How to Make a Fashion Photography Portfolio on a Budget

That’s the message from two professional photographers, Christin Snyders and Ian Jacob. We chatted to these two Visual Education members recently about how to make a fashion photography portfolio. Both agreed that it’s possible to build a fashion portfolio on a budget – and that doing so is the best way to kickstart your fashion photography career.

Our conversation with Christin and Ian is part of an 8-class series, ‘Getting Started in Fashion Photography’. Here are some of their tips.

Christin started out as a model, but always dreamed of being a photographer. “What the photographer was doing looked more interesting than what the model was doing,” she says. Practicing her photography in her spare time, she built up the confidence to sell the business she had started so she could focus full-time on pursuing her dream.

Ian also knew early on that photography was his passion, and studied it at college, specialising in fashion as well as beauty and product work. But only after a decade of building up his portfolio in his spare time (while working as a graphic designer) was he able to make photography his full-time focus.

“I remember when I was studying, I had no money to spend on portfolio work,” says Christin. She recalls borrowing clothes from friends, renting them from shops, or sourcing them affordably from online retailers. “You always find a way.”

Ian shares a similar tip: buy the clothes you need with a credit card (yours or someone else’s), then return them after the shoot for a refund. Genius!

Because she had worked as a model herself, when Christin started out in photography, many of her friends were models, too. That made finding subjects for her early portfolio shoots relatively easy. But if you’re not sure how to find models, or how to work with models, don’t worry.

“You don’t need that much to start building your portfolio. You just need the sun, the camera, and your eyes. There are lots of beautiful people out there!”

When Ian was studying photography in college, he and his classmates shot one another. (In fact, that’s how he met his wife!) A decade later, as he tried to get his photography business going, he asked family and friends to pose for him as he built up his fashion portfolio.

Though portfolio work doesn’t pay in the short term, it can lead to paid work down the line. For example, Christin did a ‘sun and suncream’ shoot for a model’s portfolio, and no money changed hands. But soon after sharing the shots, she heard from a commercial client who wanted to recreate the images. “Even free shoots can earn you money in the end.”

“It's about trying to build the work,” agrees Ian. “That’s how you get into fashion photography. You have to have it to get it. So you have to lean on whatever resources you have.”

A lot of his portfolio-building shoots brought him work later, even if the clients didn’t necessarily want images as creative and surprising as the ones that first caught their eye.

“One thing I’ve realised in fashion and beauty: you need to show how creative you and your team can be - the heights that you can rise to - to be hired for the less creative but better paying jobs.”