A question of portfolios and flickr

[Rajah Sulayman]

Scott Kelby talked about portfolios and how you really not only wanna keep 'em fresh, but you wanna keep 'em well-edited. Better to have 20 amazing photos than 20 amazing photos, 20 great photos, and 20 good photos, because you want prospective clients to know you for your best work. This is a philosophy I entirely agree with.

Like 40% of DPS's readers, I have a photoblog. I recently integrated my Flickr account so that visitors could browse more of my photos from within the site. The slideshow feature is especially neat.

So here's my question: If I intend to put up a proper portfolio on my site someday, should I take down my flickr page?

On the one hand, it might take away from the impression my portfolio makes since visitors will be able to go through all of my shots (except for personal ones, which have been blocked) and see the whole range of my work, from great to crap.

On the other, however, would the presence of a photo album and its abundant contents create in the viewer a subconscious "distinction" between it and my portfolio? The viewer would know they were looking at a photo album and set the bar accordingly.

What do you think? If I add a portfolio, should I take down the flickr page?

[BCampbell]

I've been thinking about this too.

Currenly I have a (fairly well-populated) flickr, and a blog also. I'm not rushing into building a website but I'm going to want to, and I'll want to host a portfolio there. So what do I do with flickr after that? Definitely don't want to dilute the impact of a carefully curated portfolio with the sometimes random junk on flickr.

I also find it really convenient to host photos on flickr for use on my blog.

I think what I'll end up doing is disconnecting my website from my blog and flickr as much as possible. Of course it's impossible to completely sever ties between our various online personae on the Internet, but I'm going to avoid linking to the blog or flickr at all and use the website strictly to attract potential clients. They don't need to see what I did last weekend or how my digital developing is going.

At least, that's my plan right now. Like I said I'm not ready to start a site yet, so it could change. Hope this helps.

I think Flickr and Portfolio are two different things.

Your portfolio should be concentrated (or categorized) to one area of your photography to attract a client interested in that style of photography. For instance, if a couple wanted you as a wedding photographer, you'd show them your wedding portfolio. You wouldn't show them baby photos or sports photography. Most websites do this...they categorize their photos for their target market. And you only display your very best photos.

Flickr seems to be more like "this is my latest photo" with not much organization. Sure, there are sets and collections, but your photo stream is the first thing most people will see. These are not necessarily your best photos...it just happens to be what you've shot recently.

[mlee]

I believe in Less is More. Use your Portfolio to showcase only your best shots. If you want to integrate flickr, create a blog along side your portfolio site. The blog/photoblog can serve as "behind the scenes" of you and your work using flickr integration. You can then just hand pick the ones you like and blog about it without exposing the rest of your sets.

If you do want Flickr on your portfolio, you can do a major flickr cleanup. Remove very old images and those with less significance to you.

Flickr is a great place to link up, share and store images.

[Rajah Sulayman]

Originally Posted by BCampbell

I think what I'll end up doing is disconnecting my website from my blog and flickr as much as possible. Of course it's impossible to completely sever ties between our various online personae on the Internet, but I'm going to avoid linking to the blog or flickr at all and use the website strictly to attract potential clients.

Originally Posted by mlee

create a blog along side your portfolio site. The blog/photoblog can serve as "behind the scenes" of you and your work using flickr integration.

I actually used to do this. focalmatter.com is my photography site. Originally I had focalmatter.com/blog for my photoblog and focalmatter.com/portfolio for my portfolio. Then my portfolio became a little stale, so I just moved the photoblog to the focalmatter.com root.

You basically have flickr on one side of the spectrum (personal) and portfolio on the other end (professional), with photoblog in the middle (personal photos with professional quality). So while the photoblog can easily pair with either, the two can't pair together. So I can either have photoblog + portfolio, or photoblog + flickr, but not photoblog + both.

I might just go back to having two separate sections to the site, one for my portfolio and one for my blog, with the blog incorporating the flickr. Hopefully having them as two different areas will make the distinction stand out more in the viewer's eyes.

[BCampbell]

Originally Posted by rajah sulayman

I might just go back to having two separate sections to the site, one for my portfolio and one for my blog, with the blog incorporating the flickr. Hopefully having them as two different areas will make the distinction stand out more in the viewer's eyes.

You can do that, but remember that it's an easy jump for a potential client to check your blog from your site, and then click on over to flickr.

I don't think there's any clean way to completely avoid that without dumping flickr entirely, though -- or making all your photos private.

[Rajah Sulayman]

Originally Posted by BCampbell

You can do that, but remember that it's an easy jump for a potential client to check your blog from your site, and then click on over to flickr.

True, but the goal isn't so much to keep them from ever seeing it as to keep them from associating it with my professional stuff.

My thinking is that when someone looks at a portfolio, they're in the mindset of "These are some of the best images this photographer has produced. This is showing me the extent of their skill." So when they see 20 amazing photos, they think you're an amazing photographer. Whereas if they see 20 amazing photos and 20 good ones, they think you're a decent photographer.

But when they look at a flickr account, they're in the mindset of "This is this photographer's photo album." And there might be great ones in the and there might be so-so ones in there, but it's not being judged under the same scrutiny since these photos aren't meant to impress.

By having the flick page and the portfolio side-by-side, it creates a link between them and therefore a link in the viewer's mindset. But by having them at completely opposite sides of the website, there's less of a blurring.

At least, that's how it feels in my head. I could be way off-base.

One thing I can do, since I have the ability to weed out flickr sets, is only share the sets I know are great. That way when the viewer is going through them, they'll be thinking "I know this is just his personal stuff, but wow these are good." If anything, it'll make me look even better.

Of course, again, I could be way off-base.

[Alexandra]

Personally i would not mix them AT ALL. A client, someone with no photo experience at all, will judge you by ALL your photos displayed. If i put myself in my client's shoes, which i try my best to do, if i see your portfolio that is great and them i see some flickr pics that are so and so, ill be thinking that you are trying to con me with your portfolio and chances are that you might get so and so pics of me... Once linked, the client wont make distinction. Trust me on that. My own family doesnt make the distinction between snaps shots of my kids mocking around and the "pro" pics i take of them (when they let me)...

Also, from my experience with art in general, i tend to remember the last things i see. And if flickr is the last thing i see after your portfolio... thats what il remember...

Personally i se Flickr under m individual name, as a private person, but if ill decide to link flickr to my business website (in few weeks i hope) ill do it under the business name. Same with Facebook. I have tons of pics on my facebook account, but for the business page in using only a handful and im not linking anything to my personal stuff.

Alexandra