Question regarding making a portfolio to submit via email

Giphsub

Hi, I have been asked to submit a portfolio of low res pics along with my portfolio gallery weblink to a magazine, but I am not quite sure what is the best way to create a digital portfolio. Any hints or tips would be much appreciated. A word doc is the only way I really know other than attaching the pics directly into the email. But that seems quite cheap. Please help me out with some suggestions. Thanks.

Angelo

Giphsub wrote:

Hi, I have been asked to submit a portfolio of low res pics along with my portfolio gallery weblink to a magazine, but I am not quite sure what is the best way to create a digital portfolio. Any hints or tips would be much appreciated. A word doc is the only way I really know other than attaching the pics directly into the email. But that seems quite cheap. Please help me out with some suggestions. Thanks.

I would recommend a PDF file.

Giphsub

Angelo wrote:

I would recommend a PDF file.

Thanks Angelo. OK, I'll have to look at doing that. Any ideas for how many photos to try and put on a page?

quark

There is a free tool called Inkscape that you might try for this. Similiar to adobe, it is easy to layout lots of pictures and you can export the result as one image and scale as appropriate.

Don't use word!

SloYerRoll

PDF should be more than just looked into. It is the standard for electronic documents in MANY industries. At the end of the day though. Do what you feel is best.

If you know your work is on the money. I'd recommend 1 shot per page in landscape w/ a title or any pertinant data centered beneath it. This will give your image the most chance to fill up the screen. Let the confidence of your images be your guide to how many you fit on each page.

As a side note on PDF's. It is worth looking into to see what settings you can export your PDF as. There are some really cool tools that auto run your PDF and make a slideshow w/ all kinds of neatness. These are the small things that clients at the end of the slideshow are either: very impressed with the overall package and have a warm fuzzy about working w/ you or just like your shots and your a definate candidate.


-Jon

Giphsub

SloYerRoll wrote:

PDF should be more than just looked into. It is the standard for electronic documents in MANY industries. At the end of the day though. Do what you feel is best.

If you know your work is on the money. I'd recommend 1 shot per page in landscape w/ a title or any pertinant data centered beneath it. This will give your image the most chance to fill up the screen. Let the confidence of your images be your guide to how many you fit on each page.

As a side note on PDF's. It is worth looking into to see what settings you can export your PDF as. There are some really cool tools that auto run your PDF and make a slideshow w/ all kinds of neatness. These are the small things that clients at the end of the slideshow are either: very impressed with the overall package and have a warm fuzzy about working w/ you or just like your shots and your a definate candidate.


-Jon

Thanks again for the replies. I checked back on the website of the magazine and it said to submit photos as jpegs via email, so I did that, with a link to the full res pics in my gallery. Haven't heard back. But thanks for your advice. I will definitely put it to use as I try to approach more places. Thanks all.

By the way, do I need to own particular software to create a pdf? I've not done it before and haven't bought any software for that purpose.

claudermilk

Well, the most comprehensive way is to buy the full Acrobat writer app. What I do is use a freebie PDF printer called Primo PDF. It works well enough for my needs. It installs as a printer driver & write a PDF file instead of sending to a physical printer.

SloYerRoll

Giphsub wrote:

By the way, do I need to own particular software to create a pdf?

Use something like claudermilk uses. A third party PDF generator is fine for a few uses. If you really get into PDF's (including JDF workflows that go to printers {this stuff is cooler than sliced toast!}).
Go w/ Acrobat.

Good luck on your recent submittal!

-Jon

Giphsub

SloYerRoll wrote:

Use something like claudermilk uses. A third party PDF generator is fine for a few uses. If you really get into PDF's (including JDF workflows that go to printers {this stuff is cooler than sliced toast!}).
Go w/ Acrobat.

Good luck on your recent submittal!

-Jon

Thanks claudemilk and SloYerRoll. I'll check that out and if I find more need for thr full program a bit later then look into it some more. Haven't heard anything yet from the magazine. Fingers crossed.

SloYerRoll

Giphsub wrote:

Haven't heard anything yet from the magazine. Fingers crossed.

That's what a follow up call is for. The squesky wheel gets the grease!

Giphsub

SloYerRoll wrote:

That's what a follow up call is for. The squesky wheel gets the grease!

good point. Still new to all this! Will take your advice. Thanks