30+ Best Photography Portfolio Examples and Tips For Beginners
Photography is visual art so having a portfolio website is essential. To attract the attention and grow the clients’ list, you need to create an online showcase that will perfectly present your style, photography niche, color scheme, and unique visual character. When people can see what makes your work special, you have more chances to stand out from the crowd and build your brand. That’s why it’s important to plan the design and content of your portfolio with special care.
Depending on your style and preferences, you can go with a one-page website, organize your works in different image galleries, experiment with a full-width showcase, or play with horizontal or vertical sliders. Whether you want to use free photography WordPress themes, go with a premium portfolio theme or hire developers to create your site, you need to be familiar with the best practices and trends worth following.
Simplicity Always Works
Your works are the core of your portfolio. So, make sure they are in the center of attention by staying away from redundant details. Unnecessary features, too many animation types, and poor organization won’t do you any favor. Instead, stick to an intuitive, clean design that will let you highlight your works and projects without stealing the attention from your photos. If you’re not sure which color scheme will fit your style, stick to white/black combo or try a neutral color palette.
The Design Should Match the Photography Type
Your site should express your personality, but more than this, it should be in line with your visual expression. For instance, if you are in wedding photography, your site should communicate joy, love, connection, and positivity. On another note, if you are a sports photographer, your site should express energy, movement, and strength. Before you choose your design, analyze your niche and competitors. This will give you an insight into what will work both for you and your followers.
Choose Your Works Carefully
Your photography portfolio is all about your works. The photos you decide to put on your site should sum up your style and show your expertise. After leaving your site, a visitor should be familiar with your aesthetics, visual preferences, and overall photography style. So, take your time and select your best works with attention to detail. Don’t just put everything you’ve ever created on your site – the more is not the merrier in this case. Handpick only the works that will be relevant to your potential customers and the works that will differ you from competitors.
Allow People to Contact You
Being a photographer is all about being connected with clients, followers, and other creators. This is especially important if you’re just starting your photography journey. Be sure to include a contact page or contact section on your site. This will allow your potential customers to send you a message with ease, which is the first step in hiring you. On the other hand, don’t forget to incorporate your social media links into your portfolio. Social media will allow you to communicate with your followers daily, plus it lets you show your personal life when you feel like it.
Be Familiar With Design Trends
Trends are changing fast. To be relevant and up-to-date you should follow the design trends regularly. Since aesthetics are the core of photography, make sure your site is frequently updated so it doesn’t look old-fashioned. A fresh design that reflects your style will allow you to stay relevant. On top of this, following the technology and design trends is practical since people now consume content via their mobiles so being informed about potential changes in this field is essential.
Know Your Target Audience
Choosing the right works for your showcase is one of the most important steps in building your photography portfolio. To do this right, you need to know your target audience and their preferences. For instance, if you’re a wedding photographer, focus on portraits. However, if you’re a nature lover, share lovely landscapes. Don’t mix works from different niches if you focus on one field exclusively. In case you have more than one discipline, make sure your works are organized in separate categories.
Make Sure Your Site is Fast
People are impatient. This means your site needs to be fast and reliable. The problem is photography sites tend to be slow because of too many images that are often too heavy. Make sure your images are optimized perfectly – they should be clear but not too small.
If you want to save time and improve your images’ loading time, you can take advantage of Imagify — the easiest image optimizer to make your images lighter and your website faster. Imagify automatically compresses your images while keeping a balance between image quality and performance. You don’t need to worry about anything: Imagify takes care of everything.
Update Your Works Frequently
After you create your photography portfolio, make sure it’s frequently updated. People will get bored if your site is constantly the same. As your new projects come, update your image galleries with new content and keep your followers informed about your latest work.
Organize Your Site
If you want to share a large number of images, make sure they are organized in different categories so that people can easily browse through your content. Easy navigation is essential if you want to keep people longer on your site. Create a smart dropdown menu and sub-menu items if you have a lot of content or go with a minimal menu that leads to different website sections.
Use Hero Images
Hero images are usually placed on top of your site and they tend to grab the most attention. As a great introduction to images that follow, a hero image is like a window to your works. The great news is you can use sliders to showcase more than one hero image. Pick your most captivating photos and steal the eye right away.
Caitlin Worthington
Caitlin Worthington provides an original way for content exploration. The website is organized around the left side menu that allows you to navigate to different website pages. On the right side, there is a huge image gallery you can browse through in horizontal slider order. If you want to stay away from traditional photography websites, this photography portfolio example may be a good starting point.
Grant Ordelheide
Grant Ordelheide decided to showcase works in full-screen style. Here, images appear automatically on the screen so visitors can enjoy them like on a movie screen. At the top, there is a simple menu form that allows you to visit different pages, check out prints or specific galleries, etc.
lnaylor
Loren Naylor is a creative photographer and creative director in LA. Her website is a contemporary piece of art. Firstly, there is a left-side menu that allows easy and intuitive navigation. Secondly, the image gallery is organized in Pinterest portfolio order. Images, gifs, and videos shown in this portfolio create true visual heaven, so keep this in mind when you are about to build your first photography portfolio.
Tom Hull
Tom Hull is a UK based photographer. His photography portfolio website shows the beauty of simplicity at its best. Wide surfaces, clean design style, and memorable, pastel photo palette create the feeling of infinite summer and make us crave for more. This site is an amazing source of inspiration for contemporary, art, or creative photography websites.
Hardy Klahold
Hardy Klahold decided to keep it simple. So, as with many other photography portfolio examples, this website proved that black and white make the winning formula. Stylish, refined, and minimalistic, it’s a perfect choice for fashion photographers.
Gavin Gough
Gavin Gough is a humanitarian, editorial, and travel photographer. His website is clean, well organized, and simple, without redundant details. The strong focus on works and powerful features such as newsletter subscription form, blog, and shop elements, make this website a great option for photographers.
Ryan Michael Kelly
Ryan Michael Kelly is a very talented photographer focused on women’s beauty and fashion. The site is organized in a grid layout with multiple image columns. With so many images displayed, it’s like a never-ending photo collage.
Zielecki
When we talk about photography portfolio examples you need to check out, we surely have Zielecki in mind. This black and white portfolio brings image galleries followed by textual descriptions. There is, as well, a detailed footer with a list of clients and social media links.
Jeremy Cowart
Jeremy Cowart puts photos in focus. Organized in an eye-catching portfolio template, the lovely women’s portraits really capture the attention. The whole site is organized around image galleries – other website elements are minimalistic and basic.
Nicola Starier
Nicola Starier is a photographer that puts photography first. For this reason, his site is a huge visual collage. The whole gallery is displayed in one place, so people can easily browse through the works and learn about models, campaigns, etc.
Danilo and Sharon
Luxury wedding photography deserves this kind of showcase. Danilo and Sharon is a wedding photography portfolio that combines videos and images. Refined, stylish, and well-organized, this site shows why Danilo and Sharon are so popular around the world.
North landscapes
North Landscapes is all about lovely nature. As with other photography portfolio examples, this site puts images in the focus. Besides the wide image gallery, there is a lovely website header where people can check out prints, lightroom presets, NFTs, or contact the author.
Dave Hill
Dave Hill knows the power of simplicity. This clean site with strong white dominance is a good choice for any niche. The works are organized in three columns per row, which is a good idea if you like tidy, strict organization.
Mareen Fischinger
Mareen Fischinger decided to showcase works in a professional, yet stylish manner. The images are organized in masonry portfolio format, and the presentation is made more interactive with a hover animation effect.
Lisa Bettany
Lisa Bettany tells her photography story in a traditional, yet modern way. Here you can see a lot of images in one place. This is a good option if you focus on a specific niche and you want to create a story through your image gallery.
Love water photo
Love Water photo puts beauty first. This lovely, romantic showcase features stunning photos but this is not all. Besides the gorgeous pastel color scheme and eye-catching details, this website brings beautiful pricing tables together with a blog.
Aspect photography
If you prefer a simple showcase, have a look at Aspect Photography. The whole site is a full-width showcase – images automatically exchange on the screen. When the showcase is over, you enter the site where you can check out different pages.
Pedrontheworld
Pedro on the World, the site of Pedro Oliveira, displays links to different albums and pages on the main website page. As full-width-images automatically exchange in the background you can start exploring the site and its content.
Peter Mckinnon
Peter McKinnon’s site is currently a one-page site that directs visitors to a few different galleries. It’s a good choice if you prefer minimalism and simplicity.
Giles Clement
Photographer Giles Clement uses full-screen photos to capture attention. All the links to works and projects are placed on this main page.
Eric Ryan Anderson
For Eric Ryan Anderson simplicity works the best. Clean design and a layout with a white background in combo with a basic navigation menu, result in a great showcase suitable for different photography niches.
Juco
JUCO, the site of Julia Galdo and Cody Cloud is something different. This site stands out with many bright and vivid photos on the homepage.
Jeffery Salter
As some other photography portfolio examples we previously mentioned, Jeffery Salter’s website brings a clean design that showcases several photos above the fold.
Lieben Photography
Lieben has a large background photo slider that steals all the attention on the website’s homepage. Besides this, there is a lovely image gallery placed below, that lets you check out different image categories.
Dolly Ave
The full-size background photo dominates Dolly Ave’s website design. On the left side, there is a practical menu section you can use to navigate to the rest of the site.
Sascha Kraemer
Sascha Kraemer is another site that makes excellent use of large background images to show off the work. The rest of the site is beautiful as well since everything is designed with careful care.
Morgan Norman
Morgan Norman’s site uses a splash page with a large image that leads to the portfolio page. Simple, yet powerful.
Sanz Lena
Horizontal scrolling is what makes Sanz Lena’s site special. This is a beautiful way to skip ordinary portfolio layouts.
Now that we’ve discussed the best photography portfolio examples, let’s have a look at photography portfolio WordPress themes, you can use to build a showcase that has it all.
Sonora – Photography WordPress Theme
Sonora is a great choice for photographers who prefer contemporary design styles. This theme comes with a huge selection of showcase styles ideal for stealing attention. It’s packed with nine stunning, flexible homepage templates perfect for displaying your creative works. As this theme includes portfolio lists and sliders you will be able to introduce your photos as you wish.
Me Voy – Photography Portfolio Theme
This lovely theme will let you highlight your creative works with zero effort. Me Voy is packed with an impressive assortment of photo gallery layouts and elements, allowing you to present your artistry in a variety of eye-catching ways. Choose between versatile portfolio styles including horizontal scroll gallery and interactive links and show your photography talents.
Oráiste – Creative Portfolio WordPress Theme
Oráiste is a creative portfolio theme ideal for any photographer with zero coding knowledge. The theme is packed with dozens of portfolio layouts you can easily customize as per your needs. For instance, you can choose between a horizontal scroll, small or big image sliders, or full-width templates to give your works all they need to shine.
Let’s Wrap It Up
Being a photographer is fun, engaging, and rewarding. If you want to grow your photography career, make sure your photography portfolio is the reflection of your values, style, and niche. Every detail matters so make sure your color scheme, portfolio layouts, and other website features are made with customers in mind. We hope the photography portfolio examples we analyzed above will give you some ideas for creating a showcase that has it all.
We hope this article was helpful. If you liked it, feel free to check out some of these articles as well!