Self Promotion In Photography
As a photographer its important to get your work out there and seen by people and possible clients. Admittedly, this is the least fun and interesting part of the job. However its essential in order to further your career. This can be done through many different ways, but the easiest, quickest and most effective, i believe, is using the internet. Many people, today, have constant access to the internet. This means that if your work is online is more likely to be viewed by a potential employer, then it would be if it was printed. For this project we where asked to look at ways that freelance photographers promote themselves. Many professional photographer to day have there own online portfolio, so i decided to analyse their websites and how they use social media and the internet to promote their work as well as the layout of the page and how this helps when it come to the using the page and how this can effect the viewer as well as how this can optimize their promotion.
Rankin Photography (rankin.co.uk)
Rankin Photography (rankin.co.uk)
For my first website i decided to look at Rankin's as i thought that this website was very dynamic but at the same time it's also very basic and easy to use. This it how the landing page of the website appears.
The page is very pain, keeping to a theme of white and dark colours. Across the top of the page, in a horror like font, reads hunger, displaying Rankin's current project in which he runs a magazine named Hunger. By promoting his work in this way is very cryptic, as i myself was curious to see what this meant and i can imagine any viewer of the site would do also. As photographer we also have many oppotunities to work in different parts of media, For example publication, film and video and as a working photographer Rankin works all of the above. This means that as a well known photographer he get alot of traffic to his website of people looking for different aspects of his work. Therefore on his landing page he divides his work into different sub sections, such as RankinTV and RankinFilm. This makes the website easy to navigate for each and every viewer.
With in this website Rankin also advertises everybody he has worked with, everywhere he has displayed his work as well as his information and portfolio. I think this is something that is important when working in an industry like the photography industry as putting something like a talent list on the website almost acts as a reference for the photographer. When a company is looking at the people you have worked along side and sees that the photographer has worked with big name celebrities, it reflects well on the photographer in a positive way. the amount of information that the website hold is also very useful as on the website Rankin talks about how he started in photography and how he got to where he was today. I think that displaying information like this would work in the photographers favor as it would allow the viewer to be inspired by the stories.
Rankin's website also has a very strong link the social networking site. In the corner of each page are little symbols that link to the different sites. this allows the viewer to share the work of the photographer which allows for more exposure for the photographer and there work.
The page is very pain, keeping to a theme of white and dark colours. Across the top of the page, in a horror like font, reads hunger, displaying Rankin's current project in which he runs a magazine named Hunger. By promoting his work in this way is very cryptic, as i myself was curious to see what this meant and i can imagine any viewer of the site would do also. As photographer we also have many oppotunities to work in different parts of media, For example publication, film and video and as a working photographer Rankin works all of the above. This means that as a well known photographer he get alot of traffic to his website of people looking for different aspects of his work. Therefore on his landing page he divides his work into different sub sections, such as RankinTV and RankinFilm. This makes the website easy to navigate for each and every viewer.
With in this website Rankin also advertises everybody he has worked with, everywhere he has displayed his work as well as his information and portfolio. I think this is something that is important when working in an industry like the photography industry as putting something like a talent list on the website almost acts as a reference for the photographer. When a company is looking at the people you have worked along side and sees that the photographer has worked with big name celebrities, it reflects well on the photographer in a positive way. the amount of information that the website hold is also very useful as on the website Rankin talks about how he started in photography and how he got to where he was today. I think that displaying information like this would work in the photographers favor as it would allow the viewer to be inspired by the stories.
Rankin's website also has a very strong link the social networking site. In the corner of each page are little symbols that link to the different sites. this allows the viewer to share the work of the photographer which allows for more exposure for the photographer and there work.
Nigel Barker (http://www.studionb.com/)
For my next researched website a decided to look at Nigel Barkers website as i thought that this linked in with Rankin's website. This is the home page of the website.
Much like Rankin's website this one has a very sleek and plain theme too it, which i think adds a very professional look to the website. On the home page is a slide show of work by Nigel Barker showcasing some of his best work throughout his years of being a photographer. This is useful as it shows the many different feild of photographer that he works within, Such as fashion, landscape and documentary. i think that using a slide show or displaying a range of images in the home page is a good idea as it pulls the viewer in to look at more of your work.
Much like Rankin Nigel also has a strong like with social networking sites,with badges on each of his separate pages which means that the viewer is able to share an image or the page on either facebook and twitter. This will create more views on the page and direct more traffic towards the photographers work.
There are separate categories on the home page which splits the work up into different areas of interest. This is used on many photography websites to create a page that is much easier to navigate than having all there work in one place.
Nick Knight (nickknight.com)
Compared to the other websites that i have viewed Nick Knights is very plain. Home page of his website is the copyright to his images and nothing else. The whole intire website contains little information but the information that is displayed is vital. In his website he has made sure to write everything that is vitally important to a potential clients, such as contact details. The feel of the website is very professional, Using mainly a black and white theme. I think that the theme used on this website is very effective as it doesn't distract away from the work. The images are displayed in one big page, which maybe a negative thing as i think that is isn't enough to display a full portfolio of work and could be tedious and repetitive for a viewer to flick through. Each image is displayed one at a time which again makes sure that non of the focus is being pulled away from the image by other images.
This website has on links to social network which i think shows a very professional manner. The website feels as though it was be created for professional purpose as apposed to other websites that i have viewed which feel like they have been created to entertain.
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