Photography Portfolio Books

Types Of Photography Portfolio Books

Our screw post portfolios come in 4 different styles. Exposed screw post, Fixed back screw post, Hidden Screw posts and Leather screw post. The ring binders are available in Fixed back or Leather. Each have their pros and cons as set out below. It is important to remember that all portfolio books can be customised. You can see the types of our custom photography portfolio books below.

Exposed Screw Post Portfolio

Essentially a front and a back book cover, the exposed screw post portfolio does not have a spine cover. This makes for its clear advantage over the other portfolios, its flexibility. As mentioned above, screw posts come in variety of lengths, therefore as its thickness is not limited by the size if its spine, it can either grow over time or alternatively adjust to which ever presentation is being placed inside it.

Pros: Flexibility, it can hold any number of prints you need it to. Price, it's the simplest and therefore cheapest of our portfolios.

Cons: No spine cover.

Fixed Back Portfolio

Very familiar in appearance, it looks on the outside like a normal book. A front cover attached to a spine cover attached to a back cover. Inside however is a screw post mechanism that hinges on the back cover either lying down or facing up. This would not suit a body of work that varies in size or is expected to grow. Because the spine is a set thickness (which you can determine upon ordering) that is the size it will always be.

Pros: Very clean book like appearance.

Cons: Not size flexible. Once you specify the thickness of spine, it's set for life

Hidden Screw Post Portfolio

Judging by our gallery you'd conclude that this was our most popular portfolio, and you'd be right.The hidden screw post has 3 separate parts, the front and back cover and a spine cover.

The standard thickness of the spine is 20mm. This can be ordered bigger or even smaller. The colour of the spine covers can also be ordered to match the cover, inner cover or even a third colour.

Leather Screw Post Portfolio

We use a single piece of Italian veg tanned leather which we cut form the centre fo the hide. We use either a 3.5mm thick brown or black hide which has been gently tumbled to provide texture, or a 2.5mm thick brown or black hide which has more texture. Choice is a matter of preference though 3.5mm is the more popular because of its rigidity. We can place either a screw post or ring binder mechanism inside.

Types of Binders

Portfolio book allows you the photographer, to present your work in the sequence that you want it seen in. There are two options of binding mechanism to consider, screw posts or ring binders.

Screw Posts

Screw posts are a slightly more sophisticated affair. Essentially they are tubes with flat headed screws at either end. Using screw posts as binding mechanisms means that the portfolios pages are bound in the same manner as a book, but unlike a finished case bound book, the posts can be unscrewed and the pages changed.

Pros: The pages are tightly bound at the edge like a book, so are a bit more sophisticated than a ring binder. Variety of post lengths to suit sizes.

Cons: More fiddly to use.

Ring Binders

Ring binders are straight forward to use, we offer three different standard binder heights 2cm, 4.5cm or 5cm. They are powder coated black, so look very cool!

Pros: The advantage to the ring binders are that they're quick and easy to fill or change. The other is binder height. Screw posts are a little unforgiving if under filled (they need card spacers to keep the binding tight) whereas ring binders aren't meaning you have a lot more flexibility in the number of pages included. Good Value.

Cons: Appearance, despite the black mechanisms, they are seen as more 'officey'. Also, pages do not turn quite in the same way as something tightly bound.

Benefits Of Portfolio Books to Photographers

The great beauty of a using a screw post or ring binder as a presentation portfolio is its everyday functionality as a presentation tool. It can be whatever size and format you want it to be, A4, 11"x 14, 11"x17, A3, 13"x19" in fact you tell us the page size and format and we'll make your book fit.

Equally important however is that unlike a printed and bound book, it allows you to include more recently completed work without having to have to whole book re-printed. Furthermore it also allows you to change the entire portfolio depending upon who you are presenting your work to. For example the same book can be used in one meeting to present portraiture work and then easily changed to present your commercial (product) photography for another and so on.

Lastly (and this is always the way), if your last shoot had some of your best work, then you can quite easily print it off and include it in your portfolio for your next presentation.