This is the third post on going pro in the past few weeks. I will be working on some more for August, but after this post we will be back to some image work. In this post we will discuss planning shoots, finding talent and a few presentation techniques for portfolios. More on that after a few paragraphs.

I need to make some changes here. I want to add some video, and also create meaningful posts that will help photographers wanting to move their work up a notch or three. Ideas are welcome. We don’t discuss gear here much, but I am planning posts on small flash modifiers, a “tool kit” for shooting on location, and shooting tethered.

I am working all July on new content, and shooting new stuff for the site. I want it to be fresh and interesting. There are all kinds of sites out there that follow all the same folks – and that’s great. There are some wonderful sites and shooters wanting to share what they do. I hope you visit them as well. I just don’t want to waste your time and viewing with links to the same places that other people link to.

Upcoming workshops in Memphis and Seattle are booking and have only a few spaces left. We are doing a workshop devoted to the Nikon CLS System and shooting on location, and I am doing my first “Advanced” workshop in Phoenix this August. It will be a slamming big workshop and is open for experienced amateur shooters only. That one is not for beginners. Watch the Learn to Light site for more information.

Previous posts on going pro are here:
Preparing Yourself for “Getting Out There” as a Pro.
How You Shoot What You Shoot

So now it is time to start shooting for our portfolio.

Create a Portfolio Shoot Schedule.

It is time to plan and book some images for your portfolio. And while I do believe that at some point shooting ‘for the book’ is not necessary, at the beginning it may be. You have limited time to produce and shooting all week is generally not an option.

Some photographers feel that shooting expressly for a portfolio is something that limits you. I feel that while that is true for photographers who already have portfolios and have been shooting for a number of years, it isn’t true for those who have never created a portfolio. If you are a good shooter and planning at some point to make that jump, it is a good thing to begin to plan your portfolio.

Using the image collection from the post on How You Shoot for inspiration, pull some shots together to shoot.

“Yeah, Don, that may be easy for you to do, but I don’t have the resources of a long time shooter.”

True, you don’t. But you may have more resources than you think you do.

Let’s say you want to do editorial portraiture. OK, we need to look at the images you have chosen. Maybe you have chosen a ‘candid’ approach in your images. Let’s look at how you can go about getting some work for your portfolio. I promise not to mention family as I know exactly how hard that can be. I really do.

1. Are there some small businesses in your area? Introduce yourself and ask if you can do a portrait of the owner in his/her place of business. Make a time, plan a shoot and execute it. Get an image that they love, and get one that YOU love.

2. Approach the local Chamber of Commerce and ask if they would allow you to take some shots of the board, or members who have won awards. That could be good for a few interesting portraits.

3. Church. Ask if you can be involved in photographing the guest speakers, or the band, or the church leaders.

4. Your boss. Does your company need some interesting shots of executives or top salesman or staff? Do it on your own time so you will be able to show them in your portfolio without problems of ownership.

5. Dance and Drama schools have people who need photographs.

6. Coaches at Gymnastics, Ice Skating and Hockey rinks, and other sports teams may want a photograph of themselves for their website.

There are many other places to find people to photograph. Be confident and be sensible. If you have a big production shot planned, maybe it would be better to use a talent from Model Mayhem, One Model Place, MySpace or even Craigs List.

If you are working toward a food, still life, or product book, the items are easy to pick up and shoot. A studio the size of an average apartment living room could work for that.

Architecture and environments can be found almost anywhere. Talk to a realtor friend and work out some shoots of empty homes, furnished condos and landscaped yards. These are much easier than the people shooters challenges. People shooters have to deal with other people. Sometimes they don’t show up, are late, are confused or unable to relax when being photographed.

Once you get your plan together, and your subjects on board, you have to create the image.

The Concept.

The Moleskin, or a similar sketching book, is a very popular tool for planning a shoot. I also use a Flip Video camera and a P&S camera that is nearly always with me, to record a place or location that catches my eye. Going back to those images and pulling out the Moleskin lets me plan out the shot and make notes while I am thinking about them.

I sketch ideas for designs, websites and photographs whenever I am waiting for something or in a position where I cannot get online or onto a laptop.

The shoot.

Time:
Allow plenty of time. Time can be an enemy when you are working on a shot. The sun sets faster, and the makeup artist takes longer. It is a fact of nature. Deal. If you can go to the site earlier and get things put together first, that is a great tool for keeping the shot on or close to schedule.

Gear:
Have the gear ready. Fresh batteries, clean lenses, fresh cards or media, stands at the ready and your ‘kit’ ready to go will take some stress off as well. Have additional items that you could possibly need like tripods, booms and different modifiers at the shoot. Not having something you need to make the shot can drive you crazy so take everything you may need.

If you have scouted the location, done a test shoot or position shoot, and KNOW what you will need, then take a minimal kit. If it needs something, have it in pairs if possible.

Team:
If you don’t need someone, that is great. I usually do need an additional pair of hands, some muscle, someone to move things and bounce ideas off of. And I enjoy working with others who love images. Makeup artists, wardrobe and food stylists, hair designers and talent all combine to make a shoot with me. We have fun and we work hard.

The Edit:

Editing was covered last post, but I will go over how I do it again.

I move all images off the cards to drive A, then back up that to drive B. Only after verifying the images have been saved on two different media do they get erased.

With the image in Bridge or Lightroom I do a very fast edit. I go as fast as I can and make no evaluation other than “does it look good” – not great – just good. Tagging or starring them or whatever, I will go through the shoot in only a few minutes. That is the initial “gut” edit.

I will then go through the edit again. Looking for the images that I like and being pretty interested in the ones that catch my eye quickly.

The third edit is the brutal one. Very tight editing is what is called for. I look at the image and think about the Post unless I had already known what I was going to do in post before I shot it.

EDIT: NEW.
This post by the designer of Dan Winter’s book, “Peridocal Photography”
This is a wonderful look into the design process, and a lot of that can be used to help you visualize how to lay out your portfolio. Find it here.

The Presentation:

Here is where testing and challenging the eye can become a process that can bog down. There are literally millions of ways to crop or show an image, and thousands of ways to show it well. You only have to find one – the one that works with your style.

Let’s look at a couple of my image and see how they can be shown to create different effects on the viewer.

Full bleed images are popular. They command the page, and make create a very large target for the viewer. The bleed takes the eye off the page and presents a ‘natural’ border to the images.

Images with a small border seem to be ‘classic’ in presentation. The small border contains the images and provides an edge for the eyes to be constrained as well as a “palette” for the image to sit above.

A small image on the left, and especially in this case a nearly monochrome image, can pull the eye from the color picture on the right because of the size relationship. This has to be done with care as sometimes it wont work. You will have to find that right mix for your images. However, when it does work, it can be amazingly effective.

The small image on the right can pull the eye because of the color and border contrast. In this case the eye doesn’t escape off the right side of the page, but rather gets trapped with the small image.

The black background presents a very negative space for the images to live over. The small black border can create a dramatic presentation at the edge of the image.

Similar to the small image on the left on white above, the small image against the black draws the eye. But in a different way. The image seems more dramatic with the heavy contrast of the black background.

The black page on the right has a small image floating in the space and the color really draws the eye.

The two small images in the black background seem ’special’ – precious almost. The large black background border makes the images pop. Both seem to be of equal importance and pull the eye with the same weight.

Here are a couple of challenges for you.

1. Shoot one image this weekend that you actually want to put in your portfolio. Shoot it FOR your portfolio, and develop it out through the post and presentation of it.

2. Take a few images you have in can and print them with different backgrounds and borders… see how they look to you and if the presentation changes the feeling of the image at all.

3. Do the above to a couple of images and find out how they look together as a book presentation.

Thanks for visiting. Follow me on Twitter, and if you are thinking about a workshop this year, we have our 2010 Workshop Schedule up at Learn to Light.