PHOTOGRAPHERS PERSPECTIVE
I thought I might write something to models or those aspiring to present a marketable portfolio to prospective clients. No matter how you look at it a models portfolio is her resume used to acquire work and to promote her skills abilities as well as the looks she can present. If the portfolio of images is intended to attract clients here are a few things to consider when selecting images for it.
The images you select demonstrate your understanding of the medium you appear in weather it be video or still photography. The things a client will look for are first how your look fits the project they are involved in, and then they will look at how much work it will be to fit you into that role or position or how efficiently they feel they can work with you. They will see what you feel looks good in a photo, and know that it is something they want to hire you to bring to the project, or something they have to teach you not to do in their photos. In other words they may see habits they want to avoid and have to ask you not to do, as often as they will see features they will want you to bring to the project.
When I look at a models portfolio I look for the things I need the model to unlearn in order to achieve what I think it is great image, just as much as I look at the features I see that attract me. I never fault the model for the photographic qualities of the photo, but I do immediately see habits that will not encourage me to use this model for my projects. I am looking for someone to help me achieve a goal not hinder the speed at which I will get there.
There are many mistakes that I constantly see, that by themselves are not always bad but should they appear to be a habit they will warn me away form using that model. Rather the go into the specifically I might mention that a single image with this mistake is not an issue for me but it is when I see many images in the portfolio with the same or similar mistake appearing over and over again.
My goal is not to create the perfect photo as I do not really think thee is such a thing. My goal is to minimize the number of mistakes and achieve the best group of photos possible with the lease effort an time.
The portfolio is not made up of photos liked most by friends, family and hobbyists without a background in creating professional photos but images appreciated by the most successful people in the industry. Moms, Dads and friends look at a photo with a different eye than professionals and appreciate different things for obvious reasons. In fact friends and family are the last people to ask and the last opinions you should listen to unless they have professional experience and knowledge to back them up.
Use a variety of photos showing your face form all angles and many different body positions. Look very carefully and critically at the photo for what may be called distractions. Seek to minimize all of the distractions in every photo you present in your portfolio. When I see a portfolio where I do not find any distracting influences I any photo is feel confident this model will be able to enhance my work rather than make it harder to produce the final product.
When I am shooting portfolio images with my clients, much of my time is spent explaining the object is to reduce mistakes and to do so they learn some basic tricks to minize the % of error and increase the % of successful photos. What they do leanr is to concentrate on little details that remove distracting inflluences from the photo. When we are done we did not produce the perfect photo but we did produce photos with a higher likely hood of displaying compitence, confidence, skill and of course beauty.
Sadly most pretending to be professional photographers do not consider this and spend more time learning how to use thier equipmeent than they do learing about these common mistakes, so they cannot teach them, and of course that is why so many portfolios display issues that can make the most beautiful models undesireable and maybe unemplyable.