Sending a Portfolio Presentation with Photoshop

CATEGORIES: Digital Photography, Photoshop, Tutorials | Scott Kelby | June 19, 2006

In Photoshop CS there’s a new feature that takes a folder full of images, creates a slide show (complete with transitions), and compresses it into PDF format so you can e-mail it easily to a client for proofing. This is perfect for showing your portfolio to clients, sending clients proofs of wedding shots or portrait sittings, and any of a dozen other uses, none of which I can happen to think of right at this particular moment, but I’m sure later today, when I’m at the mall or driving to the office, they’ll come to me.

STEP 1:

Open the photos you want to use in your PDF presentation (you actually have the choice of using photos you have open in Photoshop CS, or choosing a folder, but for this example, we’ll start by simply opening a few photos).

STEP 2:

There are two ways to access PDF Presentation: (1) go under the File menu, under Automate, and choose PDF Presentation (as shown here), or (2) choose PDF Presentation from right within the File Browser’s mini-menu, under Automate.

STEP 3:

This brings up the PDF Presentation dialog. To create a presentation using the photos you already have open in Photoshop, click the “Add Open Files” checkbox (as shown) and a list of your open files will appear in the window. By default it will use all the files which appear in this window. If you have a photo open that you don’t want in your presentation, just click on the photo (in the list) and then click the Remove button.

STEP 4:

In the Output Options section of the dialog, click the Presentation button, and then check the View PDF After Saving (you don’t have to view the PDF after saving, but it’s always a good idea to see exactly what you’re sending the client before you send it, just in case something didn’t come out the way you wanted it to).

STEP 5:

Under the Presentation Options section of the dialog lies one of the coolest things about the PDF Presentation: you can choose a transition between slides, and they’ve got a pretty decent selection. The best way to find out which ones you like best is to create a test presentation and choose the Random Transition from the Transition pop-up menu (shown here). That way, once you take a look at your test presentation, you’ll quickly know which ones fit your style. In this Options section, you can also choose how many seconds you want each image to appear onscreen before it advances to the next image, and you can choose whether you want the presentation to loop (repeat) when it reaches the end.

STEP 6:

When you click the Save button, a standard Save dialog appears, but when you click OK, the PDF Options dialog (shown here) appears, where you can choose to encode your PDF as ZIP or JPEG. (I usually choose JPEG because it gives me the option of choosing a Quality setting for my photos, which gives me control over the look, and final file size, of the PDF).

STEP 7:

Once you click OK, Photoshop CS creates a PDF file for you, ready to e-mail to your client. When your client opens your e-mailed PDF, it launches the Adobe Reader, goes into Full Screen Mode (your photos on a black background), and the presentation begins. (Note: To view the transitions correctly you have to view the PDF in Adobe Reader 6 or later.) The capture below shows the first slide in a PDF Presentation, right before it transitioned to the next photo.

Download “Sending a Presentation to a Client” PDF - ©Copyright David Moser

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