Here are a few tips to help you get the best out of this site...

Uploading your images

Upload as many photos as you can and as often as possible. This will help make your portfolio become more prominent and make it stand out from the crowd. Also make sure that your images are within the size restrictions. A portrait photo should be scaled down to 500 pixels in height and a landscape should be no more than 500 across. The server will reject images that are too large in any case. Set your JPEG compression to around 45 percent. This will degrade the quality but not enough to be noticeable. This will ensure that a) Your images thumbnails are small enough and b) The original image will download quickly when viewed by our users. Remember that not everyone is lucky enough to have a broadband connection. The worst thing about graphical websites (such as this) is that they can be slow.

Write critiques

One of the main features, is the critique and rating system. You can provide other users with advice on their work, as they can for you in return. As images gain more critiques, their ratings climb and the more prominent they become on the site. You can see who has written critiques for your photos and you can view their portfolios by clicking on the links. The more you write critiques the more likely people will find your photos and rate them.

Use the forums

The forums are a great way of getting to know other people on this site and another way to make yourself known to others. You can share your knowledge with people, ask them questions and get help with things you are stuck with. We have a diverse mix of people on the site, from different backgrounds, with varying levels of experience behind them. The community we have here is a great way of promoting your photography, gaining knowledge and improving your art.