Assembling your photography folio and not sure how to produce the strongest impression? This is a problem faced by many photographers, no matter how good they are. Knowing how to pace your photographs can mean the difference between getting the jobs and getting knock backs.
What is a well-paced folio? It simply means that the work transitions well and moves right along and holds the viewers attention from beginning to end. Adding photographic sequences to your folio and developing fluent transitions can dramatically improve the pacing of your work presentation. Here are some tips to help you out:
Look out for weak spots: Put yourself in the objective position of a stranger looking at your folio. Is there a point at which the flow of the presentation flattens out or slows down? If you hang on to your objectivity, you can usually spot the moment where the interest falls off and boring sets in. That's the very point that needs working on. It may be one of the following problems:
Too many photographs on one subject. It may be difficult to remove some of your favorite photographs but it's time to be ruthless and cut severely if a presentation is too long. Brevity with quality is far better than length with boredom.
A fall in quality. Even one photo of inferior technical or creative quality can cause such a fall off in interest. It's astonishing just how much damage a single image can do to a folio. Be vigilant, spot the offender and get rid of it.
A photograph in the wrong place. If you see the momentum is slowing but you can't figure out why, try this procedure. Track back to where the transitions are fine and identify the point of disappointment and check whether a photo really just doesn't belong at this point. Just one or two instances of incorrectly placed images can stop the flow of your presentation in its tracks. Re-order the folio until it feels right.
Keep varying the pace: Don't hang on too long with a particular genre or composition. After a number of long shots, introduce some medium shots. After this, introduce some static scenes, introduce some action and you can also vary the color values as well. Keep the interest flowing!
Change the perspective: Quite often you come across folios that contain excellent photos but the presentation is still boring. You can see the problem jump out at you; every photo has been shot from the same perspective. This is a very easy trap to fall into and you need to remedy this by frequently changing perspective. Use lenses of different focal length, a wide-angle, along lens, a standard; and show images from different vantage points. Shoot from high, low, left and right. Keep the transitions interesting and the presentation flowing!
There are no exact rules for a folio and good pacing for your folio. It all depends on the images that you are working with and ultimately it's all up to you. Reputable online photography courses will provide further information on creating an effective portfolio of your work.
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