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Hi ladies and gentlemen,
I'm new around and new to offer my skills. I would be pleased you help me defining which audience I should try to target. Here's my site : http://closer-to-perfection.com/ Are my skills more suitable for Photographers or for Models ? Should I better point out my webmaster skills than my pictures enhancement skills ? Could handmade thumbnails interest you ? Are my prices correct ? Thanks for all your comments and critiques. Frederic Nov 09 13 10:38 am Link I am not a fan of your retouching at all. In most cases the "Before" is better. All you seem to do is jack up the contrast and/or saturation.
Not sure why any photographer would need to hire somebody to make thumbnails of their images. Nov 09 13 01:05 pm Link Mark C Smith wrote: Agree not a fan either. overly saturated images Nov 09 13 01:14 pm Link Just market yourself as a "Professional Contrast and Saturation Specialist".
Easy peasy Nov 09 13 02:47 pm Link You've removed the entire mood from your example photos. I'm sure the original photographer would not be pleased with what you did.
Not to mention that it's doubtful that you have permission to show those images. Did you get permission first ?? Are you violating someone else's copyright ??? KM Nov 09 13 03:01 pm Link Ken Marcus Studios wrote: yep Nov 09 13 03:03 pm Link 925 image wrote: I agree with what has been said, I also noticed your images are very grainy which is unpleasant considering they were not grainy before. Nov 09 13 03:38 pm Link Ken Marcus Studios wrote: +1 Nov 09 13 03:43 pm Link You should push website building as that can be very helpful to lots of people on this site.
As others have opined the before images look better. You either have an eye for retouching or you don't. Nov 09 13 03:46 pm Link Ken Marcus Studios wrote: Read the site. Pictures have been purchased on Fotolia. Nov 09 13 05:10 pm Link 925 image wrote: +1 to this.
Nov 09 13 05:12 pm Link LA StarShooter wrote: Thanks that's a constructive critique.
Nov 09 13 05:16 pm Link Before updating the pages on my website, I've updated my MM profile speaking mainly about HQ website services.
What are your opinions about it ? Nov 09 13 10:07 pm Link I have seen the future and it does not include a fruitful and lucrative career in photo retouching for you. Nov 09 13 10:14 pm Link Dan Cripps wrote: That's not necessarily true.
Nov 10 13 02:23 am Link I will get back to this thread later.
X Nov 10 13 02:24 am Link Natalia_Taffarel wrote: I was probably being unfairly harsh.
Nov 10 13 02:46 am Link I've asked for critiques so I've to accept them.
I'm currently rewriting my pages. There will be no more "Your Pictures", "Our Work" and I will try to focus on the website management on homepage. Here's the first modified page. http://closer-to-perfection.com/adjusting-colors/ Thanks to read the text and to comment. Nov 10 13 03:41 am Link I think the sticky situation you are in WRT to retouching is "Who is your customer?".
What you demonstrate is unlikely to be of value to photographers - most photographers I would guess very quickly learn how to change global saturation and contrast etc. It would take them less time to do it themselves than to forward you the images to be corrected, never mind actually writing you a check. I would *guess* that most of the time models don't hire retouchers. They typically don't have rights to the photos that allow manipulation, so the photographer would get involved, and then just make the correction themselves in a second and be done with it. One of the things that your site demonstrates is being greatly out of touch with the scope of the problem - it shows a certain naivete, which is OK to get started, but that naivete has to disappear in order to be competitive. I would recommend doing a *lot* of research to see what retouchers usually start with for images, and the types of things they are called on to do. In the interim, I'd drop everything associated with retouching from your site, and concentrate 100% on web site development. Your customers can then be photographers and models. Nov 10 13 04:10 am Link I would say your target audience would be amateur models (Assuming they have permission to have them processed) and amateur photographers, who don't know how to process or don't have time to. Nov 10 13 05:30 am Link I looked at your website development page and it's quite nice. One of the market challenges you face is from companies like Zenfolio. For $120 per year I can actually sell photos. I also have a choice of really good presets if I want a more full page presentation. Nevertheless, I like how orderly and well-presented your website development page is. And I think it is worth considering. Nov 10 13 01:53 pm Link LA StarShooter wrote: Thanks for your comment.
Nov 10 13 02:53 pm Link I expect a retoucher to provide actual spot editing of photos far beyond global saturation changes. Until you can offer 10 real photographer images fully retouched from RAW images, I don't think you should market yourself as a "retoucher". Nov 10 13 03:11 pm Link Not a fan of the retouching the mood is off. You are raising the saturation when that saturation is not needed. You are making images that are cold, warm Nov 10 13 03:34 pm Link |
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