# Thoughts on my website?



## cestlefun17 (Jan 23, 2016)

I just put it up today. I realize I have a limited number of models, but I hope to change that soon enough.

I've always done photography for fun, recruiting friends as models. How did you get your first real gig?

www.billsantagata.com


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## waday (Jan 23, 2016)

Sorry in advance for my harshness...

MOAR pictures!

Also, your about me page: the title on my iPhone says "Photography on ilm...". Not sure if it shows up correctly on a desktop. Also, it's a bit wordy for me. People that aren't into photography will probably get lost and have no clue what you're talking about.

No email? No phone number? I don't like contact forms. Put a real phone number or email there to contact.

It's a very sparse and minimal website. Not bad, but a little underwhelming. It seems like an amateur's website as opposed to a professional's website. Sorry to be harsh.


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## tirediron (Jan 23, 2016)

How much of the _"inimitable quality of film"_ is maintained after scanning?  To be honest, your dialogue on film sounds very pretentious and off-putting to me.  By all means, shoot film, but really, is it "better"?  "inimitable"?  I don't think so.  It's simply a different recording medium.  And no, "ilm" does not display correctly on a regular monitor.


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## waday (Jan 23, 2016)

tirediron said:


> How much of the _"inimitable quality of film"_ is maintained after scanning?  To be honest, your dialogue on film sounds very pretentious and off-putting to me.  By all means, shoot film, but really, is it "better"?  "inimitable"?  I don't think so.  It's simply a different recording medium.  And no, "ilm" does not display correctly on a regular monitor.



I totally missed the "inimitable" reference. The only time I use that word is for my wife.


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## cestlefun17 (Jan 23, 2016)

Thanks for the input...yes on my desktop it said "film" but on mobile it kept saying "ilm" and I could not fix it so I removed it. I also removed a lot of the technical jargon from the About Me page.

I personally do not use my phone a lot and it would be more of a hassle for people to call. Is it a deal-breaker to not have your phone number on your website? The contact form goes straight to my e-mail.

I talk about film in order to differentiate myself. I know it causes a lot of debate within photographer circles. I did not say film was inherently better, but that it does have a different quality that is difficult to replicate with digital images. To get the same resolution on digital as I do with film would require me to buy tens of thousands of dollars in equipment, something that most photographers do not have access to. Obviously, resolution is not everything, but when you have a great shot *and* you have it in super high resolution, the combination is pretty amazing.

I scan my negatives on a professional drum scanner. The uncompressed TIFF files of my 35mm scans are around 250 MB at 6300 dpi resolution and the medium format scans are around 60 MB at 3200 dpi. All images are scanned at 16-bit color depth. In other words, I'm not using a dinky little film scanner. I'm not printing large enough to make this resolution necessary, but the extra pixels help tremendously in post as it makes for much more natural looking adjustments.

And I will certainly work on putting up more photos!


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## zombiesniper (Jan 23, 2016)

I like the overall look of the site although I would move the title to the top of the page.

 Having the thumbnail option is great since hitting a next/prev button I find annoying.

A part of the wording on the about page "to a new level" I would reword. It's an astronomically overused marketing/business term that just sounds like  you're doing the same as every other "taking it to the next level" artist.


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