Tips for portfolios

[twopoint0]

2mitts-
As a personal preference, I think vertical/portraits work best in a printed book. To combine them would mean showing the landscapes at a reduced size, two page spreads, or 90 degrees in the book.
I guess it also depends on the work you do. So much of ad work ends up formatted to single pages.
I think however you end up presenting, how you present it is a part of your artistic expression, so it's really up to what you like.

[eraanexact]

I like portrait format, with any 'horizontal' images being a two-page spread made of two of the 'portrait' format prints. So for example, if your single pages are 11x14, then make the horizontal prints 22x14, trim them in half, and put them in the book next to each other. Success!

[2mittsphotog]

Thank you for the input everyone, much appreciated! I think I'm going to go with this portfolio http://www.portfolios-and-art-cases....ista1411o.html with the adhesive hinge strips. Anyone have any advice or input before i make this purchase?

[skellington]

Any recommendations on a max number of images to include? I've got over a 100 and am trying to narrow it down to something smaller but not sure what a good number might be 25 or 50 maybe. Also, suggestions on how to categorize, i have found this difficult since some encompass many different types.

[eraanexact]

@skellington:
100 is way too many, especially if you're showing both befores and afters. Between 10 and 20 is a good amount, and only put your best stuff in there.
As far as categorizing goes, there's no rule that you have to put differing types of retouching examples in the same book. You can have seperate books depending on who you're showing it to, that way you're not in an interview where they say "this is great, but we don't do much product work" or what have you.

[abenormal]

Portrait vs. Landscape:

Most of my work ends up being portrait but if it's landscape I just fit it into the space available. The last book I made I used a custom square format book, then arranged the work on the pages with a consistent outer edge line but let other dimensions fall wherever they made the images the largest.

http://www.portfolios-and-art-cases....ista1411o.html

There's nothing wrong with that portfolio, I suppose. But ask yourself what kind of an impression it makes when you hand it to a potential employer or client. I have also decided I don't really like sleeves - they can have a lot of glare, they get scratched up, and they impose an optically imperfect layer between the viewer and the work.

My last book did use sleeves though. I used screw posts and cut 13" squares of thick rubber sheet. I cut a stencil of my name and a logo and sprayed it onto the rubber in a gloss varnish. I drilled three holes for the screw posts and used high quality 12" square plastic sleeves. It looked good when the sleeves were new, it feels good and draws attention due to the unusual dimensions and cover material, and people notice the subtle logo treatment. My next book I won't use sleeves, I'll either print on high quality matte pages and bind something up, or try out one of the many new high quality photo book companies. For the cost of a typical empty portfolio you can get a custom photo book printed and bound. This place looks really promising, $60 - $90 for a 20 page book at 11.5" x 15" :

http://www.mypublisher.com

-abe

[women'sdesk]

1. transparency on rollover is industry standard (for people who show before and afters)
2. don't have a site that shows up in google searches
3. don't advertise your retouching work and editorials on social networking sites / blogs
4. password protect any photos you didn't take yourself or that weren't acquired via tests/ free download sites/ challenges etc.
5. have a separate site for your photography work unless you are foremost a retoucher.
6. Try to show diversity by including illustration, concept design, art-direction, face charts, 3D and anything else that contributes to your design ability.
7. Get someone else to select the order of photos and decide which ones are the most impressive, if you art-directed the shot, took it yourself and then spent hours working on it you cannot objectively look at it and make an accurate judgement.
8. 4 amazing photos is better than 20 industry standard photos.
9. If you are a photographer suck up your pride and ask other photographers for work to retouch, so you have diversity in your book.
10. If you think the standard of retouching in tutorials is what is expected from professional retouchers at high profile agencies and houses then you are in for a big surprise.
11. If you are famous in another industry (modeling, photography, design etc) use a different name for retouching website so that you are not driving traffic there.
12. If you see retouching examples and think wow that's amazing but i could never do that or i don't know where to start then you probably aren't ready to charge money for your work and should keep practicing.