Advice For A Newby Please

Hi Lesley , Welcome aboard.

I would start by setting your page to open in Galleries not Images - that can be switched in " Behind the scenes " . Your Galleries need an image selected as their cover, right now you have the blue blob. An image can be selected for your cover photo when you Edit your galleries. Don't forget to click submit.

Your Spirit paintings are really cool - but some of them are in really small sizes - only able to print a card. Have them scanned - or shoot them for a much larger image.
You have a web address on them - & I do believe that will not be acceptable to print here.

I did not check for any issues with your photographs, just not my area of expertise. Love the feather image.

Best wishes.
I am sure others will chime in here - very quiet on the weekends.

Thank you for taking time to assist me, is there anything else I can improve, will look at images of paintings shortly. thanks again

for the shopping cart, i think it's behind the scenes in widgets and activate in facebook.


your image may be too small for even a card.


you can't have that copyright at the bottom, besides being ugly, it won't print. sign your name in cursive. the image is far too small to be of use to anyone. scan these all in. selling these card size - first cards don't sell that often. second you get far less keywords.


choose your best one of these and post that. this one isn't it though that blob tree doesn't attract. you have hardly any keywords. you don't need to tell people your gear, it's better to focus on the location and what we are looking at even if it's obvious because google picks up on it. your far too expensive. no one will likely pay $78 for a small print. further the card is only $5, so i would get the card, you would make a dollar, the card and poster of that size are only an inch apart. people buy the card as a small poster. the current poster price may scare some away. start low and work your way up.

really try to avoid putting the same images into different galleries. if people think they already saw them, they will move on. i recognize half of these. if you don't have enough for 2 folders put them in one, keep the australia part and put it all in there. or break it up to land/sea scape and animals.


i'm on the fence if they will print this with the giant name and date on the bottom.

your bio is very wordy and too show offy. it seems to outline a book you wrote more than the art you make and are presenting. it mentions healing and such a few times. telling us you don't edit isn't a selling point. most buyers don't know the difference, and it really shows a lack of skill. everyone edits and there is nothing unnatural about it. the camera can't pick up what the eyes see as well as you can. and brightening and adding things makes the image taste better.

knowing about your family and where you were born - not needed. overall keep it simple, one small paragraph that outlines what you specialize in. painting i guess wild life and photography with scenes of australia. you can save the bio as an introduction for a review or something. you don't want to bore anyone with a lot of reading.


---Mike Savad

Hi, Lesley;

First rule of advice. be careful who you ask it of, because they just might give it to you. Janine gave you some good advice (as did Mike) and I see you already followed her advice about starting out on galleries, which is good. One thing to look out for are the horizons in your shots. Many of them are leaning. I feel somewhat qualified to dpeak on this because I have to level almost all of my shots either .% or 1.0%. For example, this one is leaning to the left to my naked eye --



I see Mike has mentioned the rather large price here for an 8X5 and he brings up a good point about greeting cards. They are really 5X7 prints. Order one, frame it and most folks will never know the difference. This one



More unlevelness, but the price makes more sense. On this one, we have more than 1% unlevel and we're back to the exhorbirant pricing.



Good luck with everything. It's taken me more than two years to get to a point where I can start seeing sales approach where I was hoping they would be all along. To use an overused clicke, it's a marathon, not a sprint.

My two cents - I don't think the 3rd person approach is working in your bio.

Second the notion of "pure photography" is not something the buyers are looking for - they want the very best for their walls and are used to seeing work that is "tweaked". You have to keep in mind the market standards - using Photoshop/Lightroom to bring out the best in images.

A customer would rarely pick "purity" over dynamic color and contrast. The camera as a machine can only do so much. It takes artistry to bring the image to the artists final vision.

Honestly, I did not look at your bio. This part tells me why a lot of your images are unlevel --

"Lesley's photogarphy is pure - what you see is what was photographed. Lesley does not like using photographic enhancement the challenge is to capture the moment. "

I believe I have 490 images here and pretty much every single one of them has some "enhancement." Digital cameras cannot see what our eye sees. Taking the photo is only half the work. And as Edward said, people like what they like. I cannot imagine anyone thinking about buying a photograph and then saying, "No, looks like there was some enhancement there." They like what they like.

Excellent comment regarding 'enhancement' , Joe. Well said.

Sorry, Lesley, but I submit there is no such thing as “pure” photography.

There is a discussion here as to 'straight' photography and 'pictorial' photography.

I will try and find it for you.

Oh, p.s.... the FB thingy. Very tricky when you are having a problem with it - especially if you are not a tech-type.

Abbie has complete step by step instruction on how & where to able & disable it in the Behind the scenes.

Things have changed a bit around here . Look up on top & see if you can find the links to " New here , & need help...." it should be in there.
People have problems figuring that one out consistently, don't feel bad.

http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=98980

Oh My you are a wordy lot of people, I thank you for your advice. I am working on correcting these issues. Also please remember be nice! It costs nothing and goes along way.
regards Lesley

you'll have to define nice.

telling the truth where it can help you, but may not make you smile - is nice.

telling you a lie to make you smile, but won't help you at all, is mean.


---Mike Savad

Joseph thanks for your constructive words, I am used to marathons, been a writer and artist 35 years now. :) Yes I do it for love not money I am afraid if I did it for money I wouldnt do it and I guess neither would you or many of the others. I guess I am a purist at heart, in many things, anyone can take a crap picture and use photoshop to fix it. But that is not a reality in my book. The whole challenge is capturing that magic moment when everything aligns in pure beauty.

Mike my bio was written by a aprofessional more aimed at my books to get the publishers interest and it has worked, however I will get my pr person to ajust it so you find it not offensive.

Thanks again I am taking everything you said into count and working on fixing these issues. Blessings everyone thanks again, this is a whole new journey.