help appreciated -- digital portfolio discussion

[Vaughn]

Somehow I ended up on a panel that will be discussing various aspects of the marketing of one's art in today's digital/www environment. Generally the panel will be discussing "Presentation of Art Work". Specifically, I am to lead a discussion on "traditional slide format merging into digital" whatever that is suppose to mean. Why me, I don't know...but I am going to give it a shot...I might learn something!

I take it to mean how one presents one's work in a digital format that was once done with a sheet of slides. Other presentors are handling things like websites, conducting oneself as a professional, etc.

I did a search for related info here, but came up blank.

Off the top of my head I came up with things like:

The size of the files for emailing, presentations via CD's.

Watermarks (as in don't use them) -- I have read recent posts here about copyright protection.

Accurate representation of one's work (don't over-saturate colors, increase contrast, etc).

What to send to a gallery for consideration -- jpegs? A Power-point presentation? How many images?

The best way to generate a digital file...scanning slides or prints, digital capture. (the panel discussions are for all types of artists, not just photographers.)

Maintaining a digital library of one's work for future use (format, storage devices).

I only have to talk for 15 minutes or so. Any tidbits of information you can provide, opinions, experiences presenting digital portfolios to galleries and/or competitions, et al would be appreciated -- and perhaps be useful information to others here. It would be great to hear from any gallery owners about their dos and don'ts and any wacko (and good) experiences they might have had with artists.

Vaughn

For the record, I am doing this on a volunteer-basis for our local Art Council.

[Joe Lipka]

Fifteen Minutes? This is a two day seminar. When you figure it out you can charge $1,000 per person and sell it out. My thoughts on the subject:

I pretty much consider my website a presentation media. On my website mosts of my portfolios are Adobe Acrobat files. Each acrobat file is presentation of a complete body of work. I use adobe security to keep people from copping more than a screen capture.

At web resolution who cares whether you have a scan or a digital image. 72 dpi (or 96 dpi if you want to get fancy) is the great leveler. Bad work looks good, great work looks good.

Ask the gallery what they want - I would wager that they all differ in their requirements. That makes gallery presentation a never ending quest to prepare images.

That's a few topics to think on. Best of luck on your presentation.

[Drew Bedo]

Hello Vaughn;

Check out www.callforentry.com This is a website that is used by art shows to call for entries world-wide in digital format.I'm sure that you can fill several minutes of your presentation from this info.

[Gordon Moat]

Generally it would mean a web based portfolio. Simply having a selection of images available for viewing on the internet. Compare that to the older method of sending E-dupes, or slides somewhere.

The other approach is books, literally a printed portfolio of your images. In the commercial world, quite often these still need to be sent. Often meetings will occur at a conference table, and the book of each photographer under consideration for the project will get passed around and viewed.

The CD-R portfolio or the e-mail PDF portfolio are both loosing ground. Neither was really that common, not that popular in the last ten years. The trouble is busy people not wanting to open up the file, or not having the latest software that would play the PDF or CD-R properly. Even Adobe ran into this with the sampler portfolio that use to be included in PhotoShop and Illustrator; after a few years, neither could be opened on a more modern computer. Unless you get a portfolio request for either format, I would avoid using this method.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat Photography

[Jon Shiu]

For submitting color jpegs you might want to mentioned color space (eg srgb) and PS, edit, convert to profile in case the artist normally works in another color space (Although more than likely the reviewer's monitor will not be profiled).

Jon

[Vaughn]

Thank you everyone, I will digest this info, check out the references, and will try to come back with more specific questions.

Gordons point of a web-based portfolio is something I need to think about...I suppose it is safe to assume that people will have access to the www these days. The the book-form is another thing to think about...as is the whole idea of what is "better" -- something physical to hold, or a digital form. Perhaps a two layered approach, a digital introduction to one's work to create enough interest to see something physical.

Vaughn

[Tyler Boley]

honestly, what is better has always seemed a bit beside the point. Previously slides were required and always sucked. Any time I asked if I could show prints instead, even small ones, I was no longer bothered with at all...
The subject has always been difficult as each gallery (or whoever you are submitting to) always has their own submissions rules, and there are no universally excepted formats.
Tyler

[paulr]

Last year I helped Mary Virginia Swanson give a seminar on the same topic. She teaches photographers how to market their work; I talked about some of the digital nuts and bolts.

Her basic premise is that different people like to look at work in different ways, so you should try to have three different formats to drop off: hard copies (like color laser prints), a digital piece (like a CD with a PDF or flash portfolio) and a website.

And of course, a lot of places have strict policies, and will insist on slides (yuck), original work, emailed jpegs, or god knows what.

[Vaughn]

Tyler, Paul -- many thanks for the good points.

Vaughn

[Tyler Boley]

Vaughn, sorry, I was mostly just expressing frustration, argh!! Not much help.
I even have one gallery that refuses to look at a website, or anything on a monitor (like from a CD), or slides. I have to make special small prints for her, organized in suggested groupings or 3 that seem to go together. Of course when she is done, all those go in the trash.
Tyler