A photography portfolio is an incredibly useful tool for any photographer. It succinctly gives viewers a clear idea of your vision, style and capabilities as a photographer. For potential clients, a portfolio is an invaluable asset for judging photographers who can match their own needs and creative goals.
Creating a portfolio can be hard, especially when you're first starting out and building up your body of work as a photographer. For music photographers, the challenges of access and opportunity to work with musicians creates even more specific considerations for a portfolio. I've previously covered my best photo portfolio tips. In this article, we'll look at a few common mistakes to avoid as a music photographer.
Famous artists over better images
Famous subjects in a photo only count for so much. But a weak photo of a famous person is still a weak image if the composition, technical aspects and the moment itself aren't compelling. Avoid the urge to include notable artists based purely on their renown.
Focus only on individual performers
It's common to want to focus on individual performers as a photographer. Single photos of a band member, especially of a front person, can be an obvious subject. When a music photography portfolio is composed almost exclusively of these types of images, the resulting impact is one of limited range and a narrow vision.
Music photography encompasses such a wide range of depth and storytelling, from capturing the venue, fans, the overall atmosphere, details, and more. Almost all clients, from brands sponsoring music events to artists to promoters and festivals, want more than just the live shots of the lead singer.
Including the full breadth of music photography as widely as you can will help you stand out from the crowd that falls into this common trap of focusing only on individual performers.
Similar perspectives and compositions
Similarly to including just photos of solo performers, a common misstep that newer music photographers make is including very similar kinds of images. These can include images that are made from the same angles, perspectives, or with similar compositions.
The effect of many similar types of images in a portfolio is a lack of depth and range. If you're working with limited gear, such as a single prime lens that is used for all your images, it can be difficult to break out of this look. However, the more you can introduce variety to your images, though light, exposure, varied angles and compositions, the stronger the presentation of your work will become.
Inconsistent Visual Style
One aspect of a portfolio is conveying range and versatility. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the ability for a portfolio to show your unique style. This aspect comes through in consistency and a common thread that ties your images together.
While photographic fundamentals like composition and technique can play into this, at a very basic level, the look and feel of your images should be consistent. Mixing high dynamic range (HDR) images with standard images may come across as unharmonious. The same may be true of color and B&W photos (but not always).
Your portfolio should clearly express your voice as a photographer. Pay close attention to how your images come across as a whole, especially if you change your processing style and aesthetic sensibilities.
Redundant images
As a general guideline, you should look to showcase as much variety as possible in your portfolio. Avoid similar images and anything that might be considered a redundant.
Including dramatically different images from the same concert can be perfectly fine. But generally, one should avoid including multiple images of the same performer from a single show, unless the images are remarkably different and incredibly compelling.
The impression to an outside viewer when seeing multiple images is that there's a lack of other content to create a full portfolio or indecision in the edit.
Including too many images
One purpose of a portfolio is to showcase your best work as a photographer. One pitfall to avoid is to include too many images. Variety should not come at the expense of less compelling images. The effect of sharing too much in a portfolio is that the viewer will remember you by your weakest images as much as your strongest images. Be decisive and ruthless in your edit when creating your portfolio.
Multiple unrelated genres
Particularly newer photographers without specialization, a common misstep can be a portfolio that has multiple unrelated portfolios. While it can work, it's very rare for most photographers with extensive experience to present their work in this way. The resulting association is that it's more commonly amateurs or people who are starting out who have multiple unrelated types of photography combined into their portfolio website.
Presenting disparate portfolios may be innocuous, but the connotation is you may be a jack of all trades rather than a master of one. Most of the time, a client is looking to hire a specialist. The exception here is personal work, which can be valuable for showing your vision beyond a single genre and when it adds to the depth of your work as a whole.
Next Steps
So, now that you know some of the most common pitfalls of a music photography portfolio, what's next?
Here's my advice for choosing your images for your best photography portfolio:
And for further reading, be sure to check out my advice for creating your best photography portfolio here:
