Building a Photographic Portfolio

When you start looking for photography jobs and assignments, the first thing your client wants to see is some samples of your photography work. These samples collected together are called a portfolio. Your first step to making money from your photography is building a credible portfolio of your best work. There are several ways that you can do this.
Working at a non-profit charitable event: Non-profit charitable events are great experience and you will give you the chance to collect a lot of good photographic samples from these events for your portfolio. You may not get paid but you will gain a lot of experience and you will get some good shots.
Voluntary work: you can volunteer for some jobs and do them free just to build up your experience and portfolio. I have done free photography for bands in he past and had a real good time doing it.

Collecting some of your best shots together: As you take photos you can save some of your best to put in your portfolio. When photography is your hobby you will find many places to take pictures. I like to pick a theme and develop some photography shots on that theme. For example I live near the sea, so I would go to the beach and take loads of pictures, then when I get home sort the best ones out. Then do some photoshop enhancements to the pictures. But would be editing through to find the best ones so that I can use in my portfolio.

Taking some pictures of family and friends events:  This is great way to learn how to take photos of people. You can take pictures at family or friends events and keep a few for your portfolio, also they make great gifts to give to them. This will also give you good experience to perfect your skills and this will look good in the portfolio.

It is important to know just what area of photography you will be specializing in before you start to build your portfolio. Once you have decided this you can then start to build up a good collection of photo portfolio samples relevant to the type of photography you are into. It is good to show off your range of skills as a photographer. Take different photos from different angles and really show that you can master the different lighting set ups.

Make sure that you present your portfolio extremely well. Put your photos in nice looking portfolio folder that shows your professionalism. You can create a slick laptop presentation and show them off in style. A good idea would be to design a logo or think about creating a brand for yourself. So you can use this on all your photo samples, website and promotional material.

Your portfolio is critical to your photography business. Make sure that you take care to prepare it very well. It is your first introduction to your clients and first impressions are lasting ones. Your portfolio is also the means that your prospective clients will know that they can trust you to take fantastic pictures for them. You need to make your portfolio stand out from the rest. So the more time you take grooming the portfolio the better. Build confidence and trust in your prospective client.

About the Author. Gordon Powles is a Graphic Design Graduate and the founder of Gordon Powles-Media (http://www.gordonpowles-media.com) a design consultancy that specialises in Graphic Design and Promotional Marketing. With over fifteen years experience in the Graphic Design arena working for a variety of blue-chip and small business helping them to achieve their business goals. Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ - Building a Photographic Portfolio