Kudos to German editorial & commercial portrait photographer Ines Opifanti for making her own well crafted portfolio book. It’s no easy task, but if done right the results can be well worth it. The big advantages to doing it yourself are that you have complete control over all the decisions for your book while learning a new craft and saving a lot of money.

Ines says, “I spent a lot of time researching before deciding on the materials I used. I knew right from the beginning that most traditional portfolio books weren’t an option for me…I then stumbled over some bamboo wood portfolio covers and liked the idea immediately. But instead of using ready made bamboo books, I decided to make my own wooden book with some darker wood, that fitted my taste. Of course, it was also cheaper than using ready made portfolio books, but more importantly, after spending so much time with researching options, I wanted to have an unique book in the end, that didn’t have to be perfect, but my very own.”

Ines found someone close by to laser etch her logo into the wood. She says, “After the logo was etched into the wood, I coated it with a single coating of linseed oil. It’s more natural-looking than laquering the wood and I didn’t want to have a glossy or delicate look. Another nice bonus is that the logo really stands out now, as the oil enhances the look of the texture. Depending on the angle you hold it, the logo is either dark on light ground, light on dark ground, or almost invisible. Cool effect.”

To learn more about Ines’ process check out her blog post – http://ines-opifanti.com/blog/2015/05/31/portfolio-building-on-a-budget-part-1/