Ideal print size for portfolio?

[Sean]

Hi, just wondering what you all consider the ideal print size is for a portfolio. 8x10, 11x14? I'm about to start a portfolio but can't decide on the print size. Thanks

 

[Bruce Osgood]

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Sean @ Mar 30 2003, 04:19 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Hi, just wondering what you all consider the ideal print size is for a portfolio.&nbsp; 8x10, 11x14?&nbsp; I'm about to start a portfolio but can't decide on the print size.&nbsp; Thanks</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
I wouldn't think there is a IDEAL SIZE. I think a portfolio would represent your best work at its' ideal size -- the size you put your efforts into when making the image. I think they should be mounted and matted, not a model's portfolio that is flipped thru. A portfolio is a sample of your best work, not ALL your best work. It should be as complete as you can make it.

When someone looks at a portfolio they only see what's there, not what might be. Give them all the input you can, leave nothing for the imagination. Imagination is too subjective.

 

[lee]

Think about what you want to do with the portfolio. Are you gonna show it to anybody or gallerys? My experience is if you are ready to show it to galleries then have it ready to hang. But remember that there is no IDEAL size, IMO.


lee\c

 

[Sean]

Thanks for the input. I live on a peninsula in New Zealand, really gorgeous spot and small town. No one has done a pictorial book on this peninsula so I thought I would give it a shot. I suppose if the images will be used in a book, then my portfolio of the images should be around 8x10's. That might give the publisher an idea of what they will look like in the book itself.

 

[lee]

Are you gonna do it in color? If so I would shoot chromes. Sequence them and mount them in those black oversized mounts that commercial shooters use. T hat way they can throw them on the light table and not have to worry about fingerprints.


lee\c

 

[docholliday]

For my display portfolio, I was told that larger is better. So after a few tests I did by showing different sizes to people and getting feedback, I felt the ideal size was 11X14 in a 16x20 portfolio case and matted 16x20. I use flat-black double mats and mount the images with adhesive (non-foam core) board. I can easily pull the images out of the sleeves in the case and display them in the open as well as show the images book-like out of the portfolio.

I tried 8x10 and it just wasn't as impressive as the 11x14. I tried 16x20 and it was too unwieldy to carry around easily.

 

[bmac]

Sean, for what you are talking about, I think a 11X14 portfolio with 8x10's would be the way to go. Overmat them in Black, like Doc did, it will look clean.

Brian

 

[Sean]

Thanks guys! Keep an eye out in the critique gallery. I'll be posting 'potential' images in there for this project. I'll put in 3 tonight, 2 taken last weekend.

 

[Ed Sukach]

The porfolio seems to me to be an ongoing, continuous activity. I have seen all sizes, so far, from 8"' x 10" to ... I don't know ... must have been something like 30" x 36" - from a a good friend who owned an advertising agency, and used it in sales negotiations with clients.

My own is 11" x 14" - Panodia. At present there are 20 11" x 14" prints in plastic and a *bunch* of loose ones in there. I would *NOT* present it with loose prints.

Given that the portfolio is the vehicle for the fist impression, I am going to be extra finicky about its composition. At present, I have to replace four or five color prints that have yellowed ( more properly, "tanned") over time.
Also, my portfolio is mixed black and white and color - I am thinking of separate inserts devoted to each.

Last, I am going to pay a lot of attention to the size and format ... and possibly, either smaller prints mounted on some sort of archival paper, or overmatting.

Now ... to find TIME...

 

[Donald Miller]

My portfolio is comprised of 12 each 11X14 images which have been mounted and overmatted to 16X20 inch size. I have interleaving between each image and also as a cover for the first image. I include an artists resume and gloves as an aid to the viewer and as an indication that I have placed enough value on my work to hesitate having oil transmitted to the materials.

As an aside, there is an informative site located at http://art-support.com which has a fair amount of information to those who are interested in marketing and selling their work.

 

[Ed Sukach]

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (dnmilikan @ Mar 31 2003, 04:49 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> I include ... gloves as an aid to the viewer and as an indication that I have placed enough value on my work to hesitate having oil transmitted to the materials.

As an aside, there is an informative site located at http://art-support.com which has a fair amount of information to those who are interested in marketing and selling their work.</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
Uh... I've heard that "gloves should be included" before. I've checked with the owners of the local gallery... (I have a reasonably good rapport with them ... but they do not deal with many nude figure studies - parochail Puritan-ville), and one would have to be careful that they do not take that inclusion as a negative message that they were considered to be careless in their handling of art works. It may well be that they ARE ... but *image*, a.k.a. "first messages", is nearly everything.
Also, the "Portfolio Guidelines" on that Artist's web site recommend against including gloves.

The Panodia (and others) portfolios enclose the prints in plastic... sufficient protection ... which is a *pain* to keep clean - and - I don't know - I don't really LIKE the "look", but so far that seems to be "accepted" among those who view portfolios.

I have a portfolio from a *wonderful* local photographer - not the usual - black and white prints, various sizes - mounted on some sort of heavy black paper in a spiral loose leaf binding with heavy fiber covers. The photographs are *only* on the "odd" pages (right side), with captions and poetry on the "even" pages facing them. The overall effect is *very* good. A very effective use here of "white" (so, in this case it's black) space.

I'm thinking ... I'm thinking ...

 

[Aggie]

..

 

[lee]

I used to tape the overmat to the back board but not now. Only because I am lazy for no other reason.

lee\c

 

[David Hall]

Quick question...

It's interesting that you suggest black overmats in the portfolio. Why not use white overmats?

dgh

 

[Donald Miller]

I tape my overmat to the mount using acid free linen tape to make a hinge. Seems to keep everything in order. Some of my prints are trimmed more then others and consequently every mat is custom cut to that print.

 

[lee]

I use Westminster buffered mat board from Light Impressions. It is not white but very close to white. It is 4 ply. I cut the matts a little higher that in the middle of the board. I don't print larger than 11x14 and mat every thing from that size smaller on to 16x20. I use to not dry mount but have decided that it is much safer for the photograph to be dry mounted.
Every good professional gallery I have ever been in to see a show has had that off white color of mat. Definitely not black. That may be good in the commercial world but not in the art world.

lee\c

 

[David Hall]

Lee,

I didn't mean black mats for the wall. I meant that earlier in the thread a few people mentioned black overmats for a portfolio. Since the mat seems to affect the way you see a photograph, wouldn't you want the mat to be the same color whether it's in your lap or on the wall?

dgh

 

[Ed Sukach]

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (lee @ Mar 31 2003, 10:46 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Every good professional gallery I have ever been in to see a show has had that off white color of mat. Definitely not black. That may be good in the commercial world but not in the art world.
</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
The Herb Ritts show at the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston, last year. Every one of Ritts photogrpaphs was in black, textured matting.

 

[docholliday]

Hmmm, saw the Ansel Adams exhibit in Indianapolis 2 years ago. Every print was in a black mat and frame...

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

In the New York gallery scene, 8-ply white seems to be the current mode.

 

[mvjim]

If the purpose of the work is a book and presenting it to publishers - then overmatting, etc. is a bit of a waste of $'s. Loose prints in mylar sleeves in a portfolio box is a much more exceptable presentation. It allows the designer/publisher free access to all the images and allows them to begin to see how the images would work together in various sequences. It allows them to be able to xerox the images for possable page sizing and layout ideas. The perfered size for this purpose is 11 x 14 as it also gives them a idea if certain images will "holdup" at say a doulble page spread.

Even some gallerys would rather have loose prints presented in clear mylar sleeves, (the reason you sometimes get back your matts and prints in seperate piles) which allows them to layout the work to see how the images play one against the other.

As for some of the previous suggestions for gallery submissions - Its been my experience that most people that submit work to gallerys "overdo" their initial presentation and make it more difficult to be viewed than is necessary. Try putting yourself in the gallery directors place (who has a limited amount of time set aside each week to view new work) - you receive a portfolio that has been presented (as one mentioned) matted, mounted, with interleaving tissue and in poly sleeves. To begin to even start looking at the work you have to "unpack" each individual print and then when finished repack. The gallery can picture how the work will look matted - its their job. Even including gloves is a bit over the top unless you are sending the work to a place that you assume does not know how to properly handle work.