The Secret to Having an Amazing Photography Portfolio
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Do you love photography? Do you see the pictures that others take and start drooling or even envying them? Again, do you also wish that you could have these kinds of photos to show for yourself. You are not alone in this. There are some simple ways to do this for yourself. So, I’m sharing the secret to having an amazing photography portfolio with you today.
1. Take Lots of Photos Yourself
Firstly, in order for you to even have a portfolio of amazing photos to show off, you need to have lots of photos to show off. This means you must take lots and lots of photographs. You cannot buy, beg, borrow, or steal your way into a legitimate portfolio worthy of display. Those who try and cheat their way into a show-worthy portfolio are eventually discovered and called out. Don’t be that guy.
You will have to put your nose to the grindstone and your finger to work at the shutter of a camera in order to generate a photo portfolio of any kind. The more photos you take, the better your chances of taking a picture worthy of becoming a permanent staple in your portfolio.
Amazing and beautiful photographs do not simply start flowing simply because you picked up a camera with a goal. You need lots of time and patience both in order to achieve the portfolio of your dreams.
2. Develop an Artistic Eye
As you practice and take more pictures, you will naturally start to discern what works for you and what doesn’t. This means camera settings, subject matter, composition, and final image selection. Also, don’t neglect your processing skills. They’re important too.
With this artistic eye, you will be able to start choosing images for your portfolio which will better and better reflect what you want to build it into. You will start noticing issues with some of your early work and become ashamed of what you were once proud of. There is nothing wrong with this. I am still finding shame in earlier work even years later. When that happens, I cull the photo(s) out of my portfolio. Also, I’ve reprocessed several of those photos so they better reflect my current skills. That’s ok too, by the way.
This eye will be your best friend in choosing your portfolio images. Trust it. As you grow in photography, you will trust your own instinct about what is good and what is not more and more. It is this eye that will assemble the final portfolio for you. Train it and let it grow.
3. Only Display Your Best Work
If you notice one thing that all those amazing photographers do, they only display their best work. You never see those photos which they screwed up on. Unless it is a deliberate artistic choice, you never see blurry or out-of-focus images EVER. You only see those photographs which they want you to see.
Use this same tactic yourself when you select pictures for your portfolio. Amazing bodies of any kind of work never show anything deemed to be sub par. Your first attempts at creating a successful artistic photograph probably should not be included at all and neither should several subsequent attempts.
If you don’t consider a certain picture to be acceptable, then don’t include it. If you have questions about whether or not to include a particular image, that might be your gut telling you that you shouldn’t do so. It’s better to have a smaller body of consistently high quality photography than a larger body where the quality varies too much.
It would also be a prudent idea to double check you selections with someone you trust just in case you missed something which would embarrass you. Also, feel free to revisit and refresh your choices every so often. As you grow, so should your portfolio. Perhaps you’ve noticed I follow my own advice and display it here. I’ve revisited the illustrations in this article more than once. So, I only display my best work here for you to see.
4. Choosing the Right Method of Display for Your Portfolio
Once you have assembled an acceptable body of images for your photography portfolio, then you must choose how you want to display them. This is the final secret key to having an amazing photography portfolio: method of display. Several different methods exist for just this purpose so you must choose the option which works best for you. If you want more details on portfolio presentation methods, check out this article for more details.
Online Portfolio
Online photography portfolios are plentiful. There are several different free as well as paid options for showing off your work. By the way, I don’t endorse any of these platforms. None of these links are affiliate links either.
Book Portfolio
Online photo portfolios aren’t for everyone. Other options include book style portfolios. With this option, you can choose a traditional photo album in which to display your portfolio or you can choose to have your photos printed in their own bound book.
Traditional photo albums are available for purchase in many locations. You may buy a book with plastic sheets you fill with your own photos. If that interests you, most art supply stores offer them for sale or you’ll find them online. However, other options exist. You might create your own portfolio book instead. For your own printed book, you will need to find a photo lab which offers this service. Fortunately, many labs offer this service for a fee.
Common options include:
- Costco Photo
Portfolio App
You may also pursue a custom app as your portfolio. Several services offer that ability. Then you always have a portfolio available if you suddenly need it. I pursued that option myself as well. It’s on my phone with offline storage so I don’t need an internet connection to access it. Be prepared to pay for the service if there’s no intro or trial level membership available or you need more storage space.
Some common options include:
These listed services advertise their custom photo apps as “client mobile galleries” or similar-sounding names. However, there’s no reason you can’t use the service for your portfolio. They also work just as well for that purpose.
Conclusion
Building an amazing and beautiful photography portfolio requires lots of photos to select from, an artistic eye to carefully make the selection, and a proper medium of choice to display them in. It also requires some patience.
Portfolio building is a simple concept but does require lots of work and serious decision-making. This is the secret to having an amazing photography portfolio.
With careful and consistent attention to all the points listed here, you need not be jealous of others’ beautiful photography. You can proudly create and display your own photography portfolio for others to enjoy.
We hope that you’ve enjoyed checking out some of our portfolio favorites. Now go out there and create your own. Share it in the comments section so we can all check out the beautiful photos you take.
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