Selecting Photographs for a Photographic Portfolio – A Tricky Process
Why do we hardly ever print our photographs anymore? It seems that in this era of tablets and smart phones that nearly all of our photographs are viewed on a screen. I think that this is a real shame. Photos are supposed to be printed. No tablet screen view can ever compare to a beautiful large format print of one of your best shots. I have to admit that I too am guilty of not printing many of my own photographs. I tend to rely entirely on my website as a photographic portfolio.
I was thinking about this when one of those rare moments of serendipity came my way. I received word that the good folks over at Social Print Studio, are in the midst of a very interesting challenge. They are asking photographers to put together a print portfolio of 39 photographs. “Why 39?” I hear you ask. Well, that’s the amount of photos that fit into their cool photo books. They also asked me to write a blog post describing how I put this portfolio together, how I chose the images, and why I chose those particular photos. So here it is!
Before beginning the task of choosing which photographs to include in the photo book, I have to decide what the purpose of the portfolio is and what am I trying to say with it.
What are my objectives in creating this portfolio?
Firstly, I want to use my photo book as a handy way of showing potential customers examples of my work when I’m out and about. I can do this with a smart phone or tablet but I think it’s nicer to be able to hand a customer something real and tangible like a photo book. This is also something that can be passed around among several people to leaf through. At 39 photos, I think it’s just the right length to give a good idea of the type of work I do without overwhelming the viewer with too much information.
Secondly, I want this portfolio to show who I am as a photographer. I want to strike a balance between showing the variety of subjects and styles in my portfolio while still making the individual photos work together as a collection. I also need to keep in mind that it’s important to choose what I think is my best work.
So, who am I as a photographer? Put simply, I’m a landscape photographer who specializes in urban landscapes. From time to time, I do a little natural landscape photography too. I mostly work in colour but do some black and white too. I also enjoy using textures to create a painting like feel to some of my photos. My subject locations include a mix of photos taken in my home city of Dublin as well as shots from my travels around Europe and North Africa.
I obviously want to include samples of all of this in the portfolio. It’s becoming increasingly obvious that I’m going to have to make some difficult choices in order to whittle my selection down to 39 images that still represent what I’ve described above.
After some thought, I’ve decide to organise my selection in the following way:
- 6 Photographs from my home city of Dublin.
- 14 Photographs from my travels around Europe and North Africa.
- 6 Landscape and nature photographs.
- 8 Black and white photographs
- 5 Textured style photographs
- Total – 39 photographs.
I think these allocations give a accurate idea of the range and type of photography I produce. Now it’s time to start choosing!
You can click on the photographs below to view larger versions.
Photography from my Home City of Dublin
Photography from my Travels
Landscape and Nature Photography
Black and White Photography
Textured Style Photography
It took me nearly 2 hours and a bucket of coffee to finally decide on the 39 photos above. I tried to include a mix of genres, styles, compositions and framing formats in the collection. You will also notice that the photos in the collection were taken at various of times during the day and night resulting in a variety of lighting conditions. I also tried to select images from a range of locations around my own country and from my travels abroad. The portfolio also contains a mix of photographic techniques such as long exposures, wide angles, exposure blends and more besides.
All in all, I think it gives a good idea of what type of photography I do and is a good representation of the images in my broader collection. I have to say that it was harder trying to decide what to leave out than what to include and there were a lot of tough decisions. All, that’s left to do now is order my photo book from Social Print Studio!
If you want to learn more about how I took the photographs above, check out my list of 20 tips for taking better landscape photographs.
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