p0intblank said:
I don't have an actual Web site up now, but I plan to by the summer. I have a deviantART gallery here:
http://p0intblank.deviantart.com/gallery/
I just got a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT, so I am starting to become really serious about photography. I just need to find better photo opportunities other than the family pets... sure they're cute to look at, but I need more.
While we're on the subject, does anyone have any suggestions on advancing in digital photography? All comments are appreciated. Thanks!
Advice for advancing would be to practice and learn, simple as that. RTFM (read the fuc***g manual) and learn the more in-depth features that are not easily discovered by surface manipulations (like ISO or shutter/aperture).
If you're of age, go to some local pubs or coffee shops, wherever there are local bands playing. Most of the establishments are fine with you taking shots (ask first to be safe) and just start shooting them during the performance. After the set is over a band member usually approaches and if not approach them, show them a few shots on the camera LCD and make sure they are cool with you having shots. Offer them a CD or something (give them 4x6 printable images) and if you're going towards a business or reprinting at all, get them to sign a release giving you rights to the images for print/sale.
Wander around your town and just shoot. Digital is great because you can snap away and figure out if you have decent stuff once you get home. It would cost a fortune in film to just snap at whatever caught your eye, but just let that happen now and see what you come up with. Some of my favorite shots are not the planned out ones, they are ones where I just swung left and snapped a few of something that caught my eye.
Another idea is to browse some stock photography sites and see what images they offer. Chances are if an image stands out to you it probably does to someone else too (after-all, that is how those establishments operate) so go out and find similar setups or try to recreate the mood of that image and see what you get.
Just shoot and play, that's the best way to do stuff. If you technically analyze your shots post-shoot, you can learn how to make specific shots better by realizing the faults in each image and either making a note or just remembering what to change when you get back into that type of situation.
Edit: Looking at your DA gallery I really liked
this image of the pug. I would have increased your aperture # to gain some DOF back to the dog's ear. Part of that is taste, but with the distance to the back wall I bet you could have had the entire dog's face sharp and the background still nicely blurred.
If you are just looking for a place to sell your own shots check out
printroom. I use them mostly for family stuff to make printing easy, but they do offer image download and if got a lot of images up there for a fair price you could potentially do well. Most artists there charge a lot for the downloads because that comes with the rights to print (I believe
). If all you offered was medium res (say 1600x1200 for wallpapers, perhaps a widescreen one too) for download at a couple bucks a pop (max), people might buy if they really REALLY like the shot. Problem is, just for download there are so many free sites that house similar images to almost anything you can shoot (animals, cars, people, cityscapes, etc) which makes paying for it a silly decision if the person knows how to use Google....
