Portfolio Mistakes That Could Be Costing You Projects (And How to Fix Them)
Your landscape portfolio is a crucial marketing tool that can make or break your ability to attract clients. A well-crafted portfolio highlights your expertise, builds trust, and helps potential clients visualize the quality of your work. But common mistakes can weaken its impact and cause you to miss out on valuable projects.
Let’s break down some of the biggest portfolio pitfalls and how to fix them.
1. Low-Quality Images: Your Work Deserves Better
Just because it’s a professional camera doesn’t mean the settings are always right. A common challenge is finding the balance between exposures that are too bright and too dark especially images taken at night.
For this site, I had to take a series of different exposures and blend them in post to yield the most flattering result.
A beautifully designed landscape can look uninspiring if the photos don’t do it justice. Common issues include:
❌ Images Blurry or Unclear – These make your work appear unprofessional.
❌ Highlights Too Bright – Blown out brightness like lighting or sunshine caused by too much light takes away from the image.
❌ Unflattering angles – The wrong perspective can make a space look smaller, distorted or less inviting.
How to Fix It:
Understand Your Camera’s Histogram
A histogram is a helpful photography tool that will let you know at a glance how your image is exposed. This one is pretty far to the right, meaning it’s over exposed in the highlights. Try increasing your shutter speed, aperture or lowering your ISO.
✅ Use a solid tripod for long exposures. Adjust your camera settings to capture with minimal ISO and export images at 100% quality with appropriate resolution for your application. If your camera can shoot in “Manual” mode, do it.
✅ Schedule photoshoots during the golden hour (early morning or late afternoon) for the best lighting. Use a histogram on your camera to help determine exposure levels. You may need to blend multiple exposures in post processing for the best results.
✅ Don’t use a wide angle lens too close to objects that will create distortion. Focal length matters, experiment to decide what you like best.
This is the result of blending exposures later in post processing. It’s time consuming and takes patience, but all the details are preserved and you can see the layers of the house AND landscape even at night.
2. Lack of Consistency: A Disjointed Portfolio Hurts Credibility
A strong portfolio tells a cohesive story about your work. If your images vary drastically in quality, editing style, or formatting, it can feel unpolished and inconsistent. Avoid mixing finished images shot on a mobile phone and a professional camera. If you can see the difference, then a prospective client will too.
How to Fix It:
✅ Ensure a consistent editing style, including color correction and exposure adjustments. If you shoot in RAW format, you’ll have the best chance to make these adjustments.
✅ Use similar framing techniques so projects feel cohesive. This is especially important for before/after images.
✅ Organize projects by style, type, or scale to create a structured presentation. E.G. Avoid mixing images of residential and commercial projects.
Would you show this image to inspire a homeowner wanting a front yard renovation? It might miss the mark if you did.
3. Missing Key Shots: Show the Full Story
If your portfolio lacks variety, potential clients may not get a full picture of your expertise. Missing shots could include:
❌ Lack of Before & After Comparisons – These highlight the transformation and problem-solving aspect of your work.
❌ No Wide-Angle Overview Shots – These are essential for showcasing the full scope of a project.
❌ No Detail Shots – Close-ups of materials, textures, and craftsmanship demonstrate attention to detail.
❌ Missing Nighttime Photos – Showcasing projects in different lighting conditions shows more of how a customer can experience their investment throughout day and night.
How to Fix It:
✅ Make before-and-after photography a standard part of your documentation process.
✅ Include a mix of wide shots, and close-ups to showcase depth and variety.
✅ Take extra effort to capture photos of your project at night as well as daytime.
4. Not Tailoring Your Portfolio to Your Ideal Clients
A general or unfocused portfolio can attract the wrong type of projects. If you’re showcasing work that doesn’t align with the kind of clients you want to attract, you could be missing out on better opportunities.
How to Fix It:
✅ Curate your portfolio to reflect the types of projects you want. Maybe you don’t have a singular giant landscape to shoot yet, but you may have multiple projects with aspects you can market towards that bigger job. Place those images in an “Outdoor Living” section of your portfolio when you show your work.
✅ Highlight work that showcases your specialty, whether it’s artificial turf, water features or outdoor lighting.
✅ Remove outdated or lower-quality projects that no longer align with your brand. Just because you did the work and photographed it five years ago doesn’t mean it still should be part of your marketing, especially if you have changed your service offerings since then.
Do you specialize in water features and want to sell more of them? Show more of them!
Final Thoughts
Your portfolio should work as hard as you do. By avoiding these common mistakes and refining how you showcase your work, you can create a portfolio that attracts high-value clients, increases inquiries, and sets you apart in the industry.
