Planning Printed Portfolio: Any New Software Available?

[faberryman]

This may just be a matter of word usage. I have always thought of a portfolio of images to be a collection of prints presented as loose unmounted prints or mounted, matted and ready to frame, and housed in some form of presentation case or box.

My impression too. I guess I am not sophisticated enough, but I am having trouble envisaging a portfolio that isn't a book where there are more than one image on a page and where some images cover two pages. Maybe the web?

When I work on a project, I rarely have 50 images, more or in the 20-30 range. Depending on the size of the prints, I just lay them on a table or the floor to arrange them. I haven't scanned my work and put it on the web.

[Drew Bedo]

Well I have presented images on a personal website in the past and referred to the display of related images as "portfolios" on the website. But I still cannot see a physical presentation of images in book form as a portfolio.

[Ari]

My impression too. I guess I am not sophisticated enough, but I am having trouble envisaging a portfolio that isn't a book where there are more than one image on a page and where some images cover two pages. Maybe the web?

When I work on a project, I rarely have 50 images, more or in the 20-30 range. Depending on the size of the prints, I just lay them on a table or the floor to arrange them. I haven't scanned my work and put it on the web.

It's not hard to imagine, see the attached photos and you'll understand what I mean.
Those are from a 2009 portfolio. The aim of the portfolio is not an end in itself, it's meant to solicit work from prospective commercial clients.
I'm not out to publish a book or sell individual prints.

[faberryman]

I was right. I am not sophisticated. Never thought of it as such.

[Drew Bedo]

When I show a prospective buyer a portfolio of prints, my intention is to sell the entire box of prints for cash and a handshake. They may want to buy fewer than all presented prints, or want them in a different size. Given that we agree on something that they do want to take home.

With all the above, I am working on a book project withimages and supporting text. It will be cool to see my work in a bound book. If I like how it comes out it will be offered for sale.

What I now understand the project in the OP to be is a sort of catalog. Is the catalog for sale?

[Ari]

What I now understand the project to be is a sort of catalog. Is the catalog for sale?

It's not a project or a catalog, Drew; it's a collection of images I had made up to that point, as are all my portfolios. There may be a theme that unifies them, but it's not imperative.
What's more important is that a certain style or way of thinking can be gleaned from viewing the work as a whole.
What's offered for sale are my services.
It's how most photographers get work, by submitting their portfolio, or "not portfolio" if you prefer calling it that.

[Drew Bedo]

Ari: Yeah . . .As George Castanza famously said,
"Its not you its ME!" I understand the concept of a themed collection or a group of related images as a portfolio. I am stumbling ver the nomenclature of the physical artifact, be it a bound volume or box of loose prints.

Please ignore about anything I've posted here and continue to do what works for you.

Cheers,

Drew Bedo

[Ari]

Ah, George Costanza, the voice of reason

Anyway................long story short, InDesign remains the best option for page layout.
I haven't found anything else that is as easy to use nor as geared specifically to that purpose.
Thanks for all the replies.

[RSalles]

Ari,

The same sequencing thinking about an exhibit: prints have to be viewed in a certain order, logic, or whatever, maybe date of shooting? Or subject. Ordering a portfolio is also a "cinematic" event: I just don't sequence/mix imediately after a landscape with a portrait with a still and again a landscape, or a whale and a nightscape after that... It's a better experience to "attack by different units". But if I do, there has to be a reason for that: the images are not displayed in a totally random order, never.

Tomorrow - sorry for introducing another subject in to your thread - I'll pack 3 prints for an exhibition in another city, a "collective" event, with sculptures, crayons, and more. I'll be restricted to a space where I will share it with another photographer. In this case, It doesn't make sense for me to travel there just to choose in which order this prints will be shown, as I know the same wall will be populated with very different animals,

Cheers,

Renato

[Ari]

Renato,
Sequencing is very important; I like to take the viewer on a short journey rather than look at a book of unconnected images that were put together with little or no thought.
What I do is make test prints of each photo and stick them up on my wall, two at a time; I find out which photos work well together and which ones should be alone or possibly in a group of 3 or more.
Things change again when I start planning the pages, that's where I might introduce a mini-series of 2-3 photos or decide to play around with page layout.
It's a lot of prep and work to get to a final book, but it's also a lot of fun and quite rewarding.
As for your exhibition, it may not make sense financially to travel there, but maybe there are aspects of the presentation that you can modify to your taste or vision.
People will see those three prints of yours and make an assumption or decision about you and your work based on those 3 prints; in that sense, I think no detail is too small.
Good luck with the show!