Opinions and tips from the pro's please!

theraven

theraven

Suspended / Banned
Messages
918
Name
Jenna
Edit My Images
Yes
My website and shop are now up and running finally!

After much deliberation, I have chosen Smugmug to use, they now have a UK printing company so it works well. I looked at so many and this seems the best for me as of now.

So, opinions guys! Anything you don't like, is it too complicated for the average user?

I need this for the events that I cover on weekends, like the hunting and showing (horses) as it is too complicated and time consuming trying to manually fulfill orders.

This means I earn less per photography, but I now have much more time for shooting.

Anyway, I value your opinions, here she is...

www.ravenphotography.co.uk

Cheers,

Jenna
 
Your opening information speaks of commercial work , profesional blah blah then ends with pictures from as little as £5

Its a missmatch.. the text looks like your a pro commercial photograper then the price makes you look cheap..

I am not knocking the price.. my prints ar £4 .. but then I am not aiming my website at pro commerical .... well you get the drift :)
 
In your galleries you ahve a loverly equestrian picturre.. really nice.. its quite rightly got a watermark accross it... then in your blog (dont agree wiht blogs on pro sites) you ahve the same equestrian pic wiht no watermark anyone can copy and print out ?
 
In your shopping cart you have the picture at £10.00 ea .. whats ea? and will your customers know ?
 
Its says you do headshots, products and interiors, but you don't have any images of that type. Personally I'd leave that out until you can back it up some examples.
I also couldn't work out where the images for sale are?

Nice hunting image BTW :thumbs:
 
Thanks all, massive work in progress!

Ok from the top.

I have removed the commercial work thing until I have put the pics on, then I will include in the header :)

As of now all images that are on this website will be watermarked, I cannot go back through years of images watermarking, also, if I delete the posts, it will b****r up my SEO, which is quite good in Google.

The buying now thing comes into play when I set up an event, it then creates a page.

For example, if I do another hunt, then I set up the gallery as an event, it has it's own link and shopping cart. I will look into better themes to make the shopping cart more prominent!

Where is the £10ea thing?
 
First problem: It wont open on my work computer as smugmug is designated as a social media website. This will be the same up and down the country and so may put off potential customers.
 
theraven said:
Ah right, I can't change that :/
Click to expand...

I can only guess its short for each? but why shorten it and to be honest thats a guess.. don't know if others will guess or if its even important :)
 
KIPAX said:
I can only guess its short for each? but why shorten it and to be honest thats a guess.. don't know if others will guess or if its even important :)
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I agree, and now it has been pointed out it's really annoying me haha!:bang:
 
seems to be a bug on the gallery page.

in firefox v24, if you resize the browser window so that you end up with multiple pages, the formatting on the page number dropdown overlays the "of" page number.
 
neil_g said:
seems to be a bug on the gallery page.

in firefox v24, if you resize the browser window so that you end up with multiple pages, the formatting on the page number dropdown overlays the "of" page number.
Click to expand...

Wow, I've been trying to figure this out all day, aside from changing the layout of the galleries I can't change it :bang:

On a lighter note, I have created a coupon (Fantastic idea from Smugmug) with 15% off the first order, shared with Facebook and bingo :) People really do love money off!
 
Which package are you using Jenna?
 
gramps said:
Which package are you using Jenna?
Click to expand...

So far I am still on the free trial but I will be using the tip package when I buy it in a couple of weeks. With the dollar how it is it works out about £21-22 a month, which I think is reasonable and it has unlimited space, events, coupons, shop, printing, etc.

It's by far the best deal I have found and I have been looking for a long time!
 
mike weeks said:
£22 per month = £264 for a year,
PhotoCart = US$329 or £202 with free upgrades for life (ongoing hosting though)

Know which I would rather have

Mike
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It's not just the price though, it's the many features included that I will use and already have, after two days of using it. The support and the rave reviews that the quality of printing Loxley Colour has. Plus the added canvases and posters etc that people do order from me.

Each to their own, but I can see myself staying with them.

Plus it's unlimited storage, so that's great when I do equestrian events and there are so many shots!
 
Plus smugmug don't put up their prices once you've signed up either. I still pay the same as I did when I joined them years ago.
 
srichards said:
Plus smugmug don't put up their prices once you've signed up either. I still pay the same as I did when I joined them years ago.
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How many years? so what is the total cost?

If I want images from Loxley I can do that as well, unlimited storage, can be had for about £30 a year - still not convinced unfortunately - coupons, I can produce those - what else?
 
mike weeks said:
£22 per month = £264 for a year,
PhotoCart = US$329 or £202 with free upgrades for life (ongoing hosting though)

Know which I would rather have

Mike
Click to expand...

Demo example of Photocart looks pretty bland, do they have alternative templates/formats?
 
I ahve been back for another look and that ea now appears under every thumbnail.. its annoying.. sorry :(

On a slightly off topic note.. I have to say i absoloutly love your hunting pictures.. you ahve a good post process style.. i really do like them :)
 
mike weeks said:
How many years? so what is the total cost?

If I want images from Loxley I can do that as well, unlimited storage, can be had for about £30 a year - still not convinced unfortunately - coupons, I can produce those - what else?
Click to expand...

Mine's not the pro account so it's not relevant to the discussion really.
 
mike weeks said:
How many years? so what is the total cost?

If I want images from Loxley I can do that as well, unlimited storage, can be had for about £30 a year - still not convinced unfortunately - coupons, I can produce those - what else?
Click to expand...

Mike, you can use Photocart and I can use Smugmug, it doesn't mean one of us is wrong, we just have different requirements.

Photocart is an add on to a self hosted website. I didn't have a website.

For £22 a month I get it fully hosted with everything included on my own domain. That's good enough for me.

If I have to order my prints from one place, manually make coupons, buy storage from somewhere else, host my website with someone else.

I'd rather pay a little bit more to have it all in one place.
 
theraven said:
Mike, you can use Photocart and I can use Smugmug, it doesn't mean one of us is wrong, we just have different requirements.

Photocart is an add on to a self hosted website. I didn't have a website.

For £22 a month I get it fully hosted with everything included on my own domain. That's good enough for me.

If I have to order my prints from one place, manually make coupons, buy storage from somewhere else, host my website with someone else.

I'd rather pay a little bit more to have it all in one place.
Click to expand...

Exactly. That's why the one stop solution is worth more than the price saving on getting something in bits.

Scalability is important. If you can deal with tens or hundreds of customers in the same time as it takes to deal with a handful then you're quids in :)
 
mike weeks said:
Jenna,

never said you were wrong, but highlighting an alternative - actually many of our requirements are the same, I do a lot of equestrian events as well, often uploading in to the 1000's from an event.

Mike
Click to expand...

No problem :)

I didn't know you did equestrian!

Just looking through your website now. Quick one, how do you deal with such high iso when shooting jumping etc indoors? Does it affect your prints terribly or do you have a solution?
 
mike weeks said:
D700 or D800 will handle up to 5000ISO but the king is the D3S - if needed a quick noise reduction in Lightroom which you can set to auto process all incoming images - most riders are amazed that you can get anything so accept that the images are not as good as those taken outside.

Mike
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Yeah I've found that the people purchasing are not bothered at all, it's just me haha, pixel peeping.

I shoot Sony, just got the A65, not great in the noise department, but a huge and I mean huge step up from the a200! Plus it is an SLT so 10fps really helps! :clap:

Nikon do seem to be the king in the low light department!
 
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