Final Year: Portfolio Review Day 2020

20/02/2020

Portfolio reviews are extremely beneficial to my practice and it gives me chance to see if i am producing work at the correct standard for industry i am wanting to join, before i reach out for job interviews. Its also really helpful to receive feedback as to what i do well at and what needs work or can be added to perfect my practice and to gain opinions from existing professionals. 

My first portfolio review was with Laura Joy Burgess, Laura is a freelance photographer who explores all genres such as portrait, still life and property. By exploring all genres Laura explained you are opening up more opportunity for yourself instead of limiting it to one genre of work. When reviewing my portfolio she commented on my narrative in images being clear even though they were commercial portraits. She also gave me ideas to progress with my work by introducing a theme and said that a 90’s fashion theme would fit my style well as i love colourful imagery, however to give my portfolio range needed more location work. Lauras feedback was helpful in reassuring me I’m on the right path and to keep going. 

Lois Jordan was my second review, Lois is a junior retoucher at The Hut Group, who specialises in retouching UK beauty and health brands. Lois explained her workflow and progression of how she reached the level she is at now and that it takes time to perfect your work. However Lois was impressed by my beauty photography as this is an area she also loves and commented on how retouching could possibly be an option for me after graduation. This was helpful for me as i was un-aware that companies for retouching specifically existed, as i assumed that images were retouched by freelance retouchers and this would be something i would definitely consider as a career after university.

Sophie Traynor was my third review, Sophie is a freelance commercial photography who ranges in genres from fashion, still life to food photography. Sophie explained an opposite approach to Lois confirming not to focus too much on the retouching aspect for now and to look more at composition of my work when shooting and to get my product lighting perfected before going into the industry. She was impressed by my work however commented that i needed to steer away from the same beauty imagery and start to work more on location and with product. This was helpful for me to able to know how to proceed next with my work in order to make me industry ready and i will definitely now be focusing on location and product work to give my portfolio more range. Sophie also gave me a tip when looking at image composition, that with beauty work the same poses are used for a reason and that is because they work best, this helped me in regards to research, as i could now look for common posing used in the industry and imply it into my own practice.