Nine creative approaches to capturing your photography collection
Creatively Photographing Design Portfolios: A Guide for Designers
In the world of design, presenting a portfolio that showcases your work in the best possible light is crucial. Here are some techniques and examples that can help you creatively photograph your design portfolio for print and packaging designs.
Emphasize Design Details
When photographing your designs, focus on clean, simple compositions that highlight the design details. Use varied techniques such as unique angles, lighting, and contextual staging to bring out the best in your work.
For instance, Hey Studio used matching grid-patterned paper for a striking effect when shooting their gridded notebooks. Similarly, close-ups can be used to capture texture or embossing on packaging, as demonstrated by various designers.
Use Unique Angles and Lighting
Photograph the physical printed or packaged pieces from multiple perspectives—straight-on (0-degree), 45-degree, overhead (65- to 90-degree)—to emphasize shape, texture, and material quality. Controlled lighting can enhance colours and shadows without glare, adding depth to your images.
Add Visual Interest
Art-directing the scene can add visual interest to your portfolio images. For example, Mexican branding agency Anagrama used a fun background for promotional images for patisserie Theurel & Thomas. In a similar vein, Eat Studio's branding of EA Soundtrack FC 25 used a kaleidoscopic scene created by arranging items without much effort.
Tell a Story
Incorporate lifestyle shots to show real-world application or scale. This not only gives context to your designs but also helps potential clients visualize how your designs could fit into their own projects.
Experiment with Techniques
Long exposure can be used to capture the flow of elements like water or light trails, suggesting time's passage or continuous motion. Zoom burst, a technique involving changing the lens's focal length during a long exposure, creates a dynamic zoom effect.
Keep it Simple
Backgrounds should be minimal and consistent to maintain focus on the designs. Coloured backdrops, combined with coloured lighting, can create a memorable effect, as long as they don't distract from the designs themselves.
Showcase Your Work Effectively
For the print portfolio design itself, maintain a clean, intuitive layout that groups designs by type or project with ample white space to let visuals stand out. A strong cover page with your name and key design samples sets the tone.
Creating collages or multi-angle layouts also helps present multiple facets of a design effectively.
Innovation and Fun
Innovation and a sense of fun can be beneficial in design work, as demonstrated by &Walsh's rebrand of Coconut Cult. Field's Vision Wall, a permanent installation of three ever-changing generative artworks, used a balance of stills and video to document the experiential work.
Motion and Animation
Dutch studio Trapped In Suburbia used motion (animated GIF and video) to demonstrate the process of their Talking Ceramics book. Similarly, motion blur can be used to instill a sense of movement in still images, as shown by How&How in their recent rebrand of Chester Zoo.
By following these techniques and examples, you can creatively photograph your design portfolio, effectively showcasing your work to potential clients and making a lasting impression.
- In the process of photographing your designs, pay attention to clean and simple compositions that accentuate design details.
- To bring out the best in your work, employ various techniques such as unique angles, diverse lighting, and contextual staging.
- To emphasize shape, texture, and material quality, photograph the physical pieces from multiple perspectives, including straight-on, 45-degree, and overhead angles.
- Controlled lighting can help enhance colors and shadows without glare, adding depth to your images.
- Art-directing the scene can add visual interest to your portfolio images; for example, using a fun background.
- Incorporate lifestyle shots to provide context and help potential clients visualize how your designs could fit into their own projects.
- Experiment with techniques like long exposure or zoom burst to create dynamic and visually appealing images.
- Maintain a clean, intuitive layout in your print portfolio design, grouping designs by type or project with ample white space, and use strong cover pages.
- Innovation and fun can be integrated into design work, as demonstrated by the use of motion and animation, such as animated GIFs and videos, to present work in a unique and engaging manner.
