Portfolio

Photographic Portfolio – Physical

A photographic portfolio is quite simply a collection of work. The common misconception is that it is required to be a 'best of' of all the work you've ever done. Although this can be true in some cases, it is more likely to be a series of work with a unifying theme, style or taken through a specific medium. – Google definition

Basically a photographic portfolio is a way of showing your work, it is what you will take whether you are going for an interview or just handing in a professional promotion pack, wanting your work to be exhibited in a gallery. The work within the portfolio will be all your own work and should reflect you as a photographer and your style of work.

To start my initial research because I wanted information on how to make a successful professional portfolio and I came up with these 10 tips through the Internet.

Tips on creating a professional photographic portfolio

1.              Understand what a portfolio is
2.    What are you using it for
3.    Who is your audience
4.    Is it going to be paper or digital
5.    What style or design is it going to have
6.    The theme
7.    Choosing the shots
8.    Presentation
9.    Contents
10. What do you do now.

These 10 useful portfolio tips I found on the website http://photography.tutsplus.com/articles/10-steps-for-building-a-photography-portfolio-to-be-proud-of--photo-3991

To gain a better understanding of exactly what makes a successful professional portfolio there are many ways that you can look it up, either through books, the internet, looking at other people portfolios or just asking other people opinions.

Information on Portfolios

There are many different types of portfolios and they come in all different sizes. To produce a portfolio apart from having your prints you need a portfolio, but what type of portfolio do you want as they come in all different types. Silver Print is a company that shows many different portfolios, portfolios such as Silverprint slipcase portfolio book, prat pampa, prat leather portfolio as well as many more.

Below is the process of what exactly the Silverprint website looks like when going though it to find you portfolio that will suit you. As you may be able to see on the screen shots one of the objects is covered with a grey outline, this is the process I went through to get my prat pampa portfolio.

As you can see form above the case comes in many different styles but also many different sizes, sizes for example A3, A2, A4, 9,5x12 and so on.

My portfolio

The portfolio that i bought for my images to go into was a Prat Pampa Portfolio. On the website Silver Print you can find one for £56.95 but other websites do them for other prices. I particularly liked this style of portfolio because it has a spiral mechanism, which is easy to open and close for adding pages or taking out pages. It has a soft leather cover with a leather strap and black protectors on either side of the covers.

Deciding what prints to put into my portfolio i had 12x16 prints so it was quite hard to get a 12x16 portfolio so i decided to buy an A3 portfolio just encase they fit into that if not i would reprint, but fortunately my 12x16 prints fitted into my A3 Prat Pampa portfolio.

This portfolio i wanted it to be a representation of who i am as an individual as well as whom i am as a photographer. So looking through my work I have chosen to include my best work only. This consisted of work from last year and this year. Work such of my seascapes, flowers in glass bowl (Vanitas) my still life and many other photographs. I felt that these images where my strongest and showed my artistic and creative skills while also showing my documentary and editing skills.

The work above is placed in the way that they are in my portfolio; I specifically put them this way because they flowed better, leading into one another. All the photographs have made me happy when looking at them, I have incorporated work from all three years of my degree, showing my range of idea, and technical demonstration.

Graduating University I wanted to have a physical portfolio that showed who I am and what I am interested in, as well as the skills and understanding of photography that I have gained throughout my 3 years at CCAD.

I feel that I have grown as an artist and individual. The main aim was to show that I have produced work that I am proud of and that in the near future I can take it to an employer and show them what I have done.

I am a photographer who focuses on more of an abstract style of photography, I document and create situations and that offer some for of abstract, I focus on line, focusing on a repeat pattern and focusing on the surrounds.

All the work that is submitted in this portfolio are work I have produce throughout university, they show both my digital editing skills as well as my hand printing black and white and colour prints. Putting both styles of photography in allows the employer to have a better understanding of what actual skills I hold and can produce.

The main idea is to present my portfolio in a prat pampa case with plastic covers over my work, this will be handed in also with my promotional pack. The main presentation of my portfolio is that I wanted it to flow from my digital work to the hand printed colour and black and white prints. They are presented in a black leather case. I aimed to make it look professional for when I start applying for jobs. 

Buying a portfolio like the one I have bought known as the Prat Pampa portfolio cost around about £57.00 and then you get one set of 10 portfolio sleeves to go with it. Although I find that 10 was not enough so I bought another 10 costing about £22.00.

Although you may think that this cost a lot of money, you would spend it so you can get the best possible chance of a job and making your work look presentable.

This portfolio is going to be submitted along side my business cards, postcards, stickers, as part of my promotional pack.