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General Help

Displaying your best photos in your portfolio

Keywords: portfolio, showcase, image, faq, import, export

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On this page you will find out about how to get started with your own portfolio at Nikonians including an FAQ with common questions and answers (with e.g. help on portfolio image import & image export) plus some tips & tricks on how to get your portfolio flying.

What is the value of having a Nikonians portfolio?

Short answer: Eyeballs and pride. Your portfolio is:

1. Showcased under your unique nikonians.org/portfolio URL address

2. On Nikonians homepage

3. On Nikonians gallery homepage

4. On the portfolio overview page

5. We are also selecting certain portfolios to be showcased in our newsletter, sent out to over 200,000 readers.

 

The photos you select for your portfolio are shown in a large size and you can select a "featured" image to be shown at the top of your portfolio. You can also include your Bio and a contact opportunity.

Your portfolio is powered by your Nikonians Gallery, accepting very large images including originals, with (practically) no limits in pixel size plus no storage limits (on the Platinum level).

 

How to set up your own portfolio at Nikonians

How to get going with your portfolio

1. Sign up for Gold or Platinum
If you are not a community member yet or on Basic or Silver membership, signup for Platinum or Gold

2. Enable your portfolio
Make sure your portfolio is enabled:
A) Turn it on right from your portfolio page which is located here: nikonians.org/portfolio/YourUserNameHere

Or:
B) Enable it under the "
My Profile - Preferences" tab.

3. Upload new images, or select existing gallery images for your portfolio
Once your portfolio is enabled you can start adding images. It is a good idea to add 5-10 images for starters. We recommend that you don't add a lot of images directly, even if you have a whole set of great images, but get a few up and then add more over time. That keeps your portfolio more interesting.

A) For new images by uploading images to your Nikonians Gallery and setting the Options "Include images in your portfolio?" to "yes" or

B) For existing gallery images by clicking the link or button "Include to portfolio" which is located under each of your images in your gallery.

 

Not on Gold yet?

By upgrading, you are not only getting several benefits, such as your own portfolio, but you also get helpful, actionable advice on your images (aka critique), upload of NEFs in the forums, your own nikonians.org email address, large image space for sharing/collaboration plus much more.  AND, by having paid your membership, you ensure we can continue helping you and others -- Big thanks!

 

Some tips to get your portfolio flying

Don't store too large images
Your gallery accepts images larger than 1800 pixels long side, making it possible for you to include large, beautiful looking images in your portfolio directly out of your Nikon D850 or Z7ii. Even though each image can be up to 100 MB large in file size, you probably want to ensure the images are smaller than that. Often images being a few MB each can look great, even at larger resolution.

Showcase JPGs, not NEFs
Your Nikonians Gallery can store your original NEF files, but you probably want to make sure you are adding post-processed, great looking JPEG images to your portfolio, not automatically rendered JPEG files out of your original NEF's.

Include more than a few images
Add more than just one or two images to your portfolio. By adding 10-25 of your best images, you make your portfolio more interesting to browse than if you only have one or two lonely images included. If you don't have that many great images yet, wait a while until you have shot at least five good keepers and then start your portfolio.
By keeping the amount of images right, not just 2-5 images and not hundreds, you will increase the chances of your portfolio to be highlighted in the Nikonians newsletter, reaching out to several hundred thousand photographers and industry leaders

Don't add a lot of similar images
If you have a whole sequence of images from a shoot that you want to include, ask yourself if it makes sense to publish several images from that session in your portfolio. It might be better to include only a single image from that specific shoot. Photography is not machine-gunning and the best portfolios are often not showing repetive imagery. Just because it is easy to include many images into your portfolio does not mean you should include many. In fact, there is no limit to the number of images you can include and your portfolio can scroll on forever, but... how many visitors will do that do you think?

Don't add your 2nd best or third best shot
Include the best ones only and be critical on what you select for inclusion.

Don't include low-res images
If you are concerned about someone snatching your image, then use watermarks, brand the images with your name or logo in one corner. If you don't want to upload larger images than e.g. 800 pix long side, then a large resolution portfolio like yours at Nikonians might not be the best channel to showcase your work. Images 1200 pixel long side is probably often a good compromise between enjoyable viewing while still not being too valuable for someone to misuse. The featured image should though be larger than that as not to be pixelated on larger screens.

Make sure you keep images updated
By updating them, your portfolio stays on top on the homepage of Nikonians. Include new images weekly or bi-weekly ensures your portfolio gets more views and more buzz.

Share images from your portfolio
By sharing your images to your Facebook, twitter or instagram account, using the "sharing icon" shown in the corner of each image you will further enhance that others see it while also helping the community to get more visibility. Some social media platforms may though have dodgy data policies and even try to skew the utilization rights of your work to their own advantage, so make sure you read their policies before you put your best work out there on those sites.

Include a link to your portfolio in your Nikonians signature
Include a link to your portfolio in your forum signature at Nikonians so that others see the link whenever you post in the Nikonians forums. You can edit your signature under "My profile" and "Preferences" tab.

 

Portfolio by rosewood_ltd

A Nikonians portfolio: In this case by Nikonians team member Russell Whittemore (rosewood_ltd)

 

 

Some common questions - FAQs

My images don't look good in the portfolio, why?
Your images will be resized to fit the screen and device in use. Make sure you are not compressing the images too hard before uploading them and do not include monster images at several thousand pix each side. We are not sharpening images and not doing any magic post-processing on the fly. Smaller images than the original are kept 100% jpg quality, so there should not be much of any new artifacts introduced in your work. If you have any issues with the way your images appear on screen in your portfolio, please post that in the About Nikonians forum and we will help you get it right.

The top header image looks totally skewed or is cut-off weirdly, why?
Check the size recommendations for the featured image, an image that should be in landscape mode being 1600 pixels wide x 800 pixels tall. If that still does not look great, try a bit larger still.

Can I import images to my Nikonians portfolio?
Yes. Use the upload to the galleries with a ZIP file of the images you want to include in your portfolio. Then select the images you want to include into the portfolio by the link under each thumbnail in your galleries.

Can I export images from my Nikonians portfolio?
Yes. It is very simple to download all of your images, including the ones from your portfolio in ZIP format to use these images elsewhere, or just to secure them. Only you can access your images this way.

1. Go to "My Profile" and the "Membership tab".

2 .Click on the link "Export my data".

3. Make sure the checkbox "Gallery images" is marked.

4. Click the button "Export data" and sitback, drink a coffee or something.

As you probably have noticed, you can also export more than just your images this way, such as all of your forum posts, your Nikonians profile and more.
You might want to consult the help page on exporting your data as well. 

Can I switch the background of my portfolio to dark/black?
Yes, you can (use the theme selector top right area of any of the pages at Nikonians). But, that is only changing the way the portfolio is shown to you, not for others. You have no control of how others will see your portfolio in this respect, i.e. with white background or dark background. We might introduce the possibility for you to decide how your portfolio should be shown to visitors.

Who can see my portfolio?
Any visitor to Nikonians, no matter if logged in or not can see your portfolio. If you want to limit the viewers of your portfolio, you rather want to use a private album in your galleries.

 

What is the next step to get going?

Signup for Platinum or Gold to get going with your own portfolio.

Got an issue with your portfolio? Just shoot! Ask your question and we'll help.

 

I have a portfolio problem or question

 

We are continously improving the Nikonians photo sharing and portfolios throughout 2020/21 -- Stay tuned & Enjoy your community!

bgs, jrp & the whole Nikonians team

 

 

9 comments

Luiz Paulo Grinberg (Lupi59) on September 3, 2023

Excellent article. Thx

Charles Crabb (CharlesD750) on January 10, 2021

Donor Ribbon awarded for his very generous support to the Fundraising Campaign 2015

Thanks for publishing this really helpful article!

Tom Clark (Clarktmc) on September 22, 2018

Thanks already bought one

J. Ramon Palacios (jrp) on May 28, 2018

JRP is one of the two co-founders of Nikonians and has in-depth knowledge in many photographic areas Awarded for his contributions for the Resources

Debra: The basics are: - Click on My Profile (top right under your user name) - Under the Preferences Tab, Enable your portfolio, give it a title, & a short description. - Then, upload images to your gallery - Go to your Gallery. - You will see under each photo a link titled "Include to Portfolio" - Click that link for each of the images you want in your portfolio. - The images are automatically added to the portfolio.

Debra Gillilan (dgillilan) on May 28, 2018

Hi to anyone who can help me to include photos to portfolio, I am new to using the portfolio feature of Nikonians, I upgraded to Gold to use this. I followed Dave Summer's advice in a post here: https://www.nikonians.org/forums/?az=set_threaded_mode&forum=190&topic_id=113275&prev_page=show_topic&gid=113275#113321 I went to my gallery and chose a photo, and clicked one of my photos, then "include to portfolio" but it does not show up(no photos in my portfolio). I checked again in the gallery and that photo now only has the choice "Exclude from portfolio" so I know that I included it to show in the portfolio. I know it should show up in portfolio. THe photo I included to portfolio is in my gallery and is the one of the Utah landscape "Wide Open Spaces". Can you tell me the trick to get photos into a portfolio on Nikonians, or tell me who to email? I also went to My profile, preferences, my portfolio, (and Portfolio is enabled under my preferences under My profile), and it shows the choice "Add images to my Portfolio" and I click it over and over, but absolutely nothing happens. I don't get it. I cannot get photos to my portfolio and I have tried several times. I've been a silver member since about 2006 and now gold just recently, for the portfolio and other upgrades. Please help, Thanks, Debra Gillilan, Nikonian username dgillilan

Bo Stahlbrandt (bgs) on May 17, 2018

bgs is one of the two co-founders of Nikonians, with in-depth knowledge in several areas Awarded for his valuable Nikon product reviews at the Resources

@Seragone: Uploading images to Nikonians, in forums or galleries with or without portfolio, do not change any Copyrights. They always stay with the owner.

User on May 16, 2018

Will my photos be copyright protected?

Bo Stahlbrandt (bgs) on May 7, 2018

bgs is one of the two co-founders of Nikonians, with in-depth knowledge in several areas Awarded for his valuable Nikon product reviews at the Resources

@pquinslo - pls try the "pin" icon top right corner of any of your images in your portfolio (located beside the trashcan) to change the featured image. We will improve the usability further since quite a few members do not see that icon.

User on May 7, 2018

This is an excellent idea! I would like to change the lead image in my portfolio without completely removing it. I would appreciate being given the ability to change it on demand. Thanks

G