Can someone with experience creating photography portfolios please give me some advice?

Question

Okay, so I'm a 16 year old amateur photographer. I've been trying to put together a portfolio because I want to apply to school for photography. Looking through all of my work, one that I would definately classify as some of my best peices is a collage of polaroids that all placed together, forming a complete scene. I absolutely love it and wish to include it in my portfolio; however, considering it is made up of polaroid images, I am concerned that it is too unprofessional and sort of inappropriate for my portfolio. From people with experience, can I please get an opinion?

Answer 1

well when i went for my interveiw for photography school

they told us not to make our portfolio look like a scrap book

so the best thing is to get your photos and mount them on a piece of black card that is about half an inch around the photot and then put them in the centre of white card

Answer 2

I probably wouldn't use the picture of it is a collage. It's not really the most professional way to go.

I highly recommend the book "Photo portfolio success," by John Kaplan. It can definitely answer all your questions and more. I've read the book three times now it's so informative. The book will tell you everything you need to know about choosing your photographs, basic placements of the photographs, etc. Pretty much anything presentation related.

Here's some tips in case you don't purchase the book:

1.Choose only your absolute best photographs.

2.Categorize them according to subject.

3.Your portfolio should only be one subject. Example: Nature. Then take a variety of photographs consisting of nature.

Portfolio Example: You're into portraits. It is your strongest point. Take all of your portrait pictures and choose the best. Then, categorize them according to the type of portrait they are. Take a few photographs from each category and put them into your binder. A portfolio should be minimum of 10 photographs. Most places and companies want less than 20.

You can buy a Portfolio Binder at any arts store. They range from $10-200+. Before purchasing the binder though, you need to decide what is going into it. Meaning photo size and number of photographs. Each photo should have its own sleeve, and you should try and make it so all the images face the same way. This will keep the fuss to a minimum.

Also, if you do not know which pictures to choose -- remember, only the best ones, though -- ask for people's opinions and go from there.

For inspiration I would highly recommend getting a Flickr account if you don't have one. I find new things everyday on there!

Here's my account to give you a feel of what it is about:

www.flickr.com/ShortyDB43

Hope that helps,

Dana

Answer 3

When doing a portfolio, try to have everything match, make a series. I have 3 portfolios: one for my portraits, one for artistic photography, and one for my landscapes. Don't make it messy and if you're putting the pics in a binder make sure you don't put two pics in one sleeve. Each pic should have their own sleeve and make sure the pics are all facing the same way, so that way if someone is looking at it they don't have to keep turning the binder around to see the pic. Good Luck!