The new year is a great time to spruce up the portfolio you use to market your work. From a marketing perspective, it is critical to create an irresistible aesthetic for your brand. Your work is what you sell, so your work should sell you.

Here are a few quick tips to refresh your brand’s photography portfolio:

1. START WITH A PURPOSE

Don’t skip this. This is the most important part! Have your business’ “mission statement” front and center in your mind.

WHO are you?

WHAT do you do?

WHO do you do it for?

WHY do you do it?

Make sure you can clearly articulate both your brand’s purpose and the intended audience. Your portfolio is a reflection of your work used in a marketing context to communicate your beliefs, experience, skill level, style/aesthetic, and passion. It should tug at the heart of the viewer to move them to action… to book you!

[Need help with this part? Check out my Marketing Course! It takes you through a deep-dive on finding your mission statement]

2. TOSS THE OLD WORK

This is a personal preference, but I like to keep all of the images of my portfolio within the last 12-24 months to keep things fresh. I want my portfolio to represent my current style and also give people a reason to keep visiting my page.

3. ONLY SHOW WHAT YOU WANT TO BE HIRED FOR

 I don’t care how much you love the lighting or the location, if the subjects or the clothing don’t match your desired style, press delete on the images. Carefully curate a portfolio of portraits that are styled exactly how you want you to identify your brand and only show the type of work you want to be paid to produce more of.

4. STAY COHESIVE

Show a variety of lighting, colors, and posing while staying as cohesive as possible. Every image should add to a very specific narrative you are trying to tell. Overall, tones and colors within your portfolio should be similar.

5. DIVIDE IF NECESSARY

If you can’t keep a single portfolio cohesive, you could break it into seasons (fall, winter, spring, summer), type (black and white vs color, outside vs studio), genre (seniors, equine, commercial, weddings), or however makes sense for your brand offering or your viewer’s interest.

6. LESS IS MORE

When in doubt, delete it. Start with understanding the story you want to tell and think hard about the person you want to reach with it. How will that picture make them feel? As you review your images to see if they belong, if the answer isn’t “HECK YES!!!!!!!!” then the answer needs to be no.

10 strong images are far more impactful than 50 mediocre.

7. GET HELP

Can’t cull it down? Clearly articulate your “mission statement” to a few trusted people and ask for their opinion on which images support your mission the best, and which aren’t as impactful.

8. GO CREATE WHAT YOU LACK

Doesn’t feel complete? If the images don’t tell the story correctly or completely… it is time to schedule some unpaid or “model call” photoshoots to fill the gaps with intention. Coordinate photo sessions to complete the specific image you are trying to add.