How to Build a Product Photography Portfolio
How to build a product photography portfolio was one of the questions I had when I first decided that I wanted to pursue product photography.
Building your photography portfolio is one of the first steps to towards making money as a photographer. A portfolio should be a window through which you show off your best work to potential clients; showcasing your skills and value as an artist. Every serious photographer keeps their portfolios updated with their most recent work; mine can be found on my commissions page and from there I link out to connected galleries.
If you don’t have a photography portfolio, but want to create one that you can be proud of, and which stands out from the crowd, then you are welcome to follow my brief step-by-step guide below.
5 Key Steps to Building your Photography Portfolio
Do not wait
What do I mean by that? Waiting until you feel you have reached certain milestones in your career before creating a good portfolio is not a good idea. You will always be improving. When I look back at some of my early work it makes me cringe, but you have to start somewhere, and I think people like to see progression.
Here are some tips on how you can start to build your photography portfolio: –
Tip #1 – Shoot More
Without images there is no portfolio. You need take as many [good or great] photos as you can. As a beginner you probably won’t have or even expect to have any paid gigs, but that’s okay. I remember my first wedding shoot. I offered to be second lens at a friends wedding. I neither asked for, nor expected any payment for my time. I let them have all of my images for free because not only was I getting invaluable experience, but also images for my portfolio. The fact that several of my images were used in the final wedding album just confirmed to me that I might just have enough talent to make a go at this photography lark!
I took the opportunity to do free or cheaper shoots for people I knew. In fact I still occasionally offer my services for free if I am looking to break into a new market or area.
Tip #2 – Design and Specialise Your Portfolio
This will depend heavily on your genre or market niche. I was always going to have my own website, so the portfolio had to become part of the overall website structure. I have changed it up a few times since settling on what I thought was the best way to showcase my work. I have no doubt this will happen to a few of you as well.
Some things to consider: –
- plan how you want your portfolio to look
- will you be featuring one image per page or a slideshow?
- will they be in galleries or albums, or a mixture of both?
- will the gallery be in the form of multiple thumbnails or a slideshow?
- will the photos be arranged in a certain order?
- will your portfolio to appeal to a particular market or sector within a larger market?
- will you need separate portfolios for weddings, events, children, corporate, products and so on?
Planning this at the start will save you a lot of time and heartache down the road. Think of it like building a house, you need solid foundations, a planned room structure and ways to travel through the building BEFORE you decorate and fill it with stuff.
Tip # 3 – Choose Your Featured Images with Care
This should be where the fun starts! However, choosing images which represent you as a photographer is really hard. It can be, (no, it will be), very time-consuming, and that’s okay – you really should take your time with this task.
Try and put yourself in the shoes of your prospective customers. For example, what would someone looking for if they were in the market for a wedding/event/product photographer; what are they actually be looking for? If you find this difficult, grab a couple of mates who tell it straight and get them to look at your portfolio and feedback their thoughts.
Aside from featuring your best images, you should avoid including photos which are too similar to each other. Not only might this suggest that you’re a lazy photographer, but more importantly, it’s boring for the viewer. However, if you do need to show similar images, make sure they appear apart from each other in the order.
Tip #4 – Image Order
Just remember that just because you always look at every single image your prospective clients won’t always finish looking at the entire portfolio. They could very likely be at the start of their search, so they will be doing a lot of surface work, just trying to shortlist a few potential photographers before delving deeper and making a decision.
Bearing this in mind you really have to make sure your images pop, especially the first 10 or so. Making an eye-catching shortlist is crucial. How you build your portfolio is extremely important for your overall success.
Tip #5 – Use High Quality Prints in your Physical Portfolio
So far I have been talking about your online portfolio, but creating a physical book is just as important.
One of the secrets to creating a visually appealing portfolio is to use the highest quality prints possible. If you are exporting from Lightroom or Photoshop set the ppi to 300 as a minimum, anything less will not be of the right depth for printing.
Use a trusted photo printing lab that is known for producing accurate, well calibrated and high quality prints. I would not recommend printing them yourself, but if you do then get a top notch printer.
How to Build a Product Photography Portfolio that Gets Clients
Creating an online photography portfolio website is easy enough if you have the time and the skills. I built this site from scratch, but I have been designing and building websites for a long time. If you don’t have the time or the skills then consider using wordpress and a free theme. I wouldn’t recommend the online builders like Wix because the code is bloated and you will be on shared hosting with a few thousand other sites. This will slow your site down, and with images you need a fast site.
Anybody can create a photo portfolio, but only a few will really make an impact. Here are a few tips to ensure that your portfolio will be professional and worth looking at.
Tip #6 – Weed out the Mediocre – ruthlessly
Think of your portfolio as a sneak peek into your artistic style and abilities as a photographer. It’s not supposed to feature all of your photos, but rather just a handful of images that really speak to your viewers. If you find something off in some of your images, don’t include them. You can always feature your other favorites in a blog or online album.
Tip #7 – Create Impact
If you find that you have to explain why a particular photograph is great, then it does not belong in your portfolio. Your potential clients won’t give two hoots if you had a near death experience in order to capture an image, if the resulting image isn’t fantastic. Remember, your photographs not only have to speak for themselves, but they have to sell you as a photographer. The photography market place is very competitive. The primary function of your portfolio is to get you noticed, onto a shortlist, and then into a conversation with prospective clients. From there it is up to you to seal the deal.
Tip #8 – Get Second Opinions from people who tell it straight!
If you really get emotional about your images, it helps to get a second (or third) opinion from someone who is not invested in your success. You are after ‘constructive criticism’, and believe me your mother, or your best friend won’t give it.
Ask what their first impression are on arriving at your site or portfolio. Ask them how they think about your images; would they hire you, or even pick up the phone, based on what they see?
Tip #9 – Identify your Target Audience(s)
If you are going into business, you should already know who you target audience is and who your main competitors are. If you don’t then I suggest you do some research and stop wasting your time.
You portfolio should talk directly to your target audience. Think about the potential clients who will be looking at your portfolio, what will they want to see? Choose images that you believe your audience will want to pay you to create for them.
Tip #10 – KISS [Keep it Simple Stupid]
A well known business acronym, KISS will help you focus your efforts and only include content that promotes you as a professional photographer. Adhere to your portfolio’s purpose: to show your best images. Keep the focus on your images, avoid using elements that may take the focus away from your work. Make your photos the main feature of your portfolio and allow them to speak for you. As long as you’ve chosen the right kind of images and continue to build your portfolio as you grow as a photographer, you can rest assured that it will do its job.
I hope these tips will be helpful for you. Good luck!
