Anyone Else Willing? (:

Kimberly I am glad to. Would you do the same for me? http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/iris-richardson.html

sure, if you do me too :D

didn't we leave feedback on your things already? i recognize that glare.

upload more images.


this won't print, while the sky is dark i can see blocks in it. you need more words. and a description - don't leave those blank.


tell us what kind of tree this is - you need more than 4 words.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Kimberly, as I looked at the first few images I saw flat lighting. You wont get great great color photography with harsh lighting or overcast. You really need to try getting up early just after sunrise to shoot, or just before sunset to shoot, and see the difference your lighting will make. Black and White can be okay with harsh and flat lighting, so keep that in mind. People love clouds, so just before a thunderstorm works well too (weird lighting)

thank you Ladies!!
...and Mike Savad, yes you did leave feedback on my photos already you didn't have to again. I was asking other people. Please don't be rude. and Kevin OConnell thanks for the tip, sounds good to me! but with 2 little children it is hard to just go anytime i would like to take pictures so i do the best i can with the time i have.

Kimberly, almost all your images except one I think, will only potentially print up to like a 6" x 9" based on the resolution, that's assuming they would pass print quality control here and I think that could be an issue due to blur, areas not in focus, also blowouts in the sky (overly white areas) on a couple.

When I decided to get back into photography a couple of years ago, all the information you are being given here, I had to learn too and have requested critiques a few times. I had a film camera background, digital was a foreign entity for me. Didn't know diddly squat about a pixel, had to learn. Didn't know about post processing or software, had to learn. Didn't know about chromatic aberration or noise or lots of stuff! Had to learn all this if I wanted to be serious about this.

Everyone has lives they have to work around to get out and shoot photos. If you can't get out in the best light, create some still life inside..with your kids maybe. When you can, get outside and shoot that beautiful countryside you have. I hate getting up early, I'm up late...it's 3:36 am right now. However, I have on at least two occasions recently got up at dawn to shoot early, because it was important to me. I am practically a caregiver for my mom who lives with me, so I am limited sometimes because of that, and I work like others here and it's not related to photography. This is like a second job.

You have to decide how important is this to you? If it's important, do not ever throw back someone's advice when you have asked for it. That...is rude. If you only want pats on the back, this isn't the place for it. If you want to improve and learn how to be a better photographer, listen to the Mike's of the world and others who have taken time out of their day, to help.

You certainly have potential and a couple of your images might appeal to a buyer. If you can only produce small images, just offer greeting cards. If you are serious about this as a profession, read and learn everything you can to improve. Take a class, in person or online. Learn about post processing. Find a camera that will give you larger images, it doesn't have to be the most expensive, it can be a starter camera.

Shoot whatever you can as often as you can, but learn about the technical stuff that will help you become a better photographer. Some of that you can learn here in the forums if you will listen.

who's being rude? you could have easily bumped the old thread up, and i would have seen right away i was already there.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Ok you asked for constructive criticism so here goes. Are you shooting raw? Or jpeg?

"let it flow" - the photo seemed over saturated with greens and some blue at the top

"September sunset" - I would try to use a graduated filter in lightroom or photoshop. That will allow you to bring out the subject more. It is a little dark

"Alaska Fall" - Again it seems oversaturated. Try to bring out the oranges using an individual color slider. Also you may want to crop out most of the sky as the trees seem to be your focus point.

Lastly, and this may seem harsh, make sure you put your best work out there. It may mean you only have a few photos to start but when in doubt, check websites like 500 px to show good composition and you may get some ideas on what to shoot next.

Mike St. Marie, I noticed your suggestion of 500px, which looks like it might be a good photography network and advice resource. Before I jump in there, I'm just wondering if you've had much experience with it. If the advice offered there is like what you've offered here to Kimberly, I might jump in. But I'm leery of websites that I've never heard of before. Anyway, thanks for suggesting it.

Kimberly, I think you are living in a paradise for photography! I commented on one of your photos.

Pixel dimensions seem very small for printing ...for the pics I clicked on

I will reiterate that your images are very low resolution... I don't know if it's a limitation of your camera, you're shrinking down your images, or you're cropping them before uploading them here. Even the worst cellphone cameras these days can produce images much larger than 960 x 644.

It's best to upload the highest resolution photo possible here as it will afford you the biggest range of print sizes.

i sincerely appreciate all of the feedback. thank you all!!
and Melissa Bittinger i certainly am not asking for pats on the back and i don't believe i was being rude but okay, i understand. thanks for the advice, i appreciate it very much!!! (: Mike Savad, i apologize if i seemed harsh towards you, thank you for your comments!

i use a nikon d3000 so i don't know why my images look so low in resolution? any advice on what i can do to make that better? also i don't crop my images, so i am not sure why my photos looks so pix-elated and whatnot....any suggestions? thank you for your time everyone!

I can't critique technical skills in photography, but I am fairly good at composition.

I didn't see it mentioned here with a quick peek - but your Avatar is crooked Kimberly.

It might be for an effect you are wishing to achieve - but you throw people off when trees are not standing straight up. Your first desire is getting people in that door !

That image would have great appeal to Winter outdoor enthusiasts - but I would think skiers would not want an image that appears from laying on the ground.

Best wishes.

@ Patricia - you can search 500 PX for "landscapes" or "flowers" or whatever the subject and it shows photos of good composition. I'm not sure of the "networking" opportunities but typically that is the site Scott Kelby recommends people check out when he does photo critiques. And if it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me :-)

My two cents - Where are the descriptions? Also when I see that you are in Alaska I'm expecting GRANDEUR. Where are the dramatic landscapes? What I'm seeing is images that could be taken anywhere that has deciduous trees. Show people who don't live in Alaska what is like to live there. Sell the dream of living Alaska to those who yearn to live it even if they never leave their arm chair.

"I don't crop my images"

Ummm why not? Cropping is one of the tools we have as photographers to tell our stories.

Im just going to suggest the settings in your camera might accidentally be set to shoot at lowest or low resolution, I looked up your model Nikon D 3000 http://www.nikonusa.com/en/Nikon-Products/Product-Archive/Digital-SLR-Cameras/25462/D3000.html and it has some very good looking attributes and at 10 .2 million mega pixels should be able to print up to 20 x 30 inch prints > quote from company 10.2-Megapixel DX-format Imaging Sensor
Delivers extraordinary image quality for breathtaking prints up to 20 x 30 inches. *In a perfect world with all thing aligned in the universe (my words )But in saying that your camera looks like it can deliver a high quality print.I humbly suggest study your manual and really learn this camera and its settings,and see if you have set your res. very low ? All success to you, Rick

Hi Kimberly.
Check that your camera is set to its highest quality setting and it should stop the pixelation in some of your images.
Make sure that you put a description for all your images to help them get found by search engines.

images will look pixelated due to iso settings, compression settings, quality settings on camera, settings when you save it. if you brighten up something dark etc. the fanciness of a camera doesn't make that much of a difference.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

It still perplexes me when folks say things like, "I don't crop my images." Why don't you crop your images? Is it an overall phisophy you have? Do you not think your images needs cropping? Maybe they don't. What other stuff do you not do?

technically you can crop in camera. align yourself right the first time and you leave more pixels later on. its like shooting a portrait by standing far away or getting close to the subject. yet saying you don't crop as a way to show off, there is little point. its almost like saying you grow natural vegetables, so natural, they aren't washed.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

thanks alot for the suggestions but yes i do not crop my images, and i do not think that is a big deal. The photos are my photos you know? and if i would like to crop them i will. that is all, i was not trying to show off or anything! (:

Dear Kimberly,

Let me just say that I am not a photographer at all. My husband laughs at me because I will take awful photographs but create beautiful artworks and he can't understand how that is. I always say I just Photoshop in my head! So I can not provide suggestions regarding anything related to photography.

I noticed that you only have a small group of works and they seem very scattered in the thought process. I am not sure where you would like to take your photography, but a suggestion would be to look at each image and then make a collection of works based on each image that you have already listed. Create a dynamic story from each one to create cohesive collections and bodies of works. Don't think random, but think like a fashion designer would making a collection of outfits that are all interconnected but not exactly alike. Then, create separate galleries for each body of work and be sure to describe the galleries.

I am often not sure what to say about my works of art, so maybe you could get some books on Alaska or some travel brochures that speak of Alaska and use that type of language to advertise and "sell" the images to the public in the description.

Lastly, I would suggest that you edit the profile and remember to use complete sentences and capitalize the "I" in the words. Otherwise it comes off as lacking in effort and like a text message post. If you want to be taken seriously as an artist and make sales, you need to put in 100 percent effort on all fronts. And boy is it hard and trying at times. I often wish that I had a PR and Social Media expert at hand to do all that work so I could just focus on the art but I don't. It isn't easy and grows us in ways we didn't think we need to.

I also have started looking at the website ArtBusiness.com for articles on pricing, selling, galleries, FAQs and the like to get better as an artist.

Good luck!