Live Encore: Create a Professional Photography Portfolio

1. Introduction: I chose this topic for my live class because there are lots of photographers that do not represent themselves well because portfolio is basically how you market yourself as a photographer. If you do not know how to present your work, what work to include, then you're already set up to not be noticed as a photographer. My name is KC Nwakalor, I'm a documentary photographer based in Abuja, Nigeria and I work extensively across West Africa. On today's live class, I'm excited to discuss with you how you can build and present your portfolio as a photographer. We're going to discuss how to curate your pictures to represent your style and the type of photographer you are. Thanks for watching my Skillshare live class recorded with participation from the Skillshare community. Something to note. This class was recorded live and I got to interact with the audience as I was working. Let's get started. 2. Intro to Portfolios: Everybody, my name is Jasmine Saavedra. I'm a senior programs manager here at Skillshare. I use she, her pronouns. I'm based in Brooklyn and live by costly between here and Los Angeles. I work with our new teachers here at Skillshare and I'm so excited to be joined today by KC Nwakalor who is coming all the way from Abuja, Nigeria. KC is a prolific photojournalist and also a Skillshare teacher. Today we're going to be diving deep into how to create a beautiful professional portfolio. Without further ado, I am so honored to pass the mic over to KC Nwakalor. If we can make some digital noise for him you-all Over to you. Good day. Thanks for the introduction. My name is KC Nwakalor. I'm a documentary photographer, photojournalist, also producer based in Abuja, Nigeria. My work centers around socioeconomic issues, environmental issues, and health issues. I've produced work for a number of publications like the New York Times, Bloomberg, and a host of NGOs. Today we are going to be talking about how to curate and build your own professional photography portfolio. It's going to be very conversational with Jasmine asking some questions and me also answering and sharing my own work and how I build on that. Awesome. Well, can you tell us, KC, what are we going to be doing in our session today? What can students expect? It's going to be more about me describing the process of how to put together your work, what portfolio actually is, how it can be used, and how you can present your work as a photographer for different clients. To follow along, you basically just need your writing materials and of course, your ears Awesome. Well then, let's just dive right in. In terms of creating a professional portfolio, could you give us an overview of what should and shouldn't be present? Portfolio basically is a selection or collection of pictures that showcases a photographer's work. A lot of people also think that portfolio has to be your best works, but really it's not necessarily about showing your best shots and stuff is, also about showing the variety of work you do so that when people look at your portfolio they can understand what you represent and the type of work you produce. In my practice as a documentary photographer and photojournalist, I present my portfolio in two ways. I have selection from different photos as a documentary photographer, I'm producing more of photos stories. If I'm representing myself as a documentary photographer, I need to show photo stories as opposed to single images. Like on my website, maybe I can screencast that. On my website, the homepage has a different variety of shots. As a photographer, you have to make sure that your portfolio is showing the variety of shots you can produce because portfolio is like your first marketing material that markets you as a photographer. It's important that you show the variety of shots that you put and that you shoot. Like on my website, I start off with this picture that shows I can photograph protests, I can photograph the typical journalistic stuff. Then this one also working with crowds outside. Then this one shows more indoors children. The other one also shows I can make creative portraits. Can you guys see the picture? Should I make it larger? I think it would be. This is better. With this variety of shots, I show potential clients the range of work I can produce. I can work with children. I can make creative portraits. Then I can also go conceptual, but within the context of the type of work I produce because if I say I'm a documentary photographer and my work is very different from what the documentary photographer's work would look like, then it's confusing. Or if I say I'm a documentary photographer and I'm showing wedding pictures on my portfolio, it becomes a bit confusing for potential clients. I mentioned earlier that I do stories on health. With this picture, you see it's still in that line of what I said I do. Then I'm showing I can also work with lights; black and white. This is me showing the range of work I can produce so that potential clients can see that and consider hiring me, if that makes sense. Also in the collection is a different types of shots. I have the close-ups, I have the wide-angle shots, I have the portrait shoots, I have the actual shot like this one, just to have a balanced fill of the type of work I can produce. Also, this one is not necessarily the best picture, but it's a bit different. It's just a wide shot. It shows that I can take different types of shots. When I need to show my work to a publication, not just everyone now, I'm being very specific with the type of client, then I want to show my projects that I've done. This is basically me showing a variety of pictures but around the same story. The other one is pretty much different pictures from different projects, but this one is specifically on one project. Portfolios can be basically in two ways, it could be your general portfolio that shows the type of work you produce or it could be a specific story that captures how you tell stories. I just want to jump in with a question from Sean and I think you answered some of it. But in terms of your portfolios, do you have just one portfolio or do you also have different portfolios that dive into the more specifics of the different things that you do for specific clients or do you just have one that spans at all? On my website, my homepage has this variety of shots that I have worked on to show my range and the type of work I produce then I have various photo stories. But sometimes a client needs to come to your website then go through to start seeing that. If I have to bid for a job, maybe with an NGO, I would tend to show more of pictures that aligns with the type of work they produce. If I'm looking for work with an NGO, I would show more of my NGO work as opposed to showing them my New York Times or Bloomberg stories. I have various types of portfolios, but I create it depending on the need or the clients. It's like a CV like you have a general CV, but if you're looking for a specific role, then you want to highlight more of your experience that shows that you have the experience to do that work. I have one for my website but if I need to interact with a specific client, I would tell them my portfolio to match the work they're hoping for me to produce. Does that answer it? I think so. Sean, did that answer your question? Is that clear? Yes, awesome. You need a portfolio as a photographer. Another thing is, usually, a portfolio shouldn't be more than 20 pictures If it's too much, it becomes boring because people's attention span is very limited. You want to show them fewer pictures and you also want to show pictures that you don't need to explain. For most of these pictures, if you look at it, you can tell what's going on. It's a lot easier to present pictures that you don't need to explain because for your portfolio as a photographer, you won't have space to be writing a lot of captions or descriptions, so it's a lot easier to just work with pictures that are self-explanatory. 3. Using Different Mediums: You can basically show your portfolio in basically two ways. Online, which is through your website. I've seen people that also have their portfolio on Instagram. I recommend you have a website where you can share your work, be it free or paid. Then you can also share your work as a PDF, which is pretty much how you would share it with maybe NGOs that are calling for photographers to be for a specific job or assignment. You can also make photo books, like I have photo books for my work. It could be expensive in terms of printing, but it's also something you can consider if you have the resources to do it. With photo books, people can feel, look at your pictures and feel it, so prints are really good. Or you can have like leaflets that show short prints of your pictures for people to have a look. Then you could also have scenes, very tiny magazines that people can flip through and see your work. Then the other is online, which is the cheapest way and very much assessable. Technical question, here we go. In terms of creating physical publications of your work or projects like a photography book or program, do you use to line up the photos, the placement, and the pages? I use, what's the name of this app? It's very popular. Adobe? No, that's not what I use. I've forgotten the name. But you can use the Adobe InDesign to make like photo books. But there are like this, what's the aim of this website? I've forgotten the name but you just dropping your picture. I'll type in their name when I remember. But yeah, like you just dropping the pictures and there are different arrangements and you can use it. But I strongly recommend not using those type of apps. Like a PDF is best or Adobe InDesign for instance, because you don't want to be mixing too many pictures in the page, I would recommend you leave one picture in a page, so that it's artsy and it's not clunky. Because if you have like ten pages, that's enough to show your work. You can use one page per picture as opposed to having two pictures in one page. That's what I strongly recommend. I can't remember the name of the software. But once I remember it, I'm going to put it down. Another way you can show your work is also a portfolio to show like your TAs Sheets. If you've been published with a publication and you have a picture of the page where your works was published, you can also use it to show, okay, look at the people I've worked for and look at the type of work they published. On my website I have a place for TA sheets. It's also like an opportunity for potential clients to see where my work has been published and how it was laid out. To develop your portfolio, another important thing is for you to shoot more. Because if you don't have pictures to show, then basically you won't have anything to put in your portfolio. Like usually starting off is not usually easy for you, if you want to work for an NGO for instance, and one of the requirements is that you have a portfolio for NGO work and you haven't done any work, you're just starting up. One way to get off the ground is to volunteer for a local organization to take these pictures. Because the potentials of the type of work you can attract also depends on the type of work you've shot or the type of pictures that are in your portfolio, so it's very important that you shoot more. If you need to volunteer for an organization, maybe you would have to consider that, and volunteer and just get out and start telling stories and taking more pictures. Another thing to consider is to organize your work. Like on my page, I tried to spread it out. Like for my my website front page on my portfolio, I tried to show a variety of pictures. There are more interesting pictures of children that I had, but because I've already put a couple of children's shot, I have to get rid of those ones. You have to start finding those balance around, how many indoor pictures do I have? How many outdoor pictures do I have? How many pictures does children feature, does women feature? Does men feature? When you start finding that balance, how many is portraits? How many is wide shot? How many is close up? When you start exploring those varieties, then your portfolio will be richer. That's one thing I strongly recommend. Another thing I recommend is to cut back basically. You don't have to show all the pictures you have on your hard drive, on your portfolio. You have to select which one works. Another thing that most editors or people that hire photographers look at is the consistency in your work. If one person looks at one picture and it's entirely looks so different from the next, then the person hiring will be a bit worried because there is no relationship or consistent with the way you photograph. This is not to say you should photograph things exactly the same way, but you should have a style. Style in terms of how you compose your images, style in terms of how you edit your images. Because if the colors are so different from picture A to picture B, then it looks like you're still exploring or you're still doing trial and error. It's difficult to hire and spend money on someone that you're not sure of the type of outputs they will produce. That's another thing to consider. Then another part is also to consider your audience. Understanding the type of people that would likely be looking at your work. Understanding whether you are approaching, like on my website for instance, I have a page for my personal projects because there are editors does that wants to see okay, let's leave the work that you've been commissioned to do. What are you really interested in photographing as a person? I divided my work in terms of my personal projects, editorial assignments, which is basically the ones I do for publications and NGO assignments. It helps to divide or categorize your work in this way because it helps the potential clients or the audience to know, okay, this is where I'm going to go to, to look for the type of content that would match what we are trying to do. 4. Using Text & Editing: This one is coming in from Tessa. You mentioned that photo should be self-explanatory, would you recommend to also add some lines of texts in addition to a picture or title caption or the location to add some context to the photo in the situation in which it was shot? For portfolio, it depends. That's why I said it depends on the client or who you are showing the work. For instance, if I'm presenting a portfolio review where photo editors from different publications or NGOs or galleries come to look at my work, I would put a short narrative text that describes what the project is about. Basically, rise in temperature in the Niger Delta captures how families cope with rising temperature in Obrikom community Niger Delta as a result of harmful oil exploration practices. That's pretty much like an idea of what the story is about. You looking at the picture, you can get a sense of what's going on if that makes sense. Captions can be very difficult to read if your aim is to show your pictures. That's why it's good to take pictures that if you observe it then you can understand what's going on. Like on this picture, you can see a woman pouring water on her head. Clearly she's hot because the story is about heat. Then you see her in her farm showing this is the type of plants that she produces. Then you see a picture of her son sweating, and then you can see the white stuff on her skin, which is like a talcum powder. The pictures are very self-explanatory. If you're presenting as a PDF, maybe you can put captions, but if it's more like a print, I strongly recommend that you just write a descriptive text that covers what the project is about, and the title, then you let people look at the picture and enjoy it. Like I said, different situations would require different approach. You should be open to that, but always make sure that the text is not destructive from the work. Or people are not spending so much time reading that they are not enjoying and digesting your pictures. We have another question coming in, and I think this is more around your creative process on going a little bit deeper into how you make the decision when you have so many amazing photos and so many different types of stories that you tell how to really decide. I think this actually might be more relevant for the PDF model, which feels a little bit more concrete than a website that you can constantly update or Instagram. One, I want to know, do you ever struggle with the selection process and two, if you have any tips on how to make the cut? I struggle with the selection process. We all do, especially if you have a lot of pictures that you like or that you are proud of, that you want to show off. It's really usually very difficult to make that selection. But the most important thing is making sure that whatever pictures you are putting in that selection represents the type of work you produce. When I was starting off this live, I mentioned that there are two types of portfolios, basically. One is general, and another one is more like niche portfolio. Maybe as a documentary photographer, if I'm showing my portfolio as a documentary photographer, nobody wants to see single images. People wants to see my photo stories. What this means is, if I want to show my work to a photo editor, I could select my best two photo stories that matches the type of work that specific editor does. If I'm going to talk with an editor that I know that works on environmental issues, then I want to include stories around environmental issues. For instance, on average photo stories like 10 pictures, but I can select just two of my projects on environmental issues. Which is 10, 10. Basically, how you select is not something I can explain in totality. I think I did a class on how to make the best decisions with your editing. But really from these pictures, for instance, you can see that the primary thing is making sure that you have a variety of shots, that's one. Make sure that you have wide angle shots in your mix. You have portraits, you have action shots, and you have detail shots. From this, you can see this could stand as a detail shot because the focus in this picture is the sweat, and a child that is sleeping. Then with this one, this is more like a wide angle shot. This is also a wide angle shot showing environment, setting the scene. Even if you haven't been here, looking at this picture, you get a feel of what the environment is like. This one is more of an action shot that shows people doing stuff. This is portrait, action shot, action shot, action and a little bit of detail. It's important that whatever selection you are making, you're making good decision, or you're selected pictures that pushes the story forward if your portfolio is in terms of stories. But if you're making a portfolio that is general, that captures the type of work you do, you have to select pictures that represent the variety of work you can produce. With this selection, like this picture is here for you to know that I can capture very random moments, I can do streets. Because there are some projects that would require you taking pictures of people on the street. This picture is just to show you, I can capture candid moments of things happening in the street. You get what I mean. It's important that you have a variety of shots that captures the type of work you do. Honestly, it can be very difficult, but you can keep narrowing it down. I make my edits on Adobe Bridge, and there are a number of other softwares you can use. But with the rating function, you can rate your pictures. You can start with the first 100 selection, then you narrow it down to another 50, narrow it down to 25, narrow it down to 20. But the main thing that makes you choose which pictures will feature and which wouldn't is basically pictures that represent the type. There is this picture I have, an interesting portrait of a child but I couldn't feature it because I have a lot of pictures of children already. These are the various decisions you have to keep making and make sure that your portfolio captures the type of photographer you are. I think that's the way. Then seek advice as well, and that's why people go for portfolio reviews. People pay for portfolio reviews because they want photo editors to look at their work and suggest how they can edit the work, what should come first, what should come last, what should be in the middle. Always seek for feedback from colleagues or from your friends. Another easy way to sequence your pictures is by actually printing them and placing it on a wall. When you print or just dropping it on the floor and just keep moving it around and leave it for a few days, you go back, you move it around, you will keep getting a more refined portfolio that can represent the type of work you do. It's difficult, but you keep practicing, and then you keep getting better in it. 5. Q&A: I have a question. You spoke to it earlier, but I think someone maybe joined a little bit later, and so I wanted you to touch on it again. The concept around multiple portfolios. This is something that you suggest then to make yourself more likable to multiple types of clients, is that right? No. The aim of a portfolio is to showcase who you are as an artist or as a photographer. You have to stay true to yourself, undisputed. It's not like you're trying to be another person to be liked or to be marketable. First, you have to be yourself and create a portfolio that represents who you are. But there are specific times when, like an NGO that works with children, let's say Save the Children, for instance, is looking for a photographer to document their story in, let's say a state in Nigeria. I would create my work highlighting more of pictures of children and models because I know that's their thematic areas. I would curate more of my pictures in that direction to beat for that role. I don't know if that makes sense. It's not like I have one million portfolios waiting to be dished out to different people. It's more like this opportunity comes, I research the type of work they do. I know I have that type of work. Then I curate my work to match with their needs. I don't know if that makes sense. In the end, you end up having specific tailored portfolios for specific clients or needs. But in general, you have to have your own portfolio that is on your website that anyone that comes from anywhere, whether you are an NGO, whether you are a publication, once you look at my website, you would see something that caters to you. On my website, you will see this is journalism work, this is NGO work. You see different stuff that caters to the type of stuff you need. This is basically like the first random page. But then if you want something more tailored to your own niche, then I will have editorial assignments for publications to quickly look at and see the type of work I produced for publications. Then I have NGO assignments for NGO clients that want to see the type of work I've produced for NGOs. The aim is to have a portfolio that highlights your work and that you are super proud of that shows the type of work you can produce and the way you photograph. Also, if you are a documentary photographer like myself, then you want to show pictures that also capture stories because you're not a documentary photographer if all your pictures are single pictures. Your pictures need to make up a story like this one, this is a story before you can say, I'm a documentary photographer. If you're a documentary photographer and you're pitching for a job in that role, then you want to show photo stories. But if you just want to show your work as a photographer, then you need to show the variety of work you produce. Now it's super clear and super helpful to me. I'm hearing that ultimately at the end of the day, you have to stay true to yourself and that your portfolio really is an opportunity for you to share who you are as an artist, as a photographer and the stories that you enjoy telling, not to make yourself more marketable for different clients. Yes. It's also for you to be more marketable. Both are important. Marketing is also about showcasing what makes you unique. That's the marketing in that because they will hire you and expect the work you showed or something along that line. Marketing is more like understanding who you are as a photographer, as a creative, and then trying to show that in a unique way, if that makes sense. That's basically you marketing yourself, but also you have to be yourself. On my website, I'm not a very conceptual portray. I've tried to do projects with that style, but when I look at the pictures I produced, I don't feel like it's my picture because this is not the way I interpret a scene. It's not the way I photograph. If you look at my pictures, you can tell that it's one person that took this picture; it's because I'm true to myself. In as much as I know various types of compositional techniques, shooting from here, from there, or doing that, I might not utilize all of them for pictures because I have a style or I have a way I see things, so I want to interpret a scene. The only thing that differentiates photographer A from photographer B is how they see. That's why you will hand a camera to two different photographers taking specific subjects on a specific position, the pictures will be different because they don't see the same way. I think that's the most important thing for a photographer to understand how they see and keep evolving and building on that. Basically, your portfolio is to show that stuff that you made up. It's not for you to be fake or to lie. You have to stay true to yourself, but you have to show what makes your work unique or the range of stuff that you work on. Timothy asks, how would you describe the person who took these photos? How would I describe myself? That's a very interesting question. In general, I think I would say one key thing in my work as a photographer, and basically, it's why I started photography in the first place, it's because I want to talk about the issues around me. For instance, if there weren't issues, probably I will stop being a photographer. Like when I travel to different places, I don't necessarily travel with my camera. If I'm not telling stories around issues that I'm passionate about, I'm hardly taking pictures. I think for me, I'm just someone that wants the world to be a better place. Basically, I don't have political power. I don't have money to solve the problem of the world. What can I do? Let me talk about them so that maybe the situation would be better rather than just staying in one place and not doing anything. I consider myself a human that just wants the world to be better. I'm just using photography as a means of highlighting these issues so that they can be solved or something. But that's really an interesting question. I've never really thought about it myself. We don't have a question, but Ian has just one comment. Just a massive well-done and really folks are enjoying your talk. I know for myself, as an aspiring photographer, I just learned so much just about the art form, about putting together a portfolio that is both true to me but also opens me up to aligned clients and partners. I just want to thank you so much, Casey, and everyone for tuning in. 6. Final Thoughts: KC, can you let people know ow to continue to connect with you? You said you've got a Skillshare class. What are other ways that people should be connecting with you? And is there anything you've got going on that we should know about? Yeah. Primarily, I think it would be nice to have people connect with my work also on my website and on Instagram. But also on Skillshare because it's really been interesting teaching on Skillshare. Filming the content is not easy, but it feels good when you're done with the whole stuff and you get messages from people staying a whole day, watching your class help them become better. It's really something I'm really enjoying at the moment. Before now, before Skillshare, I was teaching photography workshops in Nigeria. But with Skillshare, more people from various parts of the world can join in my class and see the type of work and get better. I can also learn from other people. I really, really love the community. I'm super excited to meet everyone and I also wanted to say thank you, for taking time from your busy schedule to join in.