Photographs You Should Share (And The Ones You Shouldn’t)

“The first 500 people to use my link in the description will receive a one month free trial of Skillshare! Get started today!” skl.sh/lucylum...
In today's episode I break down the 5 steps to curating a photography portfolio.
Check out my website for inspo www.lucylumen.com
Music by ‪@lux_lumen_‬

[@LucyLumen]

“The first 500 people to use my link will receive a one month free trial of Skillshare! Get started today!” skl.sh/lucylumen02251

[@cosmindanieldavid6135]

I won't lose time listening to commercial advice. Thanks for the video, Lucy!

[@SophiaCarey]

Loved this! Curation is so important and can be such a difficult task when you naturally get so attached to your own work. Thanks so much for the shoutout too!

[@Hellseeker1]

Your killing it Lucy, keep up the good work!!

[@LucyLumen]

Thank you so much! ☺️

[@julianrobertson3303]

Absolutely marvellous & well said as always Lucy . Your KZbin videos are very well thought out and I really appreciate & admire all the hard work that put into making these KZbin videos , more power to you & thank you for sharing your photography skills .

[@LucyLumen]

Wow thank you! Comments like this make me smile so big and feel so appreciated. Thank you! 🙏🏻 looking forward to sharing more helpful videos this month too. Thanks for watching enjoy your weekend.

[@julianrobertson3303]

@@LucyLumen Your very welcome Lucy & more power to you for all the marvellous future videos . Your recent video inspired me to sort out all of my street photography , I have thousands of files in my computer all unlisted , it took two hours to create a couple of folders & that was just for some of the street photography , I'll continue to sort out more files in due course . I love taking photos but I don't like all the editing & computer file management that goes with the photography , I think the best way is it to keep on top of the file management each time photography is carried out .

[@mattgermond7957]

This is gold Lucy, a gratis guide to building a portfolio. Portfolio review with you way overdue!

[@LucyLumen]

Thank you Matt! Always appreciate your lovely support. Hope you’ve been able to get 2025 started with some bangers! Xx

[@my1956effie]

The image of the red chili thru the fence is an absolute banger.

[@LucyLumen]

Ohhh thank you! It’s sold a few times on my print shop and look really great close up when printed! 🌶️

[@gregmonforton4103]

Great video! And timely as I was doing some portfolio work when I saw it. I’ve printed my “good” photos on 8x10 with a left side margin that allows me to hole punch them. These go in the portfolio which is a 3 ring binder. Right now I’ve got 4 categories (birds, animals, landscape, people). The intent so far is to show friends, but I would make smaller sub-portfolios if I was using it professionally. Each of those categories also has a landscape and portrait orientation division… constantly turning photos is very distracting. Anyway, at the front of the binder are “best of” divisions for each category. Only FIVE photos for each category. When I show someone the portfolio this gives us an off-ramp (“just look at the first 20”) so only the most enthusiastic will look through the whole thing. Picking your top five photos is a very good exercise. I ask people who look deeper if they would promote any photo to the top 5 (and which they would remove to do it). It’s interesting to see what people connect with.

[@LucyLumen]

Wow this is such a cool way to do it and love that you have something tangible to show people. Maybe you should make a KZbin video on this topic haha! Thanks for watching and sharing your great insights and experience with us all. Enjoy your weekend

[@dorotheethomson]

Thanks for all these tips ! And for the 80’s vibe 🤘🏼❤ keep going the good work !

[@AlexanderHernandez-sb7lq]

Very informative Lucy, no doubt this can help many people

[@thomaswalton8605]

This video popped up at the perfect time for me. As I’m beginning to get into wedding photography, and want to attract not just wedding clients but also commercial and studio portrait clients. I’ve been in business for about 1.5 years and am struggling to define my niche, and am in the process of focusing my photography offerings. It’s difficult at first as you kind of need to take any and all clients, which can make it difficult to specialize while also making enough money to pay the bills.

[@LucyLumen]

@@thomaswalton8605 hello 👋🏻 oh this sounds like it was definitely perfect timing! Oh yes I understand that position well - trying to keep the money coming in but also take work that will get you hired for the jobs you want. I spent all last year pretty much doing commercial photography work and I did find that the more I built it up showing the style I wanted to be paid for the more I booked that kind of work. I did a lot of unpaid work and really hustled but I ended up with lots of return clients and many people reaching out wanting to work with me for my style and shooting on film so it definitely paid off! For weddings advice I would recommend the Jai long podcast and website - he has great info on building a biz in that area. Good luck and thanks for watching!

[@thomaswalton8605]

@ thank you so much! I really appreciate the insight! I’ve also been trying to take on some unpaid work when it excites me, builds my portfolio, or as an opportunity to give back to the community. I will definitely check out your recommendation and am also making my way through your video catalog as your work really resonates with me :) I’d love to get into more commercial work. I don’t know if you ever do phone or video calls, or email even but I’d love to connect! All the best Lucy and good luck on your projects!!

[@LucyLumen]

@ no worries at all I’m always happy to pass on things I’ve found useful. I used to do video 1:1 sessions but I haven’t been offering them this year. If you jump on my website there is a contact form if you want to connect and chat further though and I do offer portfolio reviews there but I always add on extra support and points on how to achieve your goals etc too. Let me know if you have any questions! 🙋🏻‍♀️📸🙏🏻

[@timcarter2147]

Thank you so much for this video!! I’ve struggled to put together a portfolio for years. I’m terrible at selling myself. This really helps put it into actionable steps. I needed this!

[@LucyLumen]

Thank you so much! I’m so glad to hear this video was helpful. Let me know how you go with your portfolio this year too!

[@shanestorozukphotography]

Awesome breakdown of portfolio creation and curation...so many incredible tips and strategies. Absolutely loving the production of your vids. The synth sounds, classic retro 90's vibes, it all makes me feel like I'm watching an awesome TV show from my younger years. Amazing work team Lumen!

[@LucyLumen]

Thank you Shane! Your support and kind words are so appreciated and it makes lux and I feel all warm and fuzzy! Thank you ☺️

[@outtathyme5679]

Good advice as always, LL

[@ABAYT51]

Great video as always! Thoughts on the amount of images per portfolio

[@LucyLumen]

Thank you! Good question but also hard to answer as it will differ depending on your niche I guess. I think it’s as many as it needs to be to fully show your breadth of work in that style…with commercial I find the more examples you have the better and it also acts to show how many clients you’ve had or different brands/people/clients you’ve worked with. For personal I would say less is required as you want to show the strongest work. It’s a bit of a how long is a piece of string question to answer though so I hope that helps.

[@renatorampolla5649]

Great and concise video.

[@LucyLumen]

@@renatorampolla5649 thank you I really appreciate that. Hope you got something out of it and have a wonderful year photographing and curating your work!

[@tynova4672]

Managing my files is the number 1 thing thats killing me. It can feel so overwhelming. Great video, thanks!

[@LucyLumen]

Yes it’s my least favourite part trying to keep on top of all of that but it makes the rest of the curation easier if it’s organised. Thanks for watching and enjoy your weekend

[@luisparedes7429]

Shoutout Sophia 🤘

[@LucyLumen]

Love Sophia as a photographer and an educator!

[@DreadfulUtopia]

Is there any specific advice you'd give for people who like taking Black and White photos specifically?

[@gigafish2x077]

i think the problem is people share what's on their mind through photographs, it's not cohesive with portfolio building, on the flip side if you're trying to impress with consistency, it just might be boring, so it can't be just a preset for many places, it's what you bring to the viewer that's very nice, if you're trying to showcase different kinds of photographs, there's not just one social media you can use, it's more targeted per which one

[@thevoiceman6192]

I don't put my work online. I am not that type of photographer. I exhibit my work in art shows , get 4x6 prints at the lab and then have enlargements made of the ones I think are good. Have the negatives developed and scanned to a cd or a thumb drive all at the lab I go to.

[@calicheparra]

Danke!

[@LucyLumen]

You are too kind!!!! Thank you so much and hope you got a lot out of this video. Have a great weekend

[@markgoostree6334]

OMG !! My hoard of pictures go back to the mid-sixties. My f-150 would struggle to carry all of it. There is no hope. I'm doomed!!🤪

[@canalprodutosdeantigamente2343]

😍👍

[@MINECRAFTandSEB]

Let's say I have 10 000 good photos in catalogues that contain 100 000 photos overall (or more). How would you go about sorting some good ones out for a portfolio? And let's say you have portfolio grade images of all sorts of genres, the same amount of good photos from every imaginable genre haha.

[@LucyLumen]

@@MINECRAFTandSEB well you must be a pretty prolific photographer who is killing it in every genre which is quite rare!! Go you! I don’t know if this is just me but if you have that many photos you’ve obviously been photographing for a long while and it’s likely you have worked on projects of some sort so that would help to curate them. Stephen K Schuster in NYC has recently had an exhibition of work that showcases images from a project ten years ago where he photographed Teens and youth in NYC - I’m sure he had loads of photos but the through-line was that theme. Also I think if you have that many images it might be highly likely that your style today is different to what it was creating the first 50 000 of them you know? So it’s a question of what work do you want to represent you as an artist? Is it every good photo you’ve taken in every genre? Is that really putting your best foot forward and conveying the message you want as an artist? Thanks for watching I hope that aims to answer your question 🙋🏻‍♀️

[@MINECRAFTandSEB]

@LucyLumen Wow that is an incredible answer, thank you so kindly for writing it all out! I have attempted to curate my photos many times over, and always end up slowing down and eventually moving on to something else and forgetting about it as I start getting stuck when I reach older photos. I sometimes tried to start with older photos but also didn't quite work (I usually start re editing and experimenting hahah). I've shot digital for maybe 10 years but I only did professional work a few times a year, and usually nothing interesting to me as it would be events or concerts. So I do actually currently have a portfolio on Adobe, but it's 90% concerts and dark themed night photos, some not even amazing, I just used all the darker stuff I could quickly get my hands on. I did add a few random series of minimalist portraits but it feels confused as you mentioned in the video. I desperately want to add my landscape photography, and my architecture photography to the portfolio but I have absolutely no idea how to and what potential clients would even care about that... quite difficult this portfolio thing. Plus I would like to showcase print work I did and cover pages with my photography but that's entering the world of graphic design (but I'm sure there must be a way to slide one of my photos as a magazine or book cover or something hahah). I also want to share moments my photos were printed in the news or used online? Would there be room for that? I am also quite capable of far photography and would like to showcase that as those clients would be interesting to me for sure. It's just so many different things, if you managed to read down to here I congratulate you and honestly I don't think there is a simple answer, so jo pressure to have one. I think I really just have to sit down again and think of what the portfolio is supposed to achieve really (which is tough as I am a Bachelor's of architecture lmao and photography is on the side). Thanks for the great response and good video! I have a few things to think about.

[@MINECRAFTandSEB]

Oh Ive also been shooting medium format and 35mm film for two years now as well, it taught me a lot but I doubt the medium of photography really changes the portfolio.

[@tj2375]

At 0:14 this video switches from English to AI dubbed German. Changing languages doesn't work. I'm not in Germany and everything in my phone is in English. Wtf KZbin.

[@LucyLumen]

It seems like KZbin is really glitching out this morning I haven’t been able to get in and check comments or anything till now.

[@fukolombobby]

4:18 is a great image