Five Portfolio Absolutes, Two Cool New Tools, and an Introduction to "Handles" for Creativity

It's another glorious week on the third rock from the sun. Make it the best ever.

It has been such a long, hot summer that I have not had an opportunity to take a long ride. This photo was taken in Glacier National Park just after a storm, while forest fire smoke mixed with the mist. And even then, it was beautiful.

Five Things That Will Make Your Portfolio Irresistible

We all have portfolios somewhere. 

I am sure there are shoeboxes full of portfolios, hard drives filled to the brim with portfolio material, and they are even out there withering away on Instagram posts from a year or three ago. 

You know, nobody looks at last year’s Instagram. You could simply start re-posting and do it again next year. Nobody would realize it.

Anyway, the place for your portfolio is in front of buyers.

And to do that effectively, you have to be very methodical in preparing the work so it captivates the viewer and makes them want more.

How do we do that, you ask?

Well, while it may seem that it is a magical secret kept by unicorns in the invisible forest, it is actually much simpler than you think.

Before we get to that, we have to discuss what a portfolio is, what it is not, and why it is the most important tool you have for finding and keeping clients.

A portfolio is:

• Your best work, and only your best work

• Work chosen by you that represents the best work that you do

• Proof of aesthetic. Yours, not theirs.

• Proof you can do what you say you can do, and have done so before.

• A roadmap to your way of seeing.

• A body of work that is cohesive and strong.

A portfolio is not:

• A random collection of every photograph you have taken

• Work that your Facebook friends liked

• Work your mom likes.

• Work that you THINK clients want to see.

• Images you think will get you jobs cause you need money.

• The best 24 images you could pull together from a chaotic hard drive

• Stuff that looks like Joe McNally, sort of (squint), cause you think he is the bomb and you want to get work like him and become rich and not have to come up with your own shit because damn that’s hard and you just don’t have the time to spend learning stuff so it makes sense to be expedient and just try to copy a master instead of becoming one.
  No, it is not that at all.

A portfolio is YOU when you are not there. 

It represents your work, shows the viewer how you think, what you see, how you produce it, and how you show it.

There are subtleties inherent in the process that will define you. Or not.

It is part alchemy, part science, and a whole lotta gut.

But, as the title said, there are five things it must do to attract photo buyers, and here, dear reader, they are.

1. A portfolio must tell your story.
   This means it must be carefully prepared and presented. You must invite the viewer to continue turning the pages to see the next image, and the next. You want to surprise them with the work, create unexpected moments of lift, and bring a visual story of your way of working to the fore. After looking at your portfolio, I should know at least a little bit about you. 

2. You must show off your aesthetic.
   You have a way with color, right? Is it bold and bright, or do you prefer to slide that saturation slider to the left just a wee bit to soften the saturation? Is your composition usually beautifully classic, or do you have some stunning ways of framing that you rely on to make the shot rock? Your way of seeing and interpreting the world is important to a buyer. And you do not have to be 100% unique, you have to be 100% you. OK, 90%?

3. You have technical prowess.
   And that means technical prowess enough to pull your look and work off correctly. You need what you need. If you are not doing a lot of compositing work, you don’t need to know how to do the esoteric Photoshop work that defines that style. But you must be proficient enough that what you do works for what you show. If your photographic, or technical skills cannot show off your own work well, this wil be a red flag. Be brutally critical of the images you show.

4. Show your depth without being all over the map.
   If you are a food photographer, make sure you cover everything from farm to table to cuisine. Inject humor, emotion, and your own creativity into the subjects and presentations. Make the viewer feel the work as though it were in an editorial in a famous magazine. Lead from image to image if possible (mosaic portfolios, unfortunately, do not allow that). If you photograph people, make sure you don’t have a book full of sullen 20-somethings staring blankly at the camera in front of a soft colored background with window light from the right and wearing all the same type of clothing they picked out to look different but somehow all looks cookie cutter… ah, hell, you know what I mean.

5. Present solutions.
   One of the most important aspects of a portfolio is to show a prospective client that you can provide solutions to problems. Shooting professionally is all about solving visual problems. Two people in a photograph is a problem solved. Food on location is a problem solved. a wine bottle with a perfect pour is a problem solved. They don’t have to be big, world-changing problems, they can be as simple as making a great shot of eleven sommeliers without one of them looking off-camera or spilling wine on the person next to them. If you are a product shooter, you must show that you are the master of reflections and highlights and not the other way around. It can be subtle, it can be over the top, but what we do is solve visual problems. Show them that you can.

I have heard and fallen prey to those who say this: Show them what they want to see.”

The problem is that you don’t really know what that is, and it presupposes that they all think alike.

That is not the way it works.

Do not show them what you think ‘they’ want to see. Do not prepare your portfolio for ‘them’.

There is no they. There is not, nor has there ever been, a ‘them’.

They are unique people with unique tastes and what may be the best image they have ever seen, and oh, my god, you are so being hired right now!… for one person, may be a yawn and a pass by the next.

You have to choose the images you feel best represent you in a way that tells your story and shows your abilities to make the best photographs.

I was once hired to do technical photos after showing my fashion portfolio. I was hired to do food shots based on product shots I had done for Dial Corp.

Both hires were based not on the subject material I showed, but on the photographic aesthetic it presented.

I will write a discussion on the types of online portfolios and how they engage a viewer differently in the near future. Mosaics vs sliders vs side-scrolling.

Each has its pros and cons.

I should also discuss printed portfolios in the future, as I think they are important

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I am presenting my 30-Day Portfolio Slam starting September 2, and it will be focused on tabletop/food photography. If you want to build a portfolio fast and learn how to repeat the process again and again if needed, check out the class. It's affordable, fun, and it works.

Here are three photographers’ portfolios from the last time I ran the course.

Dan Splaine, New Hampshire. Dan added an industrial portfolio.

Joe Cosentino, New York, added coffee to his food portfolio.

Jennifer Arce, Miami, added cocktails to her tabletop portfolio.

I had a fantastic birthday last Tuesday, and thank you for all the best wishes. It means a lot to me.

For Premium Members, there are two new tools that will make life so much easier if you are creating blogs, writing articles, newsletters, or emails. They aren’t expensive and can allow you to recapture a lot of wasted time.

See ya’ll next time.