Personally, I never book a big job without my printed portfolio being called in. I wish that was not the case, they are a real pain to make, but that is the reality.
The order of the book, and the selection of the images is something I work on with my agent. It is essential to get someone besides yourself to help in the editing. Hopefully that person is very smart and is informed about what is happening in the market.
This is what I do for a portfolio:
The portfolio is about 100-120 images, printed double sided on Inkpress Duo 300GSM 11×17, no acetate sleeves, just raw prints. Doing the double sided prints requirers being organized. We print out a PDF of the book first on 8.5 x 11 paper from the laser printer to use a guide. I use an Epson 4800 printer on 8 pass, centered and size to 11×17. (The default is 13×19.) We keep the top and bottom measurements the same, and let the side to side vary. There is no type, no text in the portfolio except for the contact info. I also only show photographs rather than the images in ad layouts. The prints are then trimmed, 3 hole punched and sprayed with a fixative. The binders to the books are made by Richard at Portfolio Creative Design. I have 4 of them, down from 60 books 10 years ago. Thank god for that. We redo the books about twice a year, and it completely consumes my studio for 2 weeks each time I do it. Bring on the iPad!
