10 Tips to Enhance your Photography Portfolio

Most of the time, photographers are busy with their work and don’t get enough time to work on their portfolios. Since, the whole world is in the pause at the moment, all thanks to coronavirus, we finally get some time to work on it.

Now, this is the time where you have to utilize all your time and work on your portfolios. So, here are some tips to enhance your photography portfolio.

Update your work

Updating your work, it’s one of the easiest tasks to do, but when you get busy and just want to rest as soon as you get home, it just slips off the list. A portfolio is like photographs of your entire journey. It tells your audience and your potential clients about your work, the thing that you are working on and all the achievements that you have accomplished throughout the time.

Just like human evolution, everything changes and so does our style of shooting. Not updating your portfolio gives hints to the client that you may not have worked recently or haven’t try new themes and styles. Keeping your portfolio up to date at least a few times in a year will not only help to impress your client but also helps you to stay ahead in the competition. Try to update your portfolio once a month, you could aim for two if you like. And, if you want to increase some genuine followers, try to update it immediately and share it in your circle.

Give space to your not favorite shot

It might sound a little absurd but you should give some space to your not so favorite shot.

Well, our portfolio is all about showcasing the best work and work that captures the heart and minds of our clients. But in reality, we have to show everything that we have. Just think this way, if you somehow showcase the varieties of shots that you have taken over the years then you have a lot of things to talk about with your clients right?

Ambir Tolang via Neptos

Clients may or may not have the interest to look at all your varieties but there will be some clients who will be looking for a complete package. And that’s where your varieties of work might come handy. So, don’t just go for your best work, including varieties of your work.

Create a theme and consistency in your work

Have you ever come across some portfolios where your eyes got stuck for a moment and you are literally like “wow”, this guy is amazing?

Well, it has happened, right? So, what’s the reason behind it? The number one reason for this would be a unique shot with some good theme and the second one would be consistent work. This might sound too difficult but here’s the catch, you just have to catch the attention of the users and the theme can be varied.

The theme of your photographs depends on varieties of matter. For instance, it might be a regular and irregular subject, while it can be mood, lighting, bright and dark photography or it might be simply as color palettes.

So, try to maintain consistency with some theme, it will help you to enhance your photography portfolio.

Different Angles and Aspect ratios

When it comes to photography, different angles and aspect ratios play a very big role. If you are working for a client, then you must be well aware of various aspect ratios and you should have the capacity to click photos in all those ratios.

With the current trend, you might need to shoot images for different devices and different platforms. For instance, if your client wants you to shoot a photo for an Instagram advertisement then you must be able to click as the normal photo size and the Instagram photo size is different. Similarly, the aspect ratios of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Twitter are all different. On the other hand, the aspect ratios in the mobile, website are different.

pic by initiate-it.com

So, clicking on those aspect ratios with different angles will add value to your portfolio.

Don’t upload huge files, the only best resolution

People these days want everything fast and easy, if they have to wait for a little, then they will just go “pfff”, they’re simply gone. Well, it goes for everything that includes your portfolio. And one of the reasons which make people wait for a while is to upload an image with a huge size.

So, don’t upload huge files which slows up the speed of your portfolio. Likewise, there’s another good reason why you should upload only the best resolution pictures. If you have an amazing work that simply lures the audience, then there’s a high chance that your work might get stolen. So, if you upload the best resolution (lower than original size) pictures then it might also help you get rid of your thieves.

Sounds good right?

Always use a watermark on your pictures

If you are building a portfolio and it’s in public domain sites, then it’s better to use a watermark in every photo. Watermark is like a digital signature and it sometimes works as a brand that personally benefits the photographer in several ways.

Likewise, the use of watermark protects the image from unauthorized and misuse and it helps you to get rid of your thieves. However, you should not overuse the watermark and it shouldn’t be all over your pictures. Better, if you use it around the bottom corner of the images.

Rename your file

Most of the time, I hesitate to rename my file and upload it into several social sites with just random camera generated name i.e. IMG_2548. Well, it will save me a lot of time which I can put it into other works, but if you are waiting for an amazing response online with such filename then my friend, you are doing it wrong.

So, what’s the right way? Well, before moving to the right way, you have to understand how things work.

If you are uploading in social sites or simply on the internet, then Titles, Keywords, and file names, these are something that tells search engines like google, yahoo and Bing more about your picture. And hence, it will provide the result to the users who are looking for similar results. It is part of on-site SEO and doing it with every picture will somehow help you to grab a lot of attention. So, if your photo is about sunshine then make sure you include sunshine in your file i.e. Kevin Sunshine Photography.

Work on your title and tags

Titles and tags help users & potential clients to discover your content. If you use it properly, then it will also help you to generate sales and get potential clients. Whenever you are writing the title, make sure it is descriptive and answer the basic questions like Who, What, When, Where and Why.

One the other hand, Tags or keywords helps search engines like google, yahoo, and Bing to identify the details of the image. So, it’s better to use it precisely and describe the image with tags or keywords that state broader topics, feelings, concepts & genre. It is a good practice to use up to 25 individual keywords.

Social Share

When it comes to social sharing, don’t hesitate to share the details of the picture with your fans. Create a page on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and post your content regularly. If you can do some storytelling, people love stories and want to know more about the pictures.

Besides, these platforms you should be on Pinterest. Pinterest is like the search engines of the image. Use the proper titles, keywords, and link of the image, it will help users directly to land on your portfolio. That’s awesome right.

Choose a platform that makes your and client life easier

When it’s about creating a portfolio, you have to be very selective and careful in choosing the right platform. Well, tons of portfolio making sites offer good service with a lot of cool features but you have to pay for it. Likewise, you may register a domain under your name and create a portfolio site, but then you have to pay to the developer and pour some extra money to different things like domain, hosting, developer, etc.

So, how to create a portfolio? Well if you are here and reading this article then you are just a click away from creating an extensive portfolio. Just visit Neptos and register yourself as a photographer.

Why Neptos portfolio?

Well, the design and interface of the portfolio is nice & simple, and also mobile friendly. If we have to mention it’s features then you can write a biography, add your specialization, honors, area of expertise, including recognition, showcasing your best work and integrate all your social channels.

Not only that, you can also:

• Create your personalized blog and tell stories of every picture.
• You have power over your photos, it’s you who decide what to sell and what not to. Don’t forget to use Sell & Not to Sell feature.
• Additionally, you can create photo albums and share them in your circle with a single link.
• And at last, we are giving unlimited photo storage.

Besides, it’s all free. So, what are you waiting for? Register yourself and start building your portfolio and be ahead in the game.