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Pros and Cons of Adobe Portfolio For Your Professional Gallery

17 May

The post Pros and Cons of Adobe Portfolio For Your Professional Gallery appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ian Johnson.

I am going to tell you one of the worst parts about running a photography-based website, and you can tell me if you agree with me: maintaining your image galleries. Galleries are one of the greatest ways to show off your content to the world and to show everyone what you are all about. As you grow as a photographer, you need to continually update your public face and what you want to tell your followers. However, curating the content is so time-consuming that I often wonder if it’s worth it! I, (and surely you) would rather be out making more images and bringing visions to life, not spending more time in front of the computer. I have great news – you can use Adobe Lightroom’s workflow, coupled with Adobe Portfolio, to create beautiful and dynamic galleries in record-breaking time!

This collection set in Adobe Lightroom syncs directly to my Adobe Portfolio. Any edits that I make to images in this collection sync automatically to the online gallery making it incredibly easy to keep up-to-date galleries on a website

Adobe Portfolio? What is it?

Adobe Portfolio is Adobe’s online website-for-dummies platform to display your images in stunning galleries. It links directly to Adobe Lightroom using collection sets. Updating the gallery is as easy as adding or removing an image from the collection! If you are already paying for their annual Adobe Cloud membership, you have access to Adobe Portfolio without paying another dime. This is a great option if you run your own low-budget website and are doing your best to keep your costs at a minimum.

This is a look at my Adobe Portfolio website in design view. Adobe Portfolio offers easy website creation with dynamic, beautiful galleries connected directly to Lightroom.

How to do it?

To set up your Adobe Portfolio there’s really three main steps:

Set up an Adobe Portfolio account,
choose a template, and
sync photos from your Adobe Lightroom collections to the website.

Presto! In his article, Andrew Gibbon claims you can set up a full Adobe Portfolio website in 15 minutes. His step-by-step tutorial makes it easy! Since making a tutorial as thorough as Andrew’s would be simply re-writing the wheel, I’d like to instead turn to the pros and cons of Adobe Portfolio so you can determine if this service is right for you.

Cons

I always like to get the bad news before the good. So here’s a couple of cons for your consideration.

1. Cannot sell imagery from it

If selling your imagery through a savvy e-commerce solution is what you most desire, then Adobe Portfolio is not for you. Technically you can hyperlink your image to a sales page, but the likelihood of losing the shopper is high. There are multiple other web platforms such as Fine Art America, Smug Mug, Square Space, Weebly, and so many others that allow you to sell your imagery directly.

2. Redirects traffic from your primary website

If you run a website through another host, you will need to connect your websites. I outlink the galleries using a custom link in my WordPress site. If you feel you need to keep people on your primary website to sell them something or deliver a message, then you may choose to avoid Adobe Portfolio and look for integrated gallery options. I will say though; Adobe Portfolio gives you lots of options on their templates to re-direct people where you want them to go (such as sales) after they view your gallery.

I outlink to my Adobe Portfolio galleries which directs traffic away from my primary website. If you need to keep traffic on your primary website, then Adobe Portfolio may not be for you.

3. Templates are pretty, but not highly customizable

The templates within Adobe Portfolio do not give you access to CSS or other mechanisms to customize them. Although you can change the color of the theme, your options are very limited here.

Pros

The way I want to use Adobe Portfolio, the pros outweigh the cons. The pros below are listed in importance (most important to least) for my own workflow and website needs.

1. Show image edits in Lightroom instantly

How many times do you re-edit an image? There are so many reasons why you continue to tweak an image. In most website galleries, a new image edit would require taking down the old edit and uploading the new. Not so with Adobe Portfolio. Any edits sync (color, crop, clarity, any of them!) to your Adobe Portfolio and can be updated on your website with just a few clicks. In my eyes, this is the #1 reason that Adobe Portfolio shines for my needs.

In each of these thumbnails, you can see a double arrow in the upper right-hand corner. That means all changes are automatically synced to my gallery online!

2. “Free” if you already pay for an Adobe Creative Cloud membership

There’s a good chance that you do not want to pay for more services than you already do. Camera gear, website fees, and everything else add up! As long as you already pay the annual membership for Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe Portfolio is included.

3. Automatically resizes images

Adobe Portfolio’s galleries are very beautiful. Even though a RAW file is being synced to the Adobe Cloud, they automatically reduce the resolution of the image to optimize load time and viewing. This also makes it is less useful to a copyright thief. Having this built-in functionality removes any need to research optimal DPI, web color space, and pixel widths you would need to do if exporting your images for the web.

4. Lots of templates that easily outlink to your other content

I mentioned in the cons that you have to outlink to your Adobe Portfolio. However, all of the Adobe Portfolio templates provide lots of links back to your other work.

This landing screen of my Adobe Portfolio has five links where viewers can click to redirect back to my website and two links to my social media websites. In my opinion, if you can hook them with your beautiful galleries it is likely they will follow your links.

5. You can create as many collections as you want

In Adobe Portfolio, collections act as a page on your website. There are no limits to the number of pages you can create. This gives you a huge amount of flexibility because you can create very specific collections (say for an individual wedding or a species of animal) and have personalized galleries for each one.

6. No coding necessary

There is absolutely zero coding needed to set up an Adobe Portfolio website. If you want to have heavy customization privileges over your website, this isn’t for you. However, I found most of the templates to have characteristics that I liked, and I’m not looking for a lot of control over this website. That’s in stark contrast to my WordPress site where I like to have CSS control for each element in a theme.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is there are SO many ways to display your images on a website – many ways to “skin that cat” if you will – that finding the best solution for you can be challenging. I think many users will find the ease of creation and low cost of Adobe Portfolio to be very appealing, but it may not be desirable for high-level web users.

I’m all ears and happy to discuss Adobe Portfolio further, and my experience or yours. Please provide your constructive thoughts, and I’ll be sure to respond!

The post Pros and Cons of Adobe Portfolio For Your Professional Gallery appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ian Johnson.

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So You Want to Make a Website? Part 3: Creating Your Portfolio

16 Jan

The post So You Want to Make a Website? Part 3: Creating Your Portfolio appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Carl Spring.

So you’ve read part one & part two of the So You Want To Make A Website Series. You’ve set up an awesome website. Now it’s time to create amazing content to go with it. Obviously, for you photographers, the most important part of that process is curating your portfolio.

It is as simple as picking your best images and putting them together. However, a good portfolio takes time, effort and sometimes a good butt-kicking from somebody else. With that in mind, here are my…

Seven steps for creating a great portfolio for your website

1. Know your audience

The starting point for your portfolio is who will be viewing it and what will they be looking for? Are you making a website to show how your photography develops over time? Perhaps you’re sharing your passion with friends and family? You might be a wedding photographer wanting to get more beautiful couples in front of your lens. Is your goal to be seen by art directors at ad agencies?

For best results, when you know the audience, your portfolio will need to match it. For example, if you are a family photographer, parents looking for someone to photograph their child will not want to see your latest glamour photography. Similarly, an art director will not want to see images from the amazing wedding you shot. If you have multiple specialties, it is best to consider multiple websites. Give the audience what they want.

However, you can showcase different specialties with different portfolios within the same website. The process from here is the same for every portfolio, whether that be on the same website or multiple. Just make sure the galleries are related.

A Striking image to kick off your portfolio is essential.

2. Break it down

How do you want to break down your galleries? Do you want one for people and one for lifestyle photography? One for birds and one for land animals? Once you decide what galleries you want, it is now time to go through your archive and pick out images you might want to use.

I always rate images I might want to use in my portfolio as five stars as I edit. That way, whenever I update my portfolio, I can open catalogs and simply pull up all five-star images and use these as a starting point. If you haven’t done something similar, start now. It saves a lot of time and gives you a great place to start.

3. Watch the numbers. AKA be ruthless

I love both of these images, but as I begin to update my portfolio I know only one will make the cut. Which one is still to be determined.

Now is where the hard work begins – getting the numbers down.

Have you ever been to a friends house and they show you their holiday photos? The photos that seem to go on and on and on… That is the feeling you want to avoid when people look at your portfolio. Like any good performance, they should be left wanting more.

A good first selection should end up at around forty to fifty images, with a final goal of around twenty. Finding the initial fifty is the hardest part. You just need to push yourself to find the best of the best. Are there two similar images? Choose just one. Is there an image that when looking through just doesn’t hold up to the rest. Remove it. Be harsh on your photos and try to look for the reasons why they should not be included rather than why they should. This approach isn’t always fun, but it works.

I suggest you make your initial selection of images to include, then walk away for a while. Grab a coffee, have a walk, just clear your head of the process. I tend to leave it until the next day to come back and look again. Fresh eyes always help.

Remember, a strong portfolio should contain around twenty images. If people want more than that, they can look to your blog.

4. Get some help

It is easy to listen to those around you tell you how great all your photos are, but sometimes you need some good old fashioned home truths. I will tell you in advance, sometimes it is hard to hear. However, you need to hear it. Critique of your work from peers or others in the field will not only help you get a better portfolio, but it will also help you become a better photographer.

When looking for critique, you should have your image numbers down to around thirty or so. From here you can get others to help you make the final step. By culling your images to a respectable number, it also shows those you are asking for their help that you have done the groundwork. If someone approached me with fifty plus images for me to help them get a portfolio from, I would not be hugely impressed.

Who should you ask? You can ask photographers in your local area whose opinion you value, or you can ask people you know through Facebook groups, etc. to critique your work.

In my experience, it is better in person if you can. Whilst family members are great, they will generally not want to hurt your feelings, or not be experienced to offer critique. You need experienced eyes on your work and let them do their worst. Someone with no emotional attachment to your images can give honest feedback and will help you get rid of the images you love, but know are not your best work. Just remember, they are talking about the images, not you. It is easy to get upset when people rip your work to shreds, but take it in the spirit it is intended.

5. Listen to your heart

A friend who worked at a music publication told me to remove this from my portfolio. I wrestled with the idea, but I love it, so I keep it in.

Having said that you should get opinions of others, always remember it is your work. Critique from others is just another point of view. If there is an image you love, but others say isn’t your best work, listen to your gut. Maybe they’re right, maybe you need to let go. However, if after the critique you still think it deserves a place in your portfolio, put it in there. It’s your site and you need to be happy with it.

6. Get them in order

Now you have the final images, you need to get them in order. Start with your best and finish with your second best image. This is known as the primacy and recency effect. Put simply, we remember the things we see first and last the most.

Getting the right order is key to really making your portfolio sing. Put the portfolio in order, then tweak it. Do you want to mix up portrait and landscape images? Do you want to mix in black and white images or have a part of the portfolio where they are grouped together? There is no specific answer as every portfolio is different, but try variations and then tweak until you’re happy. Unfortunately, there is no proven recipe. Instead, think of your portfolio like a great home cooked recipe, just keep tweaking things until it tastes just right.

7. Update regularly

A portfolio will always evolve. I look back at some images that were in my initial wedding portfolio and cringe. I also have some images from that first ever wedding that I still have in my portfolio. Take the time to revisit your website portfolio regularly. Update it at least once every six months or so. Doing this is also a great way to show yourself how you are progressing as a photographer.

If you go to a course or meet with local photographers, why not have a portfolio critique session? Things like this help keep your portfolio fresh and identify gaps in your work that you can plan to shoot in the future.

That’s it, you now have a portfolio.

In the next article of the series, we discuss the blogging and your written content.

Until then, have fun building your portfolio.

The post So You Want to Make a Website? Part 3: Creating Your Portfolio appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Carl Spring.

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4 Tips for Building a Photography Portfolio and Business

06 Dec

The post 4 Tips for Building a Photography Portfolio and Business appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Lily Sawyer.

dps-Building a Photography Portfolio and Business

For some of us, a photography business springs from a hobby and grows into a paid endeavor, and so we feel it just landed in our laps. To others, it was more of a dream that was kept close and dear and planned to make a reality for a long time. For others, doors of opportunity open at the right time and place, and they’ve grabbed it.

Regardless of how your photography business has come about, for your business to take shape and grow, there are necessary steps to take. These steps require many initiatives and work and do not depend on luck or open doors of opportunity.

Let me share with you a few tips for building a photography portfolio and business. This article is of benefit if you are building your business from scratch or have been in operation but have relocated, requiring you to start afresh in a new location.

2-dps-Building a Photography Portfolio and Business

1. Build a Strong Portfolio

Now, don’t get me wrong – I don’t expect that you have a massive pile of photoshoots under your belt in the beginning (although that would be great.) All you need is a handful of carefully curated photos for your portfolio. If you have any images from practices or hobby shoots, choose your very best images. The best of the best, even if you only end up with a handful. If you are brave enough to do so, choose one genre and focus on that!

Usually the more niched, the stronger the portfolio.

3-dps-Building a Photography Portfolio and Business

2. Call for Models

If you don’t have any images to use or you feel your images are not good enough yet, plan a model call-out. Shoot new images that are more focused and consistent – your portfolio benefits from more consistent images. The goal down the line is that you are the one people think of when they need a photo shoot of a particular type.

You’re the expert in that field, and therefore you can also command decent prices. Having this in mind at the very start of your portfolio-building helps you streamline your model call plans in regards to age group, style, outfits location, and set-up. Branding is vital, especially at this stage. One could go as far as saying branding is everything.

3-dps-Building a Photography Portfolio and Business

You have two choices for model calls:

1. You can ask friends or friends of friends. You can do a public call on your social media platforms. If going the friends’ route, you may decide not to charge as you may feel they are doing you a favor. That is your call. However, money doesn’t grow on trees in business. Money comes from clients or investors who want a return on their investment.

Therefore, don’t be quick to offer your services for free, especially if you want to start charging decent fees or market rate. It’s hard for a potential paying client to start paying good money after initially being offered a freebie.

2. There are other options far better than offering freebies. You can do a barter of some sort. Think of something that either party finds beneficial with relatively equal values. You can also charge a fair rate for portfolio building that is lower than the market rate. You can offer the session at no charge in exchange for the model call but sell the prints. That way it’s not a total freebie.

Right off the bat, learn to accept money from clients without feeling guilty or feeling that you don’t deserve it. Also, don’t be embarrassed about it!

4-dps-Building a Photography Portfolio and Business

3. Have a Web Presence

Nowadays, if you are not on the web, you are not on the map. You don’t need a super-fancy website either if you feel that is out of reach at the moment. Although, it is easy enough to start a website using readily adaptable templates. More importantly, use social media platforms that are free and easy to set up such as Facebook and Instagram.

If possible, have both. However, if you are only doing one, a top tip is to think about your audience. What platform is your target market using? Parents with children are usually on Facebook. Younger age groups, like seniors, early 20s and 30s, are on Instagram. If you are after more real-time conversations and engagement with your followers, you could also link your accounts on Twitter.

5-dps-Building a Photography Portfolio and Business

A Web Presence is Your Virtual Office

Having a web presence is like having a virtual office. People can contact you and view your strongest images in your portfolio. This tool can be leveraged to reach more people, especially friends of friends. You can tag friends, share on their page, and ask them to share. All of these methods help to spread the word about you.

By tapping into your contacts’ friends, you are starting from a position of trust. You are no longer a stranger to a potential client but a referral. Use that to your advantage. By being reached easily on social media channels, you become more of a real person than just a webshop.

6-dps-Building a Photography Portfolio and Business

4. Print Some Business Cards and Stationery

While they may seem old-fashioned, business cards are useful because some people expect them, and they are great if you are networking in-person. If you want to be memorable, make your cards into a magnet, so you stay on people’s fridges! Think of something quirky, or at least different, so that you stand out more.

Having some printed promotional materials like mini-brochures and vouchers are invaluable. They come in handy if you want to collaborate with other small businesses in your area, such as your local health clinics for baby and maternity shoots, or boutique shops that sell outfits that fit with your branding.

6-dps-Building a Photography Portfolio and Business

I hope the tips in this article will help you in some way as you start your photography business. If you have any other tips, please share them in the comments below.

You may also find this article helpful.

The post 4 Tips for Building a Photography Portfolio and Business appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Lily Sawyer.

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The New York Times opens up free applications for its 7th annual portfolio review

14 Nov

Tomas Roggero

The New York Times has opened up applications for its 7th annual New York Portfolio Review on March 30 and 31 in New York City, New York.

The applications, which are free to submit, are now open on The New York Times’ website for the review, which is put on by The New York Times Lens column, the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York and United Photo Industries.

So long as the applicant is over 18 years old, they’re free to apply. The New York Times says “all types of photography will be considered.” The deadline for applications is December 10, 2018 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time.

“The first session, on Saturday, March 30, will be for photographers 21 and older,” reads The New York Times announcement post. “Each participant will receive six private critiques. The second session, on Sunday, March 31, will be solely for photographers 18 to 27 and will consist of at least four private critiques for each participant, as well as free workshops on how to best present, promote and publish photographs. We will screen all applicants and choose 100 participants for Saturday and 60 for Sunday.”

The New York Times specifically mentions anyone who attended last year’s review is ineligible to apply. Also, if someone has attended more than twice in the seven years the portfolio review has been going on, they too are ineligible.

When a photographer is chosen for a portfolio review, they will be able to requiem their top choices for who is to review their work. The New York Times has provided a partial list of the reviewers on the bottom of its announcement page.

To enter, head over to The New York Times’ application page and fill out the required form. In addition to personal details, such as first name, last name, age, contact information, and a short biography, applicants can upload up to 20 photos from one or two projects. The images must be JPEGs and no more than 1,200 pixels across at 72 DPI.

Applicants who have been selected will be notified by January 12, 2019. The New York Times warns “Be sure to triple-check the email address you submit, because in past years some people were accepted into the review, but couldn’t be contacted with the good news because of a typo in their address. Don’t be that person.”

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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These are the first portfolio images captured on Kodak’s revived Ektachrome E100 film

21 Oct

“Here, cotton candy-hued skies are reflected in Rockland, Maine’s calm harbor, speckled with ferries, yachts, yawls and mighty windjammers, such as the red-striped Victory Chimes, America’s largest schooner readying its sailors for a wind blown journey across Penobscot Bay,” Guttman explained on Kodak’s Instagram.

Ahead of its global distribution late last month, Kodak released its new Ektachrome 100 film to select photographers for beta testing. One of those photographers was award-winning photographer Peter Guttman, who was given access to the Kodak Professional Instagram account starting on September 12. Guttman used the account to share several images captured with the new Ektachrome E100 film.

Kodak bills its resurrected Ektachrome E100 as an extremely fine grain film that produces vibrant colors with low contrast and a neutral tonal scale. Guttman put the film to the test in a variety of scenes, capturing photos of a colorful sunset, bright daylight, high-contrast environments, and more.

$ (document).ready(function() { SampleGalleryV2({“containerId”:”embeddedSampleGallery_0657114780″,”galleryId”:”0657114780″,”isEmbeddedWidget”:true,”selectedImageIndex”:0,”isMobile”:false}) });

The new Kodak Ektachrome E100 film is available to preorder now from B&H Photo, Adorama, and other online retailers for $ 12.99. The film is listed as back-ordered with an availability date of December 2018. You can find out more information on Guttman by reading through his interview with YAG University

Credit: Photographs by Peter Guttman, used with permission

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Adobe Portfolio – This Unsung Hero of Creative Cloud Could Save You Money

24 Aug

I have used Adobe Lightroom since version 4 in 2012. After upgrading to version 5 and 6 in the following years, have really grown to appreciate its workflow, comprehensive suite of editing tools and the digital asset management.

When Adobe switched to a subscription model for Lightroom and announced they would no longer offer the product as a standalone license, I started looking at other options because I didn’t want to be locked into a perpetual pricing model. I was already paying nearly $ 100/year for a website and as a hobbyist photographer with a family and a full-time job, the thought of paying another $ 120/year for Lightroom seemed crazy.

That is until I discovered Adobe Portfolio and had a complete change of heart.

Adobe Portfolio website landing page

A bit of background

In 2015 I got serious about doing photography work for clients. At that time, I recognized the need to have a professional easy-to-use website to attract clients and showcase my work. I tried a number of options before settling on Squarespace.

Their $ 96/year fee was entirely reasonable to me because it provided access to dozens of templates as well as a worry-free website I did not have to update or maintain like a self-hosted WordPress installation requires. I appreciated how easy Squarespace was to use as well as its rich set of features including blogging, podcasting, and even tools for buying and selling goods and services.

A few years later as I was investigating software options to replace Lightroom, I stumbled across Adobe Portfolio entirely by accident. I certainly never intended this barely-mentioned service to be the fulcrum on which my decision to subscribe to the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan would rest!

The more I examined what Portfolio had to offer the more I realized that the subscription which includes Portfolio along with Lightroom and Photoshop would be ideal for my needs as a part-time photographer.

This is the homepage for my own Adobe Portfolio site. When users hover over one of the sections with their cursor it shows the name of that particular photo gallery.

While Squarespace handled all my website needs with aplomb, it also offered many things I did not use at all. Portfolio, on the other hand, is almost anemic by comparison but uniquely suited to fit the basic needs of most photographers.

It does not have all the options, tools, integrations, and flexibility of other platforms including Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, and WordPress. But as a photographer who just wanted a simple way to showcase my work, it fit the bill perfectly.

For me the choice was clear. I could sign up for the Creative Cloud Photography plan for only a few dollars more than what I was paying for my Squarespace website and get Lightroom, Photoshop, and a beautiful website that did everything I needed. I canceled my Squarespace account, signed up for Creative Cloud, and couldn’t be any more pleased with how things have worked out.

Start with a theme

If you have a Creative Cloud plan you already have access to Portfolio and you can get started by visiting myportfolio.com and entering your Adobe ID. After that, you begin the process of building your website by selecting a theme. Right away you may notice one of the significant shortcomings of Portfolio compared to other website services. There are only eight themes from which to choose. This dearth of options can be a source of frustration if you’re used to a myriad of themes on other platforms.

Adobe Portfolio themes

Some photographers might balk in horror at the idea of only having eight template options but I saw it as a way of streamlining my design approach. I couldn’t spend hours poring over different templates if I only had eight to choose from, so it only took me a few minutes to select one that suited my tastes just fine.

The templates do allow for some editing and customization but you are limited to the basic look and feel of how they are laid out. This approach is similar to how many mainstream website platforms operate and is well suited to photographers who would rather spend their time taking and editing pictures instead of poring over lines of HTML code.

It’s also worth noting that you can change templates at any time. So if you are not sure where to start you can just pick one that you like and begin editing with the freedom to change it later. I settled on the Mathias template but any of the eight options would work well for photographers who want a simple, pleasing, and functional website.

Lightroom Integration

The ace in the hole for Portfolio and a standout feature that allows it to really shine despite its lean feature set is the way that it integrates seamlessly with Lightroom. This is a huge boon for photographers who rely on Lightroom for their editing and digital asset management, and one of the big reasons it makes sense to consider Portfolio as a worthwhile website platform.

On the editing screen, there is a giant blue Add Content button which gives you access to four different options: Page, Lightroom Album, Gallery, and Link. Any photo collections in Lightroom CC, or those you have synced with Lightroom CC from Lightroom Classic CC, will show up as options when you click Lightroom Album. There is no need to export images and upload them individually. Choose Lightroom Album and the full Lightroom Web interface will load which will let you select any of the albums to be automatically displayed on your website.

You can also manually upload pictures via drag-and-drop interface but I found it much easier to manage images by loading them from Lightroom.

add content Adobe Portfolio

Editing Website Content

In addition to loading images directly from Lightroom, you can create content right from within Portfolio. This is useful if you want a few image galleries to showcase your work while also having elements like an About Me and pricing pages. Individual pages can contain blocks of text and images with captions, and elements can be re-ordered using a simple drag-and-drop interface. There’s even an option for inserting a Contact page which can contain many different fields that you are free to customize.

After creating a Page, Lightroom Album, or Gallery the ever-present floating menu lets you edit the unique characteristics of the element you just created. This floating menu took me a little while to get used to but now I don’t mind it at all.

My contact page using Portfolio.

It never really goes away but you can expand and collapse the panes and use the three horizontal lines at the top to move it around so it’s not in your way. While you can’t go so far as editing the actual CSS code you can make changes to things like background color, page header, and fonts.

It won’t take you long to get the hang of this workflow but you also may get frustrated at what initially feels like a criminal lack of options. As you poke around with the tools available you will likely hit some brick walls, just as I did, when you find out you can’t insert pull-quote text boxes, customize the appearance of individual blocks of text, or embed elements such as a blog feed. Slideshow options are limited as well, and this is where some people might hang their head in frustration and run back to WordPress with open arms.

However, keep in mind that the purpose of Adobe Portfolio is to offer a simple way for photographers to showcase their work. It’s not supposed to be a comprehensive all-in-one web publishing platform, and within the context of that framework, the limitations in terms of choices and options make a little more sense. You can add a custom logo, change the appearance of your pages, embed dozens of web elements, and even password-protect your site if you so choose.

site options box - Adobe Portfolio

Portfolio lets you use a custom domain name as well, and though this process is fairly straightforward it does add a little extra to the cost of the service. Portfolio nor Adobe cannot actually register your domain so you will need to go to a third-party site like Dreamhost, Hover, or Register to set it up. Most domain names cost about $ 15/year which isn’t much but it does bring the total cost to around $ 135/year when you add that to a Creative Cloud subscription.

setting up your page in Adobe Portfolio

The Happy Middle Ground

The entire idea of a website might seem like somewhat of an anachronism in today’s social media-saturated internet. Many photographers have elected to forego a traditional web presence entirely in favor of building a brand and following on social media.

The downside of this approach is that your audience experience can be tainted by design decisions and embedded advertising entirely beyond your control, and there are always going to be a subset of potential clients who choose not to engage on social media at all and will, therefore, miss out on the chance to view your work.

My family portrait gallery.

Websites might not have the shine and excitement that they once did but there are still plenty of good reasons to build and maintain your own presence on the internet. To that end, Adobe Portfolio offers a compelling set of features for literally no cost at all if you already subscribe to any of Adobe’s Creative Cloud plans.

If you don’t currently subscribe to Creative Cloud but do pay a third-party provider to host your website you might want to give Portfolio a second look. Think of it as paying about the same as you are now for a website, but with the added bonus of world-class photography software like Lightroom and Photoshop thrown in at no extra charge.

Adobe Portfolio options

Your opinion of Adobe Portfolio will likely depend on your needs for a website and your expectations of what Portfolio can offer. If you want an extensive do-everything website solution, Portfolio is going to fall short in many respects and you’d be better off with something like Squarespace.

But if you want a simple platform that lets you display your work for the world to see, in a manner that you choose, without any intrusive third-party advertising or corporate mining of your personal data, I can’t recommend Portfolio highly enough.

Rating: 5/5

The post Adobe Portfolio – This Unsung Hero of Creative Cloud Could Save You Money appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Free Versus Paid Photography Portfolio Websites – Which is Best for You?

13 May

One of the joys of photography is sharing it with the world. Once upon a time, a photography portfolio was a collection of prints, but digital photography and the internet have changed everything. Photography portfolios these days come in many forms, and they are almost exclusively online.

So, do you need a portfolio, and how do you decide where to proudly display your photos for the world to see?

Long exposure landscape photo of rocks at sunset, Mt Maunganui, New Zealand - photography portfolio

Why You Need a Photography Portfolio

You may be asking why you need a portfolio at all. Maybe you’re happy keeping your photos to yourself and never sharing or printing them for anyone else to see? It’s your photography, and you can do what you like with it. But, there are a few benefits that only come from sharing your work, though.

A photography portfolio allows other people to see and enjoy your creations. I’m betting you love not only the process of creating images but also the final product. So why not let others appreciate your artwork too?

You will be driven to stretch yourself and work on improving your photography if you put it out there for others to see. This is often a quiet voice nudging you to try a new technique or take a workshop or develop your post-production skills. A portfolio opens your photography up to critique, which is a little daunting, but I’ve found it to be positive and helpful most of the time.

noosa heads sunshine coast queensland australia - photography portfolio

A portfolio is also necessary if you ever plan to sell your photography. This isn’t for everyone, and I wouldn’t recommend that this be your primary motivation, but it’s worth considering. You may not think you want to make money with your photography, or not yet at least, but if and when that time comes, you will be better prepared if you already have an online presence and portfolio.

Free Versus Paid Photography Portfolio Websites

The options for displaying your photography portfolio online can be a little overwhelming. A quick google search for “photography portfolio website” returns 48 million results. The first question you need to ask is whether a paid or free service is best for you? There are many options within each category, but they each have their pros and cons.

It’s also worth noting that “photography portfolio” doesn’t necessarily look how you expect. In fact, you may already have a portfolio online, you just aren’t thinking about it in that way yet. Let’s look at a few of the options and you’ll see what I mean.

Free Services

If you’ve ever shared any of your photos online, whether on social media or on a photo-sharing website, then you already have an online portfolio. Although not generally considered portfolio websites, some social networks actually make great free portfolios.

Photo sharing websites are a great place to display your portfolio for free. They’re aimed more towards photographers than most social networks, so often include features that may assist you in using them as your primary portfolio.

Sunrise at Urangan Pier, Hervey Bay, Fraser Coast, Queensland, Australia - photography portfolio

Pros

Other than being free, the biggest advantage of free services is the volume of traffic. The larger websites are among the biggest on the internet, so the potential for people seeing your photos is far greater. With all these visitors and traffic comes community. The ability to engage with other users is a huge advantage in my opinion. They have become the modern camera club. They are places where you can not only find an audience for your work, but other photographers to inspire you and network with.

Free services are constantly pushing forward with new features and technology, so you get to be on the cutting edge. The regular updates can be frustrating at times, but I think the good far outweighs the bad in this regard.

These are also the places that you are likely to be found by buyers. One of my first magazine features was an image that was found on Flickr by a photo editor searching for a specific image to buy. Again, this isn’t for everyone, but something worth considering if you are wanting to sell your photos.

Landscape photo of Two Mile Bay, Lake Taupo, New Zealand - photography portfolio

Cons

There are downsides to using a free service, though. The biggest one for me is that you are depending on someone else’s platform to build your portfolio. Their primary interest is profit, not making you rich or famous. They can and will change things whenever they like and you have no say in the matter. If they close down or are sold to a new owner, that can mean a lot of hard work goes down the drain.

You have little or no ability to customize your profile page, meaning you have no options for how your portfolio looks. This may not be something you’re concerned about, but it’s worth considering. Free services make money by either selling ads (social networks) or offering premium features to users (photo sharing sites). This is fine, as it keeps the service free for those who don’t want to pay, but it means you’ll miss out on some of the best features the service has to offer.

You’re probably already using one or more free portfolio services, or are at least aware of them. Let’s take a look at a few of the biggest ones and see if they’re right for you.

Flickr

The photo-sharing website Flickr has been around forever and was one of the first places I began sharing my photography when I started out. With around 75 million users, it is a giant in the photo-sharing world. Flickr’s biggest strength lies in its communities. I have been involved with many Flickr groups where I have met lots of other photographers and learned a ton.

flickr free vs paid photography portfolio websites

Flickr’s popularity has declined over the last few years as users have moved on to other things, and the Yahoo-owned website (recently acquired by SmugMug) hasn’t done itself any favors by being incredibly slow to innovate and keep up with the competition.That being said, it still has a thriving photography community and is worth considering.

500px

Like many Flickr users, I abandoned ship when I discovered 500px, a newer photo sharing website that offered many of the same features but with a fresh new user experience. 500px also used an algorithm that meant you were far more likely to see amazing photography on its “popular” page. The standard of photography seemed higher, so it naturally attracted a lot of photographers.

500px has never reached the same volume of users as Flickr, with current numbers sitting around 12 million, but the service has added new features like communities and their “Marketplace”, which is essentially a way to license your images to sell as prints or stock.

500px free vs paid photography portfolio websites

500px has made headlines recently in the photography world after it was sold to VCG, the “Getty Images of China”. This has been a hugely controversial issue for 500px users, and there has been a mass exodus of previously loyal users. Don’t let that be the deciding factor for you, as 500px still has a lot to offer as far as free portfolio websites go.

Instagram

You may think of Instagram as just another social network, but you might be surprised how many photographers are now using it as their primary portfolio.

I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that Instagram is currently the world’s number one photography app, and for good reason. People want to go where the masses are. With over 800 million users, there is no question as to whether it’s a place to consider sharing your portfolio.

instagram free vs paid photography portfolio websites

Instagram can be used in many different ways, but if you choose to use it as a portfolio, you must learn to be selective about what you share. Try to resist the temptation to share every photo. Curate your feed well, and you will have a portfolio that will attract people to it. If you must share photos of your cat, try using Instagram’s awesome Stories feature.

Just like Instagram, Pinterest has grown into a social network with a massive number of users, and it has the added advantage of being heavily visual. It’s a great place to be able to share your portfolio with the potential of being seen by a large audience.

Pinterest allows you to create boards and then “pin” your photos to as many boards as you like. You can create a different board for each photography category or location, such as “Weddings” or “Australia”. You can even have a “Portfolio” board where you only pin your best photos.

Pinterest also allows you to pin web pages, so if you have a blog you can pin your posts. The ability for others to re-pin your pins to their own boards means your work can be seen by a lot more people. You can also create inspiration boards for re-pinning other photographers’ pins. With all these features, Pinterest is definitely worth considering as a place to share your photography portfolio for free.

Paid Services

When it comes to paid photography portfolio websites, there aren’t as many options, but the ones that are available give you pretty amazing bang for your buck. Most professional photographers use one of these services these days, but that doesn’t mean you have to be a professional to use one.

They all have a range of options that vary in cost and features, but if you are considering a paid service for your portfolio, I’m sure you can find something that will fit your budget and needs.

Pros and Advantages

As with the free options, these services have their pros and cons. The biggest advantage, in my opinion, is the ability to customize how your portfolio looks and feels. You can change colors, layouts, text, logos, etc., all without needing to know how to code websites.

noosa national park sunshine coast queensland australia - photography portfolio

Most of them include unlimited storage for your photos, meaning you can upload as many high-resolution images as you want. This not only means you never have to delete another photo to make space for new ones, but you also have a copy of your photos backed up in the cloud.

The ability to sell your photos as prints or license them as stock directly from the website is a major attraction for many photographers. Each service’s e-commerce system works differently, but if this is a feature you want, you will find something that works for you. Some paid portfolio websites also allow you to deliver image files directly to clients, which works great if you’re a wedding or portrait photographer, or if you want to deliver files directly to a magazine, etc.

If you have a blog, some of these services will allow you to integrate your domain with your portfolio. For example, you can make your portfolio URL something like “portfolio.yourdomainname.com” rather than “yourname.photoshelter.com”. Visitors to your portfolio won’t even know that they’re on another website.

Driftwood bench seat on sand dunes overlooking Mount Maunganui Beach at sunset. - photography portfolio

Cons or Disadvantages

As you’re paying for premium features, there aren’t as many disadvantages of using a paid service. The main one is that they don’t have the social element that you get with photo-sharing sites or social networks. Getting your portfolio in front of eyeballs is a lot harder without the ability for viewers to engage with your work like they can on social media.

Although you have far more options to customize the way your portfolio appears, you’re still at the whim of the website that it is hosted on, and therefore how it functions. If you don’t like the features a website offers, it’s take-it-or-leave-it.

The following paid photography portfolio websites are by no means an exhaustive list, but these are some of the largest and most popular amongst photographers.

PhotoShelter

This is the first paid portfolio service I used for my own photography. PhotoShelter offers some of the best photography portfolios money can buy. Their websites look and work great, and their e-commerce features are second-to-none.

You can sell and license your photos directly through the website, and they even offer self-fulfilled printing if you want to print and ship images yourself. Although it’s one of the most expensive services, PhotoShelter is a solid option.

photoshelter free vs paid photography portfolio websites

SmugMug

I switched from PhotoShelter to SmugMug a few years ago after running an experiment to see how the two big boys compared in terms of Google search traffic. SmugMug won hands-down, so I moved my portfolio over. The two are very comparable in terms of cost and features.

If you want a beautiful portfolio website that works well and offers unlimited storage, I would definitely consider SmugMug. They also offer a solid e-commerce system, although they let themselves down with their refusal to allow self-fulfilled printing, despite users requesting it for years.

smugmug free vs paid photography portfolio websites

Zenfolio

I haven’t used Zenfolio personally, but from what I’ve seen and heard from other photographers, it’s a service worth considering. Their websites look great, although aren’t as customizable as the competition. Zenfolio is one of the more affordable services available, especially if you aren’t planning to sell your photos. It’s definitely, worth a look.

zenfolio free vs paid photography portfolio websites

Editor’s note: I personally use Zenfolio (screenshot below) and have used their print fulfillment services for clients, as well as for file downloads. It all works seamlessly and you can set your own prices with the Pro or Advanced plans. So, I can add my recommendation for this service.

Zenfolio photography portfolio of Darlene Hildebrandt, dPS Managing Editor.

Self-Hosted Website and Portfolio

The last option sits somewhere between paid and free, and is yet another option to consider. If you want total freedom to customize and run your portfolio website however you want, you need your own self-hosted website.

The easiest way to do this is with an installation of WordPress on your own domain. It’s cheap and easy to set up with a service like BlueHost. Once it’s up and running, the options for your portfolio are endless. There are many free and paid gallery plugins, and if you want to sell your photos you can do it directly from your own website with a plugin like WooCommerce, all without having to pay anyone else a commission, so you get 100% of the profit.

If you have time (and are technology savvy) and you like to have total control over how things look and work, this is a great option. It does require a lot more user input, though, so be careful about rushing into it. If you prefer something that’s easier to set up and does most of the heavy lifting for you, one of the paid services is probably best.

tea tree bay sunset noosa heads queensland australia - photography portfolio

How do you choose?

With so many options, it’s hard to know which is best for you. The good news is that whatever you choose, nothing is permanent. I have used almost all of the services that I’ve mentioned in this article. They all worked for me at the time that I used them, and then I moved on when they no longer served my needs.

Try one or two of the free ones and see if you like them. If you think one of the paid services might be for you, they all offer free trials, so you don’t need to commit until you’re ready.

Whatever you decide, remember to have fun and don’t take it too seriously. Sharing your photos with the world can be one of the most enjoyable parts of photography. I would love to know about your experiences with portfolio websites. Have you used any of the websites mentioned? Are there any others you would recommend? Questions? Let me know in the comments area below.

The post Free Versus Paid Photography Portfolio Websites – Which is Best for You? appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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How to Use a Photography Project to Build Your Portfolio

05 Feb

Your development as a photographer can be seen as progressing through three stages: initial interest in taking photographs, development of skill, and mastery of the medium. As part of the third stage, photographic projects build your portfolio because they make you think in bigger terms. They force you to create images that flesh out a concept or theme in a way that creates a collection and a body of work.

These types of projects move you from making standalone images to creating a series of images that complete a broader vision.

Photography Projects 0001

Why a project?

Once you have moved on from taking pictures of your pets, flowers, and kids, you will likely want to learn how to improve your technique in order to capture and produce better images. Developmental projects can propel you forward. There are lots of this type of project (52-week challenges, 365-day challenges, or an A-Z project) that help you improve your skill by stretching as a photographer.

While developmental projects will hone your skills, the result can often be a series of images that are technically and aesthetically pleasing, but disjointed because of the diversity of individual challenges. Once you have mastered the mechanics of taking images, and you are looking to up your game, you need to also take your image collection up to the next level.

Photography Projects 0002

Make a consistent body of work

Most photographers who are just starting out work hard to get a consistent set of good images together and master control of their equipment. The subject matter can vary greatly because just getting practice at your craft can be a challenge.

Henri Cartier-Bresson famously stated that “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst”.

While this really wasn’t a reference to perfecting your technique, it was more a reflection of honing your craft and your photographic style. It is also important to recognize that this statement was also made in reference to film photography, which was a much slower and more expensive process.

Because it’s common to take lots of great images without an overriding concept, this often means that looking at your images in hindsight shows that you have produced either:

A jumbled collection of good images with nothing that causes them to hang together
Or a set of images that all look the same

Photography Projects 0003

What does this mean in real terms?

A photographic project is where you decide upon a theme or concept and then deliberately capture images that fit that idea. The objective is to create a body of work rather than to improve a particular skill. You create images with a unifying theme, thereby producing a collection.

This is common approach for artists hoping to have an exhibition of their works.

Photography Projects 0004

How does this help you?

If you want to have your images exhibited or to get hired for a particular type of work, you need examples that demonstrate your ability in the specific area. For instance, if you want to get hired to take product photography, your portfolio should feature a collection of product photos.

Getting your images exhibited will usually require the approval of a curator who will look for a concept or theme to unify the images. Without a theme, you simply have a bunch of pretty pictures. With a theme, those images become powerful expressions of the overarching concept you are working on.

A theme can be anything, but the best themes create vitality and interest in your images. Outstanding photos elicit an emotional response and drive you to stare at them again and again. In addition, using the concept to guide you, you can create a set of images that can be described. It shows that your images were not taken by lucky happenstance but deliberately.

Photography Projects 0005

My leaf project

A couple of years ago, I did a series of fallen leaves that took me a long way in my development as an artist. I kind of fell into the project because as I was testing out a small prime lens I became fascinated with the incredible detail and sharpness I was seeing. I had taken a picture of a colorful leaf and loved the textures, and repeated the approach on other leaves. The resulting images were similar in color interest, texture, and subject matter.

These were images of leaves resting on a wood surface, I then mounted the prints on wood as well, creating an interesting verisimilitude. My images were well received and I used the collection for a couple of exhibitions. I also had help curating my images and dealing with the curators of the gallery. I learned a great deal in the process about how to view my images more broadly.

As part of the process, I came up with a title for the collection and an artist’s description. I am not suggesting you should take photographs of leaves, but that project jumpstarted my development as an artist and worked for me.

Photography Projects 0006

What to shoot for your photography project?

Okay, so now you are convinced that a photography project is a good idea for you, but what should your theme be? This is where you get to be creative. Ideally, don’t copy someone exactly but come up with your own theme, possibly based on something else you have seen.

Sometimes the best approach is to find a favorite image and figure out what you like about it and use that as a theme. You can also go to aggregation sites like 500px or EyeEm to see images that might inspire you. Some of these sites also present collections that show similar types of images or images from multiple photographers on a particular theme.

Sometimes your themes will work, sometimes they won’t, but if you don’t try to develop one, you will just have a collection of pretty but unrelated images. Developing a project will stretch you as an artist, create a unified body of work, and provide greater clarity to your work because you will be capturing your images deliberately, rather than by chance. Go out and pursue your vision: you won’t be disappointed.

Photography Projects 0007

The post How to Use a Photography Project to Build Your Portfolio by Mark C Hughes appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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How to Create a Beautiful Online Gallery with Lightroom Classic CC and Adobe Portfolio in 15 Minutes

04 Nov

One of the common questions I hear from photographers is regarding a way to link Lightroom to a photography portfolio website. It usually comes from photographers who don’t like the design options in the LR Web module. The perfect solution doesn’t exist, perhaps the closest (until recently) is Koken, a free plugin that I wrote about some time ago that uses Lightroom’s Publish Collections to update your online portfolio.

But, the good news is that Adobe has just made creating a portfolio website a whole lot easier with its latest update to Adobe Portfolio.

Adobe Portfolio Lightroom

What is Adobe Portfolio?

Adobe Portfolio is exactly what it sounds like – an online gallery of photos. The benefit of using Adobe Portfolio is that it’s very easy (no web design or coding skills required). It also integrates with your Lightroom Collections (this is the update I just referenced).

That means all you have to do is set up some Collections containing the photos you want to include in your gallery and synchronize them with Adobe Portfolio. Then it’s just a matter of choosing a layout, tweaking the design, and making the website live. You can do all of this in less than 15 minutes.

The only caveat is that you need to be an Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan subscriber. Just like Lightroom mobile and Lightroom web, it isn’t available to photographers who use a standalone (purchased) version of Lightroom.

Curious? You can check out a portfolio website I created for myself using Adobe Portfolio here to see what it’s capable of.

Adobe Portfolio Lightroom

Step-by-Step Guide to Adobe Portfolio

The first step – and probably the hardest – is to decide what photos you want to include in your portfolio. Once you’ve made your mind up about that, the rest is easy.

Create a Collection Set in the Library module called Portfolio.
Create several Collections inside this Collection Set, one for each gallery you want to include on your portfolio website.
Add photos to the Collections.
Arrange the photos in the order in which they are to be displayed online.
Synchronize the photos in the Collections by ticking the boxes to the left of the Collection name (marked below).

My portfolio website (link above) has four galleries; Black & White, Portraits, Spain, and Devon. Each gallery corresponds to a Collection in Lightroom with the same name (seen below).

Adobe Portfolio Lightroom

Register

Go to www.myportfolio.com and sign in with your Adobe ID. If you haven’t created a portfolio yet click the button that says Get Started Free. Otherwise, click the button that says Edit Your Portfolio.

Adobe Portfolio Lightroom

Choose a design for your gallery

Now it’s time to choose a layout. Start by clicking the Switch layouts icon (marked below).

Adobe Portfolio Lightroom

Adobe Portfolio gives you eight layouts from which to choose. All the layouts are fully mobile responsive, which means they work and look professional on mobile phones and tablets as well as desktop computers. Decide which one you want to use and click the Use this layout button.

Adobe Portfolio Lightroom

It may be difficult to visualize which one works best when populated with your photos. Don’t worry about that at this stage – you can change the layout afterward if you want to.

Settings

Next, click the Edit your settings icon (marked below).

Adobe Portfolio Lightroom

Go to Site Options and click the Lightbox for Images tab. Tick the “Enable lightbox for images on my pages” box and click Done (see below). This is important as it lets people view the photos on your portfolio website. If you don’t tick it all they will be able to see are thumbnails.

Adobe Portfolio Lightroom

Add images to your gallery

Click the Manage content icon (marked below).

Adobe Portfolio Lightroom

Go to the Integrations tab and Click the Add Collections button. The website opens a window that displays all your synchronized Lightroom Collections. Pick the ones you want to include in your portfolio and click the Import Selected button (see button below lower-right).

Adobe Portfolio Lightroom

Go to Adobe Portfolio, click on the Manage content icon again and go to the Website Pages tab. Make sure the switch is set to the On position for each Collection you want to display on your portfolio website.

Adobe Portfolio Lightroom

Choose cover photos

Now it’s time to tidy up the gallery cover photos. You’ll need to do this once for each gallery. Start by clicking the pencil icon next to the gallery cover photo (see below).

Adobe Portfolio Lightroom

Pick Edit Cover Image from the menu to edit the cover photo. At the moment this feature is a little limited – the website automatically picks the photo that appears on the cover and it’s not easy to change it.

The only way currently is to click Upload a new image and upload a photo you’ve exported from Lightroom – there’s no way to select another photo from the Collection. But you can zoom the photo and adjust the crop. Click Done when you’re finished and repeat for the other gallery cover photos.

Adobe Portfolio Lightroom

Setup the domain name

Click the Edit your settings icon again and click Domain Name. You can select a URL for your portfolio in the form yourname.portfolio.com. This is the easiest option. Alternatively, if you have a domain or a subdomain you can follow the instructions to use that.

Adobe Portfolio Lightroom

Preview your portfolio gallery

Click the gray Preview button to see a preview of your portfolio website. Happy with what you see? Click Update Live Site to publish your portfolio to your chosen URL. Congratulations – your brand new portfolio website is now live!

Adobe Portfolio Lightroom

Customizing the design

So far I’ve shown you how to get your portfolio website online as quickly as possible. The hardest part, as I said, is deciding which photos to include in your gallery. That can take hours, days, or even weeks. But, once the decision is made, you can get your portfolio online in under 15 minutes. It really is that quick.

If you’re happy with the default settings of your layout you can stop there, your job is done. But it’s worth spending some time looking at both the page and global settings. You can customize things such as fonts, colors and the number of columns on your front page. There is an option to add pages (for instance an About page) and links to other websites. You have a lot of options and it’s worth exploring them to see how you can individualize your portfolio website.

You can even change the layout by clicking on the Switch layouts icon. Adobe portfolio remembers your customizations, which gives you peace of mind as it means you won’t lose your customizations when you switch from one layout to another.

When you are finished, remember to click the green Update Live Site button. None of your customizations are published until you click that button.

How to update the photos

Portfolios are fluid and as time goes by you will add and remove photos from the Collections you created. You may also add more Collections as your photo collection grows. There are two steps to updating your portfolio website.

1. Update your Lightroom Collections and make sure Lightroom has had time to synchronize the changes.

2. Go to Adobe Portfolio, click on the Manage content icon and go to the Website Pages tab. Click on the Cog icon next to the Collection that you want to update and select Reset from Lightroom to update your portfolio gallery.

Adobe Portfolio Lightroom

3. Finish by clicking the green Update Live Site button to publish the updates to your portfolio website.

Next steps

With the recent update that lets you integrate Lightroom Collections, Adobe Portfolio has become the easiest way to create a portfolio website using Lightroom Collections. The only downside, as mentioned earlier, is that you need to be a Creative Photography Plan subscriber to use this feature.

If you are not, then look at Koken as an alternative. Don’t dismiss the Web module out of hand either, it has some very useful features and doesn’t require a CC subscription to use.

You can learn more about all aspects of Lightroom with my bestselling Mastering Lightroom ebooks.

The post How to Create a Beautiful Online Gallery with Lightroom Classic CC and Adobe Portfolio in 15 Minutes by Andrew S. Gibson appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Adobe just made it way easier to import Lightroom collections into Adobe Portfolio

11 Oct

Adobe has announced that Portfolio, its online website publishing service for CC customers, has a new integration with Lightroom that lets users import their collections and add photos to their website with next-to-no effort.

As of this new update, a users’ Lightroom content will simply show up within Portfolio’s ‘Manage Content’ section under the ‘Integrations’ tab. From there, users are able to choose any of their Lightroom Collections to import to a Page on Portfolio. When added to the website, Adobe says the full Collection appears as a new Page with a photo grid, which you can then customize by removing images and/or rearranging the grid. Other elements, such as text and videos, can also be added to the page.

Finally, Adobe also says that Portfolio will now automatically import new Behance projects to new Pages within a chosen gallery—assuming the user chooses a default import gallery and has their Adobe ID associated with a Behance account.

Imported content is tagged with either a Lightroom or Behance badge in the Manage Content section to show where it was imported from.

To learn more about these new features or give them a try for yourself, head over to the Adobe Creative Cloud blog or download the latest version of Portfolio and give Lightroom import a shot for yourself.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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