Constructive Criticism is appreciated :)

[Olivia.smith]

I have been a photographer for 2 years and I have found that I really love seniors and newborns. I have come a long way on my newborns and i have a long way to go for sure I know this but I am getting better. I always feel complacent and annoyed with my work. I love photography and am always trying to get better and ill take criticism. but please just don’t be mean, there is no need for that thanks 🙂 facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pages/Belle-Marie-Photography/225581740793130  website – http://bellemariephotography.com

[FTN]

Hi Olivia!

I was browsing through your categories (your facebook page link didn’t work for me?) and it looks pretty nice at first glance. I’m not someone with double-digit years of experience in photography, but here are my comments on your website with pretty basic things I picked up on:

– Seniors: Some of the senior portraits had bluish skin tones, so maybe white balance correction could fix this? (probably because you took the picture in the shade? I forget to adjust white balance when lighting situations change sometimes too, and AWB doesn’t always account for that.) Also, the faded/low-contrast look you’re going for makes some of the more fair-skinned girls look extra pale, in my opinion.

– Maternity: On the ones where the shots are indoors (like the one where a woman is on a bed) the noise in the photo becomes really noticeable.

– Families/Portraits: (you have a typo in the category name… did you mean “families” instead of “family’s”?) Here, I noticed the same thing from the senior portraits with the bluish skin tones due to them being taken in the shade (which is a good move, but you just gotta adjust for white balance). Then again, is that the look you’re going for? Also, the eyes on some people might be over-edited as well? Looks a bit unnatural.

And that’s all I had the energy to look through tonight. I have put off sleeping long enough haha. Hope that helps!

[Worst Case Scenario]

facebook not working for me either!

You have a lot of nice shots and a few duff ones.

In the maternity section I thought it was a bit odd that a lot of the ladies are wearing the same outfit and the shot of the woman laying down with baby shoes on her bump is messy (and baby shoes are cheesy!). I’d edit it down to half a dozen of the best.

THe family section is not as good as the rest and mostly look like nice snaps.

The first shot in the Studio work section is great but the rest are below par, I’d scrap that section until you have something better.

The newborns are great apart form the huge close up of the dribbly mouth.

BUT you seem to have a lot of problems with colour? Unless you have done it as an effect there’s lots of colour cast.

The very first pic on the site, the new born holding his head up, did you really pit him onto a nicotine yellow towel?

in the wedding section the first brides dress is blue in every shot (except the B/W and the one were it’s magenta)

and the couples shots go from blue jeans in a purple desert to purple jeans in a yellow barn.

Nothing that can’t be sorted but it spoils a lot of nice pics.

[cameraclicker]

I tried the Facebook link and got “Page not found”, then I took the ‘s’ out of “https:// ” and got “Content not available”, so I abandoned the Facebook link and visited your web page instead.

Since it is not a porn page with a warning about the need to be of age, I am wondering why the first page is there.  Do we really need to click Enter?

This is a sort of stream of consciousness as I work into your site.  I have a large monitor but I am looking at your site in a window the shape of an older monitor, like the ones before they figured out you might want to fit a movie on it.  So your second, first page has your name in a panel at left, then a baby that is a little too bright, and a woman who is also a little too bright and has plastic skin!  There is just a hint of another photo at the right edge, which lead me to discover a slider at the bottom of the photos.  By the way, a copyright message has a legal format, the legislation spells out how the notice must be constructed.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_symbol has a good synopsis, or you could click the link they provide and read the actual text.

Sliding across to the next photo, that military wedding photo keeps dragging my eye up to the top right corner, and when I pull it back down again, I see that huge tree floating above the wedding party!  I think it might be a great scene but it needs different light.  I would clone out the vine someone draped along the line holding the white banners and adjust the brightness of the tree trunk a little; the white cloth at right is a great reflector.  Moving along, the girl in the pink flowered top has plastic skin.  Actually, over smoothed skin seems to be a consistent theme so far.  The boy with trains would benefit from a larger aperture to blur background clutter.

On the About page, the girl shown has a large chest and seems to be trying to make that as obvious as possible.  It takes the eye away from her face.  That photo has very hard light.  Look at the shadow down the left side of her face.  It looks like the shadow is coming from the light behind her left shoulder which is too bright by a couple of stops and might benefit from having a softbox/umbrella/scrim employed.  Adjusting that light might have fixed her breasts too, but now that we are at the post stage, the easiest fix is to burn her cleavage a bit.  You might want to go over all the text at your site a time or two more.  In addition to the possessive “Family’s” instead of plural “Families”, in your drop-down list, pointed out above by FTN, you have “haha” in your “About” text, as well as a shift from “I” to “you” and then back to “I”.  If I were to hire you, I would expect you to provide the “artistic ability” and show my personality not “their” personality.   It needs review.

In Seniors, the girls all have plastic skin.  The eyes look over done but it is most noticeable on the blond with blue eyes.  To varying degrees, they could all stand a little less brightness and a little more shadow to give some definition to their faces.

I’ve got to ask!  What statement is the photo of the pregnant woman standing on the railway tracks with her head and foot cut off making?

I don’t think I’m going to get through them all.  Of what I have seen, the photos I like best are the second and third in Studio Work.

 

 

[emf]

Well I’m only a noobie so feel free to disregard anything I say; but I just wanted to say be mindful of your backgrounds as in your maternity section there seem a couple of messy backgrounds – for example, in the one where she is on the bed there’s what looks like a couple of coke cans in the b/g. And in the one where the guy is kissing the purple topped lady’s bump, the tree seems a bit awkwardly placed right in the middle of them – and then my eye keeps going to that little bird in the corner!  And in the one where she is on the train tracks (cropped at her neck), the train above her bump detracts from her elegant form and and spoil the converging lines of the track.

 

[ncrachick]

I am more qualified to review the website instead of the images. Here’s my take on the website:

The first page needs to go. There is no reason to have visitors click to enter the website.
The slider feature on the main page could be confusing to visitors. I would just have a few pics posted that fit on the page and maybe have the images rotate. Remember to keep it simple so all of your visitors have a good experience when visiting your site.
On the About page I would have someone review your text and rewrite it to be more professional. There are commas between sentences instead of periods
On the Image Gallery page I would capitalize the word Gallery so it is consistent with the rest of the headings.
In the drop-down menu Family’s should be Families
Calendar Page – When I click on any of the dates nothing happens. What is the purpose of this page?
Contact Us – Since you seem to be the only photographer, I would change this to Contact Me to make it more personal. I also have an issue with asking people to enter their information on a form that is not secure.
Pricing Downloads – Why not just have the pricing listed on the page and then give visitors the option to print the info? Would be much easier for visitors. Also, what is up with “To see our price lists please contact us through the Contact Us page and we will send you the password.”? Your price lists are there on the page for downloading so why would a visitor need to contact you for a password?
Information/What to Wear: You have a heading for Do’s but no heading for Dont’s. I would change this to be consistent. 2nd sentence “when” is misspelled. 3rd sentence “to” should be “too”. Next sentence “tyour” should be “your”. 2nd paragraph “paterns” should be “patterns”, “dont” should be “don’t” and add a period at the end. 3rd paragraph 2nd sentence first word “layers” should be capitalized, “makes” should be “make”. “add” should be capitalized. Last paragraph 2nd sentence “your” should be “you’re”
Information/What to Expect – Last paragraph “fot” should be “for”. Last sentence is not complete – “We will email you when your gallery is up for”
Information/Boudoir Portrait Parties – Make the headings bold and remove the underlining. Never underline text on a web page unless it is a link. By this point I am tired of reading so that’s all I have for that page.
Blog – Again, I’m too tired to read anymore but I think the Blog is a great way to let visitors get to know you better.
Client Proofing – I’m not sure why you have the client select the photos they want and THEN you will edit them. I would think you would want to edit prior to the client viewing so they see the images at their best.

 

This is by no means a full analysis of the site. It’s just the few things that caught my eye in spending about 5 minutes on your site. Best wishes to you and I hope I have not come across as mean or anything. I by no means am perfect myself and all of these errors are easy to make.

[ncrachick]

One more thing, on you wedding pricing pdf you have the packages in this order:

Bronze, Gold, Silver, Platinum

The order should be Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum (Your Gold package should be more expensive than your Silver package.)

[ebi]

the nine photographs on your second main page, after i have to annoyingly click through the “enter site page” are a pretty good representation of what you do. You should make these change randomly with 9 other images. to get some variety.

seniors. some great portraits in here. But also a lot of bad. the overhead shot with the girl laying in the grass. she looks like she’s dying…get rid of it. some weird hand positions in a lot of these as well. try not to be so posey. these are real girls, not models. pull some of their personality out and try not to be so stiff. Why two shots of the girl with the headdress? Choose one and remove the other. I see you try to pop the eyes a bit in post. Don’t do that. If you want that look for real, put a white reflector closer to her.

maternity – first three shots are ok. although the last of the three, the girls looks surprised or something. but i like the background and the light. next few shots are ok, but get rid of the train tracks trailer trash shots. the girl with the tutu sitting on the bed..theres stuff going on in the background. a light switch? the bedframe? distracting. Horizontal pink bow belly close up. super noisy, get rid of it. Chica at the end. not a great shot.

newborns – nothing to hate here. except the closeup of the lips. that bothers me…Lead with the last shot, its the best one. Also, they are all starting to feel very much the same so you should maybe start looking for more props/backgrounds. it will get boring pretty quick.

boudour – sexy, but get rid of the cougars, the posey sunset shot, and the obvious out of focus images.

Families and portraits – way too much stuff. Edit down to your best work. get rid of everything else.

Studio work – you don’t need this section. Just combine the images with other galleries. In the ad world, it makes a difference if you shoot studio or natural light. But in your world, your clients won’t know the difference.  creepy web makeup photos have to go. the light is pretty though.

weddings…so you’ve only shot two weddings? Looks like the military wedding was more successful. You aren’t a wedding photographer after shooting two weddings. edit your images on this section. it’s too many and a lot are bad.

couples. You’ve only shot one couple? The images aren’t great.

About page – nice rack. your bio was TL;DR. But…nice rack.

And get rid of the watermark. It’s distracting and no one is stealing your tiny 72dpi images.

[Olivia.smith]

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Belle-Marie-Photography/225581740793130

does this one work? im not sure why its not working?

[Olivia.smith]

Thanks for the people that gave good criticism, i changed a lot of my website changing things and fixing things. it doesn’t get updated a lot because of some technical issues. if i don’t do a certain thing to the photos they look dull and greenish tint. too much to deal with when updating it so it rarely does get updated.

As for the brightness and cool tones that is what I like and pretty much my style. as we all know each photographer has their own style and what they like and brighter is just what I enjoy. we cant all be the same. And as for over editing some people mentioned i don’t do any blurring or whatnot to skin all i do is the blemish removal for that so i don’t lose the skin texture. And for eyes I usually do a brightening and sharpening and set it to like 25-20% i guess a lot of you think it is too much. It might be the screen or because the images are 900 pixels but it you zoom in on the photos and the face you can still see texture and freckles. i would post a photo of a close up in here but im not sure how to do that. Thanks

[cameraclicker]

The new link to Facebook works.  I just popped in and back out again.  The few photos I saw looked better.  If you want to put a photo in-line here, the easiest way is to have (or open) a Flickr account.  Upload the photo to Flickr, then use the share feature and grab the link it provides.  Paste the link into the Reply box here and click Submit.  The link will appear as your photo and clicking on it will take you to the full sized one on Flickr.

I suspect most of us, here, are using profiled and adjusted monitors, so our view should be pretty accurate.

[ebi]

“As for the brightness and cool tones that is what I like and pretty much my style. as we all know each photographer has their own style and what they like and brighter is just what I enjoy. we cant all be the same.”

There is a difference between someone’s style and not knowing what they are doing. Lets look at the shots of the girl with the braces, shall we? First off, I took the liberty of putting the all together side by side, and also I removed the watermark, which just goes to show that any idiot with 5 minutes and a cracked copy of photoshop could also do. You’ll notice variations in color from image to image. And not just in each look, but in each of your selects. In the first two, “the pixie setup” she goes from very pink to slightly green in the second image. Then in the backlit setup, she goes greener still to very yellow. Then she goes towards blue on the proverbial lay-on-your-belly-and-cross-your-legs-in-the-air-look or “the lolita pose”.

View post on imgur.com

So you are all over the place with color. If you want to call it a look, then pick one and go with it. Otherwise you are really no different than the fauxtog that puts his b&w variation next to the color one. Also, by overexposing, you are getting some blooming in the highlights.

[Bill]

Hello Olivia, the new FB link works just fine.

I have to agree with the others about the color balance issue, some are a little blueish and have a slight green tint to them.  To the average non-photographer, it may go un-noticed, but you asked for criticism here.  I have t agree with ebi on this one.  A style is one thing but failing to acknowledge an apparent flaw that can be easily “fixed” is another.

We criticize, one because you asked, and two because that is how we learn and progress our skills as artists [photographers].

There was one thing that I saw that no one I saw picked up on, most others were spot on with this and that.  The one location I saw for your seniors leaning against the red bricked wall, I have a slight issue with but it is an easy fix.

The wall is fine and the pose is fine, but what bugs me is the perspective with the street sign in the background.  I know this will sound like nick-picking but I have to say it.  The background makes it seem as these seniors are hustling on the street corner.  I would simply just tighten up the shot and it would be perfect.  Like I say, I like the red bricked wall, it looks nice, it’s just the street corner aspect of it.

 

Keep up the good work and use this and the other criticism well and above all, DO NOT take it personally.

 

[iliketag]

I see there have been some changes made to the site! Great!
There are a couple of things I’m seeing now though:
The Gallery page where I can click into the sub-galleries looks clean and I like it (although the text is kind of hard to read), but when you click into the page it just pulls up a long page with large, centered images. I would recommend getting some coding help and making either a filmstrip style thumbnail display (where you can view the full size images by clicking while retaining the thumbnail either underneath or to the side) OR thumbnails with a splash that comes up without coming up in a separate tab or window. I think it could help the lazy scroller actually see the images near the bottom. One of the major flaws with how you have them showcased now is that I can’t always see a whole image at once.

The other thing I wanted to add is to cull your images again. The maternity shots have what seems like an entire session with one couple and then maybe two or three from others. Save the “whole” session feel for blog posts, not your gallery. A gallery should be glimpses – let us see variety and what you’re capable of over more broad a spectrum. In the senior gallery you have nice variety but there are more than a few images with soft focus. Be very careful, when I look closer I can tell that the focus is usually resting on a sleeve/arm if they are sideways or a part of their shirt if it’s a front facing shot. You want their eyes to be what’s tack-sharp.
There’s even one shot near the end of the senior page that’s completely out of focus and should be pulled.

[Author]

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