The beauty of photography is that it gives you a new perspective on life and can lead to high paychecks.

According to salary estimates on ZipRecruiter, the annual pay for a professional photographer in the US is $39,376 on average. If you're a talented photographer, starting a career in the visual arts world is an excellent way to earn considerable income.

Unfortunately, skills and a collection of inspiring images aren't enough to help you land your dream job. You need a portfolio that tells your story and showcases your talent, attention to detail, and interests.

Your portfolio is vital to a successful sales pitch. Therefore, make sure you know how to create a spectacular portfolio for your photography work. Most importantly, understand the right tactics to present your creations to attract the right clients. Below are a few ways to showcase your photography portfolio.

Curate With Intention

When showcasing your photography portfolio, your ultimate goal should be to display the best of your work. To achieve this goal, you need to curate your work with intention. This step entails selecting strong images for your portfolio based on key technical attributes like white balance, sharpness, artistic composition, and exposure.

Remember, your target audience will spend at least one minute looking at images you've posted on your website or social media. So, you need to make the most out of that minute to present your impressive work to the right people.

As a general rule of thumb, ask yourself if the work you intend to add to your portfolio is something you would like to do regularly. Successful photographers recommend displaying photos you want to shoot. For example, if you dislike the idea of taking photographs in large events, don't post them.

Be Selective

Being selective is another critical aspect of curating your photography. That's because your portfolio's quality will triumph over quantity. With this in mind, be precise with targeted selections to accomplish your primary goal. At this point, consider revisiting your list of goals and then customize a sub-portfolio for desired results of each objective. Once you've created your sub-portfolios, unify them like individual galleries to build a master portfolio.

Each photo in your portfolio must be complete, clean, and edited properly. As a professional photographer, you don't want your audience to look at your work and pinpoint areas that they feel would need some improvement. Also, limit the number of images you're displaying to at least twenty, but not less than ten. One of the common mistakes photographers make when organizing their portfolios is that they add too many photos from the same shoot.

As a result, all the images they display in their gallery look similar. The best way to showcase your photography skills and attention to detail is by presenting various images captured in different life events. Nonetheless, you'll still want to maintain each gallery's primary style or theme while showing off a diversity of photography skills.

Consistency Matters

Your target clients have expectations, and the first impression is vital to winning their trust. Typically, when someone wants to hire a photographer, they will go through their previous works beforehand. Doing so helps them get a clear picture of what they will get from their potential photographer.

Note that people looking for photography services tend to have a vision of what they want in their heads. If your collection of photos doesn't match their desired outcomes, they'll most likely look elsewhere. Therefore, assess your images to ensure they tell a lot about what you do. For example, if you're a wedding photographer who likes to take colorful shots with natural lighting, make sure you're consistent.

Consistency in your photography projects helps build trust with customers because they are confident you'll deliver what they want. It's also worth noting that consistency doesn't translate to being monotonous. It means your artistic style is unique.

Present Your Photos On Digital Sites

If you're hoping to attract the right clients in the digital age, having an online presence is a must. This means creating a website for your photography work. The good news is that you can design a professional photography portfolio website with little to zero coding knowledge.

Sites like Squarespace, WordPress, Weebly, Wix, and Flickr have tons of templates with design flexibility that allow you to customize your portfolio. Some websites feature unlimited image proofing, a time-saving element your clients will love. You can also blog about photography and implement search engine optimization best practices to boost your rankings on Google.

When optimizing your online portfolio, make sure to improve your website's speed. That way, your site visitors enjoy a high-quality user experience when browsing your gallery. You'll also want to look out for grammatical errors and typos in your captions to ensure your page looks professional. In addition to having a website-based portfolio, take advantage of social media to showcase your photography skills.

Displaying your work on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Instagram helps you reach a large audience and land the ideal client. You can also leverage photo-sharing communities like PhotoBlog, Unsplash, Exposure, and 500px.

Display Your Portfolio At Exhibitions

Displaying your photographs in art galleries, coffee shops, artist-run spaces, and restaurants is a perfect way to put the spotlight on your talent and hard work. Local galleries are always looking for quality content to showcase in their shows and exhibitions all year round. Plus, having your photos hang in galleries isn't complicated as it seems. All you need to do is find galleries with planned exhibitions and reserve space for displaying your art.

Next, select a theme that represents your artistic style. Make sure to pick an overarching theme for any photo display. For example, if you're a wedding photographer, display wedding photos you have captured at different events. This helps potential clients understand what you do, as they can relate to your photos more than they would if you display various shots of landscapes or birds.

After picking a theme, print and frame your photos. When printing exhibit photos, focus on quality to show off the sharpness and colors of your images. Experts suggest choosing medium-sized prints to ensure your pictures aren't too small or too big. Frames add dimension and size to your exhibit images, and the mat makes them appear complete and professional. So, when selecting frames, be sure they complement the images in question. Avoid frames that detract people's attention from your work.

Also, consider the size of the frames as it affects how your images appear when displayed on a gallery wall. If you choose small frames or the same size, your photo arrangement will look chaotic. It will also draw people's attention to your images. To display your photography work perfectly at galleries, consider choosing multi frames for your photo collection. Multi photo frames allow you to get creative by displaying your photos in a contemporary style. Depending on your artistic taste, you can choose multi photo frames with landscape or portrait orientation. You can also pick frames that hold four, three, or five photos.

Participate In Photography Contest To Get Recognition

Signing up for a photography contest is another perfect way to showcase your skills. There are many competitions out there you can sign up for to get recognition. To achieve the best results, you need to narrow it down to your niche. Let's say your specialty is landscape photography; avoid signing up for wildlife or wedding photography contests. You want to make sure you're presenting your portfolio to the right audience.

Furthermore, read the terms and conditions of every competition you enter. Some contests may have rules that allow them to use your photos whenever they desire without any form of reimbursement. A rule of thumb is never to join a competition if the terms are unfavorable. Take time to research photography contest sites where you can display your work with the assurance of getting noticed and even monetary benefits.

Join A Photography Forum To Present Your Work

If you're starting as a photographer, forums are the best places to present your photo collections. Therefore, look for groups designed for photographers. Like photo contests, join forums that provide plenty of room to showcase your talent. This means if you're into street photography, select forums designed for street photographers only.

Joining the right photography forums, discussion, or message boards increases your chances of gaining recognition. However, your captured images must be relevant and have the correct captions. The last thing you want is for people to view your images as self-promotion items, and it may result in the site pulling them down. Photography forums worth exploring include Reddit, Photo.net, Talk Photography, Amateur Photographer, and Luminous Landscape.

Building a photography portfolio is vital to get noticed and land your dream clients. However, the process of putting together a photographic portfolio and presenting it to your target audience can be daunting. To achieve the best outcomes, you need to curate your best images intentionally and be consistent when taking and editing photos. When it comes to presentation, display your photographic work on your website and social media pages. Also, showcase your images at photo or art galleries, join forums, and participate in photo contests.