Michael Mutmansky
18-Apr-2002, 12:36
Greetings group,
I would like to assemble a portfolio of my architectural photography that I can use to start marketing my local architects, engineers, and other building profes sionals. I am having a bit of a quandry about the 'format' of the portfolio, an d thought I might elicit some input from the group.
I am not currently a professional photographer, but my skills are sufficient for the local architectural market, and eventually, I would like to make this a sub stantial portion of my income. Most of the projects that I have photographed I was involved in as an engineering consultant, so I have a decent number of proje cts to use for a portfolio right now.
I am thinking about what the protfolio should be, and I have come up with severa l requirements:
1. It must be flexible. I would like to put together a large portfolio of imag es, and then pull the ones I consider appropriate for the particular potential c lient. This means that the images should be on individual boards and not bound into a book of any type. So, there is a 'master' set of images, and I pull the images that are suitable for a landscape architect before I go to show them what I can offer them, for example.
2. It needs to be able to withstand handling without showing wear or fingerprin ts, etc. For this reason, I am having the images printed on matte surface paper .
3. The images must be large enough to show the benefits of the 4x5 negatives. I have selected 8x10 as the appropriate image size.
4. It must be somewhat portable and easily viewed. For this reason, the 8x10 i mage size is as large as it reasonably can be.
So, I am thinking about mounting the 8x10 images on an 11x14 board, and using a black overmat window over top. This will allow me to replace the overmat if it gets dirty, and also gives the viewer a place to hold the image without placing their fingers on the image itself.
Then, I thought I would get some of the nice Light Impression presentation portf olio boxes to use for the actual portfolio case.
I figure that the portfolio should have at most about 20 or so images in it, to keep the time required to view it to a couple of minutes. Clearly, these would be the twenty best images I have made right now, and as I add more images, then I can be more selective about what I show the potential client.
Now, what I would like to know is if I am going in the wrong direction with the protfolio? Does the overall package and 'image' of the portfolio correspond wit h architectural photography services? I have seen a couple over the years, but not enough to know if I am barking up the wrong tree with this.
Any thoughts on the overall presentation style and specific details would be gre atly appreciated. I especially want to hear if this type of portfolio is useful for you as a photographer and for the potential client.
If my portfolio design deviates substantially from the general industry standard prectice, can anyone tell me what they think the standard prectice is? I feel that deviating is acceptable, if there is a good enough reason, but otherwise, t he potential client may note the deviation as an 'oddity', which is the last imp ression I would like to give to a potential client.
Thanks very much for any comments,
---Michael
I would like to assemble a portfolio of my architectural photography that I can use to start marketing my local architects, engineers, and other building profes sionals. I am having a bit of a quandry about the 'format' of the portfolio, an d thought I might elicit some input from the group.
I am not currently a professional photographer, but my skills are sufficient for the local architectural market, and eventually, I would like to make this a sub stantial portion of my income. Most of the projects that I have photographed I was involved in as an engineering consultant, so I have a decent number of proje cts to use for a portfolio right now.
I am thinking about what the protfolio should be, and I have come up with severa l requirements:
1. It must be flexible. I would like to put together a large portfolio of imag es, and then pull the ones I consider appropriate for the particular potential c lient. This means that the images should be on individual boards and not bound into a book of any type. So, there is a 'master' set of images, and I pull the images that are suitable for a landscape architect before I go to show them what I can offer them, for example.
2. It needs to be able to withstand handling without showing wear or fingerprin ts, etc. For this reason, I am having the images printed on matte surface paper .
3. The images must be large enough to show the benefits of the 4x5 negatives. I have selected 8x10 as the appropriate image size.
4. It must be somewhat portable and easily viewed. For this reason, the 8x10 i mage size is as large as it reasonably can be.
So, I am thinking about mounting the 8x10 images on an 11x14 board, and using a black overmat window over top. This will allow me to replace the overmat if it gets dirty, and also gives the viewer a place to hold the image without placing their fingers on the image itself.
Then, I thought I would get some of the nice Light Impression presentation portf olio boxes to use for the actual portfolio case.
I figure that the portfolio should have at most about 20 or so images in it, to keep the time required to view it to a couple of minutes. Clearly, these would be the twenty best images I have made right now, and as I add more images, then I can be more selective about what I show the potential client.
Now, what I would like to know is if I am going in the wrong direction with the protfolio? Does the overall package and 'image' of the portfolio correspond wit h architectural photography services? I have seen a couple over the years, but not enough to know if I am barking up the wrong tree with this.
Any thoughts on the overall presentation style and specific details would be gre atly appreciated. I especially want to hear if this type of portfolio is useful for you as a photographer and for the potential client.
If my portfolio design deviates substantially from the general industry standard prectice, can anyone tell me what they think the standard prectice is? I feel that deviating is acceptable, if there is a good enough reason, but otherwise, t he potential client may note the deviation as an 'oddity', which is the last imp ression I would like to give to a potential client.
Thanks very much for any comments,
---Michael