ViewBugReviews 249

As an amateur photographer, I value everything I learn from the Viewbug community. I try join contests and challenges as much as possible and check out my competitors' work when I can and learn from them. I see some people wrote "don't waste your money - unless you pay you don't win anything etc.", I don't believe these people are being fair. If your main goal is to win something then you should just buy a lottery ticket, why waste your time with photography. Anyway, I don't mean to offend anyone and I respect everyone's opinion but if you are in this community just because of prizes then maybe you are in the wrong place so please don't blame the website because you didn't win anything.

Viewbug reels you in with their awesome and too-good-to-be-true contests and prizes. What they won't tell you is that unless you pay you'll never be able to win anything, and you might as well save your money and go buy the items listed as prizes in the site by yourself.
Please stop wasting your money on this site that priorizes its own income over the actual quality of the pictures they set up first on the voting.
Really, it's $#*!.
Save your money and buy awesome equipment, or travel. Forget about this site.

I really don't think that many, if any, of the negative reviews can be relied on. As an example; we have some saying that photographs that win the competitions shouldn't even be entered as they are rubbish, while others say it's unfair because they are so good the ordinary person doesn't stand a chance. A bit contradictory if you ask me.
The people that have the biggest downer on ViewBug call themselves professionals, really! If you are all so great why are you considering such sites? I come to the conclusion that these people, some of whom claim to teach photography, are just worried about losing some business which in my mind isn't very professional, it's called competition. I've seen a lot of so called professional's work (outside of ViewBug) and it is appalling. How they actually earn a living is beyond me, yet their arrogance seems to know no bounds.
I joined ViewBug in March 2016 and have had great fun. It inspired me to pick up my photography after 30 years away from it. I'm not a great photographer, never was, but I have improved with the help of ViewBug. I've tried techniques that I wouldn't have dreamed was possible. As for the whingers that haven't won a contest, then your in ViewBug for the wrong reasons. Why not do as I do? I joined with the intention of getting inspiration and improving, entering competitions are an added bonus. I join challenges they don't offer prizes but they offer exactly what they are, a challenge. There is often a distinct lack of entries - in comparison to competitions offering a camera or lens - but the quality is still high. I assume this difference is down to lusting after a free camera or improving your hobby skills.
I see one person complaining that it's often down to who has mastered processing. Why not? What's the problem? Don't these people realise that it has always been that way? Winning a competition or producing excellent work was never down to 100% what happened in the camera, a lot was down to processing and manipulation in the darkroom.
As for an anti-ViewBug Facebook page! Well, what do you expect? Nearly everything has an anti Facebook page usually started by someone that is disgruntled about not getting a freebie. Waken up, Facebook is the biggest trap on the internet.
As for receiving "likes" within seconds of putting up a photo, I wondered about that, but the reason is obvious. You post a photo and it is immediately shown on your followers wall, they like it. It's really not that hard to work out. As for claiming you received "likes" up to a week or two prior to taking on your membership, I just don't believe it. How on earth could that be possible unless ViewBug has some sort of telepathic link to prospective members.
ViewBug is great if you join for the right reasons, keep it up ViewBug.
I'll finish with a request. I would like to second the suggestion of the other reviewer for a forum. A place where we can ask for help and give advice.
Bill

I'm a new user of the ViewBug site and noticed that a few of my photos had indicators that they had been shared to FaceBook.

I was curious as to who had done that, as well as concerned because one of the shots was of a friend who allowed me to post to ViewBug.

I sent an email to the customer support folks asking what I'm sure has been asked of them more than once :) "Who is sharing my photos?"

I received a response within a very short time explaining that FB terms do not permit visibility to the profiles that are sharing content from a third-party site, which VB is.

A few more back and forth emails and I am content with the explanations given and by the promptness of the responses. I have decided to just remove the photos that I was worried about and to create my own watermark for anything I post going forward.

So far, so good with ViewBug. I have rediscovered my passion for photography and am digging out and dusting off all the old gear!

When I finally found ViewBug, after joining a lot of other art/photography and other related sites, I felt I completely belonged to this one.
ViewBug is a friendly and social site for photographers and the talent here is unbelievable! Ranging from amateur to professional.
You can earn rewards and badges which escalate you to other fun contests and peer challenges to enter. It's an awesome rewarding experience just to belong. The winning is simply a bonus.

Viewbug is an awesome site for anyone seeking validation and recognition for their photography. There multiple levels of participation to match your specific level and abilities. The Viewbug staff and judges are great and the competition is fierce. There are tutorials and some of the most amazing photographers featured from around the world, which fuels ones progress as a photographer. Great site for all levels of photographer.

I have been a member of Viewbug for quite a few years, I have had the pleasure of winning one of the contests with my image. I had a few problems but I have since had incredible service from their team which has helped me greatly. They have been very kind and considerate and have put any concerns I have had to rest.

Its a great way to get inspired by other photographers, and while amateurs can also participate there are plenty of professional and talented photographers to locate.

I have been a ViewBug member for over a year now and I feel that is time to write a review. I finally won my first Amateur prize in a contest, feel so so happy about it and even more inspired to continue working on my photography. Many people that I have talked to feel that it is hard to win contests and indeed it is hard but that is what makes it challenging. I was discouraged at the beginning but now I found a new light and want to continue shooting.

Man, what can I say? I read some of the good comments and some of the negative ones, and it seems sitejabber is a troll dream come true. Strangely enough negative commentators have only one review, seems to me someone is after viewbug's reputation. Most of the people I do photowalks are also viewbug members and we are more than content with this site, as anywhere else you get what you give. Submit your best shots, follow photographers you like and you'll have a great experience. You can launch your own challenge for free and get participants to vote, you can have a non-paid membership and enjoy what you want from viewbug so how can it be bad? Trolls need to get a life, photographers need to jump on viewbug. Sitejabber should have moderators test products to further validate if it is a scam or not. First and last review for me on sitejabber and thank you viewbug for being such an inspiration

This really isn't just sour grapes but there's clearly far too many junk photo's getting into competitions. Too many good ones are being overlooked, and too many rubbish ones beating those good ones.
The latest competition I saw has a finalist photo with an item badly superimposed over a background, with differing lighting, shadows and bits missing from it. This was a FINALIST photo out of nearly 6000 lol!
As someone else pointed out below, it's clearly who you know here, rather than your skill level.

I'm also a member of a photograph club (150+ members) where most others joined too. We all get the same emails, for example everyone's most viewed photo received a Spring Selection Reward, most of us had our most viewed photo with an animal entered into the Animal Kingdom competition, we often receive likes/awards from the same person (automated? Bots?), and some members who have deleted their accounts still receive emails saying they've had more likes or peer awards! Work that one out!

Unfortunately I paid for 2 years, but will now be requesting my money back.

***Update and response to ViewBug***

Thanks for the copy&paste reply Viewbug, it's the same one as you sent me via email. At least you were good enough to give me my money back and downgrade my account.

I understand that you have to tow the official line, and try to make it look like there's nothing wrong, but with many people leaving your service, some for the issues raised here, surely it's time for you to change your site?

Until that happens, I for one, am out.

I have been on Viewbug for over 5 years. When I started there were photographers posting quality work. Now 75% of the photos posted are garbage. I am a professional photographer and instructor of photography. I would never, even in my early days of learning photography, posted some of the images I see on Viewbug. Apparently, the individuals posting this junk really do not care and just load up the Viewbug site. It's clear they do not care that their junk they post reflects on them as a photographer. I do give peer awards to the photographers work that recognizes the beautiful art of photography. 25% of Viewbug has photographers that display absolutely beautiful work. In teaching photography the novice learns by viewing the work of other professional photographers. Unfortunately Viewbug is not the place for a novice or aspiring photographer to view this type of work 75% of the time. Some of the images I see that win in contest are awful and clearly shows the judges have no clue what their doing or the photographer solicits votes from all their friends (very unfair) not caring if their work is worthy of a win. To a serious photographer I would not recommend posting your work on Viewbug if you wish to be noticed. If you want to be noticed try Fine Art America. For over 35 years I have made my living doing professional photography and teaching photography. When Viewbug began it was a great site now I would not recommend it. Also, to be a paying member is out of the question. With this said good luck.

Ok I just joined this week and started entering contest and challenges. Then I started voting. WOW this is big time amateur hour! I swear if I have to sit and look at another person poorly taken shot of their kid or their pet or vacation I'm going to poke myself in the eye with a fork! Look I'm not being too picky and I know there was a point 30 years ago that my images looked no better, but back then we had the common sense to know what was good and what wasn't and would have never thought of entering it in a contest. Now days everyone thinks they are good just because someone told them so. I know I am not the best photographer out there. There is always someone better but I sell my work regularly at art shows and festivals and make pretty good money doing it. With all the amateurs on viewbug I'm really curious if my work will be noticed or just passed over in the millions of poorly taken photographs.

I have enjoyed putting my photos on viewbug but its such a frustrating site, 1 when it comes to voting I can only see a few photos before going to next page (there could be 20 pages). 2 there should be some form of forum. 3 Its definately biased this is not sour grapes at all, but I have come to realise that its more who you know not what you know, seen some terrible shots win in some cases that it beggars belief. What I do now is use viewbug as a sort of link for other to see my photos. As I said frustrating because it could be a great site with a few tweeks here and there like feedback on photos etc.