So far what I have gathered is that you should, if you have not already have a common theme for your portfolio. Your portfolio should view like a well written book is read. Your theme could be something as simple as one word, such as love, hate, grunge, urban or red, to a certain technique that you use in making your work. Such as, all wide-angle shots, all black and white shots or all shots taken at 1/15 sec. @ f3.5. Whichever it is that you choose for your theme, one thing is standard, you should have a theme.
This bring me to the next step. All the images in your portfolio should be images that YOU want in there. Don’t go placing your mom favorite image in there just because it’s mom’s favorite. Don’t get me wrong, I love my mom, and I love her opinions and feedback on my images. They are what keep me going some days. But she’s not the one that’s going to be hiring me for my next big gig. Selecting images for your portfolio can be a very time consuming process, as it should be. After all, you are only putting your BEST images forward. If you feel that you are lacking in a certain area in your portfolio, get your ass out there and shoot to get that baby filled up!
Another very important element is that your portfolio should be manageable for the view to get through. By this I mean in both senses that it should be easy to navigate through and not so overwhelming with the amount of images included. As you might even know from self experience, when you are given a large pile of photos that you have to go through, you spend less time viewing each one itself. I always have looked at a portfolio in the other sense, the fewer the images, the more time that it gives my reviewer/potential client to take in my work. Keep an art gallery in mind when selecting images, art galleries give work breathing room, your portfolio should do the same.
Now that you have a wonderful selection of your best images, it is time to show that baby off! You should have your work ready to be showed off in many forms, electronic, web, print and maybe even a video, and by this I mean something way better and not quite as cheesy as the iPhoto slideshow, and I don’t care if you check the “Ken Burns effect” box or not. You need to always present yourself in a professional manor. iPhoto is for amateurs. There are many tutorials out there for putting together an awesome little vid in Final Cut. Mr.
Google.com can help you with that. It’s even a good idea to have a single book made up and left on your coffee table for friends to look at. I do have to say this about iPhoto, the books that you can order are pretty sweet deal. But for a more professional, custom book try,
White House Custom Colour.
Taking the photograph is one thing, presenting it is another. Many photographer out there present themselves in an unpleasant way. It’s a good thing to keep what
Chase Jarvis says about good client relationships intact, “Always over-deliver.” If you make sure to over-deliver your portfolio to your viewing audience, it is sure to go over well.
I have been working on selecting images to put on my online portfolio of over six months now, you think that I would have them selected by now, and a site up and running and would be back to work shooting images. Well, I am back to shooting, I never stopped, but I do not feel completely comfortable with the work that I have to be displayed currently. After all the more versatile one is the more chances one has of getting new work right? After reading about how other photographers edit down their images and seeing that it’s not always best to put all the images that appeal to only me, and vise versa, I have decided that the only way that I’m going to know if it is a good image is to get lots of feedback on it.
I also have decided to post a bunch of my images on here and have YOU leave your comments freely. I mean it, tear them to shreds, praise them to the high-ski, I invite each one of you to leave and express your thoughts, comments and feedback. I even encourage you to post back to your work. I take time to read each comment. After a few months I will post the feedback that I have received in an organized manor to so that everyone can see how my images ranked in with the viewers.



















