Great post and tips Mike !!

Thank you Mike, selling is really not easy!

Ah poo.... gotta remove all my work now :(

Good post Mike and am adding to my list

well if you remove it, then nothing will sell. though it's easy to market nothing, i get those in my email all the time. viagra this, million dollars that...


---Mike Savad

Good one, Mike. Thumbs up.

Mike,

Interesting pseudo-military uniform in your new avatar.

Mike I warry about my qulity, I really want to generate my work without post process.
How about this one here(with a simple Anti-aliasing process) :

Good info Mike, quick question...you were talking of where a purchaser would buy art for...eg, living room, etc...should you add that to tags....say, living room, indoors...bathroom...and is it good to mention these things in your bio or under the said art piece?

Great tips...ps. Love Your uniform Mike :D

Mike, you are a treasure trove of practical advice, inspiration and wonderful art. Gratitude.

Mike, like your "Village People" outfit!

Great info Mike. I like the way how you try to help others by sharing your experiences.

Even my work is quite close to your description to be a good sellable art (and I do sell them time to time) but I feel unconfident about myself, and many times I feel I am not good enough to keep creating, as I see so many great art from other artist.

I really don't know if it's a normal feeling to have, or my work is just not as good.
Do you feel this way sometimes, or are you always confident about your art?

Very informative post, Mike! Thanks!

Marianna...I think that is a regular struggle for many artists.

@andrew - i'm not sure about the location in the tags, because it could be spammy, since it's not a livingroom. and yet at the same time i guess it would be ok, you would have ask beth she what she would say, since she would make you erase it. i suppose adding decor would be better or something like that, where it's generic.


the outfit is for memorial day. i'm thinking that cross dressing might turn off people that don't know me. i made this one for a steampunk piece i didn't send yet, this is technically Dictator Mike, but it works for holidays such as these as well.

@marianna - mostly you need confidence, and you shouldn't care about what other people think about your work. i know sure don't. i can't say i'm confident about any one piece only that based on elements in the image it should sell based on what sold in the past. and i go from there. i've often heard - if you act confident, people will think you are. if you say you know something or talk with authority, then other people will respect that.

@guojun - i can't say if it's good or bad. the question is - do you like it? would you buy it? that's all i can really say. it's best to always do your best. like if you were fixing your house, you would do your best job because it's for you. if it was for someone else you might skimp on details. assume everything you do is for you and it will always be your best. it should never be "good enough" for the customer. nit picking is good.


---Mike Savad

I like to add: you need to constantly adding new works to keep the buyers coming back to visit. Some only has a dozen of so images and just sit and wait for a sale.

naks, steal worthy... i like that!

Excellent post Mike! A worthy read for all of us! And by the way, you look snappy in that uniform this morning!

I appreciate your tips and writing style.

fantastic write up and solid advice, enjoyed reading it. thanks mike

Mike is right,

'decor','interior design', etc is good but, unless the word is part of the image, (is the image OF a living room?) then it is spamming

Thanks for the practical and well-spoken advice. It's always good to have a reminder to see things as a buyer and give ourselves an honest evaluation. :)

Mike...you have to be one of the most helpful people on FAA. Thank you for taking the time and sharing your advice with all of us. I still say you missed your calling. You would have been one helluva teacher. Maybe it's the new avatar, but I salute you!

eh... teacher smeacher. that kind of thing involves being with people and tolerating them, that's not really me. every so often i have something rolling in my head, and instead of chanting it to myself, i spill it out on a page. then my mind can go back to whatever it was doing.


---Mike Savad

Evaluating Your Own Work To Sell – By Mike Savad Not pirated, I asked first

WOW, I think I'm on my way!!! I've had my paintings stolen from a gallery,my images taken off my website, and found my self on Poland,China,and Hungary web sites.

Mike i love your work and YOU are a good teacher. I could not manuver this web site with out your help along the way.

THANK YOU hugs jax

from the mighty collection of smiley face things. i'm still wondering what to do with the shark and penguin i can do on facebook. the only thing i managed to do was arrange the shark eating the penguin.


---Mike Savad

Thank you Angel.


Thank you Mike.
I wish I know the way how to gain confidence. In a way I am confident in many things in life, but when comes to my art, I don't know for sure if is unique enough, or if I have a style or not.
The reason I am thinking this way, because I am very emotional, and most of times I can only express myself through my paintings and photos. And I think because my art is reflecting back who I am in my soul, maybe that's why not many people can associate with it. Because they are not exactly "happy and cheerful" images, because how I am at the moment.

Do you think is a bad thing to do, to express my emotions through my work? Is that makes me an artist, or just a person who edit images or paint for her own pleasure and need?

i guess confidence is learned by practicing. generally i assume you think people will think less of the work because you think that's what they will think. when i post my stuff, as said, i don't care if they like or don't. but they have to tell me why they like or don't like it. if i think the reason is valid, then i accept it either way. if you can express a feeling in art, be sure to mention the feeling you have and tell people and keyword it to that feeling. i personally don't have that many feelings, and go by whether i like it or not.

it might be a good idea to express those thoughts in the description as i see none on almost all of them. this will help the buyer know why you took it and maybe boost your confidence by expressing it in words? it works for a shrink, and this is cheaper. if you need to make art then make it. i'm not the best at giving out advice dealing with emotion, it's one of the reasons i don't work a suicide hotline, that and i don't like phones.


---Mike Savad

Thank you Mike, I am trying to do my best, I like to spend most of my time in innovation, for me a specail thing is much better than a common beautiful thing. In order to sell them i should make high quality, although I do not really care.
Perhaps that is the reason i can not sell.

the real question is - how long have you been doing this? if it's only a few months, that's hardly anything. you need to bulk up and have selection, it might take a very long time before you do sell. you might be able to find groups that are related to this style and you can add to that. i think you said something about computer generated, so there must be places to show that off, and maybe you can catch on like that. some math nerd might like it. it's a keyword by the way.


---Mike Savad

I am trying to find my company that is one reason i came here.
Until now i just find fractal art group, they are too abstract and they use common software and hand drawing.
I type codes into a computer and get lot of images i pick my favors they just there in fact i believe they exist in the math world, anybody else could find the same thing, my codes are very simple and basic.
I do not need a clear idea before i create something, this is the most worthy point for this art. And it has a faster evolution.

So i warry about the kind of image has a bottleneck.

I am all for selling all my work all the time. I have no pride. Besides, I like to spend money. My downfall is I have almost zero marketing skills or desires. I advertise my images here, on facebook, on tumblr and on twitter....Been on FAA for about two months and have earned $70.00.

Somehow I managed to accumulate some 170 friends on facebook before the goons at facebook warned me about pestering people. "You can't make new friends. You can only invite people you know and they must know you and like you."

I had wanted to accumulate a few thousand friends like some facebook folks have done. I even have a few movie stars as "pals" hoping they would buy tons of art from me and tell their Hollywood folks about me. Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Lining Playbook/Winter's Bone/Hunger Game) is a dear dear pal of mine (joking)...I had high hopes she would buy my work.

I really enjoyed your blog Mike. I hsve been selling locally,, but online is a whole new experience for me. Your experience is very much appreciated.

" the only thing i managed to do was arrange the shark eating the penguin." Now if you could just get the penguin to eat the shark... ;-)

Seriously though, that's a really interesting and useful article, Mike. Thanks for sharing it with us!

Thanks Mike for taking your time to answer my questions and trying to help to understand things what is art about from a selling point of view.
As I always like learning, how I can be more successful to sell my work. I want to know what I do wrong, and what I need to change to be better.

I do keyword my pictures to that feeling what I want to express. The main reason I don't want to write down in the description why I took the picture, because I want people to think whatever they want to get out of my images. I don't want to push my feelings and thoughts on people, I want to give a little flexibility, they can imagine whatever they want to feel when they looking at my work. That's why I give a descriptive title, to give a little help to direct the viewer to that particular feelings, how I felt when I made them. I am hoping my images are good enough to be easy to understand. And the other reason I can't describe my images, because many times I can't express myself with words how I feel.

I understand you are saying you don't have many feelings, but still, when you like or don't like a picture, it's must be connected to some of your emotions, what you may or maybe not aware of you have it. Anyway, I am not sure if you understand what I mean, as I said I am not that good at writing in English.

One more thing I wanted to say or ask: I was always wondering if I should open a thread for critique my work, because would be nice to know what I do wrong, but I am a bit scared what I will hear. Any thoughts on that? Do you think is a good idea?

don't let customers think. because in their head they may be saying - i can make that. instead make a poem or a feeling and get them to feel it too. you'll never see a movie trailer that lets you decide what's going on. they tell you what's going on. not to mention all those words are absorbed by google and people find you that way.

you have to try to figure out some kind of thing to describe it, because if you don't know, the buyer won't know. just type something in. when you look at a menu, look at the cake section, do you see: chocolate cake? or something like

Sinfully delightful cake,
we start with rich cocoa, imported from the the jungles of brazil, then we give you 7 layers. the frosting is a decadent blend of marzipan and schnoz berries, picked fresh this morning. it's a mouth watering delight that you will just love. $10.95 a slice.

now, tell me what your thinking about, since the moment you picked up that menu - is it chocolate? how about the schnoz berries, those juicy morsels, you can just taste them.

without that description, the only thing you had to go on is the last piece of cake you had, which might have been just terrible. it's usually best to start their mind going, and that could lead into a sale.


generally pictures don't lead to emotions. i see them as technically correct or not. a good balance of colors, or universal enough to sell. i don't get all tied up with an image, there are no connections.

you could open a thread about critiques, but yes, you may open yourself to a new set of emotions you didn't know you had. but at the same time if you follow the advice, and or just listen to it, it could be a confidence builder. if you think they answer they gave is valid, then take whatever they give you. if they say something that makes little sense, or they didn't like it because it didn't follow a certain set of rules, then ignore it. learning about what others think will give you new insight about your work. the hardest part about growing is the ability to critique yourself. every image i take and do i detach myself with. in face it's so detached, that when i edit the next piece i have to verify what i already did because i tend to forget about it. once your detached from your images it's easier to evaluate them.


---Mike Savad

I like to think that the reason I haven't been contacted yet by con artists (except the kind who wanna get cozy :P) is because my work isn't getting seen.

well JL, if you don't think your work is being seen, make sure you advertise it, or no one is seeing it.


---Mike Savad

Mike, i think contest is a best place to test the quality of my work, since i have no sale yet.

a contest outside this site.

but the thing is, you would have to be against people with like things. otherwise it's not much of a test. also keep in mind that you have a very niche subject that might appeal to only a very tight crowd. adding more of a description then just math would help google and the buyer, adding more keywords help. but in the end who you market too is very important. who is your aim and goal? broadcasting it to generic people won't get you that far. i would also experiment with different things. if one thing doesn't sell you try another and another and another until you find one that sticks. most of my pieces will sit idle for months or even years before it's sold. it's rarely a hit right away. people window shop, and only a few things stick in their head. you have to keep presenting it, or showing it in different ways and styles.

in any one session i'll send up 7 themes, and in that i might have totally new ideas i want to try out on people. i gauge success by the amount of comments i get, and of course sales. if what you upload doesn't get that many hits or comments despite being in every group and so forth, then you might have a dud. things i thought would sell, hasn't yet. while other things i thought would sell, does quite well.

there are no tests of quality the basic checks will always be:

1. would you buy your own work?
2. do i have a good selection?
3. are people looking at my stuff?

but emphasis on the first one - it's a self critique.


---Mike Savad

I'd have no trouble buying my own work. If I had some extra cash, I'd have framed prints of my own art hanging all over my apartment. So I pass the first criteria, I guess.

which is good, because if you can't think of a place where your art would fit, or it doesn't line up with the type of thing you would buy, then others won't buy it either.

the next thing you have to do is advertise your stuff in other places. find nursery schools and places that deal with animals and such and tweet your stuff there. make more things, small things, in different styles. scan them in. if you make a bunch on neutral background, you can also combine them later on in photoshop to make any kind of collage you want. along with selling the elements. make a blimp, do just single animals, maybe a series of food etc. variety brings people in and keeps them there. even if they don't buy the one you posted, they may want to see more of your things because the like the style of the one you sent.


---Mike Savad

take for example PSY - until he released Gangnam style, he was pretty much an unknown. with one video - one style, and a certain look, a certain theme; he became a sensation overnight. spoofing helped as well in this case. he was known. he might have had other videos before (and i know he did as i'm finding them), but not with this new strange style and dance steps. he's now much more popular than he was before that video.

that one song told everyone who he was, and now people can find his old stuff. which honestly isn't as good as his current stuff. he found his niche and it's working quite well for him. that's just one example, in the terms of art - you have to try many things and one or two things will stick. you have to find that thing. then present work that is far different than other things out there and produce new things on the level that people expect you to make them at.


---Mike Savad

Thank you Mike.
I do have printed my stuff hanging on my wall, I want to see them for a long time so that i could get a feeling through a long time range and whether i will tried of them.
Lots of my pieces will fail, but a few abstract ones could always keep attractive. So for me i will buy these.
As you suggested I will focus on hits and comments instead of contests, and the most important for me and for any new artists is quality, if this is OK, buyers will naturally come.

what i mean is, if you saw your style of work some place else - would you buy it? the idea is, the quality would be high enough for you to want to buy it from someone else. and it's not a matter of printing it yourself, but getting it as a canvas, or framed. but mostly if someone else presented it, is it the type of thing that would make you want to buy it yourself. like does it pull you in?


---Mike Savad

Mike, you make some great and maybe obvious points for the artist. However, sometimes the artist is not really the best judge of his/her own creative art. What the artist feels is the best may not be at all nor even appealing to someone else. Critiques are good, but sometimes annoying, too, for those may rip apart the artist's spirit, technique or style and that seems to create a downgrade feeling, which dos not help. The opinions and comments by others can be good as long as the artist is open minded. As for "making" art that will sell, (what does that mean?) so go ahead and show your art whenever/wherever you can, enter exhibits, get critiques, and get "FOUND." BE SEEN! Recognition seems to be the key! If the aim is only to sell, and whom among us does not want to sell, then you may need to approach your art differently, be more aware of how you show your work(sharp, clear & professionally scanned/photographed for sites like FAA) ....... then mainly promote yourself (Your art & you) and create that which you think will sell. That is if you know what "will sell" means. Another thought along the way is that the public is fickle, and often even a piece everyone seems to hate, becomes a big sale. I do agree that the artist should want to buy his/her own creative works, otherwise why do them!

Mike, this is hard to see yourself from outside, my judgment is very subjective and sometimes very emotional.
I had a framed one, and i see every details, it looked good and then after a few days i can not feel it, just can not see it there.
In fact before I came here I went out to find people including galleries to give me some feedback, and i had some good suggestions. But the market there is not good enough for my stuff(print things).

As you said i think it is time to find similar styles, i should find a place for my work.

Great post Mike!

the whole idea is, your seeing your work as others might see it. the latest one is always the most exciting so it's hard to be objective over your own piece. that's why you have to see it as a buyer might see it. self critiquing is very important. and the best way to learn is to find other people with a similar style and critique them - you don't have to tell the, just do it in your head. see whats wrong with the image and see whats right. you'll find that you'll be less attached to your stuff and you can see your own work in an objective way. go back to your old work and compare it with your new. see what you improved on, or does it look the same? does it look worse?

if you can find your weakness, you can correct it in the next batch.

---Mike Savad

Thank you Mike.

Thank you Mike.
I was thinking about what you wrote, and you are right about the description. I don't know why, but I always believed, if someone looking at my images, they can see and feel something similar how I did, when I created them. From now on, I will try to write a short story to my images.

I will think a little more about, should I start that critique thread. Because I am not sure if I am ready for open myself to a new set of emotions, but in the same time I need to know what I am doing wrong.

PS: I can't stop thinking about that 7 layers chocolate cake...

I am currently creating Fine Art Flowers. So I look at books featuring photographers who also are doing Fine Art Flowers (not usually straight images but touched up or recreated in a photo editing program)...Are my images as good as the images I study? That sort of self criticism...

bump

---Mike Savad

bump so it doesn't get lost.


---Mike Savad

Mike, all this time I thought you were a painter! I had no idea they were photographs!

Thanks, Mike. Great advise for those of us who are not photographers. Now if you could explain how the search feature for print buyers works, that would help too. Say, for instance, you have a waterfall painting, listed as waterfall painting ,keywords waterfall painting and waterfall in title...How is it that when you search for waterfall paintings, nudes appear( without waterfalls :) before my waterfall painting? Haven't found mine yet under search. But guess that'd give me time to redo my photo of it!!!

i guess i didn't get the memo for the last question

@susan - if your seeing nudes when you type in waterfall, report it to the contact us email, for tech support. many toss in spam words. though there might be a trickle and a nude. things that sell most appear first. even if your words match better. the search is based on popularity (i think it's to sort out poor images from good ones), so if you sell a lot, you are on top. if you are popular (your driving traffic to the site), your next down and so on.

if you typed waterfalls, and didn't have that exact word in the tags, it won't be found either.

@anita - yeah, all of them are photos. the painted abstracts are paint, but that's paint tossed on canvas... literally. they are made to look like paintings, because i think overall people would rather have a painting in their home and not a photo. but it depends on the home, the room, etc.


---Mike Savad

bumping this before it drops off my list


---Mike Savad

bump for anyone new.

---Mike Savad

before this drops off my list.

---Mike Savad

It takes 30 days to fall of your list.

before this drops off the front page.

i like to stay ahead of things. i was going to update something else, and i noticed i wasn't at the top of the forum like i usually am, so i had to to toss this up. oddly i have some threads in their that i never even joined.


---Mike Savad

I can like what I create and someone else doesnt. Or the other way around, I can create something I dont want on my wall but someone else will. Related to point 2. If I dont like it, doesnt mean someone else wont either. Good post none the less.

the basic concept is the quality level. if you saw an image of equal value in another persons store, would you be likely to buy it? most of the things i have i wouldn't buy because it's not my taste. but the quality level is. many people upload things that are tiny, crooked, blurry, noisy, dark, etc. the questions is - would they buy something that had those qualities? it's something like that.

---Mike Savad

Bump

Thanks for the info Mike!

Ok, so other than being active in FAA activities and posting on social networks such as Facebook, G+, Pinterest, Tumblr, etc, What other ways do you get your name out there? I would like to do art shows but don't have enough money for the prints I would need. I have no idea where else to advertise. I did get some business cards and have handed a few out but nothing has come from that yet.

@ Mark. I would be shocked to find out that you were not doing well here!! You have some of the best photography I have seen on this site. Better even, than some of the highest sellers on FAA. If you are having trouble here, it must be marketing, because it is definitely not your art!!

I like that you work does not seem overdone. Your HDR work is sharp and not full of so much noise and ghosting, like some of the other examples on this forum [site].

AWESOME WORK!!

hard to say. for one thing i make sure i sign my name to everything so it's the last thing you see and remember. i would get a better more memorable avatar as well. because to be perfectly honest, i don't know what that is. oh the larger version shows it's a squashed you, but i would change it anyway.

you need more work, the more you have the better. then you have to target to your audience and figure out who that might be. other than that it takes time to get your name known.

and tiny - you can compliment other people without insulting other people. that's being rude.


---Mike Savad

[quote] I like that you work does not seem overdone. Your HDR work is sharp and not full of so much noise and ghosting, like some of the other examples on this forum [site]. [quote]

@ Mike,

Is this what you are complaining about?

I am just being honest about what I see. I am not talking about any one person specifically, but the examples of HDR I have seen.

You are extremely honest and blunt, when it comes to what you see. You never hold back and have no concern for whom you "insult". You have said as much, in a number of posts.

Anyways, I am not going to argue about this with you. Take exception to my observations if you want to, but it does not change what I see, nor will it change my opinion.

No different than you would not change yours.

Have a great night!

there is a difference between being honest and being rude. especially when it wasn't asked for and you have nothing to really contribute to this thread other then to start trouble like you seem to do in most threads these days. i can tell you one thing - my customers sure don't complain about the quality.


why are you here?


---Mike Savad

Mike,

I did not name any one person in my post. It was a comment based on what I see with HDR in general, on this forum and the entire site. Not everything is about you, believe it or not.

He has amazing work.

I myself struggle with noise in my HDR attempts. I would love to know how Mark does his processing. My guess, is that his photography is just better to begin with.

What are you talking about "being asked for". My comment had nothing to do with anyone asking for anything. It was a general comment.

---------------

[quote] why are you here? [quote]

I was trying to sell prints, but was not getting much response. I am re-working some images and starting over for the most part, now that I have better cameras. I have taken a lot of photos in the past month or so. Once I have the time to process them all, I will do so and upload them for sale. Why else would I be here?

nice back peddling. but when you refer to top sellers, then talk about me being blunt, you don't have to mention names. you can talk about your struggles all you want without having to bring other people up (even without names). why are you this thread - is what i mean.


---Mike Savad

@ Mike,

Back pedaling? Where? You have made this personal, not me.

I am not going to be sucked in by you on this any further. You are not the only photographer on this site, who sells lots of work. And I still believe that his work is better quality photography than a lot of what I see on FAA and would be amazed if he was having trouble selling his work here. That was my comment. I am not responsible for how you take it, nor if you decide to take it personally.

Why am I on this thread? Give me a break. I read the thread, because it was interesting. I commented on Mark's post, because I was blown away by the quality of his work.

Good night Mike :)

EDIT - I talked about you being blunt, only because you accused me of being rude. It had nothing to do with my original comment, but was in response to your making it personal. LOL

Thanks for the compliment Tiny. I don't know if I would say my stuff is some of the best but thanks anyway. I don't really want to get involved in your guys debate but, I can't say whether Tiny was referring to you or not Mike, only Tiny knows, but I don't know think he was because when it comes to HDR you really have set the bar pretty high. HDR will have noise, there is no getting around it, actually it kind of adds to the effect in many cases as long as it's not affecting the resolution. Much of Mikes HDR is inside and closeup work and most of mine is outside HDR where noise reduction can be applied better than inside. Applying NR to the sky really doesn't affect detail too much whereas Mike concentrates on minute details where NR will affect the sharpness if applied too liberally. The amount of noise in his pics must not affect too much seeing how he sells something almost everyday. I know he said he has had nprinting issues with his older stuff, but let's face it cameras back then were not nearly as good with noise as they are now. Actually some of my work is not actually HDR although it looks it. Once CS6 came out I found I didn't need to do HDR so much because in CR they added highlight and shadow sliders which brings back details in those areas, and I also use ColorFx pro 4 tonal contrast filter to give it more punch, but they give an HDR feel to it. There are times when HDR is still needed though. Tiny the best advice I can give for you to keep noise low in your HDR's is to shoot at the lowest ISO your camera can go and use a tripod and shutter release cable because that will decrease your shutter speed. I know Mike shoots handheld but not everybody is that steady, I know I'm not. I use Photomatix from HdrSoft. I have tried others but I feel Photomatix gives me the look I am looking for the best. Just out of curiosity Tiny, what camera do you shoot with? Mike I feel my audience is anybody really but to narrow it down I would say probably offices and corporations because I see alot of nature pictures in those places. I see alot of nature and landscapes similar to mine sell on here but many are quite a bit cheaper than mine so I would probably say price is more a factor than marketing, but I just can't get my self to lower the prices more than I have already. I feel alot of the prices are too low on the stuff I do see sell and it hurts people like me in sales because people are so desperate to sell that they don't care if they make much profit off of it, I think it shows they don't have much confidence in their work. Let's all try to get along shall we.

HI Mark,

Thanks for understanding. I was not referring to anyone specific in my first comment, but to what I see from HDR in general.

I agree with you, that Mike's work when it comes to HDR and his Process, is extremely good.

---------------------------------

I use a Canon 40d and Pentax K-01

The 40d maxes out at ISO 1600 can be used comfortably to about 400. I have tried 800 a few times for indoor HDR and it is too grainy and I lose all my details in order to get rid of enough shadow noise.

The K-01 maxes out at ISO 12000 and I have been happy at up to 3200. Best case for this camera, seems to be to stick below 1600.

---------------------

Good luck with your work. It is really good. I love your waterfall shots.

i guess for audiences i would look for people that was in that area, who would recognize that lighthouse and such or those areas. often the people living in that town use those landmarks as something for an office or home wall. local people buy it and others that lived there. so when you tweet it, make sure to say #lighthouse #location #state #town #etc and see if you catch fish that way.


as for methods, people buy anything.

outdoor hdr will have an iso range of 100-400 or so.
indoor hdr will have a range at 1600-12000 and with my newer camera it will be higher.

there will be more noise at that level. but it can't be seen as a bad thing. unless it's the sky and such. halos don't come up unless your using photomatix at high settings. or have a contrast ratio issue, where it's a solid bright area against a dark one where sprites form.


to max out clarity with high iso, always over expose and use the over exposed image and darken it. this will help with noise - as long as it was raw. raw will capture detail in the highlights more than the shadows. shadows will always be noisy, anything black will be noisy. but if it's brighter, you can get a lot of clean up that way.

---Mike Savad

I would prefer to keep it at 100 or 200 inside and out, when doing HDR anyway, even now with my new D600, which is awesome with high ISO noise by the way; unless you are inside somewhere that you are not allowed to use tripods or want to include people in which you will need a fast shutter speed so you will need pretty high ISO. Yeah Photomatix can go overboard if you let it. All I do is let Photomatix do the tonemapping and set the lighting effects to natural+. I usually don't do anything more there with it after that and save it as is. It's not usually very pretty right out the box, but I do all the after processing in Camera Raw 7 in CS6, that helps keep the halos away. When I first learned about HDR, I HDR'ed everything whether it needed it or not. I learned not to do it if it really doesn't need to be done. Mike, I'm not very tweet savy yet, what do you mean by #lighthouse #location #state #town #etc? Yeah I forgot to mention, definitely shoot in raw HDR or not.

Thanks for the detailed and very useful advice! It's very helpful for someone new like me.

Cheers!

Mike...I am BRAND new here...as in only one image uploaded. Just wanted to say thank you so much for this posting! Very informative, I appreciate it! :)

Thank you, Mike! Really useful article!

So I shouldn't try to sell my images of graves and tombstones because the dead don't buy art? Don't you think the grieving parents, spouses, etc would want a constant reminder of the freshly dug grave with the expensive flowers tossed on top?

in general the dead don't buy art because they have no pockets. and while there are areas to place money it falls out pretty fast. people that are alive that are into macabre things - they are into things like that. but they often have to be more gruesome, often taken at night.


---Mike Savad

Great post Mike! You have some great points there and I like how you broke it down using examples (ie. baking a cake). Well done!

Mike, thank you for your tips and taking the time to write this.

.

Mike...great read...but something I read months ago spelled it out pretty bluntly...Your photos suck cause you are LAZY. Not you Mike, but photographers in general. That statement stopped me in my tracks.

So much to learn! Thanks for the tips!

Wonderful Post! Thanks so much. :)

Excellent positivity here Mike, real encouragement , thanks.

bump

.

Good post.

.

Great post and discussion. I'm still finding my way, so this was very helpful. Thanks.

Thanks Mike. This is a real keeper.

Very informative. Thanks for taking the time to go into such detail Mike.

bump

very interesting discussion. I like that idea of putting yourself in the shoes of the buyer.

bump

bumping this before i lose it on my watched page

---Mike Savad

Stwayne KeubrickE-Mail Here you can see a bit of my photography artworks

please share that link if you have enjoyed it http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/stanislas-bick.html

My nickname is Stwayne Keubrick

i notice that i often update my galery....

here is my facebook fan page too https://www.facebook.com/StwayneKeubrick

don't forget to vote ... :D

How To Sell Your Own Art - PART II - Or Do NOT Critique, Only Hope For The Best

* just slap some paint on a found piece of wood - you're a recycling genius guru, without doubt

* do a snap shot of the masterpiece with no editing - you want it to be very natural looking, not too contrived, ... for pure authenticity

* slap the snap shot onto FAA with no tags, no explanation, ... just a cheesy title, and be sure to fill in all the sizes, even though your snapshot is good ONLY for the smallest size, ... who cares, they don't know true art when they see it anyway

* pray daily that a sale will come, pray some more, and trust endlessly that fate will turn in your favor.

* quit FAA in disgust, when you fail to make a sale, and move onto another site, ... because surely it is FAA, .... not YOU.

Happy selling.

stwayne - can you not spam your links on my thread, i've seen you post it in atleast one other thread.


---Mike Savad

Thank you Mike!

Thanks Mike,
I have printed your advice out and I will read it more carefully and try hard. My eldest son whom I have never been able to teach the word "tact" to said when I told him what I was doing "Why on earth would someone want to put YOUR photos on their wall. Anyone can take their own nowdays". I must admit, we don't have a large house so I don't like cluttering up the walls.so I dont have any photos on display ..only two small etchings and one large mexican blanket..perhaps I should change my attitude....or get a bigger house
Cheers,
Denise

Can anyone tell me of a good site that critiques paintings? I really appreciate Mike's advise and I'm planning on taking it. Although I have artwork posted on FAA already, I realize some input is helpful.

photosig.com does photos - but it's been slowing down so much since i first started there.
artsig.com was an off chute, they do art, but it's much slower, unless something happened. i'm not sure they are even still there. but you also have to give critiques, it can't be one sided. that's how the site works. in fact you'll learn more by critiquing others. i think there still is a group run by angela, i don't know if she closed it or not, but that's a critique group - but you can't just take.


---Mike Savad

I always try to contribute. I'm just getting my feet wet with putting art online and trying to get things organized. I realize I have so many problems. My images are not crisp enough and I've been trying desperately to fix that. Rich Franco has been so helpful in giving me pointers on how to take better photographs of my artwork. Mike, I read as much as I can about stuff you post. You've been very helpful. I'm beginning to realize that I'm spending more time online than I am making art.

i'm not really accusing you. it's just that i've seen many, many artists come in and ask for a critique. and then they aren't there at all when someone else needs theirs done.

once images look good and are printable etc, then you move on to the next steps...

as far as being online, you have to set up, it takes time. for me, i'm on here, i'll tweet a little when i can. i'll make new things constantly, overtime, weekends, holidays - it's all the same thing.



---Mike Savad

Great information Mike, I love your sense of humor, specifically the frolicking animals. As a former teacher I agree that you would be a wonderful teacher, but I also love your aesthetic so keep up the great work.

Ellen Pieciul
REphotography

I think you have some great ideas and help for artists, mostly emerging---- But I don't think their are many good critique sites out there. So many of them are filled with members that give low marks in order to make their own look better on the site. Then you have the cliques of artists that stick together and vote on all of their pieces at the highest rating, kind of like the contests on this site. Those are not a good place in my opinion to get realistic critiques about ones art.

I do know that many cities and towns have clubs that meet once a week or so and have live critiques once a month. Those are so much more realistic and honest. Also, you can get a lot of help and great advice from fellow members.

i used to be on photosig. the thing about critique sites are - it's a give and take. and most people take, they don't know how to give, because they think they aren't qualified. when in fact everyone is qualified to critique other people's images. on photosig we would critique others, if you only took, your account was frozen. you couldn't upload more, and the picture was frozen so no one could give you one until you gave your share back.

they worked on a point system. useless critiques would be give you a minus score, helpful ones would give you points up. the more points you gained, the more images you can load. being a non paying member let me only send 1 image a day. but after giving like 2 dozen critiques to people, i could upload about 16 images. you get 3 points being the first of 3 crit's, 15 points = 1 upload.

but i got bored of the site, because the admins keep yelling at me because i'm a bit on the harsh side, they don't understand me and like to yell back. many are insulted no matter how you give a critique because everyone said it was a great shot and they thought strangers would say the same thing. i had fan clubs against me. oh well. i don't go there now mostly because the site is dying. replaced by POD's. instead of being critiqued, and learning how to do do your own, people go right to selling. and then scratch their head and wonder why they aren't.

http://www.photosig.com/go/users/view?id=9050 looks like they erased my profile. oh well. you would have to sign in to see the images larger, but you can see where i started to where i am now. i grew out of the need of needing that place.


---Mike Savad

great information Mike thanks!

Worthy of a stickie but since we don't have those I'm sending a bump

bump

Nice no-nonsense explanation, thank you.

luck of the Irish, keeping these near the top!

yep, it's time to change faces till the next month.


---Mike Savad

An excellent piece, really insightful. People i know, tell me to upload as many images as possible to create an impression, rather than quality. This now chnages my mind.

Thank you.

Well done, Mike! A very valuable source on the problem of critique: yourself and others. And a very sensitive for all artists. Thanks a lot for sharing this info. It is really interesting.

bump before it leaves my watch page

---Mike Savad

Thank you great information. I will keep it in mind from now on. Again thanks

Bump

Check out Mike's interview in 1st Angel Magazine http://1stangel.co.uk/blog/2014/interview-mike-savad-photographer/

-Mike Savad--

This was great and very helpful. You have helped me look at my work better and more critically. Now I feel like I need to close my page and forget this for a few years....I just don't want to give up yet though. I do feel that I have something to say with my images but maybe I am too generic. I also look at some of the stuff that sells and I can't imagine why anyone would buy it. It also seems that paintings good or bad sell better than photos.

I went looking for my photos in a regular search and I got to the 40th pg with still no image. How do I get my images to come up sooner in a search? If that requires sales how do I get them if my images don't show up? How do I know if FAA won't print my image? does someone have to try and buy it first? A rejected image will also hurt a reputation. I know it is a lot of questions but I want to succeed at this so bad. I am trying to learn everything I can as fast as I can. The last thing I want is to go out and get a boring, mundane, "make someone else money" kind of job. Thank you so much for your time and effort in helping people like me.

-Jamie White

the search here is a total mystery. you need sales to be on top and you need to be popular at the same time - lots of people looking at your stuff. you have to advertise outside the site to do this and to get the sales. you'll know if an image can't be printed when you get sale, followed by a problem notice.

people that shoot photos will see paintings sell better. people that sell paintings will see photos sell better.

images people want on their walls are the same things you would want to put on your walls. are your images bright and cheery? or do they look dark? (some look dark to me). does the image tell a story of some kind? or is cropped well? flowers for example are tricky to get looking good. they are often photographed because they seem easy because they are bright and colorful. but often most will shoot just a piece of it, or just a single bloom, and that does get boring.

as far as issues, i saw some of the background looked sort of noisy, fuzzy is a better term


like this looks like a tight crop of a larger image (it's better to get closer), the background shows a typical pocket camera type markings. and the clarity in some could be a bit sharper. mostly what i see is inconsistent sizing. some are 3000px some are 1800px. when i make them i try to get them all about the same size so people can order sets of them, all in the same size range.

---Mike Savad

Jamie, do not be overly discouraged, you're asking the right questions and are moving up the FAA learning curve rapidly. The quality issues are there, but getting past them isn't nearly as hard as you probably think it is. One of the keys is to start looking a photos - yours and others - at 100% and developing a sense of what works. A photo has to be reasonably sharp and free of noise at 100% - the issue is learning what 'reasonable' really means, Don't overthink it at this point, just start putting stuff out there and getting reactions and critiques.

I'm not a big time pro but I've sold some images here, and have sold a lot on microstock, so I understand the quality requirements. Even so, I screw up now and then unless I slow down and recheck things.

-Mike Savad

Thank you this was helpful. I see what you are saying. I post to facebook, twitter and g+. I like my images dark so I suppose that is somewhere I need to be more critical in my editing. My camera is a Finepix s4400. a point and shoot with SOME adjustability. It was a Gift from someone who did not understand what I needed/wanted. The Auto focus is what gets me It is never as crisp as I want it to be BUT I can't afford to upgrade right now. I have an old film cannon I would love to use but no darkroom and no place to get film developed well around here. any advise on how to make the auto focus work for me? I do have to crop more than I would like because of the auto focus....I just cant seem to get tight image. Their seems to be little way of controlling the DOF so I make it a little more fuzzy in editing to cover it up. I will stop that this second. Thanks again -Jamie White

next time you get a camera that you want, do all the research and tell them - this exact model.

it depends on what you mean by it not focusing. to me many of those images look like they were enlarged about 10%. small cameras are never that sharp anyway. though i'm surprised there isn't a spot focus on that camera, you should be using that - the center square. otherwise it will lock onto whatever is in the most front, or highest contrast. otherwise it should be focusing unless the lens is filthy.

if it's not focusing because your too close, you may be at the camera's max focus range, setting it to macro might help. this is more true if you zoom way in and try to focus. i have a small camera that goes to 30x, but i can only go as high as 6 if i want to get really close. cheaper cameras usually don't have a DOF thing built in. i have one that does, but it's harder to find. you can probably get a decent camera used, though i would avoid ebay.

you don't want to add the fuzz, that may stop printing.


---Mike Savad

-Jim Hughes-
Thank you for being encouraging after giving my work a "once over" and comparing it others I feel that my images are at the bottom of the middle, if you get what I am saying. some other artists are better and some.....still have a lot of learning to do. I am always looking for people to tell it to me straight but they seem so VERY hard to find. It is so hard to want something this bad and just not be able to reach it and not know exactly why.

-Mike Savad-

Thanks all great things to consider. I will avoid Ebay. I look forward to chatting again soon.
-Jamie White-

if you want a critique on your stuff just make a new thread and ask, there are many that will tell you what they think.


---Mike Savad

bump for the new comers.


---Mike Savad

bumping these before they drop off my page.


---Mike Savad

As a photographer ask yourself which of the following approaches you take:

A. Shoot thousands of shots and then scan through them hoping to find some "good" ones.

B. Purposely visualize an image and then go out and create it.

C. or at least be in a location and see the image, then take that.

though i'm a mix of the 3. sometimes you see the shot and sometimes your there, and your mind doesn't really quite absorb it all. images that i thought were good are not. and others that i thought were, eh, at the time, are the sellers. i've actually found it to be more useful to shoot everything. my motto is:

1. shoot as if your never coming back there.
2. shoot as if you know this place will be destroyed tomorrow.

what things would you like to remember a place by? for example, sandy destroyed lots of board walks, sent a roller coaster into the ocean. people only have the old images. now go back to your folder and look at what you might have shot... are there pictures of seagulls, selfies, your feet, and other odd things? is there something in there that you could share and show that you were there? that's usually the difference between selling or not. capturing interesting moments of a location.

---Mike Savad

Bump

added to my follow list!

bump

I've read this one not once, but several times. Lots of great advice.

bump

---Mike Savad

welcome back sooner.

i see sooner left, it had to happen sooner or later.
get it... oh well, can't erase this.

---Mike Savad

Interesting and usefu,with great advices.

Like you said: shoot as if you're not going back,but look around more than once,find "the place","the detail" and shoot

when i shoot a location, it looks like i'm doing an inventory of the place.


---Mike Savad

Sounds like the Walker Evans style

Mike thanks. All very well said / written. I especially like your cake analogy ... chocolate, I hope?? ; ))

Also:

"1. shoot as if your never coming back there.
2. shoot as if you know this place will be destroyed tomorrow."

You really get us to think!!

sometimes its hard to know what to shoot, but if you can imagine a location that simply is gone, what would you miss? like the jersey shore suddenly had a lot of press because most of it was swept out to sea in the hurricane. now its gone. you may go back to that place, but cover it well at different angles and orientations.

---Mike Savad

No I understand completely. There was a favorite barn of mine that always had me turning my head whenever I drove up here to PA. If late in the day, the light could be amazing. I've snapped it more than once, and it's in my portfolio here. In fact, I've got another shot of it ready to post, a close up, sitting in the computer. Don't know why I've held off uploading it. Anyhow, last time I came up here, during the spring, the flippin' barn had been Knocked DOWN!!!! I nearly drove off the road!!!!!

So now ... it is, as your Jersey Shore example ... gone.

Maybe it's just a barn, and maybe I'm the only one who really saw it for what it truly was (a work of architectural art!) ... but there might be others out there who remember and appreciate it.

But Mike, it's exactly that mind-set that you described that will really put the fire in the belly of a good photographer.

Again ... great advice.

and what i'll do is, i have 2 cameras. the slr and the small cam. the small one takes textures, so i'll often have 2 cameras in my hands. as i walk through an area, the little one gets hinges, metal boxes, doors, windows, etc. the large one gets the art. looks silly, but it works pretty well.

---Mike Savad

Awesome idea!!!!

Lois - Not to side track Mike's excellent thread -- but you do have to indeed shoot things when you see them (and return when the light is better if you can) because you never know when things will get "beautified" and removed or knocked down. So many times I've been surprised to see something gone after visiting it a number of times. Once an old phone booth in front of a church, next week gone! A lot of old cars that I've visited in every season - drove by this week and the lot is a pile old sand for a bridge project.

i remember going home from work and skipping over a pretty ok shot of one of those huge moons. i wasn't sure what i was looking at. didn't have a tripod in my car. didn't feel like getting out. and i never saw that thing again like that.

sometimes i'm sorry i didn't get more angles of certain things because they become hot sellers. so often i'll shoot some things with a flash, hdr, etc, just to make sure i got it. space is cheap, and even though my files are pretty large (25-40megs a piece). space is still cheap. i have to keep reminding myself that each shot i take could be worth thousands in the future.

---Mike Savad

Excellent tips and advice. Thank you!

.

bumping so it doesn't close itself


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

.

bump

As far as shooting things that might not be there next time you go, I don't always do so good with this. One case where I didwas a railroad in Social Circle, Ga we went to in 2005. It was not running tht day and I was only able to get straight on shots where they parked the engines



Before I could get back down to reshoot, they had sold the engine on the left, painted the orange engine and cut up the engine sitting behind them both for scrap. It was better to have the one shot that I did have than not to have one at all. Another example is this section of track in Kings Creek, SC. The track is gone, the building torn down and the railroad has since shut down.

Very helpful, Mike, thankyou!

Wow. This is good teach. And good written. Thnks you. I planning to post bunch snapshots when go paid acc. So no doing no more..xD Need try to bake fantastic cake instead. Very good and clean explanation. :)

Thank you Mike for your helpful information.

Hello, Mike

Thank you so much for your wonderful artical, helpful. but i posted before a few day again, then disappeared. I don't know why.
Thanks again

Thanks Mike, this is great information for the newer members like myself. Navigating and getting your work out there can be a bit confusing at first.
All good information and advice from everyone on this thread.

Thanks again,

bump

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Profound Thought :O}

Excellent post - thanks Mike!

bump

Wait. People buy art in 2015? I'll have to think about that, I thought I was just having fun and hoping other artists might click on the "Like" button.

But seriously, isn't it worse to price a piece too low than too high? I put what I see as pretty standard FAA prices on my stuff but sometimes I wonder.

Thank you Mike for again keeping us sharp and observant.

If something grabs you about a subject or place,...do not ignore it,...there is a reason it keeps talking to you.

A favorite barn and farmhouse I loved was recently demolished and is no longer.

It was beatifully rustic and had the great nostalgic feel of many years ago too.

I was very glad I had stopped and gone out of my way to photograph it years ago.

On those images description I wrote the following,......

As photographers we are sometimes unknowingly historians capturing the last fleeting images of subjects now lost to obscurity.

Marty Saccone

Marianna,...Your comment........I really don't know if it's a normal feeling to have, or my work is just not as good.
Do you feel this way sometimes, or are you always confident about your art?

Yes I do also,...am somewhat new to FAA, and I do have infrequent sales also.

Immediately following a sale,...I naturally have a great boost in confidence,....then I fall back into that lack of confidence as soon as things get slow again.

There's a positive message there,....and Mike hit the nail on the head,...You have to keep yourself out there in front of the potential buyers.

Many artists (myself included and especially) are not good at marketing,...and it's reflected in our lack of,..or,...infrequent sales.

The harder you work,....the luckier you will get.

The helping hand you're looking for,....is at the end of your own arm,...so to speak.

Always room for much improvement,..for this ol' timer anyway.

Marty Saccone

i have a tendency to shoot things as if i'm not going back there again, but as a result, we don't because we shot it all. then of course there are places i should have had more pictures.

we were at south street seaport 1 week before Sandy hit. the pier 17 building took a hard hit with floods and fire. i was doing research on that area for a project, and i haven't been there since the storm. it seems the knocked down the pier and are rebuilding it to a new mega mall. so all the images i have with that building in it is now one of those nostalgia pieces because its not there now.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Great information for this newbie to selling my photography. I've been encouraged to do so by friends and acquaintances and finally took the plunge, investing in decent equipment and additional education. Where can one find those critique sites you mentioned? I wouldn't even know what to do a search for.

i can critique your stuff if you want. the one that i was on, is long gone. i'm not sure if there are any around. though there are some pay sites.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

bumping it before it closes on its own.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Mike, I'm taking your course. Very informative,detail orientated information you are so generously sharing. Up until now I really had no need to read over it since I wasn't marketing my work here in any serious way, now I've had a change of mind and want to sell pod images, your information seems to me to be invaluable. Thank you.

okie dokie


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Mike I am just starting out and my gallery is just uploads on my images, I have not set up galleries, or descriptions or tags yet. Every thing is very preliminary but I would appreciate a critique of the images, to point me in the right direction. http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/5-mario-carta.html

this would make a better photo rather than digi art. the horses legs are cut to tight though.


this has too much effect on it, it looks like he's underwater. and it looks more like a museum shot, because at that angle, the train would have some motion blur in it and the way he's jumping on it - foot first, he would lose his foot. then probably be dragged by the thing.


only use digital painting effects for things that would normally be painted. a snap shot of dogs with leashes and not enough crop space, they probably wouldn't make. a painter may add the person holding the leash, but doubtful they would make it with the leash on.


don't use canvas effects, it will moire, and look odd. i'm not sure what i'm looking at here. its kind of busy and some what dark. needs color. the lines are too aggressive on this. the advantage of digital painting is that you can combine other elements to make it look better. like adding lotus flowers and lily pads to the water to give it more depth and story.



the canvas is to strong and its a bit too amber, but this one looks interesting. i can see this selling.


this would look better without that green blob in the middle.


this would look far far better with either a kimono girl in it - or no one. between her and that thing that looks like a car in the background, it becomes a snap shot. otherwise the wiggle works for this one.


you have weird vacations... its too yellow, but i can see it selling under steampunk.



i can see this selling, though i'd add space to the top and brighten the color a little bit for pop. i'd push it to the freakshow crowd, people that like gruesome stuff and magic people. or even an alien autopsy. mention the sculpture is for sale as well, if it is.


the background is too busy on this. would look better against a blank background with a steep shadow.


he needs more story. maybe add him in a scene with rocks or treasure or something


to me, this looks more like a crime scene. its a bit too low in the frame, and it kind of looks like a body laying on the ground.


overall, i'd say to pull back on the style don't lay it on too thick, don't use the canvas overlay, it looks like noise. not so much yellow. choose things you can see as paintings, not everything "paintings well". for the little dudes, i'd say place them in a setting where they tell a story better. and or add more dramatic light to some.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Thank you Mike! You have given me a lot to work on, plus you made me laugh a bit with the crime scene one. Much appreciated.

typically different styles work for different images. and i'd say that the wiggle method works best on water based themes. you'll have to figure out what looks best for the others.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Yes, I see that Mike, it's trial and error right now for me, so many freaking choices also.I am just familiarizing myself with the software at this point and trying to learn photo shop.

Bump

nicely done.
I especially like the snapshot reference - a battle I constantly have with my high school photo students.

just bumping this before its lost to time.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

I love your posts...I'm sure that annoys some, but it's all so true. Thank you.

there will always be some that will be annoyed by it... but that only means they haven't learned to love it yet.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Finished reading. Interesting. Points I learned in college. Great for upstart commercial artists.

Now I looked at the criteria you have placed. Mine fits into a lot.
I get a great deal stolen and counterfeited in China, people as a lot about my art.
Social media wise they go crazy and like it a lot, but when it comes down to buying, I am in a rut!

I switched over to the pro site at the start of the year and only had one sale, where as on the free version I was getting more.
Now I don't know if that's marketing, or what.

Any tips would be good though.

Gtting to the point of disc pare, as I am being the most productive but lease bought!!!

bumping before i lose this one.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

maintenance bump

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Still good, still valid. thanks Mike :-)

Excellent advice. Thanks.

Good advice :-)

Thank you, Mike, this is really great advice. You talk about developing a unique style by which people will recognize you. I see your point and you are right, but sometimes I just like to venture into other styles because I find some subjects look better in a different style. So it's always a bit of a struggle staying true to a style. But I am working on it - and thanks again.

I have some samples of good and bad set up now and will create a thread showing those after my painting raffle event at the riding stables

you can jump into other styles if you want. but ideally, many will recognize you by your style. just don't mistake style with subject matter. many think that style means you shoot only one type of thing. when in reality its how you process the images that makes it recognizable as yours.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Yes, Mike, you are right again here. I have been thinking a lot about this issue - still am - and will review my approach and be critical of work I think won't fit my style in a broader sense. This means building up a style, working towards it; I'll try. It's good to have someone here who speaks so openly, it's like a wake-up call and that is what one needs from time to time.
Thank you, have a great and creative day!

.

[edit] you "." dotted out, I'll remove too. -W

no... its sooner.

bill could make sense, being its sept, but he has preparations to make, and i think that cat is still stuck someplace... and street guy, i think is wedged into another site. he's also more wordy...

edit
i'll leave my post in, mostly because there are too many dots.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

"its sooner. "

Exactly what I thought. Linked to all the earlier spam this morning perhaps?

You posted back, here was my orig post:

"My money is on that "street photographer", Bill wasn't directly antagonistic towards you, he just loved you to death! lol" -W

Mike
I find your honesty refreshing and your blogs very informative. I need to apply these principles to my images and perhaps eliminate ones I feel are less than my best!

hard to say if he's the one or not, but the timing lines up so i would say yes.

i saw the original post, mostly i erased it because the troll post was removed. but this is sooner's style of writing. he thinks he's clever, but he writes it the same way each time.

i blame this on the effects of the comet that's coming. it makes people do weird and strange things.

thinking about it, i would say sooner was also those 2-3 posts that were just up - ID this avatar, that post about kids smoking and stuff. i mentioned social experiment - and poof - okc troll is born. interesting timing yes?


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

He posted one in Floyd's 5 selling tips thread also:

"savad thinks his is better...but he is an arrogant asshole too :)"


Maybe you should screen shot it in the actual thread for posterity. :)

yeah, he peppered the different threads. i'm honored that he remembered me after all this time.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

:)

bumping to displace spam.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Evaluating my own work:

1. It's a keeper

2. I'm not sure

3. Dump it.

wow... you should write a book.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

bump

bump

As a new(er) member of FAA, I really appreciate the advice of other artists. Mike, this is the second article of yours that I have read. Thank you for giving me and others the benefit of your experience. I have some work to do to increase the volume of good images on my site. I have them, and I have been working on them, posting them with titles, descriptions and key words takes me a little time to do. I have some images that do not pass the test of your recommendations, and yet they have been sold to local clients before I was on FAA. I do take a lot of photos when I travel. I don't shoot in RAW. I have been working on trying to take better shots so as to minimize cropping in the editing process. I use Lightroom to balance highlights and shadows, sharpen if possible, and yet try to keep it at a minimum. I have not used Photoshop, it confuses me. I agree with your advice to "shoot as if your never coming back there" and "shoot as if you know this place will be destroyed tomorrow." I have returned to a few places to take photos with better equipment to find that the scene has disappeared or changed, and I have made the mistake of returning to a place and not taking pictures that I have taken before (Paris), or not taking enough and having very few images (New Zealand). Some of my older images are low quality because I did not have the skill or good camera(s). I was not trying to be a photographer at that point and I was still learning. I feel that I have learned and improved quite a bit in the last 1-2 years, and even more so since I joined FAA. I expect to continue to improve, and I really want to grow my business.

I would appreciate a critique of my current images, if any of you have the time to do so. Thank you in advance.

Pamela Newcomb
Pamorama Photography

this is slanting a bit to the right. the comments are made much more confusing by adding features. i'd leave that off, it won't impress buyers


i'm not sure what you did to the person in there, but he has odd halos all over the place. dark by the head, light down below. the loupe isn't working right now to see up close. again the description should be about the piece - not where its featured


while your images are rich in color, they all seem over saturated. in this case the sky has a ton of noise in it. this one might be an illusion, but it looks tilted.


this is over sharp, i can see halos around the lamp and such


this looks totally out of place compared to the rest. i'd personally remove this one because the others are saturated sunsets and this is a murky part of the beach.


another that doesn't really fit the theme. it has little story.


always start people in galleries btw


the scene is ok, but this is very dark and very noisy. if shot with raw, you would have more info to process. as it stands it won't print.


my loupe just started working, there seems to be noise in each image this one looks like it was smoothed out. i never liked how a camera does that in camera, i always do it outside. this also seems over sharp, though the site applies its own as well. i always ease back a bit.


this one has a good frame around it, its a view of this country not many see.


this though is over processed, too much sharpness, sky is too dark, it would only really be dramatic if the lights were on.


whether you added reticulation or this is noisy, it will be flagged for noise, if anything it doesn't help it.


your style changes too much. many look like snap shots, others like that clock shot work better. sunset shots look better than the other ones. i would only choose to show your best stuff off, its a bit confusing to go through the gallery otherwise. if they have a snap shot look they generally won't attract attention, where as the sunsets would.

mostly what i'm seeing is - the later stuff is better framed and cropped, but have a lot of noise issues with too much sharpening and a bit too much saturation. you can adjust colors using other methods, pushing saturation also pushes noise. and it may be out of gamut as well. the older stuff just seems out of place by comparison.

i do suggest to shoot raw anyway, because you might want to edit these again, and there is no such thing as being bad when it comes to editing. keep in mind that any setting you have in your camera that enhances the scene in any way - is editing, but you have less control.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Mike --

Wow - thank you for looking at so many of my images and descriptions. I appreciate your detailed observations and recommendations. I am going to go back to my original images and see if I can improve some of them. If not, I have some decisions to make. Meanwhile, I just returned from a trip, and have new images to sort through, too. I am also going to start taking some of my sunset shots in RAW. Thanks again for taking the time to give me your honest opinion. I appreciate it.

Pamela Newcomb
Pamorama Photography

the files are larger and side by side you won't see the difference, if anything the raw will look less sharp, less contrast etc. but you can tweak them a lot more. for things like sunsets or potentially darker areas i usually shoot it as an hdr just in case i really do want more detail.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

If I change an image (to a clearer version), does it lose all of the associated data such as viewer information and any other information that may be in Google?

Pamela Newcomb
Pamorama Photography

edit the image, then change the image. as long as you don't erase it. or change the title it will be fine. titles are the links.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

You're always great in the area of advice. I appreciate it, Mike Savad.

Mike -

Thanks again!

Pamela Newcomb
Pamorama Photography

general maintenance bump

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

bumping for reclamation day


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

general bump

---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

fist bump

---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

bump so it doesn't close

---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

general bump

---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

My trick to evaluate my artwork after cropping and adjusting, I actually bring it out in PhotoShop (litterally, out-out-out) until it hits the thumbnail size.
In this case I can evaluate, how my artwork is going to be seen on the cell phones of my potential customers.
The same thing I do before I post the image on my blog.
Basically, I try to look at my paintings with the customer's eye.

Cheers!
Irina
http://www.artirina.com/

and that is the way to do it. in my case i have two screens. the right screen shows my navigator, the main screen my work. and now and then i'll zoom way out to see what it looks like small, then add adjustments where needed. many don't pay attention to that step, and their images are lost in the background. it needs to have that one element that catches the eye often.

---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Refresher bump

---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

bumping it so it doesn't close. its also a good read.


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

monthly maintenance bump.

---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Gee, with all that insight and wisdom, you ought to think of writing a new Bible--certainly your message will lead all those who read to the promised land of photography sales.

sure thing, i think i can make a pretty good preacher...


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

and so sayeth the mike, thou shall have plenty of keywords. descriptions of abundance, and a pretty avatar....


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Well, be sure to wear that neat hat and mustache, and the followers no doubt will line up to listen to your sermons--like rushing to the circus.

worked for abe lincoln (not the president, the one that invented the car). but whatever works...



Thou shalt not print if thy skies are noisy.


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

the sea runneth over due to the angle of thine horizon.


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

maintenance bump


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

In the post-war and contemporary sector, the US maintained its status as the largest center for sales, but its global share dropped 11 percentage points to 36%, while China posted a 17% gain to become the second-largest market, with 33% of sales....

Great information -- thanks for sharing

bump

Hi Mike,

Thank you very much for sharing this. I am fairly new to this site and have not put any descriptions on my work , mainly because I don't know what to say . And I think I am really lacking in my keywords also. Any critique or suggestions you could give me would be much appreciated. I post on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.

Thank you,
Elizabeth Waitinas

bump so it doesn't close on me


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Mike, thanks for this very informative discussion post. I think I'm currently at the point with my photography that I'm cooking with the "Family Recipe" with some of my own recipe thrown in to spice it up :). Now I just have to get better with the marketing part!

bumping all before it closes again

---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Very interesting, and VERY true. All of it.

Funny, my wife and I were discussing this very topic the other day. She pretty much mentioned everything in this article. Bear in mind, she is definitely coming from a "buyer" point of view. So there is something, and a lot, to this.

I would be curious if any routine sellers, not one or two items, like me, would disagree with any of this and why.

why would they disagree with it, i'm awesome. :)

but one should always look at their work from an outsider's perspective. its far too easy to wrap your emotions into a piece that you become blind to its flaws. people go on vacation, they have a great time, the best memories ever. they take washed out images, people on beached on the sand like dead whales. garbage cans in the corners of the shots. but all the photographer remembers is the location and that fancy umbrella drink. they don't see the glaring issues in the image.


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

bump

---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Always informative Mike.
Especially liked what you had to say about taking the "beaten path" instead of the easy one.

maintenance bump.


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Good afternoon, there is still a discussion about the evaluation of sales of works?

what do you mean?

---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

I mean I can show my work here to evaluate my own work for sale!

the whole point is - you evaluate your own work. and look at it with a critical eye.


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Needless to say, thank you very much for your support!

you can ask for a site/photo critique of the photos if you wanted.


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

I promote, on Twitter, pinterest, facebook, there are already subscribers, it would be better to have more creative ideas and finances!

i'd start with an avatar of your face. that one doesn't stand out that well.

on all sites you should have the same avatar so people can identify with you. don't post so many pictures up on twitter, there is little reason to see it any larger than it is, and don't keep posting the same shots over and over.

your advertising this site and shutterstock at the same time. why get it here when i can get it there. also you should be sending people to your artist website, not faa. then at least you can track stuff.

you need hashtags, the rest of your text there is in russian, so that limits your audience to russia mostly. i never had a sale in russia, plenty of hits though. you also only have 81 followers, you want to increase that at least a 1000 or more.

your photos, for the most part are all crooked. they also have a lot of tourists in them or have distracting items on the sides like tree branches. all of them are taken mid day. its the same time all the tourists take them too. if you live in the area get shots tourists won't have. morning, evening, night, snow. etc you want to be unique.

you only have 34 images and you need a bio.

on facebook your very hard to find. i would have to know what i'm looking for as your name is in russian there. i guess your name is popular in russia, its actually pretty hard to find you.

don't upload all your work on the pages, i see 5 posts or more a day if not more. it just floods the page with very similar images.

overall you want to straighten the pictures and clean them up. try not to get tourists in the shots, go for unique weather, interesting skies, interesting light. i would stray from the big buildings and visit the smaller towns. we never get to see that part of russia, its always rainbow buildings and onion domes, which are overdone. get the people, the markets, the dances, etc. and have a lot more work, 34 doesn't go that far.


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Thank you very much, for your support and clear answer, I will try to do as you said!

I like 5 and 6. Can I find something similar at Walmart for much less? Bird portrait, bazillion of them, even mass produced. Think typical buyer. The image at Walmart may be just fine with them. Your quality may be better, but in their eyes? I'm guessing that well over 90% of the time we are not talking fine art collectors with a very critical eye.

How often do you even view your own image, not to mention frame it? If only view once or twice, it must not blow you away that much. In that case, why expect someone to spend money on it?

Point being, you need a major WOW factor that's hard to find elsewhere.

This post is just off the top of my head, and maybe I'm off my rocker. LOL

Mike:

When you say site review, do you mean here (this thread), or from some other place? I do have my own URL pointed to FAA, BrettOssman.com.

I've e been playing with re-arranging mine recently, changing galleries, etc. I also suspect at least some of my images fall into my previous "Can I find something similar at Walmart for much less?" category.

I can also be found on social media under BrettOssman, always, so I do have consistency there.

Thanks for your input.

you could ask for it here, or its usually easier to ask it in the main forum, not everyone looks at this thread, and you may get a better response.


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

bump

---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

bumping


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

bump to prevent closing


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

bumping this before it locks.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Mike

Thank you so much for your informative tips. They have helped me realise some things I have done both right and wrong, I shall be looking out for those pitfalls.

Many Thanks

Mike, what's with all the bumping?

You know to answer your discussion, I ONLY make work which I LIKE and would put up. And I ask others which work they like best, but usually they all say that I can't just pick one, I like them ALL. In saying that, they agree with me that what is done is GOOD. I actually just took some work off because.............

it has to be bumped because the thread closes after a month or two.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

monthly maintenance bump

----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

bumping


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

bump

Please could you tell if this image is right for print? Making black and white print files is a bit confusing for me.
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/saint-teresa-paramjeet-kaur.html

print wise i don't see issues. i wonder more if the photo you used as reference is copyright free. or you could get into trouble by the photographer.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

I saw many portraits here of celebrities, also of Mother Teresa and thought we can use famous personalities pictures without permission. How to get permission for this picture?

the opposite is true. famous people have a right to their own faces, and you would need permission both from the person in the picture (if alive), and the original photographer that shot that image. tracking that down may be hard.

the site doesn't remove images that should not be here, and they really should. its a pain to go through all the work of making something and finding out you can't sell it. or worse, your sued. i have a feeling that the image may be impossible to track down and you'll blend with the others that look exactly the same. but its a sort of tread with caution thing.

when it comes to photos online, you can't take it and use it as you see it. you have to find out their copyright status, and there is often a fee associated with it especially if you are selling it yourself. and famous people, don't always want their faces on just anything. some famous people actually sue, over things like that - Mr T is one, and there is some singer that goes after people.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

The same picture is used by many different websites, newspapers, books and blogs, it is a wallpaper also. I have combined 3 different pictures in this. If you say it is not right, then I will remove it.
Can I put it on my website? Or just show people for getting commissions or hang in my home?

yes, but that doesn't always make it ok. it may be the only picture. it could very well be in the public domain. wallpaper sites - i'd say 90% are stolen, so never trust those. you may very well find your own work on one of those.

i'm not a lawyer, so i can't give any advice on what you should do. i would do a check to see who shot that photo or others you might have used, and see what the status is. don't trust places like wikimedia either, see if you can find the original photographer, it may take some work though, a lot of people have used it.

you can hang anything in your house, but when it comes to using an image for almost any reason, it can be bad for you. i'd just do the research to play it safe.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

You have used a very famous photograph but you are allowed to do this provided you have transformed it to create a new work. It gets kinda complicated here because you have created a direct copy of the image but transformed the medium. a vindictive photographer could take you to court for copyright but there's no guarantee they would win, as you have preformed a transformative action, this may be less of a defense if you have simply used a Photoshop filter. This would be slightly different if you had drawn a trademarked brand or character. I've seen several mickey mice and etc, these are defiantly a violation of intellectual property.
In terms of intellectual property - Many famous people would have trouble challenging you on violating their intellectual property by producing fan art, as they dont use their image for merchandising, they use their image for promotion. So Technically it should be fine to draw Robert Downey Jr but not Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man as disney do have a financial interest in selling pictures of iron man and have a legal monopoly on that market, whereas Robert Downey Jr has no right to stop people from sketching him, and has repeatedly engaged in distributing things like head-shots in order to raise his public profile. However once again all this is rarely brought up and a very grey area. With the major reason being theres not enough money in this for Robert Downey Jr to get involved.
Then there's public domain which also gets kinda complicated (Especially in France and Europe) so the idea of the Mona Lisa is public domain, as copyright never existed but photos of the Mona Lisa are copyrighted and cannot be reproduced and if you want to take a photo you have to pay the owner to take it.
Lol so bit of a rant but I'm pretty sure your picture is all good... It is very unlikely the photographer will or can do anything and its very unlikely the catholic church and the estate of Mother Teresa can or will do anything.

Hi Mike, just ran across this blog, I've got to say there is some really good information, very helpful.
I am one of those very insecure artists. My thought is, my art may look good to someone who can't draw at all. I might be good, but there is always someone better.
You made the statement, would you buy your own art? I have my artwork hanging all over my bedroom walls, and some throughout the house. I rent a room and I have no where else to store my artwork. I would like to display my artwork else where but I can't afford to get them framed, and they are pastels and need to be under glass. The first thing a person does when they see my work is run there finger(s) across it.
My biggest problem is, I don't have real good quality photos of my artwork which makes a huge difference. I think my painting "Intrigued" is pretty good, but the photo is terrible, it's very grainy. I probably should take a photography class, I'm sure it would help.
Anyway I am really glad you posted this blog. I'm hoping it can help me out in the future. Thank you, Tara

yeah but you made that work. your proud of that work. what i'm saying is, if you saw that work in a different store, would it catch your eye enough for you to fork over a few hundred for it?

if you know the picture quality is bad - you can't sell it.

your image you mentioned, is poor in quality and very small. it starts with a good camera, then technique. a scanner may be better for you. some have cropping issues, some are soft, others are noisy or blocky. and its weird because the photo of that guy looks ok in comparison.

the marble one is probably the clearest, but it seems to have contrast issues. you will have to fix these if you want to sell it. right now you have no keywords so no one will find it anyway.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Tara I agree with mike, your photography needs some work, but dont worry too much a smartphone camera should be fine, most will be able to do a 4kx4k image, (Just make sure you select highest quality, and turn flash, face beautify and post effects off), Difficult bit is getting a consistent light source & getting everything square on. It usually best to use non direct natural light and photograph from above, preferably on a mildly reflective white surface, like a plastic table, to create some natural bloom. Purchase a "Bubble-Level" or download a bubble level app for your phone to make sure you are exactly parallel to the painting.
If your pictures are around A4 size just go get a scanner, they are way easier to use and dont require all the dealing with lighting and bubble levels.
Thats basically all there is too it. Although you may want to do some colour correction and levels editing in photoshop too.

I just realized i might be butting in on your thread Mike lol.. don't worry I'll go, I have work to do

Mike, I'm so poor right now I can't pay attention, let alone buy anyone's artwork, even my own. But, I know what your saying. The painting "Play Me" is my favorite, and I won't sell it, although I would love to do a larger version of it. The thing is Mike, you never know what someone will like. I have paintings I have no idea why I did them, other than the idea came to me, so now they are on canvas, usually.
You're right about he marble painting, it is a little lighter than the actual painting. I have three paintings right now that I need to take a part and photograph because I do not have good copies of them. I also need to get the pixels right. I am not real bright when it comes to digital stuff. Computers just aren't my thing. Although..... I do love the app on my phone for editing photographs. It's much more fun than playing games.
Thanks for your help.

artistically the work looks fine. photographically, no.

when i say buy it yourself, its usually an artists level. i've seen really terrible snapshots, stuff that i would have erased on the spot. and people wonder why it hasn't sold. and that's really where that's coming from. there are other artists that just took up the hobby and the work is very very rough, and they expected it to sell to support their new hobby. those people probably will never sell, or at least not right away.

but the painters burden is, getting it so it looks good on the screen.
things like the marbles, you can edit those. gimp is free but tricky to use. you can deepen the black bring out midtone and highlights. add a touch of contrast and vibrancy.

and if you sold the paintings, you would have no archival image of it. if you can get a scanner, a photo scanner is best, something with a removable lid, you can scan it pretty easily.

a phone isn't good for editing. i think they are too small and saturated to give you a good idea what everyone else will see.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

I have a digital camera, but the photos look a whole lot worse, they are seriously grainy. I must not have it set up right. You know what they say, when all else fails, read the instructions. I'll have to see if I can find the instruction manual for my camera.
You're not kidding about the burden of getting it to look good on screen. By comparison, the art is easy. A lot of work, but easier and definitely more enjoyable.
I do have a scanner, but I still have to have a good quality photo to start off with. Hahahaha... my problem is with the photograph.
I cannot thank you enough for your help. One of these days with practice I will be really good at this. Another hahahaha.... I was hoping to get an agent, someone to do all the picture taking so I wouldn't have to. I had someone in mind but she moved away
Thanks again for your help, Tara

some camera's are garbage. some have really bad iso issues. generally you want to lock the iso at a 100, and have plenty of light, shoot it on a tripod. abbie has a bunch of steps in a guide.

the scanner is for the painting. you just lay it on top of the surface and scan. 300dpi is full size. 600dpi is double size and each 300 will increase the size by one. so you can have a 12" print, made into a 72" print by scanning it in at say 2000-4000dpi. it may be over sized, but you can save it to disc for later.

the scanner doesn't use a camera at all, it is the camera. a very sharp camera, but not all scanners can make a good print, a lot are meant only for paper.

i have an epson v600 and can scan pretty deeply.


this is buttons right on the glass.


this one is only about 4" wide. but scanned in high. i can make a pretty big print with it.


i made this when i was bored, i think it 12x16. the scanner will flatten the objects though


and this had a lot of texture in it, the scanner will flatten that look. but the clarity is even and clear. if i recall some of it is about 3/4" thick, which is the limit the scanner can do.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Thank you James Wartke-Dunbar for your information and thank you Mike for the help too. I did not make this portrait for money ever but when I saw Mother Teresa paintings or portraits here, I thought to put mine too. I will try to find the photographer, if I get I can upload it anytime in the future. I have taken permission for my all other artworks. This portrait gives me strength anyways and as they say art is not about money.

there is a good chance its in the public domain. i'm not certain, as i didn't look for a match but Marie Bissell Constantin came up as a person who photographed her. so she may be the one to find. if you can find a gallery that has that exact image.

as for this place. there is a lot of stuff that should not be here. star wars, trek, famous faces, brand names, the list is very long. most pod's would have remove it by now.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

I found that Michael Collopy is the photographer. You can check him too.

i guess there are quite a few. he does come up as related to her. so now you just have to contact and be honest, that you want to sell it. and you want permission. then save the permission for later.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

"Later on critique sites showed up, these are valuable sites and everyone should join these."
Good tip Mike - do you have any specific sites that you recommend?

Yes, I know. Thank you for your help.

@patti - i don't remember quite what i wrote. i don't think there are critique sites now. that was on the early days of the net Pre-POD. but i know rich has one. and i think there is a second one as well, groups you can join.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Mike, you are man after my own heart. I like using different things for texture. "Turbulent" is a prime example. The painting itself has acrylic paint, fabric paint and sand. The matte around the picture is made up of a standard paper matte with a loose open weave scarf cut up into strips wrapped across the matte. I first painted the whole matte with shiny black acrylic paint, and then dry brushed a coat of flat black paint over the top. You can only see the shiny paint in the crevices. I like flat black better than shiny. I have a new process but I don't want to say what it is. I found it by accident.

generally i know nothing about painting. and made those partly out of spite to prove anyone can make an abstract. and others were made after a hurricane to keep me sane. generally i'm into photography, colorizing and digital art.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

I asked the photographer for permission. He allowed me to use it for display and exhibitions but said for selling I would have to ask Missionaries of Charity, Motherhouse. I called them because they do not have any online ID and they said I do not need any permission for making or selling. I can do whatever I want to do.

Hi Mike,
I'm not really too much of an abstract fan myself. My first attempts at abstract turned out to be more surrealistic, which is still along the lines of abstract, just not quite as crazy. The thing I like most about my abstract is the texture. I like the painting Night Gallery because of the texture. I think your right though, a person doesn't have to draw very well to do abstract. Hahahaha...maybe that's how it got started. Right now I'm in the process of working on an abstract painting of my daughter. Like I said, I don't usually do abstracts, but this idea came to me in a dream.
Oh... I liked Rob Zombie's song " Never Gonna To Stop." My son turned me onto the band "Tantric", I really like their CD "Astounded" they have a good blend of Acoustic and electric guitars. Check them out. Probably not quite what you like, but you never know. Tara

i used to listen to rob zombie when i first got into metal, mostly with Dragula. but found he sings too slow for me now, and i need a quicker beat.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Hi Mike, I've decided to take the "Intrigued" painting apart and try photographing it over again. I found some info on youtube about my camera. I also think the painting itself needs to be tweaked some. I'm not giving up on it.
My son used to Listen to Sevendust, there not bad. I see their still touring, they've been around a while.

bump

bump


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

has it been 2 months already?


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

maintenance bump


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

wow 2 months have passed since i last bumped it.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

mandatory bump


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Mike,
I just saw or re-read this blog.... Some really good pts as well as humbling...
No 7-10 bites me, it is really daunting the self-promotion part of being a creative..
Esp since I've moved from being hero oriented to much more reflective.

I really don't like cake, though it's a good analogy of ways to look at our own work...
I don't have a base support... getting my Grad Cerif in Digi Pub, I learned if you have
a true follower of 1k that will buy anything an artist/author/musician creates you will
have a good stream of income....

Curious do you have any great places to self-promote???
I don't do FB bc there policies are to earn $2T spinning indie content for free...
I have very good interaction w/ posting on Tweeter in hits & that leading to views...
I don't see the connection via PIN...
I'm testing QR codes now that life is happening post covid...
Do you host shows live or all online?

The thing I like most about your online presences is your gift of consistency;
you have a consistent message, new avatars & hit your sweet spot.
I have not found that to pop out yet, though Grp Admin in 3 areas I'd like to see pop.

1920s 2020s centennial inspiration, GJ glorijean

Great informations. Thank you!

you have to drop your idea of policies, you have to go where the people are. facebook has a bunch of people that might buy things, but its a pain to use and a delicate balance of not stepping on toes. you have to find followers on twitter follow them and hope they follow back and post things and so on. its a lot of hard work.

i don't do things live, that's expensive and i don't much care for people.


the thing about selling is, you should only post things you would either buy or take notice yourself. would you buy a photo of a soda label or the bottom of i guess said soda bottle? or a garbage truck etc? or a tomato explanation sign and so on? that is the first step, it will be hard to market that stuff. like a picture of a first class envelope?

you as the artist should be shooting things a common person can't shoot, that's when they buy from you. cataloging a days worth of things you looked at, usually won't create sales, that's the sad aspect of this. advertising only goes so far. it starts with what your selling.

----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

WOW you're sharp thanks for looking the images... tho I leave my setting on COLLECTIONS... Unfortunately these slice of life pics is bc I've recently participated in 3 abbie challenges... If you or public looks by Collections you get Teapot letters or Wide format... I am sure i have more work than the 36hr days I'm already doing since I'm not a coder... It's daunting the amt of time to self-promote... And I am discovering I am more of a creative tasker than a promoter or people oriented.

It is really refreshing to hear you say that the live shows isn't as important... I want to hit the sweet spot that streams, like my teapot letters...
BTW as a paid member how did you get your FAA/pixel web as a stand alone name w/o the fulfillment companies?

GJ glorijean
https://glorijean.pixels.com/

i didn't follow the other challenges, but the main point of any challenge, is to challenge yourself, a chance to get better, not just to complete an assignment. anything posted that is less than your best will be judged by anyone visiting your store.

you have to buy a name from a name.com type place. and then follow the instruction on the pro/AW site and set it up there, though, you will also have to follow the instructions for cloudflare, so the site is secure. so if i recall its the address instructions from cloudflare go to the name server, so the name knows where to go which is cloudflare. and the instructions from this site, go to cloud flare, that then comes here.

i'm pretty sure there is a faq set up here on how to do that.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

also just an FYI, almost all those teapots - aren't printable. you can't stretch the image to make it fit an object, photos don't vectorize, many of them are stretched beyond capacity.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

commenting here so i can follow this i have to come back and read all the tips! thank you for putting this together for us! maybe I can learn something from it :)

Mike what I did with my mom's letters to make them into imaginary teapots I thought was so amazing... I also just got proof back from the printer they printed great... I have no idea what you are trying to tell/teach me, but I sure appreciate your wisdom, and will try to research it to understand...

Thx for how you can buy your own name/brand and be more visible here on FAA/pixels...

Glad you stopped by Adrian... GJ

but they won't print many of them here, because they are not only stretched over an object, but they are huge. you like them but many are soft or jaggy up close. the site itself wouldn't print it because its expensive when a huge canvas has to come back. everything should be sharp at a 100% when you zoom in. i don't know how large an image you printed, but anything will look good small. its when you print it large you'll see the image is very stretched and blurred.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

when I take a small cp image say, the FAA web pricing page TELLS ME THAT IT ISN"T GOOD ENOUGH to print & will only allow sizes that conform to the size... so some of these are indeed huge. I think it's a screen issue.... Just like print colors are made different than screen colors...

For ex the WIDE format I shoot are large format images and they always come up blurry... I have printed out 8 ft x 4 ft work barely got it in the doorway since it was canvas;
it does not look blurry... But it does in the thumb prints bc it is huge... GJ glorijean

if you stretch something out - the site doesn't know from how it will print until they look at it.


this is a good example of something that won't print. there is no need uploading an image 14,000x8000. the site doesn't print it that size, 6200 or so should really be the limit. upscaling it like this will only make the printer not print it.

you take your own chances having images that can't print. buyers may not come back, and the site may remove prices if they think it can't be printed.

its not a screen issue.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Wondering what on earth do the people w/ 48 MB cameras do,
the largest file here on FAA is 25MB.... I have been pushing myself to make larger file formats...

It just doesn't make sense... Even my Linked IN is accepting larger files...

I'll leave it here... it will take me loads of time to unravel, reorient,
and grasp the wisdom you have imparted. Appreciative, GJ glorijean

larger only works if you start with a large image. you can't have a small image and make it large.

as for what we do, we save it lower or make it smaller. generally saved at an 11, works fine most of the time. i've been colorizing images that are around 100mp, and those i have to shrink down a bit.

some day the site might have larger files, but i've been asking since i got here, and i've been here for at least 10 years now.

now for the teapots, you can scan the letters in at say 1200dpi, that would give you enough resolution to get it to print.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

is there a way to save this thread &/or return to it so I can reply later on after trying a larger dpi scan...
It's not showing in my faa email inbox...

I think what I'm doing w/ my mom's letters is different than how you are viewing it....
I don't want the letters to appear in full detail... Sure that would be easy.
I'm trying to abstract the letters instead of burning them; then transformed into the imaginary teapots to make them palatable.

It was an unexpected gift in a much more tedious lifetime project... impact from my mom being in WWII...
The letters would not make any sense to anyone, except that they are making sense to me & need to be expressed.
Soo I am using the art to present in a whole new way... The book I just published out with all 70 teapot letters came out great.

Okay in my DoLoMo Collection.... Here's where I was 08/2020 in my mom's letters & artifacts & my juxtaposition... The postcard was digitized much bigger but I make a story page that turned into this montage of postcard, photos and artifacts that looked like this:



Then I transformed the written into abstract art-



Then I transformed it into this Teapot Letter, so the letters are being read, but presented... only I know what they mean, but stand as art works:



GJ glorijean

when you reply you can add it to your watch list, as long as you don't watch too many things, it should stay there for a while. you can also just bookmark it.

i am just looking at the close up box on the site. if i can't see perfectly sharp letters in the close up, but instead its blurry, choppy, jaggy etc, then it probably won't print.


the close up of the teapot has a lot of jaggy letters. all the diagonals are rough. they are rough because you enlarged the original as the flat one is also not printable. in the postcard, the text is printable, but JFK is badly blurred. you can't take a 3000px image, then quintuple the size. every time you enlarge it, it gets worse.

so instead you get a scanner, scan it at 1200 dpi, this will give you a pretty huge image. can't do a lot about jfk they used a soft image, may be better to just remove him. because it looks like he's making out with himself in the teapot. then go on with the repeats.


this is a properly scanned image, i also sharpened it a bit to get out detail. if you click on the green box you can see clarity, it doesn't look blurred or stretched out. and i won't or will never need to make it larger because its plenty large.

but that is the clarity you are going for.

----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Hello ! Please tell me how to correctly set the parameters of the works, what were they sold?

What do you mean by parameters?

If its sold you know the town name and state and that's it.


----Mike Savad
http://MikeSavad.com

Great blog Mike, some good information. Thank you. Best Regards Lorraine.

Resetting the closing timer on this.

----Mike Savad

Another 2 months, have to keep it from closing.


----Mike Savad

I don't understand why I see my own mistakes only after uploading.

What mistakes?


----Mike Savad

The mistakes that you mention here, like cropping not exactly. Or the image is not balanced, in one side for example there is too little space. Or something in a photo that I should have deleted and I didn't notice before. I read this before, I think everything looks OK. I get all excited, maybe I rush, I upload, I'm happy. I go back the day after and I see mistakes.
And I get nervous, because I have to edit the image and I know it's not good.

The site doesn't do that, you have to do that.

Take your time when you edit. Zoom in at 200% and see if there are any mistakes. Make sure the horizons are straight. Check the color, look for noise etc. There is no need to rush to get things up here.

See everything with a critical eye, or ask for critiques either at home or here and learn from them. Then apply them for the future.

I will fuss with an image for hours removing stuff I don't like or improving the color, add things If I need too etc. As you remove things that are bad, your eyes will jump to the next mistake, and the next etc. And when it finally stops jumping and sits on the item that you want people to see, then decide if your done.



----Mike Savad

Yes, you are right. It's all true what you say. Thank you so very much for your help!

Bump

----Mike Savad

2 month bump up.


----Mike Savad

Ignore this dot.

.


----Mike Savad

Excellent post! Thank you!

Great tips Mike, thanks for your knowledge and info!

Thanks for the tips!

Thank you for your tips

Thank you, Mike.