Print types for portfolio?

[w23]

Obviously having an online presence is a big part of promoting your retouching work. I'm looking for some advice for creating a print portfolio. Can anybody recommend a print type (Iris, inkjet, etc.) for a portfolio presentation? I'm also looking for online resources for ordering these. I'm a bit cost-conscious and would like to get best possible quality for a reasonable price. Lastly I'd like recommendations for portfolio size. Thanks in advance.

[Diego81]

check this link is a good resource for photographers and also apply for retouchers

http://fashionphotographyblog.com/20...r-photography/

hope this helps.

[RossF]

The advice on that blog is decent, but I think Pinga Zingaro and Case Envy/Lost Luggage cases have become quite standard and almost cliche nowadays, if you really want to stand out you should hire a book binder to make you a custom book. I'd say screw post books are the best method because you can swap prints out and rearrange them.

Art buyers don't call in nearly as many books as they used to, it used to be they would call in 50 books for a job like the woman wrote in that blog. Now they would usually look at 50 or 60 websites then call in the books of their top 5 choices. If you are good enough to be in that top 5 then you should have a beautiful book to increase your chances of getting the job. I'm writing from a photographers stand point, I'm not sure how often books are called in for top retouchers anymore, before and after images on the web seem to be quite effective, but I'm sure most of them have print portfolios.

Also, I've heard that nowadays most art buyers prefer double sided prints with no sleeves. Sleeves get in the way of images and cause nasty glares. Most double sided papers are matte, the Moab Entrada paper is a decent double sided matte paper that's quite affordable. However, there are also 2 double sided luster papers that are quite nice and more magazine quality. Inkpress Luster Duo is what I just printed my last book on...Lumijet also makes a Gloss Duo which has a similar surface but it is 2x the price.

Printing double sided is not that big of a pain in the ass, depending on which printer you have, it was a breeze for me with the Epson 4800. I just lay out all my files the same and once one print comes out you just feed it back in the same way. My book is 11x17 but I printed on 13x19inch paper, I made each image a little larger than 11x17 with borders on the side then I guillotined them down so the images are full bleed (since you can not print full bleed on Epson printers)

[RossF]

Matte paper also tends to flatten color and the blacks get scuffed up, I wouldn't recommend it for most fashion work.

[MaximMorin]

Personnaly, i made the case myself (11x17), after i add non-acid sheet whit transparant olders that i paid, total for 30 pages portfolio, 40$... whitout print. So who have something more original, personnal. If the case look great and pro, it's already a good start.

For the print, the good old Epson 4800 always do the trick, you can rent the time in any multimedia lab around. Personnaly i print my image on real photopaper whit an Epsilon LED printer. It almost cost me nothing because it was during my final year formation and it was our school equipment (lucky me) but the new adding is print on semi-glossy paper on an epson 4800. But as RossF says, it's from a photographer point of view. Viewing image on paper give the chance to the eye to "zoom" for small details, what a cpu screen cannot offer. Is it really necessairy for a retouchers? good question

[rad.homme]

so what is the recommended paper to print for portfolio
does semi gloss seems to be the trend?