-like fonts scream out amateur. I realize you aren’t using Comic Sans specifically, but it is a font with the same whimsical, fun, not-serious feeling. That may be what you actually WANT to depict, but then you also want to become professional. In my opinion, the lines, fonts and whirlygigs around your work take much away from the photos. Is that what you want?

I like the fact that your watermark is (for the most part) not the center of the photos, but clicking through your photos, it becomes tiring. I’d make it much less obvious. But again…THANK GOODNESS it isn’t pasted across every child’s face! Here’s my source on watermarks. http://www.stuckincustoms.com/2011/11/03/the-alps-in-the-afternoon-and-why-i-dont-use-watermarks/

Again, the artsy stuff draws away from your work. Specifically the fall advertisement “Book Your Fall Sessions Today.” The leaves, then the space around the couple draws so much away from your talent and I think the space is wasted by not making your photo dominant. I think this one way fauxtographers thrive — by drawing potential clients away from the work and into the loud and flashy graphics.

Now. Try this. Sit back and rhythmically tab through your Facebook photo album. Let your eyes move naturally on each image and note where they end up. The eyes follow natural lines, divisions or other demarcations and they are also directed by light & dark contrasts. This is where photographers have to train their eyes to make sure the eyes finally rest on the subject. How many times did your eyes finally rest on faces? (I say faces because these are portraits & I’m assuming that’s where you’d want every eye to go; in other types of photos you might want the eye to end up on something other than a face.)

The shot with the dark haired boy and girl in pink on the grass, my eyes went straight up the girl’s arm and into her & his face. But in the very next photo, with the boy, my eyes traveled up his shirt, to his face, then over to the tree. A bit too dominant maybe? Moving on a few more clicks ahead, there’s a black and white photo with two boys sitting on a porch. Each time I looked at it, my eyes went past the faces to the word Pepsi.

But these are all very minor things, stuff to practice and think about. You are developing — we ALL are.

All that said…I really like the kid in the red shirt, sitting and grinning big. Normally one might think the lighting needs to be different because the top of his head blends in…but I think because of the contrast it all just works. And with a bit of style.