Questions about building a (real) portfolio

03/11/2006 07:04:21 AM · #1

I thought I should ask here, I know some of you can help.

I bought a nice black album, with those cool adhesive page covers (scrap book?) and I gathered up the photos I want to put in it. I'm making it a portrait/people photo only album.

Problems: 1. I have both portrait and landscape format photos, but the album is in landscape format. I don't want the viewer to have to turn the album to see the portraits, I thought I'd print the portraits smaller and fit two on a page, then print the landscapes big and use one on each page. What would be a visually appealing composition of these two types? Should I use only landcapes on facing pages or combine two portraits with one landscape?

2. How would you pair photos? I have two or more photos from the same session in some cases, should I put them together or apart for variety? Should I group by theme? Color scheme? Mood?

3. Any other suggestions?

Looking forward to your answers, if I had an account I'd have posted a link to all the images...

03/11/2006 06:43:39 PM · #2

Anyone?

03/11/2006 11:29:51 PM · #3

sigh... second bump

03/11/2006 11:31:53 PM · #4

make it portrait format and scale your landscape oriented shots down so the whole album is portrait format.

03/11/2006 11:35:32 PM · #5

You mean so it would flip open vertically? I know I should have gotten a portrait format album...

Thanks for the tip, it's true that the portrait photos are the most significant and should be displayed biggest...

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

03/12/2006 01:06:48 PM · #6

Originally posted by adyus:

Your welcome. Depending on your budget, lost luggage makes some great portfolios.

Dirtypainter

Canon EOS-40D

03/12/2006 01:18:57 PM · #7

I would do the layout with a couple of portrait format on a page with a landscape on the facing page. Also I would tend to orginize them by a theme.

Sunniee

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

03/12/2006 01:30:45 PM · #8

Those magnetic page portfolios dont tend to be archival quality and your prints will degrade and color over time.... I recommend a regular scrapbooking album.... why put all that hard work into something that wont stand the test of time....

oOWonderBreadOo

Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM

03/12/2006 01:34:17 PM · #9

i JUST PUT oops... put mine where the two pages that are open match up.

03/12/2006 02:50:11 PM · #10

Originally posted by Sunniee:

Because a portfolio isn't a long term thing, you should keep it up to date with your latest and great stuff. If you have an item in there over 5 years I would be shocked.

Wonderbread,

That's how I currently have mine. I'll be redoing it though so it's all portrait format after seeing some other photog's portfolio that were much better than mine. ;o)

03/12/2006 06:22:03 PM · #11

Thanks for the help everyone. After much debate, I decided to pony up and buy a vertical A4 portfolio, which I'm gonna fill with portraits on their own page and group two small landscapes per page where necessary. With the bargain I found on printing, my total expenses will be 20$-25$ (if you don't count the useless landscape album I'll have lying around - who knows, I might go into nature photography someday...).

I was inspired by this guy: //www.simplemoment.com. I like the way he presents his online portfolio and apparently his printed one looks almost the same.

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

03/12/2006 06:42:30 PM · #12

Originally posted by adyus:

Only group the landscapes photos if they are similiar. I wouldn't combine them at all.

Sunniee

Canon EOS-40D

03/12/2006 08:25:57 PM · #13

Originally posted by Brent_Ward:

Because a portfolio isn't a long term thing, you should keep it up to date with your latest and great stuff. If you have an item in there over 5 years I would be shocked.

None the less... if kept in an archival quality portfolio, you wont need to reprint the photo if you want to use it again.... better to do it right the first time :-)