PDF Portfolio help/advise

[RoryOD]

Hi Guys,
im moving country in a few weeks and im currently looking for work/sending off CV's etc. A few places are looking for a selection of images/portfolio.
As i have never done this before, so im looking for tips on doing this.

Its 17 pages at 1 image per page. is this too much or too little??
I have kept the file size down so an employer is not all day waiting to view the file ( its 1.74mb so i think thats ok??)

I have no real design on the portfolio, just every image is centred.

Id like to do something edgy or something to make it different.....BUT should i do this or just leave it as is. i know its a portfolio and not a DPS for a fashion mag at the end of the day!!

if anyone would like to share their thoughts or even an example or anything that would be great.

oh if you want to have a look its here:

http://www.odonnellphotography.ie/port.pdf


thanks.

just a note.. i come from a wedding and motorsport background!! i know what a mix!
Most of the jobs going are for fashion/clothing hence the images.
Sorry they are not a high standard but i have only started shooting this in the last 6 months....guess we all have to start somewhere.

Rory

[Fenster]

Rory (howyeh!), how are you putting together portfolio? You could save space by putting two landscape images onto the same pages, and making the document size smaller (X+Y).

[RoryOD]

using indesign. i could just scale the doc by 50% if the size is too big?? or just make the page fit the image. i made the page square so every type of image would still fit in the same frame...if you get my drift? just wanting to know how do people display their portfolios in pdfs.

[dinko]

Wow you have awesome and powerful images in that PDF. I'm sure you won't have trouble landing a job.

I would love to see some kind of cover page before jumping into all of the work. A page about yourself or just a page with your logo and contact information would be better for "pacing"

I would just throw your "odonnell photography" logo in there (without the cheesy pride, passion, power line) it doesn't have to be very big, it just has to be consistent from page to page (top right? top left?) you can set up a master page in indesign and it will do it automatically to all the pages.

You could add a little bit of typography around each slide, but it's totally up to you.

btw: you can create two different indesign documents. one for vertical and one for horizontal pictures. for both documents, make them to the exact size of the pictures with maybe a 1" white border and a little extra room at the top to place your logo. export both files as PDF's. then in Acrobat Pro you can drag and drop the pages from one PDF into the other. this will make sure you have consistent borders around vertical and horizontal pictures, but it will still be one document. just don't forget to hit command + s after you place the pages together ;)

just my 2 cents. good luck.

[RoryOD]

btw: you can create two different indesign documents. one for vertical and one for horizontal pictures. for both documents, make them to the exact size of the pictures with maybe a 1" white border and a little extra room at the top to place your logo. export both files as PDF's. then in Acrobat Pro you can drag and drop the pages from one PDF into the other. this will make sure you have consistent borders around vertical and horizontal pictures, but it will still be one document. just don't forget to hit command + s after you place the pages together ;)

just my 2 cents. good luck.

thanks for that, i like the idea of having the uniform 1" border around the images. going to give "combine 2 into 1 pdf" a go sounds good. yea was half talked into the "PPP" byline...always thought it sounded like something from a car ad?? the whole site will be getting a massive make over in the next few months with new branding & look.

thanks for the advise...all i need now is the Job! :)

[JakPot]

I second the idea of having a cover page.

Also, why so many images of the same model in your portfolio? While they are nice images, they don't really show much diversity in my opinion.

[RoryOD]

I second the idea of having a cover page.

Also, why so many images of the same model in your portfolio? While they are nice images, they don't really show much diversity in my opinion.

i would love to have 17 images all of different models but i have only started and so far have only shot 4/5 models so i dont have a great range. so maybe 1/2 images per model per outfit?? if i spend 3 hours and go through 6-7 clothes changes its hard just to put her in once. if i was to do that id have 3-4 shots in total?? so until i move to the UK and get a proper chance to do more like this then im stuck with what i have. im living in a quiet part of ireland and models and good weather are rare up here:)

its not a portfolio for clients or models its for an employer for a job as a junior photographer, so my thinking was that the employer doesnt really care if its one girl or a hundred but if i can do the job or not....i hope

at the end of the day its not a great portfolio and i stand no chance giving the limited experience i have but i thought it would be worth a shot and thats why im here to see how can i improve the portfolio to maybe give me a slight better chance! well fingers crossed.

[njmac7777]

my thoughts...
maybe because of the compression, all your images look soft.
#8 has some random guy walking into her ass... not good.
you've only shot 2 women... you need to find more women that you can shoot so it looks like you have more experience.