Tips for making a great digital portfolio.
As you progress through the BFA program, you are required to take pictures of your work every semester. Although this may seem like just another hoop to jump through, it's vitally important to your education and your career.
First of all, the faculty spend a lot of time looking at all the pictures you submit. We're trying to figure out whether our students are learning what they need to learn, and looking for ways to improve our teaching and curriculum. It's really hard to figure out what's working (and not!) in each class if we get bad pictures.
Second, and most imporantly, these are the pictures you will need to get jobs, clients, and admission to grad school! We know how hard you work to make your art, so let's get the best pictures of your work that we can!
The examples on this page are actual pictures turned in by actual students. A lot of this is great work that deserves great photography, but didn't get it. If you see your work here, and you're bummed out, don't just sit and stew-go back and give it another shot!
Rule Number ONE: Turn in the files!
No image is worse than no image. Right?
As bad as some of these photos are, they at least told us that the students needed help with photography. If you turn in nothing, we don't even know that!
Use a backdrop
A distracting background draws attention away from the work. Keep it simple. The black cloth we provide is excellent for 2D work.
These images have distracting backgrounds.
In this image, the black background helps us focus on the work.
Keep it clean
Make sure your camera is set up directly in front of the artwork, not at an angle. Make sure the artwork is flat, not curled, crooked or wrinkled.
This image should have been photographed flat.
Keep it straight
If you shoot from an angle, the whole picture gets distorted. This can be fixed in photoshop, but it's a lot easier to just move the camera!
Keep it clean
Make sure your backgroud stays clean, so you avoid pictures with "junk" in the background.
Don't shoot through glass or plastic
If you photograph your work before you frame it, you avoid glares and shadows, like we see here.
Be careful with reflective surfaces
Unless you're part of the work, avoid capturing your own reflection!
Light appropriately
Avoid images that are too dark, like this:
Or too light, like this:
Or uneven, like this:
For three dimensional art, use directional light.
Proper lighting makes 3D work look more 3D, like we see in these images:
Capture the whole image
Don't get so close you cut off the edge of your work (unless you're shooting a detail)
Or so far away you have a lot of empty space.
Focus
Take the time to make sure your picture is in focus. This one is slightly out, and it detracts from the image.
Crop Carefully
Make sure the image is squared up to the edges. Look at these two images-can you see that the top one is a little crooked?
You may wish to crop off the very edges of the image, like this:
Or include all of the work, like this:
Clean up the work
If you have dirt, scratches or spots on your work, clean it before you photograph it. This could be a nice piece if it was cleaned up first.
And don't take pictures of sloppy work.
Include references
If your work is very large or small, include something in the photo that lets the viewer get a sense of scale, like this.
If possible, include information necessary for the understanding of the project. This "before and after" image represents a students skill in repairing photos with photoshop. When a prospective employer sees this, they instantly know that the student knows their stuff.
Without the "before" picture, it's just a picture of a cute little girl!
And this image shows that the student was working in the style of another artist.
This image shows how the student improved a project.
And this image shows the student's sketches and development of a single project.
If a project has many parts, it's a lot easier to make an image with all of them in one picture than to turn in three or four separate images.
Pay attention to details when adjusting in Photoshop
This image isn't terrible, but it is a lttle dark and crooked.
With a little straightening and adjusting, it looks much better.
Which one of these images looks better?
Be careful when making these adjustments. You may need to refer to the original image to pick which one of these is the most accurate representation. The first one is a little muted, and the last one is a little too saturated.
If your image is completely off, it's usually easier to shoot a new image, rather than trying to fix it in Photoshop. This image is probably beyond repair. Fix your lighting/camera setting problem, and go shoot it again.
Get the size and orientation right
Don't turn in sideways pictures, like this.
Or images that are too large
Or too small
Optimize!
Although you may be asked to turn in an entire website, or a long animation, you will likely also be asked to save an image of the website, or a short piece of the animation, like these.
If you follow all the advice on this page, and pay attention to all the details, you will end up with a better portfolio that shows off all of your hard work in the best possible fashion. You owe it to yourself to make the extra effort to create a truly stunning portfolio of your work.
Remember: Good work deserves good photography!