Creating a photography portfolio

April 16, 2006 @ 6:11PM

Creating a photography portfolio

The better your portfolio, the more chance you'll make it as a famous 'tog!

By Haje Jan Kamps

Topics
News > Feature Articles

Strongly emotive photos can help your portfolio shine

You are into taking photos, obviously – so what do you do with them? Many of you probably make online galleries, or you create prints to hang on your walls – or perhaps you even sell prints to others.

Eventually, as photography progresses from a mild interest via passionate hobby and into the realms of what could be seen as a professional career, you are going to have to create a portfolio of your images, to show to prospective clients.

Heck, even if you have no clients, you will still want to make a portfolio. Imagine how great it’ll be to show the grandkids!

So, you are a photographer, and you want to make a portfolio. I have had to do this a few times, and I have fucked up a few times, so I learned all of this the harshest way possible. Ah well – on with the show

Image selection

Galleries

Into the Mist (Territorial Army III) by Photocritic.org, on Flickr

If you want to show your pictures in a gallery, you will need to make a selection of images around a theme of some sort. If you just run around and snap pictures, you will have to scrutinize them, to find out what they really are about. If there is no connection whatsoever between them, you might want to consider not making a portfolio, and rather concentrate on taking more pictures.

Why is a theme important? Well, although single pictures can be interesting, galleries tend to be interested in offering its visitors with a journey. Pick an emotion, and explore it visually, or perhaps a situation or a place. As long as there is some kind of “red thread” tying your images into a whole, you’ll be all right.

Make sure that the images are in a logical order – either cronological, or through mood development. Be prepared that you will probably have to talk the person you are presenting your portfolio to through all the pictures, so if you have some kind of story prepared, all the better.
If you decide to mix colour prints and black and white prints, you’d better have a very good explanation as to why.

A good selection of images is 10-20. If you have several themes, make different portfolios, and present them separately.

Image libraries

This type of portfolio is the photographic equivalent of a “Best Of…” album.

Image libraries are the other extreme – here, it is okay to have a large batch of single, non-interconnected images, as this is not what the target audience is looking for. What they are looking for, however, is genericicity and perfection. The more generic the image is, the bigger the chance somebody will use it, as it is adaptable for many different situations.

If your image has a flaw, ditch it. If your image is only slightly out of focus, ditch it. If your image has brand names or visible logos in it, chances are it is worthless in connection with image libraries. If you do not have model releases for the people in your images, get rid of the pictures.

In short: Make sure you only show your very best images. It is better to pitch 3 perfect pictures than 15 good ones, but that don’t stand out from the mass. You should aim for 7-15 great pictures, however.

Commercial photography

A moment of melancholy by Photocritic.org, on Flickr

If you are making a commercial portfolio, be prepared to make it focussed. You might need to change your portfolio around depending on who you are pitching it to. If you are pitching fashion work, make sure you have 5-6 pictures from each series you have done, to show that you can consistently take good pictures. If you are doing product photography, make sure that you do the same: Same product from various angles etc.

If you try to pitch your general skills as a photographer, make sure that you make several portfolios. One for portraiture, one for nature, one for product photography, etc. That way, the person reviewing your portfolio can mentally prepare for something else. Also, it allows you to show only the portfolios that are relevant for the job you are doing.

If you have gotten pictures in print (especially viable if you are planning to do freelance news photography), include both prints and newspaper clippings – side by side on adjecent pages is good.

Portfolio Presentation

This is what people ask about most: How do you present your portfolio?

For School Use Only by Photocritic.org, on Flickr

First of all, make sure that your prints are of the best quality possible. This means that they should be of a decent size (approximate A4 / letter size is an ideal tradeoff between presentability and portability)

As for the actual presentation of the portfolio, the answer is difficult to offer. Although a nice leather folder with high-quality plastic inlays to keep your images in offers a good initial impact, it may not be ideal, as the plastic may introduce sheen and / or reflections on the images, making them difficult to see.

In the past, I have seen portfolios that are presented as pictures mounted on cardboard, even loose pictures in a rolodex-style folder. You could consider getting a mini- easel that you can place the images on individually. That allows you and the reviewer to take a few steps away from the images – an especially good bonus if that is how the images are meant to be seen.

Creativity is a big bonus – if you manage to come up with a good way to present your portfolio effectively, it probably means you are doing the right thing. Don’t fall for the temptation to show your images on a computer screen or data projector, however, unless this is how they are meant to be presented. If you only have slides, there is no way around showing it on a slide projector, but if there is any way you won’t have to bring and / or arrange a projector, it is better.

Oh, and it is all in the attitude. Go in there, be sure of yourself, talk, talk, talk, and don’t for a second let up that you had even slightly considered the possibility of them not liking your images. You’d be amazed what difference it makes.

Good luck!

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Comments

Anonymous

5 years ago

GREAT advice, as awlays.

Antoinette

3 days ago

Thank you so much for that, to be honest i'm a first timer at all of this. But my passion is to take photo's,i love taking photo's and with all my family's support i'm actually trying to get some where with this. I'v been to so meany website's to find out how to create a portfolio and your the only one who has giving me a straight forward answer lol. So cheers for that

Anonymous

5 years ago

Thanks for the great advice! I was just thinking that in due time i’ll have to wade thru my images to come up with a portfolio of sorts. This is a great article to help me keep on track

Anonymous

5 years ago

Great timing. Just last week I was going through my photos trying to assemble a portfolio, but I wasn’t aware of the importance of a theme. What I put together ended up being more of a random collection of my favorite images, and they really don’t stand together as one package very well. This post helped me recognize that and gives me a direction to focus on.

Anonymous

5 years ago

I wrote up my notes from a Portfolios and Presentations seminar that may be helpful as well to those thinking about putting together a portfolio.

http://www.michellejones.net/exposure/2006/03/portfolios_and_presentatio...

Anonymous

5 years ago

Does anyone know of any good web services that will create a photography portfolio for you?

Anonymous

5 years ago

Hi Kirsty – I’ve used photobox (no connection) successfully just recently. They allow you to upload photos and create a photobook of up to 50 pages.

Cheers from the UK :)

Anonymous

5 years ago

Do anyone of any websites that teaches simple “photoshopping” or digital manipulations techniques. I’m a business student who is also a photographer for the school newspaper tryin to learn new techniques for models who want me to work on their portfolio.

Anonymous

5 years ago

In the comment above, I want to use digital manipulations for backgrounds, instead of back drops.

Anonymous

4 years ago

Good info on creating a portfolio. Thanks.

Anonymous

4 years ago

Hi, my name is Tiffani. I am 15 yrs. old and I am an aspiring photographer. I was wondering if you could give me any advice on digital photography. If you’d like to take a peek at my photos please E-mail me at feelthepressure@mchsi.com.
Thank You,
Tiffani

Anonymous

4 years ago

Great article – you should probably remove the f-word though.

As mentioned above, photobox is quite a good call for photo books. For preparing your online portfolio / galleries I’ve found two useful bits of software. Arles (http://www.digitaldutch.com/arles/) and photoshop.
Examples of use:
Arles
http://www.photoready.co.uk/people-life/
http://www.cilco.co.uk/stock-photos/
Photoshop
http://www.highton-ridley.co.uk/mono/

Anonymous

4 years ago

Removing the F-word? But I like the F-word!

Anonymous

4 years ago

thanks so much!! i’m switching into the journalism side of photography and was unsure of any changes in presentation i should consider and you nailed it!!

Anonymous

3 years ago

this is great advice, thanks. i have to go through and start to develop some sort of portfolio before i can get into any college photography program. i didn’t even know where to start, but now i have some sort of idea.

Anonymous

3 years ago

clear, concise and practical advice–now I know what direction to move toward

Anonymous

3 years ago

Thanks for the advice. I love taking pictures and I am considering going back to school for photography, but didn’t have any idea how to go about creating a photography portfolio. Thanks again, you make easier for me to start.

Anonymous

3 years ago

Thanks you for publishing such great and insightful advice. As a professional in my photography class i feel as if I have learnt alot, and that my photographic career just took another step, toward being famous, thanks to your articles! As a young photographer I feel it is our duty to be redy to take the great photoes and make the great portfolios of this generation, and as they say, with great education comes great portfolios!!! I even recommended this site to my colleegues and classmates, and they loved it HEAPS! My teacher gave my 20% in my exma thanks to your education, and i coulnd’yt of done it without this site!
I devolped a love for photography when I was young, just like a plant and this site was my rain, and my sunlight. Myabe one day I’ll be a massive ‘beanstalk”, in photographyy!

So, thank you!
Jonn Mc Jones

Anonymous

3 years ago

very good information here. I’m glad i found this article. it makes sense and is very insightful. thank you so much!

Anonymous

3 years ago

Great advice and thanks a lot.

Anonymous

2 years ago

http://www.loverbutt.deviantart.com

Anonymous

2 years ago

very good info. especially for students going to college[like myself] and in need of help making a portofio :)

Anonymous

2 years ago

Really great advice, thank you so much. if you can check out some of my stuff! http://www.flickr.com/photos/darkdarkdark

Anonymous

2 years ago

hey,
i have done alot of good portraits shots and im ready to make a portofio
i just need some pointers about it and
what my theme is.

Anonymous

2 years ago

thanks…
i got the answers for my questions

Anonymous

2 years ago

Thank you. This primed the idea pump. Now that I’m running out of excuses, I guess I’d best get started.

Anonymous

2 years ago

just wanted to know can a portfolio just be black and white pictures? Or is that not enough diversity.

Anonymous

2 years ago

Your portfolio should show off what you do; if you don’t do colour, then of course, don’t put colour in there!

Anonymous

2 years ago

this post was very helpful thanks lots, im much more confident…

Anonymous

2 years ago

Hey!
This article is really informative and helped me chop off many misconceptions i had regarding makin one’s portfolio.I was planning to emphasize more on quantity rather than quality, but as stated it is completely the flip side of it!
I better start working on the same!
Thanks again:)

Anonymous

2 years ago

this article has helped me a tad more than the collage open day did… i wanna do photography in collage but diddnt take GCSE art in school and the collage told me to do a portfolio… it would help if i know what to do it on or even what one was… but i shant give up i hope to do photography and be good at it ..

Anonymous

2 years ago

tHANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE TIPS, IVE BEEN MEAN TO PUT ONE TOGETHER FOR AGES!

Anonymous

1 year ago

I have just applied to The Art Instite and I have to turn in a Portfolio of my work with a theme. I have no idea of the theme I could do with flowers and animals…. Is there any way I could tie them in together??? PLEASE HELP

Anonymous

1 year ago

thanks for the great advice, this is a great article to help me to starting my first Photography portfolio.

Anonymous

1 year ago

Hi, thanks for this great piece. I just wanna ask – how many of you guys actually namestamp your photography work? I’m currently a student and I’m using tumblr to create my portfolio. That makes my work pretty easy to ‘reblog’. I’m not sure if I should namestamp my work now because I don’t usually believe in doing so.

Anonymous

1 year ago

Hey Guys.

Having a professional looking online portfolio can help you get attention. I’m curently helping the artist and photography comunity by creating simple, powerful and affordable WordPress themes. Check out the eThemes range here: http://www.ethemes.com.au

cheers and good luck

Anonymous

1 year ago

Hi guys! great information… this has given me some good pointers about where i need to direct my attentions regarding my portfolio.

@ serene, I use lightroom2 for most of my basic retouching work but this also gives a great name stamp option and watermarking of photos!

Anonymous

1 year ago

I like this! Thank you.

But yes. F-wordless would be appreciated.

Anonymous

1 year ago

Thank you so much for your help!

Anonymous

1 year ago

you have some good informative tips

Anonymous

1 year ago

Um, i was struggling for a long while as to why my portfolio kept on getting criticized and i was getting really annoyedas to how to i make it work. but im extremely happy that i tumble along onto your words. it really helped me alot and now my mind is open and i can focus on one thing now. thanks! Now i just have to find a theme that represents me.