April 22 2020

Photography Portfolio Books

In this digital age of photography it is easy for photographers to be driven by the demands of social media where we upload our images to our favourite social platforms and websites then archive them away where they become lost and forgotten barely seeing the light of day again. Creating Photography Portfolio Books from your best work is an excellent way to record and showcase your best photographs and something I do yearly.

Creating portfolio books from your work will

Allow you to showcase your work in style
Help promote your work to potential galleries
Increase revenue by wining new customers
Record you best images with any formal notes
Let you review your own work more often with ease
Create a sense of achievement
Give you inspiration and new ideas
Create a new product for sale to your customers
Present your work in a beautiful format
Allow family and friends to critique your work

There are many positives to creating photography portfolio books and they can be relatively cheap to produce depending on the style and format you want. I personally create yearly volumes where I use them as a way of documenting my complete life’s work making it easy for me to review my own images and improve my photography.

Why not create a book for different genres to showcase your work such as landscapes, seascapes, woodland or astrophotography or if you focus on areas create geographical portfolio books. We photographers spend thousands on the latest gear, travel, software and books so why not invest a little back into your own work to showcase it?

Portfolio book types

There are many styles and formats of books to choose from dependant on the manufacture but excluding the esthetic look you can break them down into a couple of types.

Binder Style Portfolios

This style of portfolio book uses a binder mechanism usually either a ring or screw post style which is ideal if you print your own work and allows your to swap and change the content at will. Dependent on your target audience if it is going to get a lot of handling you can also use protective wallets for each photograph but I find this can look a little amateurish.

Using this type of book you have control over how and in what order your work is being seen and how you present it which can be tailor to each perspective customer to tell a unique story.

Bound portfolio photo books

My preferred type is to create portfolio photo books which give a very professional look where you can edit the layout and design to create a stunning book to showcasing your work. These types of books can be relatively inexpensive these days with most companies offering their own software where you just upload your images, edit each page and layout and once complete just process your order.

You can chose from many different sizes, cover types, paper types to change the feel and look of your book to create something visually stunning. Not only is this good for yourself but you could also offer this as a product for sale to generate new customers and revenue for your business.

Box portfolio photo books

You may want to present photographs mounted and prefer to have your images handled where they can be laid out flat on a surface to be viewed rather than in a book. If this is your preference then Photography Portfolio Boxes will be the way to go.

I use these to sell a collection of images as box sets which makes a fantastic gift and looks beautifully stunning. This way the customer can keep them in the box or get the collection mounted and displayed however they choose.

Create a Portfolio its worth the effort!

Creating portfolios really is worth the effort and investment in your own work not only just to win over new clientele but also a fantastic investment in your own photography development. One of the best things we can do as photographers to improve and grow is to review and critique our own work and study it closely.

Sitting in front of a computer screen trawling through images can get tedious and why most photographers don’t do it enough and neglect their own hard work. There is nothing better than just grabbing your portfolio off the shelf, putting your feet up, relaxed with a nice beer and review your own accomplishments.

It really is a great way to keep you focused when you are down and feel that nothing is going right or you can’t get out with the camera and will improve your photography by asking questions of your own work.

I hope this has given you some food for thought and I highly recommend getting your beautiful images presented by way of Photography Portfolio Books to woo customers, friends and showcase your photographic art the way it deserves.