Making A Portfolio

I'm in the process of gathering images for submission for publication. You might want to make a collection just to show arown, to archive because they are important images to you, or to impress a gallery owner. Regardless, there is a process involved in selecting and making images for said portfolio that might be interesting to discuss.

The first question is what images to include. I decided that I'd include only images from my fall holiday to Vancouver Island, many of which images have graced my blog, as recently as today. I ended up with about 20 images. A few just didn't fit (one was a mountain top from a plane, covered in snow - it was the only snow image and really didn't fit. A couple of other images weren't as strong as the others and I felt they dragged down the portfolio quality by their inclusion. Take it as a given that you will be known by your weakest images, that if the person you are trying to impress or persuade gets a chance to see a weak image before a strong one, you are doomed, that if the weak image follows the strong one, it drags down the strong one.

So, unless you have a strong reason to include all suitable images, only include your best in any portfolio. Do remember though that this may not necessarily be a collection of your favourites, it would be perfectly reasonable to include good images that others like yet which aren't your favourites.

That said, BEWARE, if you include images you really don't like (no matter how much others rave about them), they are sure to be chosen for the cover picture, the show brochure, or some other featuring which means you will be known by and for this image - if you don't want to be permanently and exclusively known for this image, then don't tempt the editor, gallery owner or whoever. You have been warned!

I had already decided to choose only black and white images - I had particular magazines in mind. it would be rare for it to be appropriate to include both black and white and colour. I personally don't like looking through books or magazines that mix colour and black and white within one article or section. Rarely is printing ideal for both black and white and colour in the same magazine or book (though Phot'Art does a pretty good job).

I now had about a dozen images for my portfolio. Half of them were driftwood images which meant that the other shots seemed like poor country cousins.

I now have to decide - do I limit the portfolio to just driftwood images? Definitely possible, though one wonders just how many driftwood images any one person would want to look at. Still, for publication, the editor is going to pick his or her favourites so only a selected few will grace the pages in likelihood. Do I then pad the collection with some good driftwood images from other shoots? If the definition of the collection is driftwood, or even deadwood, how about including an image of a burned stump in a farmers field shot on 4X5 many years ago - or a mostly dead tree within a park locally, or even a stump in a neighbours yard, or how about an image of a tree trunk (quite healthy) but with an old sawed off branch wound slowly healing?

Boy, now I'm really getting away from my original intention which was to show in a single portfolio, what I was able to find on a one week trip. I guess I could edit out most of the driftwood pictures and include perhaps three of the best, but the portfolio is getting a bit small - again editors like choices, Ideally I'd like to be able to show 12 - 15 good images and if the editor asks for more, have a backup of at least the same number again of strong alternate images.

Perhaps this weeding and choosing process is already familiar to you. it's not trivial. To a significant degree you are trying to guess (usually with little information) what the person is likely to want, be interested in, or select for sale or publication.

Some time ago I took to the local Glenbow Museum a number of landscape photographs as well as some old industrial images of historical significance (new images, old historical artifacts). Oddly, this museum known for it's interest in local history, rejected every single one of the industrial images - they wanted pretty post card type images only - go figure. Presumably they know what sells but it would have made sense to supply them only with 'historical' images which would almost certainly have resulted in outright rejection.

In the end, if the portfolio is for publication, I would place consistent theme above every other selection criteria, closely followed by the power of the individual images. One could include other images which flesh out the story (if there is one), but that rather depends on the kind of magazine you are looking to submit to. A travel magazine might well want a few powerful images and others to fill out the story, a photographic magazine probably wants to print only powerful images.

A gallery might not need a theme, particularly if you are already known - eg. retrospectives, best of collections etc., but for the most part even here a consistent theme is easier for them to manage - they don't want industrial mixed with landscape, black and white mixed with colour. Even abstract vs. literal landscapes can be an issue.

In the end, I still haven't decided exactly what to include in the portfolio. Hell, I haven't decided on what magazine yet and still haven't convinced myself the images are good enough to submit. I guess I'll be staring at them for a while yet, refining the portfolio and doing my best to realistically evaluate the quality of the images.

Arguably the worst that could happen is that the images get rejected out of hand and I'm free to submit again in the future with different images, but I don't like the idea of sending out images that are not as strong as possible - those images are me, warts and all.