Portfolio's

Logic tells me I should start at the beginning, like how I decided to buy a camera and some of the basic shooting tips I've picked up. I'm not though since I can cover those later, and it seems woefully boring.

Instead, I'll pick up on what I'm working on now. My portfolio. What a pain in the ass. the steps I've taken so far are best summed up in a list.

1. Take ~ 10, 000 pictures.
2. Decide on 20 that are decent.
3. PDF them, making it look nice.
4. Try to print at a copy centre
5. Fight with the manager about Image Quality.
6. Go to a real Art printer.
7. Lament at high prices. ($20/print @ 11 X 17)
8. Learn your images are not anywhere near ready to print.

So far as I can tell, you get what you pay for, and there is nothing cheap in fine art. If you want to be serious about art you have to pay serious money. Even the portfolio cover is expensive, up to $200 or more!

So here is what I recommend.

1. Take your pictures. Process them in photoshop or lightroom, or both.
2. Make sure you are running at 300 ppi, because anything less is a sin, apparently.
3. Depending on your mega pixel count (on my 30D 8.2) you will have to up-res your photo (enlargen it), I typically use 150% to get to 11 X 17. Photoshop does a pretty good job at it.
4. When saving your files, make sure you save as TIFF, or any other format that does not a lossy-type of compression. I prefer TIFF.
   
5. Find a printer who has Cross-Calibrate their printer to their monitors, using an ICC profile that they created themselves. This is the only way to make sure that what you look at on a computer screen will be what you see in a print.
6. Go to an art supply shop and find a portfolio that works for you and doesn't break the bank.

Hopefully this will help you get something together that won't kill you. Once I have my own printed, I'll share it with you.