DIGITAL PORTFOLIO INSTRUCTIONS
For our Digital Portfolio Showcase, we will be creating and using albums in Google Photos.
You should receive an email from our Illustrator Coordinator, Laura Fisk, in the weeks leading up to the conference inviting you to an album with your name. Please check that your name is spelled correctly (please email us if it isn’t!), and select “View Album” in the email you received.
A new window will appear, showing the landing page for your album. If you’ve never used Google Photos before, it will ask if you want to use your original size photos or resize to a high-quality photo. Either is fine, but allowing Google to resize will ensure that all your photos load faster. WE RECOMMEND THIS OPTION.
—–
TO ADD PHOTOS to your Album
1) Select “Add Photos”
2) Select “Select from Computer”
3) Select the images you want to add. You can select one at a time, or you can select multiples at once by pressing “ctrl” while you select them.
4) Open
5) Wait for images to finish uploading
6) Tada! Photos added!
—–
TO ADD MORE PHOTOS to Album
1) select the icon “Add to Album”
2) A window will open up showing you all the photos in your album. You can continue adding photos by selecting “Add from computer”
3) When you are done adding photos, select “Done”.
—–
TO REMOVE PHOTOS
1) Select the photos you want to remove from your album by highlighting the circle/checkmark in the upper left corner of each picture.
2) When you are done selecting the images you want to remove, select “more options” in the upper right corner of your screen.
3) Select “remove from album”
4) This will remove images from your album, but not Google Photos. If you decide to add them back in later, select “Add to Album”. Images included in your album with have a checkmark in the upper left corner. Excluded images will not. Select the image you wish to re-add and select “Done.”
—–
TO ORGANIZE YOUR PHOTOS
You may notice that your photos are organized in a seemingly random order, but they are not. They are organized by DATE. This cannot be changed. But you can still organize your photos!!!
1) When you are done uploading all the photos you want in your album, select every single photo in your album, by checking the upper left hand corner of each photo.
2) Go to “more options”
3) Select “Edit date & time”
4) Select “Set one date & time”
5) Set the date to 2020/01/01 (the time and time zone don’t matter!) and save.
Your images will move a bit, but don’t worry. Now we organize them!
6) Decide on the image you want to show up FIRST. Leave that one alone!
7) Now decide on which you image you want to show up SECOND. Select that image.
8) Select “more options”
9) Select “Edit date & time”
10) To change the order of your photos, all you need to do is change the date! So change the day to “2” for your second photos, “3” for your third, and so on. When you are done, your photos will all show up in the order you specified!
RECOMMENDATION (advanced!)
If you want to leave wiggle room to reshuffle your photos later without having to change EVERYTHING all over again, you may try ordering your photos in odd numbers (1, 3, 5) so that if you need to move a few photos, you can number them the even number between two other photos later. For example:
I want to move a photo from the end, but put it between the first two photos in my album. Because I numbered my first two photos in odd numbers (1 and 3), all I need to do is renumber my other photo as “2” and it will appear between “1” and “3”.
Or you can order in FIVES if you feel you may be reshuffling more.
But it is WAY EASIER if you decided on the order before you even start numbering them.
—–
Now you’re done!!
BUT WAIT! If you want some tips to help take your portfolio to the NEXT LEVEL, the following are some suggestions (ONLY suggestions!) for playing and tweaking your portfolio so that you look your BEST.
1) A TITLE PAGE. You may consider making the first image in your album an image with your name and info on it, just as you would in a physical portfolio. That way people know a) who you are, 2) how to contact you, and 3) where to go to find your work. It can be simple. It can be elaborate. It doesn’t matter, just think of one that fits YOU.
2) Think of your portfolio like you would a picture book: it tells a STORY, in SEQUENCE. A digital album doesn’t have quite the sequential feel of a physical portfolio since everything is laid out at once instead of turning pages, but people still tend to read left to right, top to bottom. Consider this when laying out your album.
3) CHOOSE ONLY YOUR BEST. This is not the place for “filler” images or “I guess it’s okay” artwork. Choose only your BEST work that best represents not just who you are as an artist, but also consider the kind of work you WANT to do. It always seems inevitable that the one piece you really hated making (but still turned out great) ends up being the one that gets you hired again for another project you hate because it’s in a style or genre you loathe. CONSIDER THIS when choosing what to include (and not include) in your portfolio.
4) Try to limit your images to no more than fifteen if you can. The SCBWI recommends 10-12 of your best pieces. The number doesn’t matter, but know that it’s better to have 6 strong images than 20 weak ones. Your weaker art will take away from your strengths. PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTHS.
And that’s it! I know this is different, but it’s not all that different from designing a website, so hopefully this will be familiar to a LOT of you. If you have questions, please contact Laura at austin-ic@scbwi.org and I’ll try to get back to you as soon as possible.
GOOD LUCK!