How to Make a Photography Portfolio Website
A photography portfolio lives or dies on edit and sequence. Here is how to choose which images make the cut and how to present them online.
How to Make a Photography Portfolio Website
Photographers tend to have the opposite problem to everyone else. Not a shortage of material — far too much of it, and no willingness to cut.
But a portfolio is an edit. Thirty strong images beat two hundred good ones, because the viewer's impression settles on the average, not the peak.
This guide covers building a photography portfolio website that holds attention.
Edit Ruthlessly
Start by pulling every image you are proud of. Then cut it in half. Then cut it again.
Useful tests:
- Would you be happy for this to be the only image someone sees?
- Does it add something the others do not, or is it a near-duplicate?
- Are you keeping it because it is strong, or because it was difficult to get?
That last one catches more images than people expect. The effort behind a shot is invisible to the viewer.
Target 20–40 images for a general portfolio, or 10–15 per category if you shoot across several.
Sequence Deliberately
Order matters as much as selection. A portfolio is viewed linearly, so it has a rhythm whether you plan one or not.
- Open strong. Your best image, first.
- Vary the pace. Alternate wide and tight, busy and quiet. Six similar compositions in a row flatten out.
- Group coherently. If you shoot weddings and architecture, separate them. Mixed genres make a viewer wonder what you actually do.
- Close strong. The last image is the one they leave with.
Presentation
Image quality is the whole product. Export at a sensible resolution — around 2000px on the long edge for web — and compress without visible artefacts. A soft or over-compressed image undoes the work.
Load speed matters more for photographers than anyone. Large galleries get heavy fast. Use a builder that lazy-loads images, and check the site on mobile data, not just wifi.
Let the images breathe. Generous whitespace, minimal chrome, no heavy borders or drop shadows. The frame should disappear.
Watermarks are usually a mistake. They degrade the viewing experience and deter almost no determined thief. If you are worried, limit resolution instead.
You can see different approaches to gallery layout in these photographer portfolio examples.
Say What You Shoot and How to Book You
A surprising number of photography portfolios make it hard to work out what the photographer does commercially or how to hire them.
Include:
- The kind of work you take on — weddings, editorial, product, events
- Where you are based and whether you travel
- A working contact method
- A rough indication of pricing, or at least a way to request it
If someone has to guess whether you do what they need, most will leave.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many photos should a photography portfolio have?
Twenty to forty for a general portfolio. Ten to fifteen per category if you shoot several genres.
Should I show personal work or only client work?
Both, if the personal work is strong. Personal projects often show more of your eye than commissioned work does, because nobody else was art-directing it.
Do I need a blog on my photography site?
Only if you will actually maintain it. An abandoned blog with three posts from two years ago reads worse than no blog.
How do I stop people stealing my images?
You largely cannot, and heavy watermarking costs you more in presentation than it saves. Publish at moderate resolution and accept the trade-off.
Build It Free with Folify
You do not need to hand-code a site or pay a monthly fee to get a portfolio online. Folify is a free portfolio builder with a drag-and-drop block editor, custom domains, and built-in analytics on the free plan.
Pick a starting point from the portfolio templates, drop in your work, and publish. Most people are live in under ten minutes.
No credit card. No coding. Just your work, looking its best.