Creative Ways to Make CloudSpot Portfolio Work For You

ntentionally showcasing your work is the best place to start when it comes to standing out in the photography world. Your photography is unique and deserves to be displayed in a way that is as beautiful and as intentional as the images you take. With CloudSpot, we offer many customizable portfolio options to highlight you and your work as a photographer. Today, we wanted to share what options are available and how you can use them for your photography business. 

Show off your latest work to potential clients by making your CloudSpot Portfolio work for you. Let’s start with the basics.

What is a Portfolio? 

Simply put, a portfolio is a public or private collection of galleries available for easy access in one location. You have the option to create public-facing and hidden portfolio category links. While a photography portfolio is not a substitute for a photography website, our portfolios can embed in your website for viewers to scroll through your work.

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By default, all online galleries are NOT set to be visible on your Portfolio until Gallery Settings are adjusted. 

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How to Create a Portfolio with CloudSpot

With CloudSpot, you can display multiple galleries through your Portfolio! You can have potential clients visit your CloudSpot Portfolio so they can see previous examples of your work, purchase prints and products, and share your images on social media - all with your branding 🎉 Once your Portfolio is finished, there are many use cases to get creative with your Portfolio: embedding into your website, creating Portfolio categories for locations, creating a hidden Portfolio, and more. 

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How to Create a Hidden Portfolio Categories

With CloudSpot, you can add images to your main portfolio which will be displayed under your public Portfolio link. You’ll also have the option to create hidden portfolio categories. Hiding a Portfolio Category allows you to keep that specific Category from appearing publicly on your main Portfolio page, but still gives you the ability to link directly to it whenever you want to share it privately with clients or vendors.

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Creative Uses for Your Portfolio

Once you have mastered the basics, there are countless creative ways to use the CloudSpot portfolio feature and get creative. Below are just a few of our favorites! 

🙌 Embed a Portfolio for your website to show off your latest work

🤫 Use Hidden Portfolio Categories and display returning clients' Galleries all in one spot

🤑 Use Portfolio Categories for online sales pages for potential clients to view

🍰 Create a Vendor-specific Portfolio Category and display repeat vendor Galleries all in one spot

🌎 Create a Location Guide for couples and clients to see what to expect from certain locations

🤓 Create a Trade show or Conference Portfolio to show your work to potential clients in real time

🤫 Create a Private Portfolio to share with your family and friends

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🙌 Embed on your website

Share your best work by embedding your portfolio into your site. Whether you use Showit, Wix, WordPress, or otherwise, CloudSpot Portfolios can be embedded wherever you desire. You’ll easily be able to update your portfolio with just a few clicks each time you update your gallery, saving so much time and ensuring you are always sharing your best work! 

If you don’t want to embed into your website, you can also link a navigation link to your Portfolio by opening a new tab. 

Don’t have a website yet?! No problem. Share your portfolio link with potential clients to build trust and impress them with your amazing images. 

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🤫 Create Hidden Portfolio Categories for returning clients

Easily bundle repeat clients’ images in one easy-access location through Hidden Portfolio Categories. By creating a Hidden Portfolio Category specific to your repeat clients, you’ll be able to link all of the work you have created together in one place, making it so easy for them to access their images.

Wedding Photographers - check this out! Do you ever have repeat couples for an engagement session, wedding, and maternity photos?! Bundle their Collections under one hidden portfolio category for them to view for years to come. This way, your client only needs to keep track of one link to view all of their work with you!

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Hidden Portfolio Categories can also be great for Model pages, boudoir photography, or bundling multiple Galleries into one Portfolio Category.

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🤑 Create Portfolio Categories for sales pages

Sharing full galleries of work with potential clients is an amazing way to build trust as they learn more about your photography experiences. Consider sharing a portfolio page linking to relative galleries on your sales pages or in client pricing proposals. As a wedding, engagement, brand, or grad photographer, you may want to have a public portfolio category created. As a boudoir, family, or newborn photographer, you may want to create a hidden portfolio category for client privacy,

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🍰 Create a vendor-specific Portfolio Category 

Portfolios are a great way to go the extra mile for your vendors. You can make vendor-specific portfolios for a specific venue, wedding planner, floral vendor, or hair and makeup artist.

For vendors or venues that you work with frequently or have photos specifically for them, consider bundling all of your sessions or events in one hidden portfolio category to make sharing galleries with them for use on social media and online marketing a breeze. Having all of the images you’ve taken for them in one easy-access spot is a great way to ensure you’ll be top of mind for referrals and online features! 

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“Portfolios can be a great way to show clients your work using categories such as "winter weddings" or "LGBTQ+ Wedding." These portfolios can be made to easily be viewed by the public or kept private. I love using portfolios as a way to go the extra mile for fellow vendors. You can make portfolios for a specific venue, wedding planner, or makeup artist. For boudoir, only certain clients agree to have their work shown publicly. When I label that gallery to have a model release with a tag, it adds it to a portfolio. That portfolio is set to private so it is not easily accessed by the public, but now my hair and makeup artist has one unified resource she can pull from to show off her own work. We all know working with incredible fellow vendors makes our jobs a lot more fun so I like to build up those relationships any way I can!” 
‍- Michelle Franzetti, Franzetti Photography

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🌎 Create a location guide for your couples and clients

Tired of messaging back and forth with clients about selecting the perfect location for their upcoming session? Consider creating a hidden portfolio page featuring a gallery that displays all of your favorite locations. When clients ask if you have any location recommendations, you’ll be their hero as you send all of your best locations with one simple click! Best yet, as you visit and fall in love with new locations, you can update your guide with just a few simple clicks. 

Use CloudSpot as a one-stop shop to make galleries of your favorite locations and venues to show future clients what they can expect. As a bonus, encourage your clients to favorite the images they love to help make the location selection process easier!

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“I have collected images from every location I have shot in and make a Collection for each. I also include a graphic of what the client can expect in that location, parking fees, or anything else they would need to know before arriving. If my clients are looking for inspiration or specific locations, they can view this Location Guide to see visual representations of poses and what each location looks like at specific times of day.” 
‍- Sandra Yvonne, Life is Beautiful London Photographer

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🤓 Prepare a Portfolio for a trade show or conference 

Have a networking opportunity coming up?! Prepare to put your best foot forward by curating a custom portfolio page to share your best work with anyone you may meet. 

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🤫 Private Portfolio Category to share with family and friends

Yes, we know you most likely use CloudSpot to share your images with your business clients, but CloudSpot is also an amazing place to safely back up and store your family’s precious memories too. Consider creating a private portfolio page to house your family photo galleries and then send the portfolio link to your loved ones. They’ll never have to ask you for a specific photo again as you’ll be able to update the portfolio link with just a few clicks for them to enjoy all of your images! 

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How to Add One Gallery to Multiple Portfolio Categories 

Last, but not least, you can use one gallery for multiple portfolios. No more duplicate work! You can do so by creating multiple galleries within your uploaded Catalog. This will not duplicate your storage on CloudSpot and even allows you to customize settings for the galleries that will be displayed on each portfolio page. Want to allow downloads for the galleries on your returning client Portfolio Pages but not on the same gallery linked on your Sales pages?! You can easily create two galleries from one Collection of images and will be able to customize the settings on both, including download permissions and portfolio categories 🙌

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Ready to get started with CloudSpot? Start for free today. 

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