Looking for Quality Portfolio shopping

[ryunin]

After only three years of photography practice, I'd like to have my own quality portfolio to show my prints to friends, and in future, gallery owners to discuss the chance to display my work. I have checked some youtube videos and web pages that explain what good portfolio looks like but there is no talk about the size of prints and the best shop in Prague only offered porfolios where you put your prints into transparent polyurethan .... you know what I mean ... the problem is the sales clerk sounded like if my prints are not exactly the size like A4 or A3 that their portfolios feature, then my prints will just loosely move around in the files which won't look good at all, let alone keep them from falling out from the portfolio. The videos and articles say nothing about this problem, I guess it is quite common that photographers won't display only the size of prints the porfolios in shops offer so the shops should sell something professional looking for all kinds of sizes of prints, right? And the prints should be stable in one place in the porfolios. Could you give me a link or something to a shop where it clearly shows that the porfolio can handle different sizes of prints professionally?

Also do you think it is better to overmat the prints before putting them into the portfolios? Somehow I can't imagine overmatted prints on baryta paper in polyurethan transparent files.

 

[ann]

I use a folio from Print File i lilke very much. Makes a very professional presentation. I print the images my self all on the same size paper and in salon style, so when viewing the images there is no need to turn and twist to see how to view. I place a piece of archival tissue between each print.


You could use a "clam box" that is bigger and would certainly hold a print that was on a backboard and with a window.

Sometimes when giving a buyer the print they have purchased, I will put in in a bag for protection, but never for presentation;

 

[ryunin]

Thanks for the tip, the Print File seems like a good brand. But I cannot figure out even checking their products how the porfolio inserts deal with a print that is not exactly the same size as the insert. If your prints are all the same size and the size is something standard, then it should be no problem, but when I buy fibre paper and make prints, the prints are a bit smaller and I wonder if that makes me a disqualified customer for portfolios. How do photographers who always crop their images make the prints steady in inserts? The only solution I see is a tiny drop of glue that would not damage the print on the back side.

 

[ann]

you print the image on the same size paper that fits the folio. The photos can be of varying sizes, but placed on the paper correctly it will be fine.

I always leave the same distance at the top and like a museum style of having the bottom bigger than the top, or you could just center the image on the paper.

It sounds as if your bleeding the prints and then mounting them on a backboard? You could dry mount those , all on the same size backboard and use a clam box.

 

[CCericola]

For my portfolio I bought a plain black case and mounted everything on museum board. I sized it based on my largest print (11x17). Each museum board had 1 piece dry mounted to it. Or if I had two or more smaller pieces that were related I arranged them on one board. Here is where I bought my supplies:

Sentinel Carrying Case, 16? x 20? x 3? | Presentation Carrying Cases

and

Archival supplies - photo storage boxes, archival boxes - acid free storage

 

[ryunin]

thank you, ladies, for the efforts to help me solve this issue, but I am struggling with the language barrier / I have to first understand what "museum board", "mounting" etc. mean / it is difficult to understand when one cannot see the actual things in real life / this is a museum board, this is mounting etc. When I check the videos on youtube, it doesn't show what ecactly, in detail the guys do there. Does is mean using a glue? I'd like to have my prints overmatted but then would it make sense to put them into a polyurethan transparent files? What is the difference between mounting and overmatting? I would imagine that mounting means that somehow a print is attached to a piece of carton (but how without using glue?) and that is put into a transparent file, while overmatting means that the result can be hung on the wall rather than carrying around in cases to show to others. As far as understand, you don't put an overmatted print into a transparent file, right? I don't know if that would look good, plus it might be too thick to fit into a file. So it seems I should mount my prints on quality A4 carton without glue and in a way that enables detaching the prints from the carton in case I want to overmat them for example or something and put that A4 thing into a transparent file that would be a part of whole quality portfolio.

 

[ryunin]

sorry if I am asking about something I should have investigated first

i found out about two basic ways what you do with prints before you show them

mounting and overmatting

i cant' fingure out why these are always somehow separate on the web / as if the other technique didn't exist

I found out that dry mounting is irreversible, so I cannot go that way. I want my prints to be reframable etc. There are mounting techniques where the prints can be removed again but I cannot figure out what they are or who does it and where and how much it costs. I have to ask in the shop I go to.

I cannot figure out if there is any connection between carrying a portfolio to show pictures and overmatting. It seems overmatting is what you do before you put something on the wall while mounting is something you do both for portfolio cases and hanging on the walls.

I seems what I am looking for is a reversible mounting technique to achieve a single size for my prints and buy that size portfolio and put the prints mounted into the portfolio to show them around.

 

[ann]

Ok, your correct about dry mounting and the window (over matting)

With the folio i mentioned at first. I take a piece of paper for example 11x17 and print the image i want on the paper. Let's say the image print is 6x9 and it is a vertical image.. I have the image placed on the paper so there is a 2 inch wide space at the top, with a blank space on either side of 2.51 inches with a bottom white space of 6 inches.

Now the next image i want to show is 7x11 , I print it on the same size paper in the same orientation, vertical, with the same 2 inch white space at the top but now the side border is 2 inches and the bottom is less than 5 inches.

Let us say i have 10 images in the "folio" each are printed in the same manner. Then i place a piece of archival tissue between each piece of paper and slip into the "folio".

Then when you sell one, the buyer has it mounted and framed anyway they want.

Glue and sprays are not environmental safe

 

[ryunin]

Ok, your correct about dry mounting and the window (over matting)

With the folio i mentioned at first. I take a piece of paper for example 11x17 and print the image i want on the paper. Let's say the image print is 6x9 and it is a vertical image.. I have the image placed on the paper so there is a 2 inch wide space at the top, with a blank space on either side of 2.51 inches with a bottom white space of 6 inches.

Now the next image i want to show is 7x11 , I print it on the same size paper in the same orientation, vertical, with the same 2 inch white space at the top but now the side border is 2 inches and the bottom is less than 5 inches.

Let us say i have 10 images in the "folio" each are printed in the same manner. Then i place a piece of archival tissue between each piece of paper and slip into the "folio".

Then when you sell one, the buyer has it mounted and framed anyway they want.

Glue and sprays are not environmental safe

Thanks, Ann, I am beginning to understand. It would be the best to leave the paper for printing in the size it is, find a nice porfolio, where that size would fit and print everything on the same size paper like you do, even if some pictures will be smaller, but the paper itself will be the same. As I have already cut most prints and they are a bit different in size each, I think I have to find a compromise, maybe a quality board of a size that would fit and be inserted into polyurethan files in a nice portfolio, the board white color or black, and using a tape, both sides sticky, not sure what that is called in English, and attach the print like that to the board so the print can be separated from the board any time in the future without causing any damage to the print. I think it would look just like dry mounting, but it would be very simple and good enough for inserting into polyurethan transparent files. Does it seem to be a good idea to do it like that?

 

[ann]

Makes sense.

My I suggest after you have sold all of your current cut prints that you consider other methods as presentation can be everything and different looks yell out professional rather than hobbiest.

 

[ryunin]

ann, I will hardly ever sell anything, especially in the Czech Republic whre people hang oil paintings or reproductions of oil pantings on the wall, but you hardly ever see a photographic print framed on the wall here, ppl don't appreciate quality photographic prints here, only a few people somehow connected to photography

anyway, what do you make of this: Photography Tips : How to Make a Photography Portfolio - YouTube
it is strange that the guy sounds like a pro, implies that his presentation looks great and the way the prints are attached to the pages, seems odd, not very professional, but for me it would be good enough, what do you think? how are his prints attached to the pages?

 

[ryunin]

oh and this looks really awful, and she seems to be a pro and giving advice to beginning pros, does anyone know a link to a youtube video, that shows a really pro looking portfolio book? her book seems like one bad mess to me

 

[ryunin]

oh and this looks really awful, and she seems to be a pro and giving advice to beginning pros, does anyone know a link to a youtube video, that shows a really pro looking portfolio book? her book seems like one bad mess to me

I think I will buy this kind of portfolio, although it looks messy in that video, in the shop it looked absolutely neat. Also my prints are a bit smaller than the polyurethan transparent files, and surprisingly that looks better than the "right size" pictures in the video. I can pull out my prints or leave them inside, without having to attach them to the pages, I think that will look fine. But I am willing to listen to other suggestions, too.

 

[ryunin]

I hope I didn't offend anyone with the comments about those two videos but I'd like to hear your opinions as for which one do you find better looking, the guy's portfolio or the lady's portfolio?

 

[ann]

the first fellow was ok, however, go to that link and look along the side and see Episode 16 he has some good ideas, and the first item he shows may fit your needs

Hers is along the same lines, what I don't like the photos change sizes and they go from some with a border then some are bled.

For me, the over all presentation needs to flow better.

Basically, they are both using a similar method.

SInce your photos are already cut. I would determine an over all size for the book and then adhere the photos to a sheet that size . that way the over all look is similar to one the one i suggested before. Keep the top border the same, and center from there.