Craft
Building a Portfolio That Argues for You
Photo: Raden Prasetya / Unsplash
Most portfolios are an archive. The good ones are an argument. On editing ruthlessly, and why your favourite image is usually the problem.
A portfolio is not a record of everything you have shot. It is a claim about what you should be booked for.
That distinction is the whole discipline.
Cut to twelve
If you show forty images, the client remembers the weakest four. Twelve strong frames make a stronger case than forty good ones, and the edit itself demonstrates judgement — which is a thing people hire for.
The test I use: would I be happy if a client saw only this image and formed their entire opinion from it? If no, it goes.
Your favourite is usually wrong
The image you love is often the one from the day you felt best, not the one that works hardest. Sentiment is not a category of quality.
Ask someone who does not like you to make the first cut. You will hate it and it will be better.
Range versus coherence
New models over-index on range — proving they can do everything. Working models index on coherence, because a booker needs to picture you in their frame, and too much variety makes that harder, not easier.
Show two or three things convincingly. The rest can live on a second card.
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