4 Tips on How to Choose the Perfect Profile Picture for Your Portfolio

Martina Flor shares her advice on what every creative should bear in mind when designing their personal page

How many times have you doubted over the picture you chose for your portfolio? Photography is a key element when you’re sharing your work and looking for new clients: it’s part of your calling card and says a lot about you and the image you want to transmit.

Martina Flor, designer and specialist in lettering, –who teaches the Domestika course Freelance: Keys and Tools to Find Success as your Own Boss– will help you choose your perfect shot with these helpful tips.

According to Martina, it’s important to choose a photo that shows who you are and connects with what you do. These are the 4 basic tips to think about when choosing your own photo:

1. Avoid forced poses and neutral backgrounds

Don’t use a photo in which you look rigid. We often make the mistake of choosing photos with white backgrounds, as if they were passport photos or for a bank’s website, but if you want to stand out, stay away from flat photos with neutral or white backgrounds.

2. Don’t include too much context in your photo

You don’t want to explain where you are or what’s behind the photo, you want to show your face and your profile. That’s why you want a photo in which your features are the photo’s principal elements.

3. Don’t reuse photos clumsily

It’s good to show your creative side and pieces of your work, but it’s obvious when a photo has been cropped, adjusted or taken out of context. Avoid using photos in which you appear too casual

4. Take an expressive photo for your page

If you haven’t found a photo that meets all those requirements, the best option is to take one especially for your portfolio. That way you will gain credibility and your photo fit who you are at that moment and what you want to express.

This is how Martina Flor presents herself on her page, using all the tips above to choose her profile picture: relaxed, looking at the camera, with little context and looking natural.

If you want to learn other secrets for how to triumph as a freelancer in any creative profession, Martina shares more useful tips in her course Freelance: Keys and Tools to Find Success as your Own Boss.

You may also be interested in:

- Feng Shui for Your Workspace
- Freelance Tutorial: 6 Tips to Find Clients
- How to present yourself