Portfolio building for models and lookbook or editorial work for labels and boutiques.
A portfolio session covers the range an agency wants to see; a lookbook is shot to the collection.
A portfolio and a lookbook are different jobs
A portfolio is built to show range: what someone looks like in different lighting, different styling and different moods, so an agency or client can see whether they fit a brief.
A lookbook is built to sell a collection. The clothes are the subject, and the model is there to show how they move and fit.
What a portfolio needs to include
- A clean, minimally-styled frame that shows what someone actually looks like — the equivalent of a casting headshot.
- Full-length, so proportion is visible.
- Two or three distinct looks rather than one look repeated.
- At least one frame with movement in it; stillness reads flat in this work.
Editorial and campaign work
Editorial shoots have more latitude — the image can be strange, atmospheric or narrative, because it exists to be looked at rather than to sell a specific garment.
Campaign and lookbook work has less: the product has to read clearly, colours have to be accurate, and the frame usually has to leave room for type.
More commercial photography
