How To Build Your Photo and Prop Styling Portfolio

If you are new to photo styling OR if you have been styling for awhile, we have to as stylists continually add to and evolve in our portfolio.  It's usually our work that garners us a photo styling assignment ~ it's our style, talent, composition skills, creativity.  Although, I often say their are many skills and traits that we need as a photo stylist in addition to the technical talent we have.

One way I love to add to my portfolio is through a Collaborative Photo Shoot.  I believe we have to add photos to our portfolio specifically for the kind of styling work we want.  I call it the Style, Shoot and Show method.  We direct our portfolio to our desired niche and style.  Keep adding and evolving your portfolio until you are the obvious choice for a client or photographer to hire you.

When you come together with your fellow creatives and businesses to share our resources, ideas, and communities with one another, you are so much more powerful (& productive) than when we do things on our own.  A Style Shoot can be a great way to gain photos for your portfolio as well as gain experience and meet other creatives!  Be selective and strategic when deciding on your photographer, creative pros and vendor partners you choose to collaborate with.

Yes, at times, the Stylist in a collaborative will carry alot of the cost of putting a photo shoot together. BUT, when you collaborate with clear directives and balance of investment ~ it works great!  (We go over this in the Guide.)  I consider photo shoots like this to be an investment in my business. MANY of the images I have styled via a collaborative, I have placed on my website for the sole purpose of speaking directly to brands I want to style for. Direct your images to work you want.  As I always do, I want to share the "real deal" with you!  A Styled Shoot can be both expensive and stressful if you don't have a clearly defined and organized system in place to ensure everyone involved understands their role (& responsibility) and what to expect on shoot day (as well as after the shoot.)

In our Business of Styling Free Guides, we have a Guide to help you in the process.  We give 13 ways to guide you through a successful collaboration. It's a great way to collaborate (& network to be booked for potential styling assignments) and add photos to your website and portfolio.  We also give you a sample collaboration outreach letter to make it easy for outreach.

Here is Guide to Download:

COLLABORATIVE STYLED SHOOT GUIDE

Bonnie ~

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