 BetterPhoto Member |
Building a portfolio book I have a interview next month for my first photography job. I need to put a portfolio book together. Any suggestions how I should go about doing it? Thanks dennis
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Justin G. |
Wow there's textbooks and whole classes dedicated to portfolio building. My suggestion (since I couldn't tell you how to build one) is go to Barnes & Noble and grab yourself a carmel frappacino w/ extra carmel (they don't even charge you! lol) and sit down in the photography section with a book roughly titled "Building Your Portfolio". You can either take ideas from this book or buy it. Then once you've decided on what you want, get over to Hobby Lobby, Michaels, or A.C. Moore and buy a portfolio (mine was like $129 but it was leather) but depending on size you can get a cheap one for $20-$30. Sorry I couldn't help more, this is a pretty vague question for not knowing the slightest thing about you. I will forward this to your email as well. Cheers!
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Pete H |
Hello Dennis, Start here: http://www.danheller.com/bizfaq.html It's a great site, put together by a great shooter. There is a section with advice on portfolios. I'm not plugging this person, I don't even know him, but he has some of the soundest advice I've seen in a long time. 1)Your question really requires a little more info, such as; what will you be shooting for this client? In other words, you don't show flower pics to a client who is hiring you for sports photography etc... 2) One of the biggest mistakes I've seen are new shooters who don't take the time to build a GREAT portfolio. Nothing is easy if you desire success. 3) Mistake #2: Prints are too small. 4) Your presentation case should be of high quality with the photos easily viewable and laying very flat if you go with a binder type. I prefer the ability to slide each photo out and show seperately. Use high quality paper. No glossy prints! 5) Too many photos will tire and bore your client. Choose your 10 to 15 best that emphasizes your subject matter. 6) Have a photo CD you can leave with your client..NOT hi-res! These are the most basic of things you need to do. Again; a great portfolio is not thrown together in 20 minutes. Here is a quote that might get you thinking: This means, if it looks good, it will probably taste good. If it looks bad, I doubt they will want to even try it. All the best. Pete
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Justin G. |
Pete question. I've read a few times that mags and high profile places...allure.com happening to be one of them...love more than anything to get 4x5 chromes. I think this is relatively easy for me to do, to actually make them, but how do I present them in a portfolio? I'm assuming page inserts are too cheap looking, I haven't heard of 4x5 slide mounts (but haven't really looked), what's your take on this? How would I display 4x5 chromes in a port.? Thx.
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Pete H |
Justin; I'm sure Allure Magazine has their own light boxes. (Heh-Heh.) 1)Page inserts are a pain w/ 4x5 chromes. 2) Unless you are in that rarfied air of big dollar shoots, most clients no longer require chrome. 3) You can purchase portable light boxes or make your own that hold about 10-15 chromes. When I shot "big chrome", I did not mount them prior to showing them to a client. This saved me time as I could read the border numbers and make notes of any changes my client desired. I no longer shoot big chrome, except for personal pleasure. Again, many publishers are going with the digital world as changes can be made on the fly as they look at the laptop screen. I will say this though, 4x5 chrome is awesome to look at.
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Justin G. |
I didn't even think of sleeves. I just thought it would be cool to have, go above and beyond. I figured shooting MF it would be very easy to get some nice 4x5's copied. I wonder...do you think typical pro-labs that offer copy service, could the copy my pic on a 4x5 instead of a 35mm? I'm sure they could.
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Collette Photography |
Pete, You said that in your portfolio you should never have prints smaller than 11x14, does that go for wedding photography as well? I need to put together a portfolio to show potential wedding clients, and was going to put 8x10s in, should I do 11x14 instead? Thanks
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Pete H |
Hi Collette, No, not for wedding portfolios. 1) Contact sheet 4) At least 2 or 3 11x14's bridal portraits. Pete
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x |
For weddings, you need to have professional weddings albums (at least one) to show from an entire wedding you shot. If you don't have that, you need to get that done. There is no size requirement. It's whatever size the album is, and whatever size images you decide to put in the album. There is no formula for it, except to place the photos in the order in which they occurred. You can show anything from a 8x8 up to an 11x14 album. I keep a 5x5 in my bag at all times. An 8x8 in both cars. And I have various sizes, shapes, and colors to show clients at the office. You should also show whatever your proofing process is. So, if you do it on-line, show the clients. If you do prints, show them the prints, and what they will be displayed in. As far as the commercial stuff goes, there are few mag's that don't do digital anymore, very few. I wouldn't even worry about it. There is only opne that I am aware of who hasn't yet accepted digital. But, all the others are good with digital. When I say digital, they don't want your 6.3 MP Digital Rebel. Usually, their photographers are shooting with a MF camera body with a Leaf digital back tethered to a laptop. More in the 22 to 32 MP range. So, that's what they are looking for. There are, however, lots of publications that accept work from a pro DSLR, like the Canon 1DS Mark II. Jerry
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Collette Photography |
Thanks Pete and Jerry for the answers to my questions. I found a web site yesterday that does book bound porfolios its mypublisher.com my question is, would that be good to have as my portfilio, or would that not be a good idea since its not on actual photographic paper? Also do you think that if I offered that as my wedding albums to the bride and groom they would want it instead of the normal wedding albums that there are? Thanks so much for your responses!! =) -Collette-
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x |
mypub.com is taking biz away from the pro. But, that's ok. No problem. I like competition. anyone off the street can get an album from there. so, why would they do it through you? maybe because of the design? maybe. but, I wouldn't feel good charging money for that. it's a consumer product, and there's alot behind it, in the printing and all, that makes it not really a professional product.
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