A puzzled student

[Jess99]

Hi there!

I’m a 1st year graphic design student and I am trying to put together a print portfolio. After looking at various designers website, I noticed that a lot of the work is presented in a professional manner, with most work being presented on 'real life objects', for example ive seen designed stationery presented on a table being strategically placed, as well as packaging designs being displayed on various 3d objects.

Are these designers/you taking the photographs of the work when its produced or is there a website that you can get the images from such as a stock site for 3d props and then using photoshop to place the work on the objects?

Thanks for your help!!

jess

[Scarlet-Hills]

In a lot of cases designers will use 'beauty shots' to display their work, ie photoshopping their creative solutions into images depicting appropriate environments. Even if the work in question really is being used on, say, a giant billboard, a beauty shot can often look better than the real thing as you might not be able to get the right photograph/it might be in an ugly area etc.

There are a whole bunch of stock image libraries that provide images for this purpose, some of which will cost you, some of which will be free (often depending on the use you put them to.) www.morguefile.com is a good one, full of license-free post-production images. If you have a decent camera though, It's a good idea to take your own pictures and create a personal library of 'blanks' on which to place your own work.

Oh, and remember that when you do photoshop your own work in, make sure you wrap it into the environment in a suitably realistic fashion!

- Rob

[MrMackem]

I'd take your own shots and photoshop your work on top - there's nothing more 'amateur' than seeing the same stock images used time and time again on different portfolio sites.