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If I were to write a critique (to a photographer who’s enthusiastic but not on target - - ) --- it would go something like this... Dear [Stock Photographer]: You have promise as a photographer. But you would do well to attend to some basics. I'll come right to the point. Let me tell you what I think about your work. 1. ] TECHNICAL QUALITY. This means not only as applied to the content of your pictures, but also to the scanning quality of your images. Do you realize your scanned images are scratched and have dust spots? Plus, you are not sending images in the format required by our design department. Please pay attention to our requirements. They are outlined on our website. 2. ] ON-THE-MARK. The material you've submitted to us is not TARGETED. These pictures don't conform to my photo request. I asked for pictures of waterfalls, and you submitted pictures of brooks and streams --"just in case" I might want to see them. My work schedule allows me to view only images that fit my exact need. You are wasting my time!!! 3. ] CONSISTENCY. Your pictures are not cohesive in STYLE. Your images themselves do not have a consistent professional-looking style to them. That is, they do not look like they came from the same photographer. Some are excellent, some superior, and some -poor. Here's a good way to test the cohesiveness of your pictures --and their professionality. 
1.) Gather tear sheets of published pictures from some of your favorite magazines and periodicals. 2.) Lay them on the studio or living room floor (about twenty of them) and place selections of your pictures beside them. 3.) Do your pictures fit in? If so, you are on target. 4.) If not, re-take the same or similar pictures and consciously aim for a consistency in style. 5.) This doesn't mean make everything the same; it's more the idea of developing your own flair, your own approach, your own voice, with your images. Once you have mastered the above, you are ready to submit your work to us. -Thank you. Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International and publisher of PhotoStockNotes. Pine Lake Farm, 1910 35th Road, Osceola, WI 54020 USA. Telephone: 1 800 624 0266 Fax: 1 715 248 7394. Web site: www.photosource.com/bank |