Your portfolio website is your own personal site, where you can present your creative or commercial work. Your portfolio is literally everything when it comes to how you’re perceived as a photographer — whether you’re an artist, hobbyist, or a professional photographer.
A portfolio website gives gravitas to your photographs, provides credibility, notoriety, and results in whether you get hired and how much you can earn as a photographer. It’s the final product of your photography; you simply must have one to be taken seriously. And even if photography is only a hobby for you, you’ll still benefit from being discovered and getting some gigs to make money, at least for some new photography toys!
What makes a powerful portfolio that gets you noticed? Curate your best photos, put some thought into your “About” and “Contact” pages, and sprinkle in some SlickPic magic to have a stunning portfolio website that will get your work noticed.
How many photos should I put into a portfolio website?
Professional portfolio reviewers say that a good portfolio should have 3 – 4 pages of your best photos. The pages should reflect the types of photography (categories) you shoot and contain anywhere from 12 to 24 photos per page. If you shoot everything, choose only the categories you are best at.
Remember, less is more. As a rule of thumb, you are judged by the worst photo in your portfolio, so only put your absolute best photographs. For all your other photoshoots, you can display them in the SlickPic gallery.
Other considerations
Portfolio reviewers recommend a simple portfolio, with a white background, simple fonts, and a clear navigation, making sure that the focus is on your photos.
After your portfolio is completed, whenever you add a new photo, one of the older photos should go. This way you’ll keep your portfolio compact and it will start to improve over time as you upgrade the content. Upgrading your website with new photos is a great way of keeping your portfolio fresh and interesting and ensuring that visitors will want to keep returning.
For more guidance on how to create a great portfolio website see the article on Helpful Do’s and Don’ts When Setting Up a Portfolio Website.