My website

[Catz]

Hi all, I am about to get crammed here but I can take the heat. I shot a wedding for a friend of mine for free. I put the pictures on my website and wanted some thoughts from you as to if I have a chance down the road to shoot weddings. I am not good but I did enjoy the experience.

Don't pay no mind to what the people were wearing. They are country folk and they dress that way.

Website is http://www.tidewater-photography.com.

It is okay to say I suck. I can handle it. After all it was my first wedding.

Melissa

 

[Ken-L]

Can't access it.....

 

[Catz]

http://www.tidewater-photography.com/

Here it is. Let me know all the bad stuff then the good stuff...lol...

 

[jfrancis]

I think you have done a very nice job with the web site. Really nice.

It's harder to critique the images because there looks to be some funky JPG artefacts or something that are really hurting the quality. I did notice a few wonky verticals and horizontals. Keep at it though. Weddings are tough things to shoot.

 

[Catz]

I think you have done a very nice job with the web site. Really nice.

It's harder to critique the images because there looks to be some funky JPG artefacts or something that are really hurting the quality. I did notice a few wonky verticals and horizontals. Keep at it though. Weddings are tough things to shoot.

Thanks John,

I used the S2 for these pictures. Thank you for the critique.

 

[Mike]

I love the site design. it is very intuitive, but the photos load very slowly and the quality of your images suffer from compression ????? maybe.

Mike

 

[Vernon t]

Very tasteful website. Kudos to your designer(doubly so if it's you).

Definitely the JPG compression artifact isn't doing you justice. ? Macromedia Flash over-compressing of something. I know nothing in this arena.

It will be interesting to see how the pro wedding photogs react. Some are brutally honest, territorial and, often, tremendously skilled. Honest opinions will come your way, guaranteed. As I'm an amateur shooter and non-photo-small-businessman I'm proud of you for going for it...good luck.

When I shoot at weddings I do it for free for friends... staying way way out of the way of any pro! I've very politely tried to keep other less considerate shooters from being a nuisance. I hate that we have stiff formal shots of our wedding party and none of our (many now-departed)guests, the dance, and so on. I enjoy furnishing that for friends.

In my job I sneer at the innumerable plaintiffs' attorneys who have me in their crosshairs....but dealing with a bride and the couple's mothers at a wedding....THAT terrifies me. Good for you.

BTW if you are very thick skinned and seek the experts to opine...run it by the DPR pro-forum...... :Shocked: izzy:


Oh...this is my (very)male opinion and nothing more, but I am annoyed by sappy music on wedding photog sites....more kudos to you...not that you asked. :biggrin: If you MUST add music how about "Another one bites the dust" by Queen?

.

Here's one wedding I had fun with. She's a friend since first grade. The free quasi-pro photog they had was her ex-husband's sister. Cool, eh?


click on their photo. They got more than they paid for.

.


www.pbase.com/fredandpatte

find out what people want...gosh, I'd love to have something like these shots of mine shots from my own wedding 25 years ago!
We've been happily married for over 23.5 years.....not too bad considering we just had our 25th anniversary. :wink: (just kidding, if you read this sweety)


.


.

 

[Ken-L]

The photos are good. The website is very slow to load them though, I'm using a DSL connection so I'm sure it's not me.....

 

[WHISTLING_WINGS]

Wedding

Where to start, well I'm not a full time WP I do about 10-12 a year, you have Jpeg compression or something, the site is very classy though I agree it loads slow as written below this. I won't critique it but some suggestions, work every shot for what its worth, full 3/4 1/2 etc angles of the same, dont let the nose breal the cheak unless a profile, and remember the camera does both hor and vert, .... If you doing for pay it gives you more command of things so that will help. For a first time out a good honest job, and BTW be ready and thick skined evey one you meet will think there GQ or Vogue and won't except that some of us and I'm one don't photograph well... And guess who they look at, in ending seeing your other work I;m sure you will do fine, like anything its a learning curve so relax don't pressure your self or you won't enjoy and theres alot already not to enjoy, and in todays digital world take command be sure they know you shoot or every person will be sneaking in taking shots, I dont allow it it just brings future photos that they will pull out and say we pais you alot of money and aunt ? took this so why can they give us photos as good as yours, and compare you to the 20 rools or cd that the F & F shot. Of course they wont look at the stuf that you did where aunt ? pointed her little digital and let the camera do what it wanted. The nice thing about digital is checking the lcd now and then to see if things are right so you don't get home and find a problem. Keep shooting be looking for some posts.

 

[F15Todd]

I really like the layout of the site. The only thing that needs vast
improvement is the image resolutions. I know that a larger file size might
slow the site down a little, but a clearer picture would be worth it.

 

[Keaka]

The website design is fabulous, and the image on the front page is excellent.

But in the gallery there looks to be something seriously wrong with the jpegs because I see artifacts everywhere. From my experience it has nothing to do with the pictures themselves (which I'm sure will look great once the artifacts are gone) but moreso the way you rendered them into Flash (or whatever program you are using to do it.

As far as the actual photos themselves.. they have a journalistic feel to them. Its not exactly my cup of tea but there are a lot of couples out there who will like what you produce. I think the composition of shots needs work but as you said this is the first time and you can't expect too much out of yourself in a situation like that

Keep it up!

 

[Chris101]

The Flash website is a nice use of that technology. However the site looks like a demo, rather than an actual self promotional site. I say this because I click the 'Me' link, and I don't learn anything about you, no name, picture, bio, CV... nada. Contact me has no email, location, phone, fax . Again nada. So as far as promoting you it doesn't. Mostly it just promotes Flash using your pictures (and like others, the images load kinda s l o w . )

Your photography, on the other hand, is stellar! This is your first wedding you say? ... Wow.

 

[jjdesanto1]

Great website, Catz

It looks very professional. I won't repeat what others have said about the quality of the images (but maybe I just did) but I would like to add this:

I've shot 10-12 weddings over the past 30 years. Not a lot, but I've also spent a ton of time as a newspaper photographer, too.

Be very aware of the backgrounds as you shoot. One of the toughest things a good wedding photographer has to do is choreograph what's happening. If the best man goes to pin something on the groom, don't just let it happen. Check the background, check their body orientation, check their clothes and their expressions. If you have to stop the whole thing and move them away from something - do it! Choreograph it quickly and professionally, take your shots and then move away.

The client may be annoyed at first, but they'll thank you later. Every single shot (with the exception of the religious part) jump in, scan the background, check their clothes for rumples, orientate their bodies properly, get the shot and fade away.

It's one of the things that great wedding photographers do the best.

 

[Gale]

Melissa,
You did a great job.
A few could go through S/H but all in all great job.

The site, well guess they have covered that. I don't care much for flash webs either. Did not load slow here though

 

[Chris101]

... A few could go through S/H but all in all great job. ...

What's S/H?

 

[GaryW]

What's S/H?

Shadow/Highlight adjustment in Photoshop (CS and CS2)

 

[Steve S]

Shadow/Highlight adjustment in Photoshop (CS and CS2)

DOH, I though it was Shipping & Handling! :wink:
Catz, this has already been said, but bears repeating. the jpg compression level is pretty awful. Be very mindful of your backgrounds, the bulletin board behind some of your shots is very distracting, and will also suggest that some tightly cropped shots would be good to add too. Most of your shots are so wide!

 

[Catz]

Your pictures are fantastic Vernon. You should do weddings in your spare time. You are good at it.

 

[Catz]

Hi Todd,

| wish I could put larger photos on the website but the webmaster only allows picture to be a certain size. I can't stand to be put on a limit when it comes to my website.

Thanks for the compliments. I wish I could take the credit for designing it but I had bludomain put it together and I just fill in the blanks. I really love that site. Sorry it is a flash site.

 

[Catz]

The Flash website is a nice use of that technology. However the site looks like a demo, rather than an actual self promotional site. I say this because I click the 'Me' link, and I don't learn anything about you, no name, picture, bio, CV... nada. Contact me has no email, location, phone, fax . Again nada. So as far as promoting you it doesn't. Mostly it just promotes Flash using your pictures (and like others, the images load kinda s l o w . )

Your photography, on the other hand, is stellar! This is your first wedding you say? ... Wow.

Hi Chris,

Yes it is my first wedding I did as a favor to the couple who are friends of mine. I was backing up the photographer.