Sophie Traynor Portfolio Review

The opportunity to discuss our work with professional photographers was presented at university, arranged by our lecturers. Researching some of the visiting photographers, I noticed Sophie Traynor and Megan Dolton both have experience in commercial photography and thought their advice would be more beneficial. I presented a range of photographs that would potentially build my commercial portfolio. Preferably I would like to have presented these images physically but after a few technical issues, I decided to present them digitally.

Sophie Traynor's feedback was very insightful, clearly pointing out my theme of female beauty products. She mentioned overall my work appears strong but my strongest pair of images are the natural portrait and Morphe 2 foundation photographs as they follow current photographic trends that she is commissioned to follow. Originally I didn't consider these two images as the potential exhibition outcomes but looking at them with Sophie made me realise how well they work cohesively as a pair. I knew I wanted to present a product and then a portrait of the model wearing the product to show the audience what it could look like on skin. However, she did mention a few simple adjustments for the foundation shot to make before I sent them to print such as colour balance to reduce yellow tones and removing the petal at the front of the image to reduce distractions.

We then discussed how I could display my exhibition outcomes in Lightboxes. However, I have already researched prices for professionally made Lightboxes and they were too expensive so I have decided to build my own following YouTube videos. Sophie strongly agreed with the idea and suggested creating some business cards alongside my portfolio so the audience could take a part of my exhibition home with them.