Curating a Captivating Portfolio: Top Strategies for Creative Photographers
From creating an Instagram account or a blog to participating in Discord servers or digital forums, there are countless opportunities to showcase your visual arts skills on the internet today. And if you’re a photographer, you have the added benefit of being able to use platforms that have been designed specifically with photography fanatics in mind (like Flickr!).
But even with all these digital tools at your disposal, it can be tricky to determine what the best approach is for building up your own photography portfolio. Do you build your own website or do you focus on growing a social media presence? And what social media platforms should you be showcasing your work on?
We’ll be sharing some of the top considerations that photographic artists of today are likely to make when setting up their digital portfolios. Read on to unearth the top strategies for getting your work out there and building up your digital visibility as a creative photographer today.
Take advantage of creative tools
Creative photographers should be confident with using a wide range of creative tools. So our first tip is to play around with tools like a collage maker, a premium photo editor, and maybe even some graphic design software – just to see how you can take your creative snapshots to the next level with regards to their presentation.
Being able to demonstrate your ability to use creative photo editing tools in your portfolio can naturally open up a world of potential professional opportunities as well – if you do want to start taking on clients and cultivating a career as a photographer or photo editor. If this is where you’d like to take your craft, however, then we also recommend that you think critically about the creative tools you do want to become proficient with. Honing your skills on the right tools can help you attract a wider range of prospective clients.
Invest in your photography studio space
Alongside using photo editing software in innovative ways, creative photographers generally also have to experiment with different file types and sizes. This is to determine the best methods for editing highly detailed image files that may be used for a range of different contexts. Some projects may be best formatted as a PNG or even as an SVG or vector image.
And when it comes to storing image files of varying sizes (or in several formats), you’ll naturally need to have plenty of digital storage solutions on hand. This means investing in hard disk drives and other tech assets for your photography studio space. With the right storage solutions on hand, you can ensure that you always have the capacity to experiment with image development and editing, allowing you the space and practical capability to hone your skills further and add inventive works to your portfolio.
Photographers looking to go pro should also invest in studio organisation equipment. This includes things like storage boxes for holding old HDDs, label makers for marking all archived drives, and perhaps even shelving or additional storage for keeping all of your field equipment. Having a well-organised studio space is quintessential for staying productive as a freelancer.
Use graphic design skills to build your personal brand
Knowing how to market yourself is of paramount importance for all kinds of professionals, but for photographers and other visual artists, it’s downright essential. And thankfully, developing a personal brand that actually helps you stand out is a lot easier than you may expect it to be. In fact, you can start to develop your brand identity by playing around with graphic design software like the apps across Adobe’s Creative Cloud.
A great place to start here is by mocking up some logos for your freelance photography business. This logo can then be used as the icon for your web portfolio, or even as the profile image for your social media accounts.
You may even take this brand development strategy one step further by creating your own custom graphics for your web portfolio. This ensures that browsing through your digital portfolio becomes an experience all on its own.
All of your original icons and graphics can then be used to create a sense of unity or cohesion between your web portfolio and your photographer social media profiles. But more on this below!
Share your creations on social media
The best digital portfolios tend to welcome interaction. Not only does this make your work feel more accessible to potential clients, but it also presents you as an authentic and approachable figure yourself. That’s why so many photographers are opting to build up both a web portfolio as well as an Instagram or Flickr account. Having these social media profiles set up help add an extra level of legitimacy and passion to your photography business.
Instagram is also a fantastic platform for showcasing your creative photography skills, and this includes your video editing skills too, thanks to the platform’s new Reels features. Sharing your creations on platforms where you can interact with prospective clients (and garner positive feedback and reviews in real-time) will naturally help you organically promote your photography business alongside potentially helping you build up your professional network as well.
Set up creator profiles on photo-sharing sites
And speaking of building up your professional network, it’s perfectly reasonable for professional photographers to want their work to be used as frequently as possible. After all, that is the best way to be able to pay yourself a consistent salary. So if you do want to set up creator profiles on photo-sharing sites or stock photo websites, then just do it!
With these platforms, every time your photo gets downloaded, you can receive a little money in your pocket. This will not only help you establish yourself as a professional photographer, but it could also help generate demand for your work. And given how broad the content tends to be on these photo-sharing sites, there is definitely scope for creative or abstract photographers to make just as much of a splash on these platforms as landscape photographers or other more mainstream photography styles.
So set up those profiles and add to them at your own pace. The income from your downloads may be able to fund the expansion of your portfolio, helping you establish yourself as not just a photographer, but a photographic artist as well.
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All in all, cultivating a creative photography portfolio requires you to think critically about how you want to market yourself. What niche are you looking to fill in this highly competitive market? And what sets you apart from other similar artists? Answering these questions can help you create a digital presence that ensures you’re seen just the way you’d like to be.