It is expected that your work will generally be portfolio based (blog) as you build up evidence and material to support your development. However the key is the critical reflection and thinking about your personal aims not the quantity of material in your portfolio.
4.1) There are many different types of print based portfolios available to you, to present your work to clients. Below are examples of the portfolios:
Photobook:
Photo book's are easy enough to make and can be more affordable than other print based portfolios. You can also find offers with 50% off on some photo printing sites. Photo books can range from £5-£70 depending on sizes and quality. For a more professional look and feel you want something that is sturdy with quality photographic paper to reflect your professionalism in the business. Showing clients a quality photo book gives you more chance to secure potential work, they will also feel a little more comfortable into investing there money by seeing quality images in a quality book.
Prints Printed:
www.loxleycolour.com
These can look very expensive and stylish but it does come with some hazard. Thinking of all the customers who you want to show your work to there is a risk of damaging the prints. Creased images, ripped, dirty, grease finger marks something that's not going to look too professional to other potential clients.
Portfolio Folders:
Personally I don't really like the portfolio folder they can seem professional sometimes. There ok if you have large prints to transport amount to protect them but as for a portfolio to be passed to your customers I don't think it shows business class to the selection of work.The folders can range in sizes A5 - A1 and the prices go up with the size of the folder. A good quality A3 can cost up to £120 with sleeves added in the folder ready to insert your images.
4.2) For the next part of this work book we was to collate 40 images to present to the class to try and edit down to around 25-30 images ready to make our portfolio book. I have chosen to make my photo book with photo box they are also offering a 50% discount at the moment which makes the book really good value for money.
These are the images I chose to show the class to generate feedback on my chosen images. My feedback was mostly good I had some strong images in the selection, but they pointed out that few of the new born birth images didn't look quite as professional as the rest. They also commented on how I have range of portraiture to add in the photo book which is good to show the clients. From these comments and now need to select the images down to 25 to input them in my chosen photo book.
4.3) Images I will be selecting for the book:
Thinking about the order of my images and my layout is very important, it cant look like i have thrown it together. Colour schemes is also important for the book which ever I chose it has to blend with the chosen image on the front. Font size and type is another factor to take into consideration when creating the book. All these elements make the photo book a well presented professional portfolio, or either a thrown together scrap book which looks unprofessional.
4.4) Print based albumns within my genre of photography is a good marketing tool to have. This gives the potential clients a chance to see the quality of printed images in the portfolio, also the quality of your actual book shows you as a more professional photographer. Print based portfolio books are also a good choice within this field as printed images in a box can get damaged and start to look tatty being passed around to so many clients, having a book you are able to look after it better. These are also useful to have if you are at wedding fairs or some type of event, you can display your book so clients can look through your works see the different styles of portraiture you can offer. It is vital however to create your photo book with a quality company, trying to skimp and get it done cheap for half the price will show you as unprofessional. This in turn may damage business trade, the way you present your work reflects on you as a photographer.
Completed portfolio book:
Below I have added images of my portfolio book now its completed, I chose to pay extra for thicker pages and for the pages to turn over flat. This enables the images to be seen as a whole and not be lost into crease of the middle fold. I also paid extra for a protective case which is useful for transporting the photo book so it doesnt get damaged easily. For the layout of my book I decided to go black and white to colour on each sets of pages. To give it a sort o theme, I did try it with a mix of black & white and colour next to each other but they didnt quite look right.
