Creating a Website

I first looked at existing freelancers websites before creating my own to give myself an idea of what the final product should look like and give myself a target to aim for.

To create a website, I used Wix.com. This is because it is a reputable site and a site that I am most familiar with for creating websites. I logged into my account and created a new site using an existing template. I chose to use an existing template to begin my site with because it meant that I could choose from a selection of templates that are catered for a photography site. This meant it would give me the best example of how to present my work, and allow me to simply insert my own photographs and explanations around my themes. Of course subheadings, paragraphs, contact details, fonts and photographs all needed changing to make the website personal to me and to make it look how I want to look in terms of layout and simplicity. I kept in mind how, in my research blog about websites, I looked at using conversational English, keeping the website simple, and keeping the contact details easy to find. There is a hyperlink on the navigation bar straight to the page that allows the viewer to find my contact details.

To create my website, the first thing I did was organise the home page.

To organise it, I removed the existing (template) photos that were already there, and instead replaced them with my own photographs. For the home page, I chose one of my best photos from each theme, to show the variety of photos I have taken for this project and to give the viewer a good idea of what to expect on this website (rather than just showing three photos from my fashion theme, meaning they might expect all my photos to be of this genre). I also added my own name to the box in the top right corner to give a brief introduction to the person viewing the site The navigation bar is right at the top where it is easily accessible from any page of the website. If you scroll below the photos on show on the home page, there is a short “About Me” paragraph of text to tell the viewer who I am and about myself as a photographer and the website as a whole.

To edit text it was incredibly simple. I simply clicked on the existing paragraph of text and then clicked the “Edit Text” option. Alternatively, if I wanted to insert my own text box, I would click the plus icon on the left of the screen, and then choose text. This would allow me to select a text box to insert anywhere on the page and then edit it and type whatever I want.

To insert my photos onto the website, I first downloaded them off my Google Drive where I store them. Next, I chose to insert media on the desired page of the website (for example, architecture). This then allowed me to choose which pictures to include on the website in the gallery I had created. This gallery means that when a viewer looks at my website, they will be able to click on the sliders located at either side of the photo to quickly look through each photo for each theme.

Below my photos, for each theme, there’s a short description about my thoughts and intentions about each theme.

Below is a link to explore the website in full:

https://patrick183571.wixsite.com/photography-fmp

Presentation Problems

Initially, I uploaded my images to a website called Unsplash. Here, I added a description to every photo, added various ‘tags’ to try and reach a wide audience, and added the location of most photos. I talked in previous blogs about how I wanted to upload my photos to a professional photography site, as this would reach my intended audience of 16-24 year olds – particularly those that choose to view photography content online. I did, however have to change to Instagram instead, as Unsplash removed almost half of the images I uploaded for breaching their guidelines on quality. Fortunately, my contingency plan was to use Instagram instead. This is because it has over 1 billion users and is still incredibly popular with the photography community. It also means that my work is easily accessible for millions of different people, and so I will likely get more interactions than if I used Unsplash.

For my Instagram post, I posted each one with different hashtags. This is because, according to website ‘Bluffer’, using as many hashtags as possible is the best way to get interactions.

This is important in particular for my account because it is a brand new account that, of course, starts with no followers. Using hashtags such as #photography means that people with similar interests, that are likely to be searching and using that hashtag, will easily find my account. This will lead to more interactions.

I am going to upload my Instagram posts by genre. Each day, for three days in a row, I will upload ten pictures from one genre. This is because I don’t want to upload 30 images all at once, as this could be seen as spam by my followers and each image will likely receive little interaction. By only uploading ten at once, each image will receive more attention.

 

At time of writing, since I created my photography account on Instagram, the profile has had 134 visits. Five out of six of my most engaged-with posts are architecture photos, which tells me that this particular genre is my most popular. I also received comments on some photos complimenting my work.

A lot of my night time photos were some of my least liked images. This tells me that this is an area for improvement – whether it’s lack of preparation (not having suitable items for different types of weather, which, in this case, included rain), or if I need to sort out the camera settings and exposure triangle properly, there are changes that could be made for the next time I do night time photography.

I know I reached my target audience (of those aged 16-24, and also photography enthusiasts) because of the types of accounts that like my images. Through the use of hashtags (particularly “#photography”), I reached a wider audience. On my most liked photo, exactly half of the likes were from accounts on Instagram specifically for photography. This shows how,through the use of social media and a public profile, hashtags can reach anywhere around the world.

Below is a link to my Instagram photography account:

https://www.instagram.com/photography_fmp2/?hl=en

 

References

Buffer Marketing Library. (2019). How to Use Hashtags: How Many, Best Ones, and Where to Use Them. [online] Available at: https://buffer.com/library/a-scientific-guide-to-hashtags-which-ones-work-when-and-how-many [Accessed 15 May 2019].

Unsplash to Instagram

After uploading all 30 of my photos to Unsplash, a professional photography site, I wanted to give them some time to get interaction. Later in the day, I checked back to see if they had gained any interactions (such as downloads or views) but they had in fact been removed by the site. 13 out of the 30 images I uploaded had been removed, and after checking me email I found that the reason was:

Luckily, I created a contingency plan. This is where I discussed what site I would use if there were any problems (such as this). This means that I have now set up an Instagram account based around photography that I will post my 30 images on. As I have created my account as a business account, I will be able to monitor ‘insights’ such as how many people the post has reached and how many times each image has been saved.

Using Instagram still has a lot of advantages: it’s easily accessible to billions of accounts and it’s also a site created to share photographs so it is basically designed for me to upload my images and get feedback. Whilst lots of people use Instagram for pictures of their daily lives, there are still thousands of photography accounts on the site that use it specifically for their professional photos. At time of writing this, if I look at the hashtag “#photography” on Instagram, there are 438 million posts that have used that tag. This shows that there is a massive audience on this site specifically for photography. Furthermore, I wanted to keep my photography posts online, because I know this is the best way to reach a wide audience. This large number of posts is proof that anyone in the world can reach and see my photography by posting it to Instagram.

Whilst it’s very inconvenient that my images were taken down, because of my organisational skills I can implement my back-up plan and still continue to get feedback on my photos.

Reviewing Photographs

Deciding on my final photos was a thorough and long process. I had to whittle down over 300 photographs to just 30 of my final shots. Immediately after taking the photos, while out on location,  I would preview the photos that I had just taken. This was so that I could get a rough idea of how my photos were looking on the day and if I should continue shooting more shots or if I had got the best photograph that I could get.

A lot of photos, however, look different through the camera’s display compared to when they are shown on a much larger computer screen. This means that when I returned to class and viewed my photos, I needed to go through a sort of discarding process to eliminate the weaker and less appealing photos. Essentially, I looked through all of my photos and put a red, orange or green marker next to each one. This colour coding was an easy way to identify which photos were definitely not going to be used (the red marker), which were to be reviewed again (orange marker), and which were the final photos that I would use. Despite having over 300 photos, the pictures were essentially my 30 planned shots but different versions of them, so I only chose the one best photograph of each planned shot. Below is a link to all of my shots, including those that I didn’t use as one of my final 30 shots:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=11jvAyoCCCXyLzyqB-P3KSVjnYODgUDmO

There were some that were more obvious than others for me to throw away. For example, this shot below is quite over-exposed, so I knew immediately that I couldn’t use it as one of my final photos. I then placed a red marker next to this photo in my folder so that I knew not to use it at any time in the future.

Not all the decisions were as easy as this, though. Sometimes, there were minor changes in framing and/or lighting that meant two photos would look very similar. I would then have to choose which is the better photograph and which one to keep and which one to disregard. For example, the shots below are quite similar, and the main thing separating the two is the slightly different angle. I ended up opting for the shot on the right, because I liked the column being including in the photo and that there is more light on the ground from the window that is visible. Sometimes, like in this case, I would ask other people for their opinions to see what kind of response each photo would get.

Some photos more challenging to take, so it took more attempts to get the final shot. This meant, particularly with my night time shots, there were a lot of photographs that needed throwing away. Often, this would be from blurriness (caused by not keeping the camera perfectly still the whole time the shutter is open). Shots like the one shown below are a good example of when I can look at no the computer and immediately put a red marker next to. 

 

Presentation

For the presentation of my project, I have already looked into the pros and cons of posting my work online. My current plan is to upload the work to Unsplash – a site for professional photographs. I chose this site because my work will appeal directly to those on this website: people who have an interest in photography and actively go onto sites like these and view photography material. I have also explained, however, that my contingency plan is to upload my work to Instagram. This is my backup idea because of the sheer amount of Instagram accounts that exist (over 1 billion) and its ever-growing popularity. Furthermore, it is a website specifically created to share photos, which means that it is purpose-built for what I want to use it for. Also, I know that after setting your account to a business account on Instagram, you can view ‘insights’ to each post and look at what type of interactions you have received. This includes how many people have saved a post, who has seen your post from your use of hashtags, and how many people have viewed your page. I chose Instagram over other social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter, because it is a site specifically designed for sharing photos. Facebook and Twitter, while also being incredibly popular and boasting millions of users, Instagram is more catered towards pages such as mine that want to post professional photographs and to be able to measure feedback and interactions.

However, I also considered other methods before concluding that online would be the best place to present my work. As part of my primary research, I visited an exhibition in Manchester. This exhibition was about various different 16 year olds from around the UK, and some of their concerns with modern life.

Viewing this exhibition gave me a first-hand look at what it would be like to use a gallery as a way of presenting my own photography work. The main thing that I took away from the gallery is that there weren’t many people viewing the photography work. While I was there I didn’t see anyone else that had come specifically to look at the exhibition, so in terms of numbers and reaching a wide audience, I knew an exhibition wouldn’t be the best way to do this. If I want to receive the most interaction from my audience and if I want to be able to see feedback about each photo (which can be measured by likes and views), a gallery wouldn’t be as efficient as using Unsplash or Instagram. Using online resources is also a lot quicker to organise, as I simply have to create an account and post the photographs. Creating a gallery and setting up an exhibition would involve having to organise the required space, setting a time and date, printing all of the photographs, creating questionnaires for feedback, presenting the photographs on the wall and inviting family and friends to the event. Therefore, with both of these considered, I concluded that it would be easiest to post my work online.

Another way of presenting my work could be in a photography competition. Here, I could measure the success of my photos by seeing which were rated higher than the others and by seeing which were more successful in the competition. Again, this does have some drawbacks. In terms of the practical side of this, most photography competitions probably wouldn’t allow 30 photographs to be submitted by one person. Furthermore, it would have to be mostly luck for there to be a local competition being held at the same time as my FMP. Additionally, entering my photographs into a competition would mean not much detailed feedback about the work. I would be able to see where each photo placed, but beyond that I wouldn’t be able to see much other interaction. Again, this is why I believe posting the work online still remains the best place to present my work, as it gives me an array of ways to analyse the feedback and measure interactivity.

Researching Websites

For my presentation, I also want to look at posting my work on a website. This site can be created and catered entirely for my own work, with various different pages for my different themes and explanations about my work. A website is a good way of presenting my work because I can create the whole site to look how I want, and it will be a place designed exactly for my own work. If someone wants to view my photography, the website will give clear and easy ways of allowing them to navigate through my themes and descriptions of my work.

To get ideas for how to create a good website, I looked on the ‘Susan Greene Copywriter’ website, where these fifteen tips are listed:

1. Start with a clear navigation.
2. Use conversational English.
3. Apply SEO best practices in mind.
4. Provide all the relevant information.
5. Leave out the hype.
6. Make your home page a to-the-point summary.
7. Create unique landing pages for specific topics.
8. Let pictures help tell your story.
9. Include trust-building content.
10. Keep your website up to date.
11. Use a straightforward layout.
12. Make it easy for visitors to contact you.
13. Keep forms simple.
14. Include a call to action on nearly every page.
15. Make it perfect or as close to it as you can get.

She goes on to explain each point in more detail. The most helpful tip, I think, is to use clear navigation and conversational English. These are two points that I find to be things that I look for when entering a new website. If a website looks complicate, I will leave it immediately and instead use a different site. Furthermore, using conversational English is a good way to make the site seem informal and chatty to the person viewing the site. It can make the site seem more personal and, in turn, more engaging.

I also decided to look at some existing freelance photographer’s websites. This would allow me to get some clear inspiration and ideas about how to present this website. As the screenshot below shows, Terry McNamara’s photography site is very simple. It includes his name, a description of his work, and a bunch of sub-headings to that are all hyperlinked to allow the user to navigate the site easily. The colour scheme is simple, keeping the background black and all text white – this makes it easy to see and also easy to read the text. Terry’s website also follows number 12 of Susan Greene’s tips, by including contact details clearly. This is important particularly for freelance photographers, because their website will often be the way someone will find and contact them for potential future work.

 

References

Susan Greene Copywriter. (2019). 15 Tips to Create Killer Website Content, Crisp Copy & Intuitive Design Are Best. [online] Available at: https://www.susangreenecopywriter.com/articles/15-tips-killer-content.html [Accessed 27 Mar. 2019].

TerryMc Photography – Manchester Commercial and Freelance Photographer. (2019). TerryMc Photography – Manchester Commercial and Freelance Photographer. [online] Available at: http://www.terrymcphotography.co.uk/ [Accessed 27 Mar. 2019].

Target Audience

Deciding on the target audience for my project will be difficult because of the three different themes that I am doing for my photographs. Potentially, each theme may have a different audience. Despite this, photography is a hobby and interest of people from various different backgrounds and ages. This means that any form of photography can potentially reach a wide audience, particularly if it’s posted on the internet. Here, many people can view and explore different niches, regardless of what demographic they are part of.

This is why I have decided that to best reach my target audience I will need to present my work online. There are a few different ways to present my work to an audience online: on social media (e.g. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, tumblr, YouTube, etc), or on professional photography sites such as Unsplash, 500px and Pixieset. These sites allow me to upload and post a host of photos and allow an audience to view the photos.

Essentially, my target audience is anyone that is interested in photography, which, as I said before, can be anyone from any demographic. However, because I want to present my work online, and especially because one of my themes is fashion – where I am focussing in particular on teenagers and young adults’ daily fashion choices – I think that my main target audience is those between the age 16-24. Presenting my work online will be the best way for me to reach my target audience.

Personally, I think the professional photography sites would be the best place for me to upload my work. Here, people that want to see my work can do, and it will allow people that have a specific interest in my photography themes to look at my work, as people with these interests are more likely to go on to these professional sites looking for these types of photos.

This graph shows the percentage of users and their ages on Instagram. This tells me that almost two thirds (65%) of users on Instagram are between the age of 18-34. Almost a third (32%) are in the age of my target audience, with another unspecified percentage that will be between the age 16 or 17. As of June 2018, Instagram has 1 billion users. This means that, now, there are over 320 million 18-24 year olds that use Instagram.

Reaching a wide audience is important, but not as important as reaching the intended target audience. This is why, despite the impressive figures that Instagram boasts, I still believe presenting my work on a professional photography site will be more beneficial for my project, allowing me to reach a more niche audience.

Contingency Plan

If, in some way, there are some problems with uploading to a professional site, then I will upload my pictures to Instagram instead. This is because there is still a large audience on this site and I know, having used it myself, that it’s reliable for uploading photos. There is no limit to the amount of posts you can make and if you set up the account as a business account, you can monitor views, saves and likes.

 

References

Hull, C. and >, M. (2019). Top 20 Photography Websites 2019 | Photography Tips | Inspiration. [online] ExpertPhotography. Available at: https://expertphotography.com/top-20-photography-websites-2018/ [Accessed 26 Mar. 2019].

Statista. (2019). Instagram: age distribution of global audiences 2018 | Statistic. [online] Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/325587/instagram-global-age-group/ [Accessed 26 Mar. 2019].

The Verge. (2019). Instagram now has 1 billion users worldwide. [online] Available at: https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/20/17484420/instagram-users-one-billion-count [Accessed 26 Mar. 2019].

Help.instagram.com. (2019). Set Up an Business Account on Instagram | Instagram Help Centre. [online] Available at: https://help.instagram.com/502981923235522 [Accessed 26 Mar. 2019].