General Photography Chat

[HomeInMyShoes]

^I've only had three requests for free use. One was for a new interpretive sign at Red Rocks outside of Las Vegas. I figured that was a reasonably noble cause.

Random flickr stats.

Most views: 514
Average views: 9.2
Most favorites: 2 (3 photos with 2)
Most comments: 5 (only 25 photos with more than 1 comment)

I'd like more comments and suggestions, but whatever. It's the best way for me to share photos with my family and keep in touch with what a few skyscraperpagers are doing when they ditch the board for periods of time. I tag my photos, but don't do much of the group thing. I do regularly contribute my best photos to some groups, but they actually generate less views than random searches from google, yahoo, and flickr itself do.

[giallo]

Originally Posted by bulliver

Do you get a lot of cold contacts asking about buying shots from flickr?
I've gotten a couple but it it always turns out to be cheap bastards wanting to use my stuff for free....

I've had some really good luck with flickr and facebook. I attribute it to putting my stuff out there as much as possible. Whether its multi-tagging the photos or putting them in reasonable groups (a Shanghai photo in a Shanghai/China/urban group. None of this 'Best photo ever. Post one. Comment on five' stuff).

Having said that, I still get people asking to use my photos for free. At first I was flattered, but that emotion quickly dissolved after repeated requests.

I generally give photos for free to charities/non profit groups, educational books or friends who are starting out, and really have no money to spare. Other than that, pay me.

[initiald]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

I do regularly contribute my best photos to some groups, but they actually generate less views than random searches from google, yahoo, and flickr itself do.

Yeah. I'm not sure how the SEO stuff works, but I've gotten a few photos that have made it to the first or second page of Google Image Search results for "'whatevercity' skyline" and hit jumped dramatically, up around 10,000 views.

[Ayreonaut]

initiald, I just realized who you were on Flickr.

[hammersklavier]

Wow, the parts of my "Stadt im Smee" portfolio that I culled my Chinatown thread out of average some 700 views on Picasa and "Scumming the Schuylkill" in my "En la Ciudad" portfolio has 1769 views! Yay viewership success!

[vid]

Most views: 4,976 (for this photo. Every single hit comes from this page. I've considered replacing the photo with a gay porn shot just for a day... you know, to see what happens? )
Average views: 49.3/photo, about 95 per day, averaging 206 for the past 4 weeks.
Most favorites: 7 (one with 6, two with 5)
Most comments: 16 on my "Name my cat" photo; got up to 42 on this photo but I deleted most because they had a bad vibe, man.

I've given a handful of photos to Nowpublic, for free. I also let these people use this photo because, you know, Europe now follows North American road signage standards. In all of those cases they credit me.

[bulliver]

^ Oh my goodness that gaiaonline.com page is an affront to everything good about the internet. Hideous...

Glad you didn't think my comments had a bad vibe

[flar]

I'm thinking about getting a Nikon D90 -- I currently have the D50, which I love, but definitely could have used the higher ISO, more megapixels and better dynamic range on my trip to Regina a couple weeks ago. It sucks that my whole catalog of photos from the last 4-5 years is 6.1 megapixels.

[Jimby]

Originally Posted by flar

I'm thinking about getting a Nikon D90 -- I currently have the D50, which I love, but definitely could have used the higher ISO, more megapixels and better dynamic range on my trip to Regina a couple weeks ago. It sucks that my whole catalog of photos from the last 4-5 years is 6.1 megapixels.

Go for it! You'll never regret it. I mean I don't know anything about the D90, but I know that you'll love how much has improved since buying your D50 and you have the photography skills to warrant the investment.

I have a pic on flickr of Bass Pro Shop under construction in Balzac Alberta that is linked to some outdoor/hunting website that has generated 19,866 views. Most days it is my most viewed pic. It isn't all that good.
My next most viewed (5,000+) is of a somewhat grisly rollerblade accident that I received criticism for taking advantage of someone's misery, but if it causes anyone to wear a brain bucket when on wheels, then it is worth posting it.
An educational text book publisher from Montreal contacted me about buying a pic they saw on my flickr photostream of a bronze statue of a little girl handing a flower to a Canadian Peacekeeper which is in Peacekeeper Park in Garrison Green Calgary, and they paid me $100. Because I am not set up as a business, they required my SIN before they would send the cheque, so I gave them that and my address and DOB and then, even though this was a well known publisher, I had a bit of a panic thinking I had just been phished, but their cheque arrived promptly so it was all good but I would suggest one be careful dealing with buyers.
My feeling is that if someone takes the time to write me and ask permission to use one of my images, I always thank them for doing the right thing by asking for my permission first instead of just stealing it.
It annoys me when I see my images posted on SSP without the proper credit/link as per the posting rules and I always get the mods to remove or fix.

[Doady]

Panasonic announced the successor the G1, the G2:
http://www.dpreview.com/previews/PanasonicDMCG2/

I'm still not impressed with the SLR styling and I don't like the new larger plastic toy kit lens replacing the current, more compact metal kit lens of the G1. If the G1 kit is discounted enough I might get that for the superior kit lens. But if the G2 is available as body only I might get that instead and buy some other lens separately like the 20mm F1.7 or the 50mm F0.95. Decisions, decisions.

I don't suppose anyone here uses no-name system like Micro Four Thirds? All brand name Canon and Nikon here, I think.

[mr.John]

Originally Posted by flar

I'm thinking about getting a Nikon D90 -- I currently have the D50, which I love, but definitely could have used the higher ISO, more megapixels and better dynamic range on my trip to Regina a couple weeks ago. It sucks that my whole catalog of photos from the last 4-5 years is 6.1 megapixels.

The d80 i'm using has 10.1 megapixels but I find the vast majority of the shots I take are in the 5-7 mega. range very rarely does a photo exceed 9 mega. I bought the camera with a 18-70mm lens which has since broken down twice, the second time Nikon refused to honour the warranty claiming the problem was caused by dirt in the lens and to rub it in more those assholes tried to extort $200 to fix it ( keep in mind the lens cost $400) so when buying Nikon be very very very careful or save your cash and buy a Leica

[Aleks]

so i have to do a portrait photoshoot for my photography class. i was thinking about doing the 7 deadly sins, lust, gluttony, greed, pride, envy, wrath, and sloth.

since i shot a girl last time i wanna use a guy model this time, but i want someones that photogenic. the thing is that all people that are photogenic (that i know) dont do photography stuff. they just do the "i'm really hot an conceited and i take cellphone pics and put them on facebook" And the people that are willing to do it aren't as photogenic, are into different styles, or are girls.

it seems like guys are less likely to do portrait work, which sucks! cause i can't do this project. well, i can, with a lot of people, but i think a guy is better fit for some reason.

anyways, does anyone have any backup ideas? i don't wanna shoot with a white background again, i wanna do something original, something fun and wild. if i could be like lachapelle i would, this guy seriously has amazing work, but i can't find people that will pose like his models ANYWHERE! and i would love to find a place that i can paint and completely fuck up and make it wild and colorful, but again, i don't know where to shoot, or i have to pay for studios (money which i dont have).

[HomeInMyShoes]

Originally Posted by flar

I'm thinking about getting a Nikon D90 -- I currently have the D50, which I love, but definitely could have used the higher ISO, more megapixels and better dynamic range on my trip to Regina a couple weeks ago. It sucks that my whole catalog of photos from the last 4-5 years is 6.1 megapixels.

I've had a D90 for about three months now flar. It's a nice camera. It will feel pretty similar to the D50 in your hands. The control layout is a little different, but still quite easy. I just keep messing with the shutter option when I should be messing with exposure compensation every now and then.

I was never really upset about 6.1 megapixels on the D50. I don't print things big, so only a few images were disappointing at that size to me. I do like a few more mega-pixels for artistic cropping every now and then, but generally my cropping is a few pixels off the one side to get to a 2x3 ratio. The D90 shoots almost dead on 2x3 which I love.

Another nice thing on the D90 is lens compatibility and it auto-focuses quite a bit better with the F/1.4 50mm than the D50 did.

[flar]

Yeah, I want the extra megapixels for cropping, but also because people have asked for large prints. I would like to start generating a little more income from my photos. Right now I don't actively market my photography, people just come to me.

I like small size and the controls on the D90. A lot of the time I use aperture priority with exposure compensation, it's handy that one dial works aperture and the other works exposure compensation. On the D50 I have to hold a button and spin the dial, which I'm used to, but the D90 config is better.

Higher ISO will be great too. On the D50 anything over 400 is unusable due to noise. With my lenses I often need 400 ISO on an overcast day. I'm often stretched for time, and I like to shoot at dusk and dawn. I think the D90's better sensitivity should get me another stop or two hand-held in fading light.

[Soku39]

I love my D-90, I can't talk at length right this moment, but suffice to say. You will probably love it to. The only fault I've found with it so far is the 11 point focusing system, it can get annoying, but other than that it is a perfect camera.

[ue]

^Better than the D40.

Originally Posted by Aleks

so i have to do a portrait photoshoot for my photography class. i was thinking about doing the 7 deadly sins, lust, gluttony, greed, pride, envy, wrath, and sloth.

since i shot a girl last time i wanna use a guy model this time, but i want someones that photogenic. the thing is that all people that are photogenic (that i know) dont do photography stuff. they just do the "i'm really hot an conceited and i take cellphone pics and put them on facebook" And the people that are willing to do it aren't as photogenic, are into different styles, or are girls.

it seems like guys are less likely to do portrait work, which sucks! cause i can't do this project. well, i can, with a lot of people, but i think a guy is better fit for some reason.

anyways, does anyone have any backup ideas? i don't wanna shoot with a white background again, i wanna do something original, something fun and wild. if i could be like lachapelle i would, this guy seriously has amazing work, but i can't find people that will pose like his models ANYWHERE! and i would love to find a place that i can paint and completely fuck up and make it wild and colorful, but again, i don't know where to shoot, or i have to pay for studios (money which i dont have).

It's my observation that most men like to be behind the camera rather than in front of it. Even though say Flickr has a higher woman population than SSP, I still find most are guys (maybe it's just because my contacts are generally urban enthusiasts too?). That's not saying there aren't any women who are great photographers, it's just an observation (with no stats or facts) that most are guys. Anyways my point was that I think this is why it may be harder to find "photogenic" guys.

I'd just keep asking, and try different types and locations (ie not all from work or family, but mix it up), even some friends might work. A parent or uncle or something like that for someone older? If worst comes to worse, just deal with the fact that you need to use a girl and do a fine job with that.

[Aleks]

i asked a girl today, i wanna do something gritty.

i'm gonna go looking around for abandoned buildings this week, so yeah, i need a location.

the reason why i wanna do the 7 sins because i want my photo's to have a story, not just random shots. i mean, i like modeling shots and everything, but a storyline makes everything much more better. i might just do emotions like happy and sad, but idk.

another idea i had is take a picture of different people from my school (instead of one model) and title it, 'Faces of West Seattle' along with some background history. Black, White, Asian, Latino, Russian, African, Native American, or something else.

maybe homeless people, although i'm kinda scared about asking a homeless person to let me take their picture...

[Ayreonaut]

Yeah, your 7 sins idea is great.

[ue]

^^that's why you take candids of people on the street! less awkward asking some random person on the street to do a photoshoot (although it is possible). you could get into candid-people-street-photography (see: kingofthehill) and it could be scenes/expressions of seattle, or downtown seattle, or wherever you are. you'll likely get some better results, because people won't be posing, they will be natural, and it will look more real. just make sure you're on public property, is all.

but that might not be what you wanted, so again, keep trying to find people...

[flar]

Originally Posted by Aleks

maybe homeless people, although i'm kinda scared about asking a homeless person to let me take their picture...

Buy them a coffee or give them 5 bucks or something