Today’s article comes from our friends at Pixpa who are helping photographers build online portfolios complete with online stores, blogs & client galleries.
If you are a professional photographer, the importance of having an updated, professional photography portfolio cannot be overstated. Resumes and cover letters just don’t cut it when it comes to growing your career as a photographer. Photography is visual and when you are trying to secure clients and grow your photography business, you need to be able to show your work not just talk about it.
Photo captured by Kenny Leys
Earlier photographers used to carry bulky physical copies of their portfolio everywhere they went. it. These days it is more common to host your portfolio online through a professional photography website. But how do you create an online photography portfolio and why do you even need one? In this article we will talk about why you need an online photography portfolio and some of the dos and don’ts to keep in mind when building your photography portfolio online!
Why do you need an online photography portfolio
Your online photography portfolio makes it easier for you to showcase and share your work with people. Instead of carrying around a bulky physical portfolio, you can simply share a link to your online portfolio and instantly showcase your work to potential clients. But that’s not all! If you choose the right portfolio builder while creating your portfolio website, you can get features and services that turn your portfolio into more than just a place for you to display your photographs! You can sell your photographs directly as prints or digital downloads, start a photo blog, simplify your client proofing and customer management workflow, take bookings directly from your photography portfolio and more.
An online photography portfolio can be extremely versatile and multipurpose tool for you to grow your photography business and take it to new heights
Building your photography portfolio online: Dos
1. Curate your portfolio
The first rule of building a portfolio is to curate your work. You likely have a lot of photographs that you consider to be good or excellent but you can’t include them all. You can’t upload hundreds of photographs to your online portfolio because it defeats the purpose of a portfolio. You want to show potential clients what you are capable of and the best way of doing this is by curating a small, easily viewable and digestible sample of your best work and uploading it to your portfolio website. Always remember that less is more. A few excellent pieces of work are much more efficient and impactful than hundreds of mediocre pieces. Too many photographs is a recipe for a cluttered and overcrowded portfolio that fails to make any impact.
2. Choose the right portfolio website builder
Choosing the right portfolio website builder is essential when you are looking to create your online photography portfolio. You need a portfolio builder that can help you create an all-in-one hub from where you can level up your photography career. For this, it is important to pick a builder that is versatile, feature-rich and understands the needs of photographers. Rich gallery options for your photographs is just one part of this. A good photography portfolio builder will also give you client-proofing options, e-commerce facilities and more. The right website builder can not only make creating your photography portfolio a breeze but can also give a multipurpose tool to grow your business.
Building a photography portfolio
3. Include a CTA
A CTA or Call to Action is a simple statement or phrase that encourages site visitors to take an action like buy a product or book a service. You may have seen statements like “Call us now!” or “Click for more information!” appended at the bottom of advertisements on the internet or on other media. These simple statements are CTAs and they convey a sense of urgency which encourages and incentivizes people to engage further with the advertisement which can further lead them to eventually purchasing the products or services being advertised. Similar to this, a simple statement like “Book now” or “Enquire for bookings” can turn your online portfolio into an effective platform for marketing your services and securing clients.
4. Don’t forget about SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Why is SEO important for your photography portfolio? Well, if you are going to host your portfolio online on a website, you need to be able to make sure that your portfolio website is easily discoverable and accessible on the internet. Good SEO practices help you stand out in the ocean of the internet by making sure your website is properly indexed by search engines and ranks well on search engine result pages. Doing this helps you get more organic web traffic to your portfolio website by leveraging search engines. SEO is one of the most cost-efficient marketing tools available to photographers.
Building your photography portfolio online: Don’ts
1. Forget to keep your portfolio up to date
This the most common mistake you can make when it comes to your photography portfolio is to forget to keep it up to date. You always want to showcase your best and most recent work in your portfolio. Your work from five years ago is not representative of your work now. This means that if your portfolio is not up to date then any clients who may book you based on your work from earlier may feel misled if your style has since then changed. If your work has improved or changed significantly in the years you have been working then it becomes essential for you to update your online portfolio to reflect that improvement and change.
2. Be afraid of working for free
This tip is mainly for newbie photographers who may not have a lot of experience. Your portfolio is, after all, built from the work you have done and the photographs you have taken. When you are just starting out, you may not have a lot of work to showcase. It is not always a bad idea, for a newbie photographer, to undertake a few photoshoots for free in order to build experience. You always need to be careful when you are working for free. Set proper boundaries and ensure that you are not taken advantage of. As you grow in experience and become more established, you won’t have to take on projects for free but for newcomers looking to build up their online portfolio, it may not always be a bad idea.
3. Include too many similar images
Your online photography portfolio is meant to showcase your range across different genres or styles of photography. Sticking to just one specific niche can be restrictive for you, both artistically and also from a business perspective because it limits the kinds of clients you can service and the kinds of gigs you can undertake. By having too many similar photographs in your portfolio, you sacrifice precious space because you are essentially showing people the same thing over and over again instead of taking the opportunity to promote the fact that you can work in multiple genres and produce photographs utilizing different styles and techniques. Adaptability and range are always good qualities to have as a photographer and showcasing a variety of different kinds of work in your portfolio is a good way of displaying that.
Photo captured by Anete Lusina; ISO 1250, f/2.5, 1/250s, 50mm.
4. Neglect to show the person behind the lens
Take the opportunity to showcase the person behind the lens in your portfolio. It always helps to humanize yourself and your work by including a short bio of yourself on your online portfolio. This helps people connect to your work better and lets them know the photographer and not just the photographs. An about page or biography can also be an excellent place to talk about the themes and motivations behind your photographs and why you do what you do in the first place. Neglecting to include an about page can make your portfolio seem stiff and disconnected which is not good.
Summing up!
We live in the era of the internet where most businesses have moved either completely or at least partially online. Photographers and other creative professionals are no different. While you may be conducting your photoshoots offline, things like marketing, promotion, networking and client management and bookings need to happen largely online. This is why it is important to have an online portfolio website which can be the all-in-one hub for your photography business.
We hope this article was of interest and help to you. Building a photography portfolio online can be a little bit intimidating, especially if it’s your first time. But with the right tools and the right advice, you will find that nothing is quite as complicated as it seems.
About the Author:
Anisha Singh has an experience of 10+ years in graphic design and content creation. She is currently working on content strategy and creation for Pixpa, a website builder for photographers, creators & small businesses.
Learn more: The Photography Portfolio Builder
Like This Article?
Don't Miss The Next One!
Join over 100,000 photographers of all experience levels who receive our free photography tips and articles to stay current:
Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever. It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.