Why is Portfolio important in photography?

Your Portfolio Demonstrates your View of the World

Your photography shows your unique angle on the world around you. Nobody else can bring the same creativity to the table, because no one else has had the same experiences as you. Your portfolio is a chance to get others excited about your vision.

What makes a good photography portfolio?

The first photo should be the best, and the last photo should be excellent. From there, mix in your favourites so that they're not all at the beginning. A photography portfolio shouldn't just show that you know exposure and white balance. Your portfolio should also convey your style, and what type of work you do.

Kickstart Your Photography Career with Your Portfolio

When making a name for yourself as a photographer, putting together a portfolio can be the last thing on your mind. It’s hard enough to find new clients, engage with existing ones, as well as connect with the wide photography community. All the while, working on your skills by using the latest techniques.

Yet, when armed with a portfolio, you can take ownership of your work, creative vision, and photography in a way that equips you succeed as a professional in the long run.

Now, let’s look into the benefits of having a portfolio in more detail.

How Can Your Portfolio Kickstart Your Professional Career?

Your Portfolio Supports Your Creative Direction

Your Portfolio Fosters Respect from Clients

Your Portfolio Shows your View of the World

Your Portfolio Grows With Your Career

Your Portfolio Makes Your Photography Visible

Your Portfolio Supports Your Creative Direction

In the same way that every photography session is its own project, your portfolio is no different. Just like a client project, it requires research, planning, and execution – the only difference? The client is you.

With every project, comes a certain creative direction that will influence your vision and techniques in one way or another.

A portfolio helps potential clients see how you approach curating work when you have no limitations other than your own vision to be accountable to. Therefore, showing your clientele that you have confidence in your work, and that you uphold a level of commitment that makes you dependable, and self-driven.

Your Portfolio Demonstrates your View of the World

In this way, your portfolio shows the world through your eyes – which is what potential clients want to see before hiring you. Your photography shows your unique angle on the world around you. Nobody else can bring the same creativity to the table, because no one else has had the same experiences as you.

Your portfolio is a chance to get others excited about your vision. Yes, you can tell someone what you do and explain how you do it but your visual style will translate much better when seen rather than heard.

Your Portfolio Grows With Your Career

The role of your portfolio in your career changes as your reach and skills grow. If you’re just starting out, your portfolio signals credibility to potential clients while you’re building up your body of work. Your portfolio can take on the role of showing your creative range, specialities, and helps demonstrate the relevance of your work to brands, clients and projects.

For globally recognized photographers,such as Brooklyn-based documentary photographer Haruka Sakaguchi, a portfolio demonstrates her niche. It serves as a calling card for clients and carefully curated virtual space for inspiring other photographers.

No matter where you are in your photography career, your portfolio serves a key purpose of helping your business grow at the same pace as your ambition. This is why having a portfolio is a good way to prepare yourself for professional growth later on in your career and always keep you on the right track.

Your Portfolio Fosters New Respect from Clients

One slightly more obvious benefit of having a portfolio is that it can elevate you and your work in a client’s mind to a more professional level. A portfolio can act as solid ground when you’re dealing with a problematic or inexperienced client.

Having an online portfolio can discourage questionable clients from hiring you, and can help you stand your ground when faced with creative decisions with less experienced clients. By having an online presence you are able to position yourself as a knowledgeable photography professional.

Your Portfolio Makes Your Photography Visible

Having a portfolio is seen as essential for securing clients.But have you ever considered why? Chances are, your digital footprint as a photographer includes social media accounts and professional photography marketplaces.

Digital touchpoints such as your marketplace account create a trail leading your potential clients towards your work. However, they can be left hanging if they don’t have a place to see how your diverse collection of work, projects and products come together.

No such thing as a perfect portfolio

While getting started on your own portfolio can be intimidating, it’s important to remember that there is no such thing as a perfect portfolio. Every portfolio is a snapshot of where you are in your journey as a photographer. It shouldn’t be designed to representation your work in a year from now.

But how do you know if your portfolio is good enough? The only portfolio that’s not good enough to show the world is one that doesn’t fully represent you or your work in the way that you want it to be seen.

Creating a Portfolio Doesn’t Have to be Hard.

Format provides a limitless range of portfolio templates created specifically for the needs of creative professionals. Templates that are quick to use, intuitive to navigate and allow your work to shine with clean, polished layouts.

How to Make a Photography Portfolio – Important Dos & Don'ts

A portfolio allows a photographer to quickly and simply share their work with potential clients. A great portfolio will bring you plenty of work, while a bad one will make work few and far between. But what constitutes a good portfolio? And how do you recognise a bad one, even when reviewing your own work?

While portfolios are just as varied as individual photographer’s personalities, there are a few tricks to determine if your portfolio is ready to go, or if it needs a bit more building. Watch for these dos and don’ts when building a photography portfolio.

Don’t include similar images

Your portfolio is a collection of all your best work. Include two similar images, and potential clients may think you’re a lazy photographer that just takes multiple photos of the same thing. It’s okay to include photos from the same shoot, especially if you’re just starting out, but make sure those photos are different in more ways than one. If you’re building a portrait portfolio, for example, don’t include a second shot that just involved readjusting the subject’s hands, but you can include a photo from a completely different set-up from the same session.

Do cut back

A portfolio with hundreds of images quickly becomes overwhelming. Your portfolio should include your best work, and only your best work. If you can identify one small thing that’s off, don’t include it. Showcase your best images, not all of your images. If you find yourself wanting to include more than you should, use a blog to display images from each photo shoot, and a portfolio with just the best ones.

Don’t use images inconsistent with your style

A portfolio doesn’t just show a potential client that you’re a competent photographer, it helps them determine if your styles will mesh well. If you have an image with perfect composition and exposure, but it’s not your typical style, don’t include it. Your portfolio should state more than just the fact that you know the technical aspects of photography. It should display your artistic style too.

Do specialise

A bride-to-be doesn’t want to sift through your photos of corporate events. Specialising in a certain area of photography is a good idea for starting a photography business. But if you shoot in multiple subcategories, have a separate portfolio for each. If you shoot both maternity photos and newborn portraits, keep separate albums or use different pages on your website.

Don’t forget to consider the audience

Who is looking at your portfolio? It’s an essential question to consider. A bride-to-be isn’t looking for the same thing that a business is looking for. When choosing the elements of the image, like what cover to use or what template to choose for your website, consider who your audience is, and what will speak to them the most.

Do consider multiple formats – printed or online?

Do you need a printed album or just an online portfolio? Or perhaps both? A printed album displays your work as it was meant to be seen and can show greater detail. If you often meet potential clients face-to-face, be sure to have an album to show them when you meet. If you don’t often meet, an online portfolio is likely all you need.

It’s an easy way to showcase your work and style, share your work with clients or social media for exposure, or just get feedback from peers. Professional portfolio builder platforms make it really easy to set up one for yourself without any technical knowledge or work, and at a minimal cost.

Don’t be afraid to shoot for free

New photographers should focus on building a solid portfolio. Of course, if you don’t yet have a portfolio, you probably don’t yet have any paying gigs, and that’s OK. Shoot for free or cheap for friends and family until you have a complete portfolio. Once you have a complete portfolio, clients will be willing to pay for your work when they can see what they’re paying for.

Do get another opinion

As photographers, we tend to get attached to our images. One image we think is absolutely great may not really be that good. Get a second opinion (or third or fourth), preferably from someone who’s also a photographer if you can. If another photographer isn’t available for a portfolio review, reach out to a friend that’s also in your target audience. Consider the feedback carefully, and make adjustments from there.

Don’t use images that need an explanation

Remember that image that you fought through rain, debris and all kinds of obstacles to shoot? Don’t include it simply because it was a challenging photo. Share it if it is a great photo, but don’t include it in your portfolio if you need to explain just why that photo is so great. The best photographs will speak for themselves. If the wow reaction only comes after an explanation, don’t include it.

Do start and end strong

The first image in your portfolio should be just amazing, but so should your last. Don’t give in to the temptation to put all your best work at the front, or potential clients may stop looking through the album once they reach your lesser work. The first photo should be the best, and the last photo should be excellent. From there, mix in your favourites so that they’re not all at the beginning.

A photography portfolio shouldn’t just show that you know exposure and white balance. Your portfolio should also convey your style, and what type of work you do. A portfolio could be printed or online, or even both, but should also include only your best work. Select through your favourites, then go through them again with a strict list of standards to wind up with only the best. Keep in mind the dos and don’ts for building a photography portfolio, and continue to update as your skills evolve.

7 Steps for Building a Unique Brand for Your Photography Business

When people think about unique brands, they often think about large retail corporations like Nike, Apple, and other multinational corporations. Massive marketing campaigns with elite PR companies give them the ability to deliver consistent, reinforced messages across multiple platforms to achieve their goals.

However, creating a unique brand with loyal customers isn’t reserved for large businesses. In fact, small businesses like photography studios can build a solid brand that consistently attracts loyal customers. We can still speak to our target audience, build hype, and stand out in our local markets; and in this article, we’ll review how.

The Power of Branding

A powerful brand comprises of multiple ingredients – a unique and attractive logo, a catchy tag line, an unforgettable personality, a distinct voice, and more. You can use the same ingredients and build a unique brand for your photography business.

1. Identify What Makes You Special

One of the most important things that you need for your brand is the “X” factor. It’s one thing (or even a couple of things) that makes you special. For instance, it could be a certain photography style that’s unlike any other style out there, or just a unique perspective on taking photos that others lack. If you can identify this unique factor, then you can make it your tagline, incorporate the message in your blogs and social media posts, etc. to build a big brand over time. The key is reinforcing this unique characteristic throughout all of your web presence. If you’re having a hard time thinking of your “X” factor, ask yourself the following questions:

• What are my strengths and weaknesses?
• What makes my photography style different from my competition?
• What makes my client experience different from my competition?

2. Create a Unique logo

Having a unique and attractive logo allows you to stand out from the competition. When your customers see your logo in ads, social media content, videos, etc. then it helps in building brand loyalty. Plus, people take your company more seriously when it has a premium logo.

When I started photography, getting a unique logo was difficult and costly because the best option was to hire a professional designer. These days, it’s much more easy to create a logo, with plenty of low cost options or free options. You can learn all about creating a beautiful photography logo online and create some of the best designs yourself!

3. Identify Your Ideal Client

A business is all about selling, right? But do you know who are you selling to? If you don’t have a clear mental image of your ideal client, then your marketing and branding efforts will be weak. This is because all decisions you take- which social media platforms to focus on, what local events to attend, what tone and messaging to use online, etc. are influenced by the target audience. For instance, if you want to do wildlife photography, then your message should contain a sense of adventure and a hunger for risks. Similarly, if you want to be a professional wedding photographer, then you want to develop a brand that’s pleasing, comforting, and understands the beauty of relationships.

The key takeaway is to specialize and avoid trying to serve every single client. Identify your audience and cater your website, your social media, your newsletter, and every other public facing aspect of your business to that audience. Consider specializing in styles, such as “Light and Airy” or “Moody” or “Editorial.” Or consider focusing in on marketing to a specific demographic like culture/ethnicity or age group.

4. Develop a Strong Personality

Believe it or not- brands have personalities just like humans. They have a certain way of speaking and communicating. They can give good or bad first impressions. They can seem confident or insecure. They can also feel strongly for certain causes and emotions.

For instance, Nike is all about pushing yourself to the limit and “just doing it”, and Apple has a personality of an elite entity that always seeks the most premium entertainment experience. Take away point: If you want to develop a strong photography brand, then you must develop a strong personality for your brand first.

The key takeaway is consistency. For example, if you’re going for quirky and fun, then that vibe and communication style should be present in your images, on your about us page, and on your social media profiles and content. If you’re going for “Luxury,” then that theme needs to stay consistent in all of your content as well.

5. Keep it Simple

An important rule in branding is simplicity. You don’t want to create a website that’s replete with all kinds of fonts and colors, or use too much jargon in your social media posts, blog posts, etc. to the point at which you sound too technical and high brow. What you need is simplicity- simplicity in messaging, style, and just about everything.

A viewer should be able to tell what you do and why you’re different within 5 seconds of viewing your website or social media profile. If it takes multiple clicks, scrolls, or paragraphs to come to that conclusion, consider revisiting your website layout or overall brand presentation.

6. Connect Emotionally

The end goal of all brands, for most businesses, is generating a lot of revenue. However, emotions sit at the core of every major brand. This is because a brand works only if it connects with a person on an emotional level. Otherwise, it’s just another business in one trade industry or another.

Some of the main attributes that your photography brand should have are charisma, passion, and reliance. Use these emotions to build stronger bonds with your customers. You will see that this approach will help you create more regular customers than ever.

7. Build a Spectacular Website with Stunning Portfolio

Photography is all about presentation and visuals. So, when you build a website for your photography brand, then the website should be vivid, attractive, and simply captivating. You can also consider it a platform to show off your photography skills as you can publish your portfolio in all kinds of creative ways. So, whether you are taking help from a professional or creating your photography website yourself, make sure that the final result manifests creativity and passion.

So, there you have it- 7 simple steps to build a unique brand for your photography business. 



The question is- when are you going to start?

Your Photography Portfolio is going to Make More Money as a Proffesional Photographer or Artist.

Your portfolio serves a key purpose of helping your photography business grow at the same pace as your ambition.

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