What to submit as a portfolio?

[audreylynn3]

This may seem like a really silly question, but here goes: I've been asked to submit my portfolio to a local apple orchard who wants to contract with an exclusive photographer for weddings. I'm assuming I'm one of several for them to choose from. What exactly should I give them? A CD, put together an album, or something totally different? I didn't want to ask them and risk sounding unprofessional, but pretty much everything I've done up to this point has been word of mouth. : )

Thanks!

[Niresangwa]

Originally Posted by audreylynn3

This may seem like a really silly question, but here goes: I've been asked to submit my portfolio to a local apple orchard who wants to contract with an exclusive photographer for weddings. I'm assuming I'm one of several for them to choose from. What exactly should I give them? A CD, put together an album, or something totally different? I didn't want to ask them and risk sounding unprofessional, but pretty much everything I've done up to this point has been word of mouth. : )

Thanks!

I don't think it sounds unprofessional to ask which they would prefer to receive it. As long as you make it sound like you have either physical or virtual copies on hand, and it's rather a case of meeting their convenience rather than you sounding naive.

"For your convenience would you prefer a physical copy of my portfolio, or would it be easier for you to make your assessment virtually via the internet. I'd be happy to accommodate either" etc..

[Rentham]

If you send them to your website, I'd consider optimizing the two images on your splash page. Right now they're weighing in at about 5 megs total. Definitely no need to have them at 2000+ pixels on each side being scaled down to 500ish.

[audreylynn3]

Niresangwa - Thank you - that makes sense, and your example does still sound professional.

Rentham - Thank you for the advice! Forgive me, I don't know much about web design/image sizes for online viewing etc - if I re-size them to about 500 pixels as they are, will that make the quality look bad?

[AndyM2020]

Originally Posted by audreylynn3

Niresangwa - Thank you - that makes sense, and your example does still sound professional.

Rentham - Thank you for the advice! Forgive me, I don't know much about web design/image sizes for online viewing etc - if I re-size them to about 500 pixels as they are, will that make the quality look bad?

The main thing that will affect quality in JPEGs is the amount that you compress them by. The more compression (making the file size smaller), the more data is "thrown away" in the image and the worse it will look.

If you use "save for web" in Photoshop (or similar export tool in whatever editing program you use), there's usually a preview of the output image where you can see how the amount of compression you are using will affect the image. The best thing is to use your judgement to get the smallest file size possible without adversely affecting image quality.