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Photography Portfolio - How to Build One Right

By Autumn Lockwood

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 22Aug2010 Word count: 714 Viewed: 369 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

During many photographer's careers, an opportunity comes when it's time to turn pro. While it may seem intimidating from an outsider or hobbyist's perspective, building photography from a pastime to a full-time career is easier than you may think. It won't happen immediately and does require a lot of work, but eventually you can make a good income with shooting pictures. The most common first step in going pro is building your own photography portfolio. Here's how to get it done.

What Are You Trying to Accomplish?

Are you trying to shoot for magazines in the fashion industry? Want to do advertisements? Portrait studios? Before you start building a portfolio, it is critical that you know what you are building it for. Your photos are what show your ability to perform the job you're chasing, so make sure that they're in line with what that job demands.

This is also a good time to decide on a theme for your portfolio. While in some circumstances it is perfectly acceptable to bring a bunch of unrelated photographs, portfolios are usually much stronger if you can connect all of the images in your book to one main idea.

Get Lots of Practice

If you don't have any professional work at the moment, or you're just getting started in the industry, be prepared to shoot for free - a lot. Get out and start taking photographs that are in the niche you are aiming for, and keep an eye out for opportunities to build your professional credits.

There are plenty of people out there that need photographs done for a variety of reasons, and shooting for free can often sneak you in under the pros. This will provide you with images for your portfolio as well as valuable "for hire" shooting time. If you're looking to find work this way, it's a lot easier if you want to take portraits.

Get Real

There are advantages to a digital portfolio - portability, ease of display, and the ability to instantly show your photos to anyone in the world - but whenever possible you should present your photographs as hard copies. Having a printed portfolio demonstrates your ability to finish projects and gives you an opportunity to discuss your ideas with the person viewing it.

More importantly, an "on paper" portfolio controls what your potential clients see. Your photos won't look the same on every monitor in the world, so having hard copies of them allows you to skip over any possible display issues.

Presentation Counts

One of the trickiest things about building a portfolio is deciding how to present it. Sadly there is no great secret that will magically grant you every job you try to land, but there are a couple of tips that can make the process easier.

The first thing you want to do is understand your audience. If you're looking for work in a local portrait studio, a classic leather bound portfolio will always look good. But if you're trying to land a job with a top advertising agency, then you will have to make sure that your portfolio stands out from the crowd.

It's always good to be creative, but just make sure that you're not sacrificing the quality of your images for the sake of looking different. No matter what you do with your photos, make sure that each one is easily viewed and makes its point without interference from what you've used to showcase it. Your portfolio will be viewed as an extension of your aesthetic sensibilities so it must be complementary to your photos and theme.

Finally, edit down. Therefore, you should only share your very best samples of your work. Art Directors and people who hire are busy so you'll often have less than a minute to have your images make their point so always present your best images first. Choose ten of your very best photographs and if you don't have 10 exceptional images then start shooting until you have them.

Overall, building a portfolio isn't difficult because most of the time your work will speak for itself. Work on building a great body of amazing images and a reputation as someone who works with professionalism and a commitment to quality and you'll be landing jobs in no time.

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