How to Design a Professional Portfolio

Browse all Photography Clips episodes

A professional photography portfolio introduces your work to potential clients, galleries, and art buyers. It should show both the quality of your photographs and the kind of work you want to create. Here are four ways to build a focused collection that is easy to review.

1. It Starts with Quality over Quantity

The one mistake that I see most often is the portfolio that attempts to overwhelm the viewer with a plethora of images. That massive collection of photos isn't really necessary – a dozen of your best images will be much more impressive than a book of 50 mediocre photos. In fact, even if you do have hundreds of museum-quality images, you're still better off choosing a limited selection. The people looking at your body of work will find smaller collections easier to examine in detail.

2. Identifying Your Audience

The most important facet of portfolio design is your audience. Once you've identified your audience, then you'll be able to make larger decisions about what your portfolio should contain.

There are two key things to consider about your audience. The first is your audience’s preferred genre. If you're a wedding photographer, for instance, then keep landscapes and abstracts out of your portfolio unless they relate to weddings in some way – like a landscape showing the wedding venue or an abstract of the wedding ring.

The second thing to consider is your audience’s preferred style. If you're presenting at a gallery that specializes in soothing natural scenes, not only would you want to avoid gritty urban photography, but you'd probably also want to focus on images that are stylistically similar to those that the gallery displays. If on the other hand, you’re a portrait photographer, your clients will be shopping for a style that they like, which means you can safely showcase images in a variety of styles to show your versatility.

3. Print versus Digital Portfolios

A professional portfolio can be printed, digital, or both. Choose the format that suits the person reviewing it and follow any submission instructions. Prints show how your photographs look on paper. A well-designed website or digital presentation makes your work easy to share and view remotely.

Prints also come with several major advantages. People can look at your photographs under various types of lighting and they can more easily flip back and forth through your collection. If you have your portfolio mounted or you use a binder with sleeves, people will also be able to lay your images out to make a comparison or to see how well each image works with all the others.

For a digital portfolio, make navigation simple and check the images on more than one screen. Use files that look sharp without making the page slow to load. If someone requests a PDF, follow their size and format requirements.

4. Putting Your Portfolio Together

There are hundreds of ways to go about building a portfolio, from mounting boards to binders or hardbound printed books. To choose the right method, it helps to consider what your audience might prefer. Art buyers and gallery owners may well like mounted or matted images because they can pair your photos and rearrange them. Binders or books of mounted prints don’t offer you quite as much flexibility, but they're much easier to transport and you can find them in any number of shapes, sizes, and colors.

A printed book is another option. Quality depends on the printing process, paper, and supplier, so inspect a sample before ordering. If you sell photo books to clients, a portfolio book can also demonstrate the product they will receive. Whatever format you choose, let the photographs remain the focus.

There are many different things to consider when putting together your portfolio. Stick with these guidelines to create a professional portfolio that impresses your clients.

Learn More

Build a powerful portfolio

Learn to critique your photographs

View my photography prints