It's time to ask the question.

Guess it's just me and my tumbleweed friends celebrating this year.. sniff..

Hi Doccy  

sorry to see that you didn't get any response to this, so I'll fire a few thoughts your way.  Remember, its just one scouts opinion and you a free to ignore.

First things first, I'm not a fan of your cover image.  It's a lovely shot, but the crop doesn't quite work for me.  I would replace it with something more in keeping with a letterbox style header.

I'm also not a fan of portfolio's with no, or very few notes.  I think most people like to get a feel for the person that they are considering working with.  I really think you should change them to tell everyone a little bit about yourself, what interests you photographically and the sort of things you are interested in shooting.

A glance through your images shows me that you are a technically adept photographer, your lighting is good and your images are well edited.  You clearly have a good eye, make good use of angles and there is evidence of thought going into styling and makeup etc.  Your portfolio images are all decent shots, though many would argue that you have too many images on show.

I think you could tidy up the image section by doing two things.  There are long runs of images of the same model that were obviously shot within a few seconds of each other.  As an example, you have six consecutive images of Zara Watson, they are all close in headshot, or at least that is what the thumbnail crop suggests.  There is no need for so many versions of the same shot, lovely as they are.  Display the best one and put the rest into albums.

You need to pay closer attention to your thumbnail crops, using your images of Little Egypt as an example, your thumbnail cuts off heads and feet.  Glancing at your portfolio I would pass those images by because the thumbnail doesn't entice me to click on it.  That's a shame as they are nice shots, though again too many in a sequence.

To condense all that down to a couple of sentences, your photography skills and editing are great, but you need to pay more attention to how you present your portfolio. :)

Alan Ewart said

Hi Doccy  

sorry to see that you didn't get any response to this, so I'll fire a few thoughts your way.  Remember, its just one scouts opinion and you a free to ignore.

First things first, I'm not a fan of your cover image.  It's a lovely shot, but the crop doesn't quite work for me.  I would replace it with something more in keeping with a letterbox style header.

I'm also not a fan of portfolio's with no, or very few notes.  I think most people like to get a feel for the person that they are considering working with.  I really think you should change them to tell everyone a little bit about yourself, what interests you photographically and the sort of things you are interested in shooting.

A glance through your images shows me that you are a technically adept photographer, your lighting is good and your images are well edited.  You clearly have a good eye, make good use of angles and there is evidence of thought going into styling and makeup etc.  Your portfolio images are all decent shots, though many would argue that you have too many images on show.

I think you could tidy up the image section by doing two things.  There are long runs of images of the same model that were obviously shot within a few seconds of each other.  As an example, you have six consecutive images of Zara Watson, they are all close in headshot, or at least that is what the thumbnail crop suggests.  There is no need for so many versions of the same shot, lovely as they are.  Display the best one and put the rest into albums.

You need to pay closer attention to your thumbnail crops, using your images of Little Egypt as an example, your thumbnail cuts off heads and feet.  Glancing at your portfolio I would pass those images by because the thumbnail doesn't entice me to click on it.  That's a shame as they are nice shots, though again too many in a sequence.

To condense all that down to a couple of sentences, your photography skills and editing are great, but you need to pay more attention to how you present your portfolio. :)

Hey thanks Alan,

All great points of view, that's exactly what I'm looking for. One tends to see only what one likes and often can't appreciate what another person sees until they point it out.

Yes, I'll have top get more strict with just how many of my personal favourites I leave in the main portfolio and trim the fat so to speak through to albums.

What I have noticed though, back up by the systems statistics, is that images in albums rarely get looked at. I guess it's like people who only listen to what DJs present on the radio and never buy an artist's album to hear their 'deeper cuts'. That's part of my reasoning for leaving a selection of the best shots up in the main portfolio. I'll have a look at my cropping too. With Little Egypt being an anon model I thought the head chopping wouldn't matter but I guess without knowing she's anon in advance it must look weird.

I'll be interested to hear what advice others have.

Doccy , its true, few people dip into albums.  Just out of interest, I struggle with exactly the same issue - I often love so many images from a shoot with a great model that I don't know which ones to use :)  The secret is to introduce them one at a time and when the cycle of love runs down add them to an album then :) (Y)

Alan Ewart said

Doccy , its true, few people dip into albums.  Just out of interest, I struggle with exactly the same issue - I often love so many images from a shoot with a great model that I don't know which ones to use :)  The secret is to introduce them one at a time and when the cycle of love runs down add them to an album then :) (Y)

THAT is a great tip!!

Hi Doccy,

I tend to upload new images to either a folder named after the model or a generic/themed folder and then make them “visible” on the home page until they stop gathering views/loves and then I “Hide” them from the home page.  Makes it easy to manage.

Hey Doccy! You've had some great advice so far which I agree with, so I'll go into a little more detail about what I think would improve your portfolio from a model's perspective. Feel free to ignore but I hope some of it is useful :)

Your notes are too short and generic. You mention your style of photography but I wouldn't say that your style is overly obvious from the images on show (there's natural light, artificial light, natural and highly-styled, saturated and muted...), and there is no mention of whether you're looking for TF, paid work, to pay models etc. Your main portfolio showcases mostly very slender models so if that is something you actively seek in a subject, perhaps mention that in your notes. If not, maybe consider working with a wider variety of figures to diversify your images.

You've got a good variety of high-quality images in your portfolio, however a few things could be tidied up. While PP welcomes non-model images, this is predominantly a modelling site so having your first four images as non-model shots may make people less inclined to look further. Consider moving those further down or into a designated album.

These thumbnails really caught my attention and made me want to view them. Maybe move these further up your portfolio to help engage the viewer early on. You have shot with several 'big' names (Zara Watson, Ayla, Sophia Blake etc) - showcasing these images higher up will grab people's attention as they are familiar faces. 

From a technical point of view, your lighting and composition are lovely but a few images seem slightly out of focus/missed focus. For example...

Overall; a great start and loads of potential but just needs some polishing to really shine. Keep shooting and experimenting!

Sinopa Rin said

Hey Doccy! You've had some great advice so far which I agree with, so I'll go into a little more detail about what I think would improve your portfolio from a model's perspective. Feel free to ignore but I hope some of it is useful :)

Your notes are too short and generic. You mention your style of photography but I wouldn't say that your style is overly obvious from the images on show (there's natural light, artificial light, natural and highly-styled, saturated and muted...), and there is no mention of whether you're looking for TF, paid work, to pay models etc. Your main portfolio showcases mostly very slender models so if that is something you actively seek in a subject, perhaps mention that in your notes. If not, maybe consider working with a wider variety of figures to diversify your images.

You've got a good variety of high-quality images in your portfolio, however a few things could be tidied up. While PP welcomes non-model images, this is predominantly a modelling site so having your first four images as non-model shots may make people less inclined to look further. Consider moving those further down or into a designated album.

These thumbnails really caught my attention and made me want to view them. Maybe move these further up your portfolio to help engage the viewer early on. You have shot with several 'big' names (Zara Watson, Ayla, Sophia Blake etc) - showcasing these images higher up will grab people's attention as they are familiar faces. 

     

From a technical point of view, your lighting and composition are lovely but a few images seem slightly out of focus/missed focus. For example...

    

Overall; a great start and loads of potential but just needs some polishing to really shine. Keep shooting and experimenting!

100% agree with all of that. Also maybe easy back on the post-production. Some of these look very over-processed and in most cases it doesn't look like the shots needed it. 

Nils Bratby said

Sinopa Rin said

Hey Doccy! You've had some great advice so far which I agree with, so I'll go into a little more detail about what I think would improve your portfolio from a model's perspective. Feel free to ignore but I hope some of it is useful :)

Your notes are too short and generic. You mention your style of photography but I wouldn't say that your style is overly obvious from the images on show (there's natural light, artificial light, natural and highly-styled, saturated and muted...), and there is no mention of whether you're looking for TF, paid work, to pay models etc. Your main portfolio showcases mostly very slender models so if that is something you actively seek in a subject, perhaps mention that in your notes. If not, maybe consider working with a wider variety of figures to diversify your images.

You've got a good variety of high-quality images in your portfolio, however a few things could be tidied up. While PP welcomes non-model images, this is predominantly a modelling site so having your first four images as non-model shots may make people less inclined to look further. Consider moving those further down or into a designated album.

These thumbnails really caught my attention and made me want to view them. Maybe move these further up your portfolio to help engage the viewer early on. You have shot with several 'big' names (Zara Watson, Ayla, Sophia Blake etc) - showcasing these images higher up will grab people's attention as they are familiar faces. 

     

From a technical point of view, your lighting and composition are lovely but a few images seem slightly out of focus/missed focus. For example...

    

Overall; a great start and loads of potential but just needs some polishing to really shine. Keep shooting and experimenting!

100% agree with all of that. Also maybe easy back on the post-production. Some of these look very over-processed and in most cases it doesn't look like the shots needed it. 

Thanks for the feedback and advice I really appreciate your perspectives.

Yep, I'm definitely still in that experimenting and exploring stage, both with the camera and post production.

I tend to be extremly time poor in general and likewise on shoots I'm limited so I have a tendency to shoot really fast and I'm increasingly aware I need to slow down to really ensure I'm in focus and exposing correctly. So although you might think many of my shots 'don't need processing' trust me when I say pretty much all those highlighted above, if you actually saw the straight from camera images you'd actually change your mind and realise they really 'needed it'. I wish I were better from the outset... working on it, practice, practice, practice and all that ;)

Still finding my feet with Lightroom and Photoshop, currently experimenting with the 'Clarity' tool as it seems easier than the whole dodge & burn or Frequency separation things for the time poor, I'm guessing that's where a lot of the sharpness is being lost.

Anyhoo I've really enjoyed having a break from the day job over Chrimbo and the opportunity then to revisit some shoots from earlier in the year and try to 'polish' them.... and my port up.