One of the most important things about being a commercial photographer is having a great Portfolio to show your clients. At this digital age, websites or ipad’s are great, but that doesn’t mean that that’s all you’ll need to showcase your work. A lot of situations, a potential client wants to see your work in print. That is why it’s always good to invest on getting a print portfolio. I am a big believer on showing great presentations, having that tangible thing always gives a great impression and something that would represent your work and your brand. In this post ill tackle a couple of things on how i made my portfolio.

In the commercial advertising photography world, when there’s a potential client or advertising agency that likes your work, normally the process is like this.

-You or your agent sets-up a meeting with them, could be an art buyer, art director, producers, marketing directors etc..

-You share your portfolio. If they like your work and feel it fits the project, or they keep you on their short list and will remember to call you when a new opportunity comes along.

-The waiting game.. This is the part where you will have to go to church more and pray and hope they call you.

-A project comes up that fits your style, the client calls for your book to show to their client or producers and compare it with other photographer’s books they are considering. They usually call in several other portfolios too and they choose who is best for the job.

-The bidding starts. You or your agent submit an estimate. This may include production budget, photographer’s fees based on day rate and usage, assistant fees, travel expenses, post-processing, etc
- If they like your pricing/estimate and they really like your work, that means you got the job!

As a lifestyle photographer i wanted to use a material that would relate to my images. For me, denim is more than just a piece of fabric, it inspires strong opinions. It is a personal expression, that’s why i picked denim. I added some leather detail to add some contrast, so as orange thread that fits my color scheme that matches my cards and promo mailers. My logo was hand pressed and the flight case was custom made with denim lining foam cut to fit my book. I did my whole printing and scoring on my book and also pressing the leather for the logo. Every time i get prints i usually deal with a local lab to take care of this, but this time i decided to do it myself, it wasn’t as easy as i thought , l learned a lot from calibration of colors, to picking the right paper, I also like the idea of having more control on the final output.

For this book i use a 11×17 paper made by ilford (gold fibre silk 310GSM), theres’s a lot of options out there but i think this is the best paper you can find in the market right now, I printed it on my Canon Pro 9000 Mark II. One thing i really recommend is to calibrate your monitors, what you see on your screen is not always right, trust me! i learned the hard way. I use a spyder4elite to get my accurate colors, and its also best to use ICC profiles of your paper when printing, you can usually get that from the manufactures site. I would like to thank some friends who heleped me out on getting it all together, Aileen from DenimBAR Kristine from PressHausLA and mark C. for the graphics work.