What makes a photograph portfolio worthy?
There is a method to making sure the images project your aesthetic and vision.
I want to talk about what makes an image worthy of your portfolio today, and have you think about your work in possibly a different sort of way.
But first, what is your portfolio, anyway?
It is the repository of the work you have made and limited to be the outstanding pieces from the volume of work created. It is the instrument you use to say “this is what I do.”
Whether it is a printed book, a ‘traditional portfolio’, an online gallery or your website, your portfolio is a collection of your best work. And hopefully one can see a style emerging from that collection.
A portfolio is not a congregation of your most popular shots, nor is it the ones your mom or boyfriend thinks ‘rock’. Those are great compliments of course, but the portfolio images should show more of another viewpoint.
Yours.
The images should be chosen with care and the knowledge that they reflect your sensibilities, with your unique vision stamped across them clearly.
In fact, they may not be the most popular shots in your collections. They may be a bit on the obtuse side, or more challenging in composition and design. They may show your more experimental choices or they may be the quiet nature of simplicity that you love so much. They can range from mild to wild, black and white to HDR, people to landscapes to interiors to food.
But they are yours. They represent the images you want to make, how you want to make them, and with all of the parts genuinely yours.
Why? Because that ‘genuinely yours’ approach will help you as you begin to develop a style, a vision, and a body of work that you will be proud of.
A body of work is not a collection of images… it is a collection of images that are authentically yours. Your vision, your aesthetic, your POV. A bunch of images is just that… a bunch of images.
Let’s look at a “collection” of images. I am going to Google “Photos of women” and see what we come up with.
These images are from a myriad of photographers, so there is no cohesive aesthetic or vision that ties them together — even slightly.
Now we Google “Photographs of women Peter Lindbergh”
And here we have a cohesive set of images that look like a representation of a photographer… a “body” of work that is authentic, and personal.
Herb Ritts was one of the most influential photographers of the last century, and his work continues to inspire photographers all over the world. This random collection shows us how consistent, clear, and visionary his work was.
What Makes This Photo Great on YouTube
Great photographers shoot what they want to shoot, and they shoot it their way.
Shooting what other people like will make you madder than the proverbial hatter. There is no style in the world that will satisfy everyone. No matter what you shoot, someone is not going to like it. Changing your work to match their needs only means you will alienate someone else.
So don’t bother.
Shoot your work. Shoot it your way.
Find out what the images you love have in common.
Here’s a little assignment for you;
Put 20 of your favorite images onto a single large image… a collage.
Photoshop can do that for you with a tool under the File menu.
File/Automate/Contact Sheet II
Put the twenty images into a single folder and run the Contact Sheet II script. Choose the largest paper size you can print (or take to Costco/Sams Club/Walmart… whatever) so that all of the images are displayed together on one sheet.
Now take that sheet and look at it closely, with the intent of really seeing each image.
What are the similarities between your images? What are the differences that jump out at you?
Which images, if any, look out of place in the selection?
Which images, if any, look wrong or not as good as the others that are similar?
Show the sheet of images to people you trust to give honest feedback.
Even your mom, BFF, buds, and the guys you hang out with and discuss photography. As long as it is honest, it will be good feedback.
It is not a great critique, however. Great critiques are done with intentions in mind, goals determined, and a frank discussion of what the images were created to do.
But feedback is good, and if you don’t know anyone who can give a good critique (yet) they are a good place to start.
The last thing to do is to analyze the ways the feedback made you feel about your work.
Do you agree with their assessments?
Do you believe they see what you shot the way you see what you shot?
Does an image still stand up in your mind as being a strong image even if others say it was not their favorite?
Now cut them out with scissors or a craft knife and spread them out on a whiteboard or clean, non-pattern surface.
Move them around to see how they react next to other photographs.
Make three piles: Keepers, Maybes, and Nonkeepers.
Do this repeatedly with 20 images at a time. Find the ones that really resonate with you. The ones you want to show to everybody, everywhere, every day.
I’ll close with this quote by Photographer Bela Borsodi:
“If it touches you, if it excites you, if it makes you cry, if it makes you smile. A good photograph is something you cannot resist looking at. There might be a sense of surprise or discovery. something pleasant or painful. There is this quote by Oscar Wilde: “I can resist everything except temptation” In a way a good photograph is what you can’t resist and want to engage with. It doesn’t matter if you take photographs of your dog, or girlfriend, or whether you’re in a big studio with supermodels in it. If it speaks to you, then that’s when you know you have a good photograph.”
The above is a chapter from my book, “Musings; 28 Essays on Photography”, published in 2013.
I am a photographer, designer, and photo editor. You can find me at my self-named website or at Project 52 Pro System where I teach commercial photography online. This is our tenth year of teaching, and it is the most unique online class you will find anywhere.
You can find my books on Amazon, and I have taught two classes at CREATIVELIVE.
