Fashion Photography Online Portfolio Website

Fashion Photography Online Portfolio Website

Need an impressive fashion photography online portfolio website? Here’s what you need to know to build a professional folio.

The fashion world is ruthless, even for photographers. Brands and magazines can’t sell without stunning images, so they won’t settle for any less when it comes to the person behind the lens. This is why it’s vital for fashion photographers to build strong, professional portfolios.

With a solid folio, your work does the talking for you—helping you score shoots with big brands in no time. But what does it take to get there?

Here are six essential tips to help you create a professional fashion photography online portfolio website.

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How to Make Your Photography Portfolio More Professional

Know your style and brand as a fashion photographer. While it’s very important to show diversity in your skills as a photographer and the types of themes and subjects you can tackle, it’s also vital to show potential clients that you have a clear understanding of who you are as an artist. You can show this in the type of work you choose to include in your portfolio website, as well as your About page.

Keep things neat and organized. Clients don’t have all day to get to know you and your work. Most of the time, they’re looking for something specific. Help them find what they’re looking for by organizing your work into galleries and pages.

Optimize images and make sure your template is responsive. A professional fashion photographer is detail-oriented and strives for perfection in all aspects of their job. When it comes to your website, this means making sure that every corner of your folio is up to scratch. Make sure all photos are high quality but also quick to load, and always check to make sure your templates work across all devices.

More Tips for Creating an Online Fashion Photography Portfolio

Professionalism aside, here are three more tips to help you build an impressive photo folio.

Less is more. A fashion photographer should know how to edit their work, even when it comes down to figuring out what they may or may not include in their folio. Of course, this will all come much easier when you know your style, but that’s just half of the equation. The other half involves knowing which photos highlight the skills necessary to become a successful fashion photographer.

Storytelling is key. One of those necessary skills every fashion photographer must have is the ability to tell a story. Employ that sense of storytelling in your photo galleries—whether it be in how you order your photos or how you caption them.

Only show what you want to shoot. As a fashion photographer, you can decide whether you want to focus on editorial, high fashion, catalog, street, or a combination of any of those things. And if you want to keep working in a particular style or form, it only makes sense to build a portfolio on that. Doing so makes it easier for potential clients to understand what you can offer and when to collaborate with you.

How to Make a Fashion Photography Online Portfolio Website

With Format, it takes six simple steps to get a portfolio up and running:

  1. Sign up and enjoy a 14-day trial for free.
  2. Pick a template that fits with your brand and style, as well as one that complements your body of work.
  3. Upload your work and organize them into galleries. Make sure new ones come up first, and don’t forget to place descriptions.
  4. Make it easy to navigate your site by editing site navigation and webpages.
  5. Personalize your website. Change your background colors, pick a new font, and add logos and headers to make your website uniquely yours.
  6. Push it further. Format gives users special tools to make the most of their sites, from an SEO Editor to help improve search engine rankings to an online store when you sell merch. You can also integrate your social media into your site to make it easier for clients to find and follow you.

Fashion Photography Portfolio Website Examples

You’ll find tons of templates on Format that were made specifically for photographers. Here are some templates that can do a great job at showcasing a fashion photography folio:

Horizon Left. With an easy-to-access left-hand menu and horizontal-scrolling galleries, this is one of our most loved templates.

Peak. Featuring a tiled gallery that lets you click photos to enlarge them, it’s a template that allows you to give clients a quick summary of your work, while also giving them the chance to take a look at the details up close.

Offset. Like Horizon Left, you get a left-hand menu and a gallery on your homepage. Unlike Horizon Left, you can let visitors take your photos in one at a time, as the galleries are presented as slideshows.

Industry. With full-screen images in vertical scrolling galleries, you let your photos do all the talking for you. It’s simple, sleek, and bold all at once.

Kiln. For quirkier artists, this template lets you switch things up with the photo spacing and the wiggle scroll. Fun and funky, this template goes well with photographers with a knack for whimsy.

Fashion Photography Portfolio FAQs

Still feeling a bit lost? Find what you’re looking for in the answers to our six most frequently asked questions:

Fashion photography portfolios tell a photographer’s brand and story. Photographers can be focused on different niches, from weddings to travel, and a fashion photography folio shows off a photographer’s talents at conceptualizing, styling, and capturing high fashion and commercial subjects.

Fashion portfolios must include 10 to 20 of a photographer’s best work, a description of their brand and creative vision, and contact details. 

When choosing which photos could go into your portfolio, you need to consider whether they align with your brand and the kinds of projects you want to keep doing. Put projects with major clothing brands first. A photographer might want to caption their photos or galleries too, provided that they keep their descriptions short and informative. 

Lastly, a portfolio needs to include a photographer’s contact information. You’ve got to have all your bases covered too, so be sure you have your email, phone number (if you’re comfortable), and social media pages listed down. 

When you’re just starting out as a photographer, making portfolios seems like a daunting task—especially when you’re creating one with a limited body of work. So, it’s important to build up a body of work with portfolio-worthy photographs. 

You can do this by apprenticing under more established photographers to learn the ropes and get connections in the industry, attending workshops and events, and going the extra mile in each opportunity. Most fashion photographers who’ve “made it” put in a lot of work to get where they are, so don’t be disappointed if it takes some time to create a portfolio you’re really proud of. 

To a novice photographer, it may be difficult to tell the difference between the various kinds of fashion photography. Most fashion photographers agree that there are four forms—editorial, high fashion, catalog, and (the newest entry) street fashion photography. 

Editorial and high fashion photography are often confused for one another, but the former always revolves around some type of theme or story and usually appears in publications. The latter, on the other hand, is about selling a luxury brand and lifestyle. Catalog can be seen as a type of product photography for clothing, and street fashion is all about candidly capturing stylish people.

Great looking portfolios are concise, consistent, and deliberate. What does this mean? 

First, photographers should narrow down their photographs to the most excellent choices. A photographer shouldn’t try to include every project they’ve done, nor should they include every photo from their best projects. Remove similar-looking photos—any two photos that are too alike could make it seem like you’re repetitive and unimaginative.

Next, make sure your pictures are all of the same quality and would fit within your brand or photographic vision. If possible, stick to a niche so that potential clients know what to turn to you for. Lastly, be sure to be very deliberate with your choices, ensuring that every photo and caption added makes sense. A portfolio that looks too busy or seems like it wants to do too many things can turn off clients fast.

Photographers can easily create their fashion photography portfolios with website builders like Format. Instead of going through all the complicated steps involved with creating websites from the ground up, photographers can start making their sites in minutes with Format. And once your website is made, you can begin to put your photos, build your About page, and get visitors in no time.

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Create Your Photography Portfolio Now

Whether you’re a fashion, wedding, food, or product photographer, you can build a stunning and professional photography portfolio in a matter of minutes with Format’s website builder. Sign up to Format now and enjoy a 14-day free trial. You can continue using Format for just $10 a month once your trial is up.

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