Hi Amiga, Have a look at My Portfolio here, would you like something like that yourself?
In this post, I will be talking about your Makeup portfolio, how important it is, how you can build it up.
What you need to be thinking about choosing photos and more.
This post is about building your Makeup Portfolio.
Jump ahead to:
Portfolio
A makeup portfolio is a collection of your best work you can show to potential clients or with the internet nowadays, to anyone around the world.
First and foremost, always put professional photos in your portfolio only, made by a (beginner) photographer, made with a professional DSLR camera.
It is very very important that you only put in the best photos in your portfolio.
Do not put everything you ever did in there, and don’t put in 10 pictures of the same outfit/shoot, only the best of the selection. Never ever use practice photos in your portfolio.
Consider it your holy grail, if you have doughts about a photo, don’t put it in, if you are having doubts so could any potential client, only the best of the best will make it to your portfolio.
Use (beginner) models, photos of your mother in your portfolio is a no-go, sorry moms, you are aiming to be professional, use (semi) professionals who are starting out just like you.
TFP Shoots
Where do you find semi-professional photographers and models? Here is where “time for photos” =TFP comes in. Go on Facebook and search for TFP-groups in your location.
They are looking for you too. Time For Photos, or Trade For Print, Time For Print, means all parties put in their time in exchange for photos, everyone works for free.
It is a wonderful way to build your portfolio, try out a new technique, work out that amazing look you had in mind for a while now.
Do your research on setting up a good TFP shoot, I could go on about it in this post, however, I don’t want this post being all about TFP, because I almost never do TFP for photos anymore, I will talk about that later in my post.
However starting out, I do recommend you do TFP because you can practice working in a team and in a (home) studio.
I recommend only to be involved in a TFP shoot if the photographer shoots tethered, so you can see what the heck he/she is shooting on the laptop, very important.
Choosing your Photos
Ok, let’s say you have had a TFP shoot, now you are waiting for the photos, excited about receiving the selection from the photographer, only to be disappointed about the results.
In this case, accept your loss but don’t put it in your portfolio just because it cost you a full day. I can’t even tell you how many TFP shoots didn’t end up in my portfolio, in fact, none of them did, that’s why I stopped doing it for photos, read more later on in this post.
I started paying (between $200,- to $300,-) for upcoming photographers, the quality of the TFP shoots was not good enough for me, I am a perfectionist, keep in mind that these people are starting out, it is not high level yet.
I recommend just having the TFP experience as a good practice and meeting new people, if a good picture comes out, that’s just a bonus.
What I am saying is to be extremely critical about your own portfolio photos choose wisely and think about it really well. It is so important.
My own experience with building up my Makeup Portfolio
With me working for television I don’t generate a lot of portfolio material on the job. As being said I wasn’t satisfied with any TFP shoots, even paying for photographers started to be unsatisfying and I will tell you why.
Photographers look at pictures differently than a Makeup Artist. Many times I heard photographers say, we will fix it in photoshop, or even worst: we will crop it as a close-up in photoshop.
I think it should look as good as it gets straight into the camera raw files.
Like being done in marco-beauty photography used for beauty companges, taken with a macro-prime-lens of 100mm. I can tell you, not a lot of photographers can do macro-beauty.
In fact, I don’t know a single one personally. This is why I decided to start photographing myself.
Actually, I am not entirely happy with my own portfolio right now, I am hoping to change my portfolio with my own photography, hopefully coming soon on this blog.
I recently did some TFP shoots, not in exchange for photos but in exchange for the models to feature in one of my shoots, because I know I am not going to like the pictures of a TFP shoot and again I was right.
If I ever do shoots in exchange for anything, they have to shoot tethered, otherwise I am not even in.
Building up a portfolio is not easy and it is an ongoing process, it evolves with you, always keep updating your portfolio with fresh work, use a website for it.
I see it as the crown of my work and crowns need to be polished every now and then.
PS: Jordan Liberty’s website Portfolio is every Makeup Artist’s dream www.jordanliberty.com
This post was all about your portfolio and my own struggles with it, hopefully, I will be able to show you my new portfolio material shot by myself soon, stay tuned. Cheers Mamitas.
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