Creating a portfolio

[zan]

hiya

I've been taking photos for about a year and a half (ish) now and I'm starting to feel like I'm getting the hang of it. While I don't plan to quit my day job and be a professional photographer I'd ideally like to use it as a way of making a bit of extra money for when I'm between contracts etc. I've got a website set up which I'm adding to all the time, but I think I'd like to create a portfolio of a few of my best prints to show potential customers.

What is the best way of doing this? Is there a format that should be followed (e.g. print size, no of prints)? and what about a theme? My stuff is mostly marine-oriented, but there's a fair range in there...

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated

zan

[matt_xyz]

I'm interested in who you would plan to show the portfolio to? i.e. who do you think might buy prints from you? If you have individuals in mind (galleries, certain shops perhaps) then I could maybe see some benefit with having a portfolio. But in terms of getting images published in books or magazines then I think you would need to get images accepted at a stock agency.

Sorry, I don't really know the best way to present a portfolio. I don't know whether there are preferred or established ways of doing it.

Matt

[zan]

I'm looking mostly at individual galleries\shops at the moment. I'll probably look at stock photography in the future once I've built up more images and worked out some more about it all! There seem to be several thousand stock libraries out there, and working out the types and best ones is a bit of a challenge

I think having a portfolio of some better images would be handy to show people, and probably better than leaving a business card as it's more immediate.

[gfilmsuk]

You don't say what type of portfolio you intend to produce. Will it be in 'hard' form or will it be an on-line portfolio. An on-line portfolio would probably be nothing more than a general brochure with many different examples of your work, or if you want to take it further, somewhere people can order your prints from.
Before the Internet all photographers had their 'book' but it was not just one book, but many different variations depending on the type of customer they were canvasing for work. For example, it would be no good showing a boat manufacturer looking to produce brochures, baby portraits.
I can't think why you would need a book in this day and age. A CD can contain thousands of images that can be produced for peanuts and the potential customer can view them at leisure. Dupe 500 CD-R and a printer to print on the face of the disc and your in business very cheaply.
Even pro models very rarely use a book these days, unless it's for showing off tear sheets etc.
If you're going to be looking for work then I would suggest a good CD packaged in a nice professional looking folder that introduces you, but you do need to target your potential customers carefully.
Whatever, good luck.
Dave

[galanthus]

have you thought of an online portfolio ? I've set up a clicpic account, it's only £35 per year and really easy to do, that's for about 60 pics i think. Have a quick look at mine if you want, there's lots of different formats to use tho

I won't post a link here as it's external, however, if you want to see mine send me a pm.

I'm starting to print out some of my stuff with my new A3 printer, I've decided to laminate around 15 of them and take them around some suitable venues, I'm hopefully gonna frame the 10 the venues like and display them. Free pics for them and some publicity/sales for me ahem, well mabye I'll be keeping the day job

[zan]

cheers guys.
I've got a website already with photium and it's growing slowly. I have business cards that I can give to potential buyers as well so they can see my website and everything I've got. However, with the price of prints being so low at the moment anyway I figure it would be pretty easy to put together a physical portfolio to take around with me. It's instant impact and if they like what they see, they'll be more likely to have a look at the website.

At least I think so...

I'm also not very keen on the idea of giving people free images, even at low res or watermarked because of the difficulty in keeping tabs on what they're used for.

WHat I'm not sure about is how to put together a successful portfolio. Which images should go in, and in which order? How many is enough without being too many and should I have separate folios for my underwater and 'land-based' shots? Thanks for your input so far though, and any other ideas would be really appreciated.

Zan

[RichBrew]

zan:

You will have to be ruthless in your image selection. Only print up your very best work, and keep the number of images to around twenty or so. I don't think it matters if you include a variety of subject matter, as it will demonstrate your versatility to potential clients (unless you're targeting a specific market, i.e. weddings), but the key thing is: the more you act like a professional, the more you'll be treated like a professional.
Despite the web based galleries you can set up, a tangible thing like a print portfolio can have an immediate effect when touting for business.

RichBrew

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by RichBrew

zan:

You will have to be ruthless in your image selection. Only print up your very best work, and keep the number of images to around twenty or so. I don't think it matters if you include a variety of subject matter, as it will demonstrate your versatility to potential clients (unless you're targeting a specific market, i.e. weddings), but the key thing is: the more you act like a professional, the more you'll be treated like a professional.
Despite the web based galleries you can set up, a tangible thing like a print portfolio can have an immediate effect when touting for business.

RichBrew

and spend some money on getting the best prints you can afford, i know you mentioned cheap printing but cheap prints look cheap and devalue your image - if you want the portfolio as a sales aid it needs to be very high quality printing and this isnt that cheap (I pay arround a fiver per A3 print) , tho if you are going to sell a lot of prints buying and setting up a high quality A3+ printer of your own might work out cheaper in the long run

mind you I have been selling images for several years without having a printed portfolio as virtually all my images are sold in electronic format to magazines and papers (and post card cos , calendar makers etc) - It isnt necessary to go via a stock agency you can approach clients direct too (NB - this is a reply to matts post above) - get a copy of the BFP handdbook which lists just about every possible market.

IME the only time i have needed to have hard copy prints is when selling the prints themselves via craftfairs etc - and then it is better to have a range of your best stuff framed and unframed rather than in a portfolio

[zan]

ok cool.
thanks for all the advice, I'll have a think about it. I don't think I've got enough top-standard photos to create a portfolio at the moment (although I'm working on it!), so I'll probably let it go for the time being.
Really appreciate the help!

Zan

[mh68]

The most common advice i`ve seen suggested (and has already been mentioned here) is to be pretty ruthless with what you include in the portfolio - better to have a handful of truly top class shots than a selection padded out with less than perfect examples....quality over quantity.

Mark H