How to Create a Portfolio for a Photographer

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With what thoughts should I start this work? Do I need to make the main tool of a photographer, without which I can't find a client? No, although such a dossier is useful, it's better not to think about it.

Decide in what order to work, who will see your work first, what a person should think and feel so that you want to collaborate with them. Guides for composing such self-presentations healthtrax corporate email list usually call for choosing the best examples of work.

We offer a different approach: think, decide, make a selection, think again, design and show.

Be prepared for the fact that creating such a self-presentation will require your time, effort, and financial investment. Therefore, do not rush, it is better to compose it taking into account the viewer, and not your capabilities, because they will grow:

It takes time to master technical skills, and you have it;

To capture the missing footage, you need desire, and it will definitely appear, because you are doing your job.

Much more important is the theme, which can unite the works, a unique style. We will try to simplify your task by describing the sequence of actions:

Studying the target audience.

Even good examples of photo portfolios do not evoke enthusiastic emotions in every viewer, which is quite normal, because not every visitor is a potential client, there are also those who:

I just like watching;

interesting to discuss/condemn;

I like it, but they won't buy it.

So look for people who, upon seeing your work, will say: "This is what we need! When could we talk about collaboration?" With the help of your dossier, you need to remove the curious from your circle and attract those who are ready to pay for the work.

How to do this? You need to study all the characters in this situation, and you should start by creating a portrait of the client. Analyze the following characteristics: age, field of work, social status, financial and emotional data, if these indicators also play a role for you.

Think about the person's hobbies, habits, problems, desires, including hidden ones, if the customer himself is not ready to admit. In some cases, it is necessary to think about the appearance, favorite dishes, music and clothes, attitude to cosmetics, the presence of a car.

Consider separately the dates that are important to the person, the traditions of his people. As you understand, the criteria are very diverse. They, like a mosaic, form the image of the target audience, allowing you to choose the volume, direction, style of the dossier.

Selection of images.

The field of work has been chosen, the audience is known, it's time to select personnel, it remains only to understand which ones are needed and in what quantity? There is no strict rule here, but you can use the comments of specialists:

Quality .

It is important for you to show the customer that all your works are equally good, as this speaks of professionalism. Forget the common opinion that two photos are important: the first and the last, because between them there are low-quality shots posted only to increase the overall volume.

Your photos should have a common technical execution or style (not stylization). There is an opinion that one bad work can spoil the impression of a hundred good ones, as evidenced by the social networks VKontakte, Instagram. It is important that the examples attract the eye, evoke an emotional response in a person. Mediocre shots cannot provide all this.

Quantity .

It is optimal to include 20 works in the dossier. But it is better to make a selection having at least a hundred in front of you. Stop at 30-40 of the best, in your opinion, photos, and give them to your friends or relatives for judgment. The main thing is that these people understand such art and are similar to the portrait of your target audience.

Feel free to discard those shots that failed to evoke emotions. Don't worry if you end up with 12 or 21 photos instead of 20, because the optimal volume is not a strict requirement, it's just a useful recommendation.

When selecting work yourself, forget about numbers. The most important thing at this stage is to imagine where the client will recognize themselves (since we “try on” the images we see), what opinion they will have about the specialist. It is important for the customer to be confident in you, so they study portfolio samples with examples. Those who like them ask about money.

Selecting a format.

Digital portfolio.

Photos in this format have many advantages: you are not dependent on geography, you save time and effort, and potential customers can independently view examples of your work, because they are in open access 24/7, and the presence of the author is not required.

But this wonderful option has one technological drawback. Devices are different, their screens usually do not undergo colorimetric adjustment, and, most unpleasantly, an electronic photo is a screen glow, and paper photos, like everything we see in the real world, are reflected light.