Tips To Create the Best Online Photography Portfolio
How To Make A Best Online Photography Portfolio
What do you need
- Camera (obviously) – you can choose your mobile phone or a simple digital camera or even an old film-based one with some sort of computer editing program.
- Computer, internet access, and time
- Patience! Not everyone will like what you are doing but if it’s true to your heart and soul then follow your heart.
How to start
Start with a little research of what’s already out there. Check some other portfolios on the web or in real life. And do more research on how they are set up, what sort of message is being sent out by them, and ask yourself why you like one over the other. Use it as an inspiration, look for ideas you can use in your portfolio.
What to show
This is totally up to you, but remember that this is your online portfolio so just show the very best of what you have shot so far! You don’t have to include all sorts of different genres or subject matter because no one will expect you to be an expert in every field.
Don’t show too many pictures, remember this is a portfolio and not an album so pick only your very best shots.
How to set it up
When we meet we can go through which program or website you prefer for displaying images online and we can talk about the layout and how to set it up. The design of a website can be as simple or as complicated as you want, there is no limit to the creative possibilities out there!
The final touch will be adding some text and your contact details. Again this is totally up to you but try to think about your target audience and what they want to see from a potential client.
Give it a try!
We’d love to see what you come up with. So before we meet for a first consultation just have a go at setting it up. Then, during our meeting, we can talk about your choices and ideas and how to turn them into reality. It’s a really fun process, especially if you are new to this, so just go for it!
Consider Your Target Audience
The point is that you should always think about your target audience because it’s the key to making an effective photography portfolio.
The intention of a photographer is usually to get their work published or sold, but there are different ways to go about this. For example, if your goal is to have your work featured in magazines and books, then you need to make sure they respond well to your style.
On the other hand, if you want to sell your work to private clients then it’s important that you understand what kind of customers are more likely to be interested in having your services.
This is very important because even though you don’t have people demanding your work, there are ways on how to market yourself to customers that are looking for what you have to offer.
Photography portfolios have evolved throughout the years due to changes in technology, but at the end of the day, they must convey your vision and style in a way that will empower potential clients.
If your focus is on commercial photography then make sure you know what kinds of photos sell well. Keep in mind that it’s not always the most artistic photos that make an impression, but rather those who are able to communicate a message effectively.
If you’re more talented at landscapes and nature photography then maybe your focus should be on stock photography because there are websites that offer royalties for each time somebody uses your photo.
A lot of people think that the only way to have successful photography is by being innovative and creative, but that’s just one part of it. In fact, you need to know how to sell yourself as well as your products.
Choose A Website Builder That Suits Your Needs
Most photographers are not designers. Though they may have some design skills, it’s often said that all photographers are born with a camera in their hands, but few really understand what makes good graphic design. So if you’re not the best designer around, how could you make your photography website stand out?
The answer is simple: Find someone who can do it for you. But hiring a designer can be expensive and time-consuming if you don’t know where to look. To show you the ropes, we’ve picked four website builders that let you build an online showcase of your work without breaking the bank or having design skills.
I will recommend Duda (design studio that also has web development team), Squarespace, Adobe Portfolio and Wix.
Duda
Offers very advanced features for both designers and developers to create professional websites with little effort. Duda is perfect if you want more than just a simple site – but it comes at a cost of $19/mo (after a free trial)
Squares pace
Easiest to use, you won’t need any technical knowledge to get started. Squarespace is mostly an out of the box solution – but it comes at a cost of $12/mo (after a free trial)
Wix
Years ago I would not recommend Wix, but since then they have made big improvements to their offering. Wix has introduced a new premium plan called Iris with lots of great features, but it comes at cost $13/mo (after a free trial)
Adobe portfolio
A least expensive and most powerful tool to create your website: Adobe portfolio is built by designers for designers – and it’s free! Try it out!
I hope this helps you find a great website builder that suits your needs.
Use High-Quality Photos With An Interesting Background For Best Effect
Today’s marketers have a lot to think about. The competition for customers has never been fiercer, and the digital landscape is constantly changing. As a marketer, you need to constantly strive to improve your business processes in order to keep up with this pace of change.
One of the most common changes that many marketers have been making recently is how they handle promotional materials. Chances are, you’ve gone through your existing portfolio and replaced the older images with newer ones. Nowadays, marketers are using much more than just “stock” photos. Marketers are finding that adding high-quality photos makes their work stand out from the competition in a big way.
But not all pictures are created equal. High-quality photos are often paired with an interesting background to make your portfolio pop! With that in mind, we’re going to show you some steps and tips for how you can create a great photography portfolio using photos with an interesting background:
Include Captions, Keywords, And Tags In Order To Rank Higher On Search Engines
More and more photographers are using SEO techniques to help get their work noticed. SEO is the practice of optimizing your site for search engines so that they can give you a high ranking in search results when people use phrases relevant to your business. In the online world, SEO services for photographers have become exceptionally important for websites because there are so many of them. Just think about checking out your favorite band on Wikipedia – there are so many results that it becomes difficult to choose which one is most accurate or has the highest quality information.
Even though SEO techniques are important for photographers’ websites, SEO may not be as widely known in photography circles. Because SEO is typically associated with websites.
However, SEO is not limited to just the internet – it can be applied to other areas as well. Including SEO in your photography business may sound intimidating initially. But SEO techniques are really just a set of rules that you need to follow. In order to get a high ranking from search engines.
For example, SEO for photography would focus on using important keywords in your images’ file names, captions, and alt tags. In this way, you will be able to get a high SEO score for phrases people use when searching for pictures of seascapes or seagulls from your local beach.
Adding SEO to your photography business is a good idea for several reasons. One, SEO can help you get free, targeted traffic that has high SEO scores. And the potential to turn into loyal customers.
Two, SEO can help raise awareness about your company and its website. Which in turn will increase the number of visitors to your site. And three, SEO can help you rank higher in search results when someone searches for specific types of photography. Ultimately leading to more business.
The Techniques
SEO techniques are very easy to follow, but they can be time-consuming. However, instead of just doing SEO on your website, you should also SEO your images. SEO is an effective SEO technique for photography websites because it helps search engines index the images on your site. Which will result in higher SEO scores for your business.
The first SEO technique you should focus on is including keywords in your images’ file names. File names are important because they are the SEO techniques that search engines use to index your images. So if you have an image of seascapes, name it seascapes-001.jpg or seascapes-002.jpg. This will include the keyword seascape in the file name, helping to get an SEO score for “seascape.”
You can also include SEO techniques in your file names by including the location. For example, seascapes-cape-canaveral.jpg would get an SEO score for “seascape” and “cape Canaveral.”
It is important not to use generic keywords like “photo,” or the SEO techniques will not be effective. In fact, SEO is really just about choosing the right words to target when SEO your images.
The SEO technique of using keywords in your image captions is a little different from SEO techniques in file names. Because SEO techniques for captions are typically used to help find an image in specific search results.
