When is the last time you updated your portfolio? For that matter, when is the last time you looked through your portfolio of work displayed on your website?  If you're like many photographers, it's likely been a while. 

It's far too easy to get caught up in the day to day hustle of work and life and forget about updating our images. Here are some tips to help you create a knock-out portfolio to impress prospective clients!

Back to our initial question about your portfolio: when was the last time you took the time to update the images? Keeping it updated is critical for a professional photographer. 

A portfolio is a marketing tool not just a showcase of work. The professional photographer needs to take time to work on their portfolio, particularly one shown on their website. Whether we like it or not, prospective clients will judge a photographer by their images - as well as the quality of their website, but we'll leave that for another post. 

Set aside time on your calendar or agenda to make updates several times a year. If you maintain a social media presence or send out a newsletter, announce the updates to encourage people to visit the images and see your latest work.

Diversify your portfolio.        

No, we don't mean your financial portfolio! A photography portfolio is intended to showcase your best work. By best work, we mean work that will attract clients and demonstrates your talent. Also, unless you restrict your photography to a narrow genre or style like weddings, you may want to include a variety of shots to demonstrate your versatility as a photographer. Try including various styles and from different angles. 

Look through your portfolio critically -like a client would; after all, photography is an investment of time and money for them. 

Look at what you've included in your portfolio and decide what is missing. For example, if your collection is mostly landscape, you should add portrait shots. Showing people that you are versatile, opens up possibilities. 

If you want to create a beautiful portfolio people will want to spend time browsing through, consider its design: 

• Is it a cohesive look or does it look like a bunch of images thrown together?

• Does it reflect the caliber for your experience and client base? 

• Is there a theme to the portfolio? 

• Do you categorize your images? 

• Do the pages or images seem to flow smoothly and attractively?

Unfortunately, because most of us are stretched for time, we tend to merely add photographs without much thought to the overall look of the portfolio or even the page we insert them into. Soon enough, what you end up with is a bunch pictures rather than a professional-looking portfolio. 

So what should you do when trying to create a knock-out portfolio and how should you organize it? 

Whichever way you organize it, keep your audience in mind. Also, remember that most people don't have a lot of time to spend browsing and you're likely not the only website they'll visit. 

How will a prospective client - whether a mom or a corporate marketing director - see your gallery? If you create too many galleries/pages or make it too complicated to wade through your images, you risk people not bothering to take the time, especially corporate clients without a lot of time to waste. 

One last point to discuss when it comes to your portfolio. Every photographer has an opinion on this one, and no one way is usually the best way. Let's face it, the more your work is seen, the more likely you are to get hired. Enabling social sharing on your gallery of images is how clients and others can share your work in places like Pinterest or other social media platforms. But, it's a complicated decision you will have to make after giving it some thoughts and, hopefully, taking a few steps to ensure your work isn't used without authorization.  We wrote about protecting your images from unauthorized use in a recent blog post. https://www.beart-presets.com/blog/protect-your-images

If you do decide to enable sharing for your portfolio, we recommend using lower resolution images (makes it less likely they'll be used without authorization, including for someone else's commercial purposes). Add a visible watermark in a way which would make it difficult to crop out. Also, consider posting a disclaimer or warning about using your images for personal or commercial gain. Some photographers will include a line about social media uses. Lastly, put your name as part of your image's name. That will help heighten your profile in Internet searches. 

If you'd like to share your portfolio, send us a line at Victoria - BeArt Presets, contact@beart-presets.com. We might feature it in a future post.