ART PORTFOLIOS FOR COLLEGE APPLICATIONS (continued) By Ian Torney, Chair of Visual Arts Department, Milton Academy A photographer can be hired to shoot and prepare images, and the Visual Arts faculty can supply recommendations; however this is a costly option ($5.00 an image/artwork). To save on the cost of professional photography, you may choose to photograph your own work or to ask for help from a fellow student or a member of the Visual Arts Department. Fall Semester Advanced Portfolio courses teach this process and portfolio preparation as part of the curriculum. Digital SLR cameras and lighting equipment are made available by the Visual Arts Department for this purpose. You may also photograph your work outside of school as long as it is done in a professional manner. The quality of these images does matter in terms of lighting, color, format/point of view, and neutral backgrounds. Seek guidance and advice from Visual Arts faculty — they are eager to help! Once photographed at high resolution using a digital camera, images may be downloaded using an appropriate computer, then “improved” using Adobe Photoshop or the equivalent. Edits might include cropping, and value and/or color balance. Digital images should be saved as larger than @ 5x7 and smaller than 8x10 inch in size at a resolution of 300dpi (dots per inch). Once saved onto a portable hard drive or your school Google Drive a selection may be made as to which images to upload, burn onto CDs or to print out as digital prints. Any printing should be done at a dpi or resolution of 300+ or higher using a quality printer and photo-quality ink jet paper. Once you have photographed your work, meet with your faculty mentor once again, review the work, and arrange the slides in thematic groupings. Again these slides should reflect what you have learned and not just what you like. Prepare your images, the list, and your artist’s statement. Burn the CDs. Note any academic honors received in art exhibitions, prizes, etc. Decide which colleges should receive a set of images. Be very careful about their requirements. Most colleges are now asking students to submit artwork and/or portfolios by uploading images to websites like Slideroom; or if need be mail as a CD or as slide sheets protected in a padded envelope. Students also have the option of additionally creating a simple website to showcase their work – sites like Squarespace or Weebley or Google Sites are low or no cost options and are easy to use – again consult with a member of the Visual Arts faculty for guidance and help. It can be especially helpful to have this option among the many ways that you present yourself and your artwork to colleges, i.e. the url address can be offered as part of a college essay, and/or this is a way that you could showcase this aspect of your candidacy even to those schools that do not accept portfolios as part of their application process.
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