Creating a portfolio is more than simply selecting pretty images. In this video, I go over three photographers' work who are at different levels and explain how they should build their portfolio and what they need to do to move up to the next level.
Grab a coffee, beer, or gin and tonic, as this video is over an hour long. In this video, I selected three food/product photographers from very different standards: someone starting out, a second photographer who had reached a level of competence, and a final photographer who was just below the threshold of being able to shoot big commercial campaigns. Hopefully, within this, there will be someone who you can relate to.
The photographer's portfolio is their strongest asset when it comes to obtaining jobs or simply explaining who you are as a visual artist. However, building one is a skill that is often overlooked and that can leave you stuck in a rut for many years. My latest portfolio took me three days to put in order, and then, I had to create two new images to make sure it flowed correctly when buyers were looking at my book. I have certainly missed out on work previously because my portfolio wasn't good enough, but not because my work was poor. Having great work poorly presented is as damaging as having poor work. The current downtime we are all in presents a great opportunity to work on your print and web portfolios.
As well as offering critiques on the images, I also go over how to select, order, and find the missing images that need to be created to build a complete portfolio for either website use or print. Portfolio flow and direction is really important when presenting work.
