Honest opinions on photos and website pls :)

ktowers

ktowers

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215
Name
kate
Edit My Images
Yes
Im fairly new and wanted some honest opinions on my images and website
any advice would be realy appreciated

thanks in advance

www.katetowersphotography.co.uk
 
some good stuff and some not so good, Kate. Site is clean, but gallery is way too small. Doesn't tell us what sort of photography you want to do as it's kiddies and weddings all in together.

Remember, your portfolio is only as good as your worst image.

Now, about prices. Ridiculous. Way, way, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to low. How can you make a profit?
 
thanks for the advice, i struggle getting customers at that price, put it down to the recession we are in , and most of it is profit, all it costs is my time , would love to put my prices up but just dont think i would get the customers
 
The site is confused, you need to decide what sort of photographer you are and send 1 message

The slideshow thingy doesn't work well in firefox, it sticks

There is lots of additional blank space that adds to the mess

---

Photography. I think you need to show some clean colour work, I'm seeing a lot of processing,and a lot of trick effects that really I find distracting. I am not your target market though

Pricing - looks very very cheap
 
One of the html link codes is wrong on the link pages, and the thumbnails on the gallery look awful due to being resized.
When maxmising the photos, they look very soft and out of focus, Im guessing again due to being resized and that they arent actually that badly out of focus. It certainly doesnt show off the images to be as good as they could be and wont do your company image any good at all.

I also found navigating the thumbnails very akward, it kept skipping images, in the end I got fed up and gave up with it.
 
Have you considered that you'll get better customers? If you're struggling to get customers at those prices it's down to your website, portfolio and, most importantly, marketing skills.

If you want to sell cheaply then have realistically priced services but off special deals and discounts. I guarantee you'll get more work. you need to work on your meta tags (overloaded) and your SEO - not enough content.
 
guess i need to spend a bit of money on a new website :) thanks guys
 
I don't think it is terrible as website at all. However - my 2 pence worth:

  • Overal design is great -like the clean look and the colours. Not bad for a Vistaprint one.
  • You need some social networking stuff on there - a facebook page, twitter account or something. Something that makes it easy for people to recommend you online.
  • The gallery seems a bit slow - that is probably a coding/server issue (but not my area)
  • Your kids stuff is great - can I suggest focussing on that. You don't have any gallery stuff of families, couples etc so I would just focus on your strength for now.

Hope that helps - be encouraged though - it isn't that bad!!
 
thank you :) nice to know its not that bad .. will definately look at getting a new website though as dont think Vistaprint is the best
 
The23rdman said:
some good stuff and some not so good, Kate. Site is clean, but gallery is way too small. Doesn't tell us what sort of photography you want to do as it's kiddies and weddings all in together.

Remember, your portfolio is only as good as your worst image.

Now, about prices. Ridiculous. Way, way, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to low. How can you make a profit?
Click to expand...

:plusone:

also i'd be concerned about this

" but she is able to come to you or a location you choose for an additional small fee of £10"

excellent i'd like you to come to my home in east devon please - which will work out at about 2p/mile

I'd be inclined to have a travel radius (say 25 miles) inside which you will work for the price of the shoot , outside of that you charge milleage at xx/mile or negotiate a fee

Also one small point you ought to clarify which st ives you are talking about - I assume from the small print you mean cambridgeshire, but many people's first assumption will be cornwall (and there are also st ives in herts and lincs)

Price wise i hear what you are saying about the reccession etc - but while people do want to feel they are getting a bargain they dont want to feel that they are buying cheap because its all they can afford - so you might actually find that you get more buisness by increasing your prices then having a discount structure.

also it looks to me like you havent considdered your PP time - on a one hour shoot you are going to need at least 1 hour in PP maybe 2- factor in your other overheads and tax and you'd get a better hourly rate shelf stacking in tescos

and one other point with regard to the site itself - theres something odd with the gallery page , on my monitor its running off the right hand side of the screen
 
from my view (being very new to photography) pics are amazing.. common people will not know any defects much if u hav any .. also teach me now :-)
 
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As mentioned the gallery runs pics off the page to the right.

Also on the about me page: Kates fine art prints are available and can be purchased from RedBubble

but there's no link to your redbubble site. No-ones going to bother to search you ut but would click a link.

Cheers
 
thanks so much guys, taking in all of what you have said and im going to look at all the things one by one, v v grateful

:)
 
dont know why the gallery is doing that ? will look into it now
 
having had another look on the front page you are missing an apostrophe in children's

"Professional family and childrens photography throughout St Ives, Peterborough and Cambridgeshire."

Also i'm not sure about the phrasing on that - isn't it self evident that family includes children, and anyway don't you also shoot couples and weddings etc which might not fall within family - and it ought to be self evident that your photography is profesional.

Maybe "Portrait, lifestlye and wedding photography through out.... all ages catered for " or something of that nature.

Also on the pricing page leaving aside the lowness of pricing why do you have the minor variations between teenage/family/couple etc - at the end of the day one hour of photography is one hour of photography (and associated PP time) regardless of whether you are shooting teenagers, grandparents , couples or for that matter sheep.

so i'd be inclined to just say

1 hour photoshoot and 20 images £xx
1 hour photoshoot and 50 images £yy

extra images or longer shoots by negotiation.

I'd also enumerate your wedding packages (maybe on a seperate page) e.g

Bronze = ceremony and group shots only, rights released disc and 8x12 print £xxx

Silver = ceremony group shots and reception up to first dance, rights released disc and 8x12 print £xxx

Gold = Bridal preparation, ceremony, formal shots and reception up to first dance, rights released disc, 16 x24 print or A3 canvas £xxxx

Plantinum = Full coverage with two photographers from bridal preparation to the end of the reception, rights released disc, portfolio of prints, album etc £xxxx

extra prints and other add ons (list) by negotiation

(the above is only illustrative - only you can decide what you are actually going to offer)
 
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Okay i have made the pricing much more straight forward and im going to increase my prices in October

I have spoke to vista print re gallery and they are fixing this now

Have added links to facebook and redbubble

cheers guys for the help
 
its certainly getting there , couple of other points

given that your url is katetowers photography why does the tag at the top of the page say "tiny tots photography, home page" ?

and secondly i wonder about "Kate has been doing photography " - that might read better as " Kate has been taking photographs"
 
i know have no idea.. called Vista Print about that today but they werent v helpful - it used to be Tiny Tots Photography but i changed it and it stuck in some places .. not good i know! must try and get it sorted , and yes that does sound better
thanks again
 
On my iPad the gallery is a real issue. Many images are shown for a second and image sizes seem to be all over the place. Maybe it's just iPad viewing.

As far as the website is concerned, some of the images are really nice but as someone has said I'm not sure on making a thing of editing, in my opinion ( and that's all it is) is should be about the photography. If this is to be a serious business for you it may be worth a little investment in some website/ marketing copy.
 
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