A folio that scored well

Fuzzy’s Suggestions for Folios/Composites

Note: Competition/ICE is only open to SEWPPA members.

The following are suggestions to help you score well in senior composite/folio competitions. Obviously, some of these ideas may or may not apply to other composite/folio entries of children or families.

• Subject Attractiveness: Like it or not, a great subject with ordinary photography will score higher than an ordinary subject and great photography. For example, in magazine ads the lighting or posing may not be what we’d consider “correct”, yet the photo is appealing because beautiful people look great regardless of other factors. Remember… humans judge competitions!
• Impact: Images with dramatic intensity, sex appeal, and a “WOW” factor will make judges look longer at your entry and score it higher. Competition images should have one of the following four aspects to do well: Love, Hope, Sex or Danger. Try to make that happen in your entries.
• Composition/Layout: Design is a part of the immediate impact. Create an interesting, fun, clever, yet “balanced” layout.
• Every image in the entry must be high quality: Much like a chain that is only as strong as its weakest link, one weak photograph will bring the whole entry down.
• Print Quality: Flat or inconsistent color will kill an entry. Make sure your images have “punch”.
• Personality: A strong plus in an entry is capturing a senior’s true personality. This can be accomplished by matching backgrounds to the senior’s clothing, selecting locations that facilitate expression of that senior’s attitude, and props that tell a story about the senior. Furthermore, if it is apparent that the entry is one-of-a-kind”, without resorting to props common to other seniors, then judges should award points for that as well.
• Strive for VARIETY in the following areas (not in order of importance):
  • Subject cropping… Use a tight close-up, head & shoulders, 3/4 length, full-length images.
  • Clothing… Avoid having too many images in the entry with the same outfit. If your studio limits clothing changes, vary the subject size or use different special effects so that lack of clothing
    is less of a hindrance.
  • Background/Location… Mix indoor studio backgrounds with outdoor, on-location, nature scenes, and urban areas.
  • Expression… For clients, as well as for competition, it is important to have a variety of appropriate expressions. Some suggestions are: happy, serious, sultry, pensive, tough, confident, sassy, demure, aloof, sad.
  • Pose… Avoid two images of the same body pose, even with different cropping or clothing.
  • Lighting… Show the judges you can master indoor ambient light and indoor strobe, as well as control outdoor lighting.
  • Lighting Styles… Use hard, soft, loop, short, broad, glamour, flat, split, high, low, spot, silhouette, or colored light.
  • Subject’s hairstyle or make-up… Seniors want to look like models and TV stars. Having them change their hairstyle and make-up during their photo session produces different looks for a model-style portfolio.
  • Special Effects… Some composite/folio entries will benefit from using a few special effects, along with standard color.

Please refer to the two examples of high school senior composites that scored well at last year’s WPPA fall convention for ideas.

Another folio that scored well