Professional portfolio website: https://www.portfoliobox.net/admin#/homepage
On portfoliobox it enables you to chose from a range of different options on how you want your portfolio to be layered out. I know I wanted a professional and simple website, a neat sectioned off layout of my best work. Aesthetically the images look good in the order and positions they are in due to the dark colours and the running theme. Making a page selection under my name is clear for the people who visit this page to be able to chose which style of photography they want to see.
Squarespace
This website inspired me to think about having a professional and clean portfolio. Having a simple and accessible page like this will make the viewer feel they can access it easily, which is important for business side of photography. It looks smart and attractive, which people will respect and chose to go for for the best photographs. This website has a simple scroll and each link to a next page is clear and works perfectly, again this is very important for when people want to access something.
goGo::Webspace
Having a row and columned portfolio (Diptych and Triptych), again is simple and straightforward. It clearly spreads out your best work and the viewer straight away knows what kind of photography you aspire to and what style you work in. Personally, I like this technique because it acts an aesthetic tool. Each option on the right hand side is easy to see visually and access, it is not to complex looking, which is always going to be the best thing for your page.
The Foto Antwerp book I took out the library was intriguing to me because the photos brought a personal and real style within the photography. The way the photos and information have been layered out is sleak and simple. White background is a professional and classic way to border your photos. It gives it an official feel about the book presenting the images.
Similar to The Americans, which is another book I took out. However, there is no writing that is added to these pictures, it is very simple. I do like this way of presenting photos because you can then make your own opinions and assumptions about the photographer’s work.
This is the standard A3 set up on Photoshop I will be using:
Shortcuts:
- CMD + A = Select All
- + C = Copy
- + V = Paste
- + T = Transform
- + D = Deselect
- + P = PRINT
- CMD + ALT + S = SAVE AS
- V = MOVE
Here I used the paint bucket tool to set both sides my choice of colour. I accessed the ruler option through View, where I matched up 29.7 accurately.
Uk paper size guide:
I then copy and paste these three images, by holding cmd + T will enable me to select the images and move them where I want them, holding down shift key will make me re size the images without the image becoming broken and distorted. I used guide lines to make my images inlined with one another by dragging lines from the ruler on the left and top.
Playing around with the background colours by changing it to white on both sides helps me to experiment with a vision to what my professional webpage may look like with a layout.
Another book I took out of the library was “We wanted a cottagey stately home kind of feel” by Martin Parr, written by Nicholas Barker. The layout of these photos and the way it presents the text is a clean and uncomplicated layout, it is easy on the eye with the contrast from the pictures and text against the white background. This again is something I will take into consideration for laying out my photos.
After some playing around with more of the layouts on portfoliobox I finally chose this style of slideshows to present my photos. I think it is more professional and clear, you can see the photos close up and its less busy. The previous layout gave me a Tumblr style, which is immature, and it doesn’t present my pictures at their full potential.
Image of optimisation
This video helped me optimise my images that I will be using throughout the year.
Initially, I can see the width and height of the picture from the basic options within photoshop.
I then click file, export and save.
This then opens up a bigger and more advanced screen where I can change the format to a JPEG.
Once I have changed the height to 1600, the main size of the photo decreases and is optimised. I then save the file with _web.jpg every time to know it is an optimised file.
Another task I did was creating my own diptych within Photoshop to put on my portfoliobox. However, this time around we used the optimising technique to export the final result. The colour change was to make the two pictures relate together more, so they both compliment/ talk to each other. I followed a process of blocking off the original blown out light that was on the right side of the photo, because I want to be able to teach myself to look at a photo and make a decision on what is the most visually important part of the photo.
Once I changed the width, height and quality by hitting tab, my final drop was an optimisation was 253.3 K.
However, when this was exported and put into portfolio box I realised the proportion of the image was not complimenting my photo that was next in line within the slideshow. So I went back into Photoshop and cropped the image to then export it through web optimisation, again, but this time changing the height and width to 1600 and 854 and the quality to 70.
Original:
Change:
Final:
Zena Hampson Photography 