WHAT IS YOUR PHOTOGRAPHIC STYLE AND HOW TO FIND AND CULTIVATE IT.

WHAT IS YOUR PHOTOGRAPHIC STYLE AND HOW TO FIND AND CULTIVATE IT.

Photography styles and how to find your own is a great topic, such an animating open-ended discussion. I mentioned it briefly in my blog last week, so I thought I would dedicate some time this week to it. My main point last week was that there is an ideology that we absolutely must find our own photographic style and that it might not the be the all incapsulating way to do things. As I was musing about on how to elaborate on that statement, it dawned on me that maybe I should introduce photography styles first. There is so much merit in finding one’s own style, that it might behoove me to help you find yours, before I proceed tell you to not use it. Actually, there is no real reasons to omit your photographic style, merely instances where the argument can be made for ignoring it at times, or perhaps to just have multiple styles. More on that later. Let us have a look into what a photography style is and how to develop your own.

What are styles in Photography

Simplest definition of what photography styles are is that they are a combination of every decision you make as a photographer in regards to your images. Sounds complicated doesn’t it. While it does sound daunting, it really is not. Actually, it is kind of second nature for us, we do it with everything in our lives; how we dress, how we like to travel, our food, and so forth. I will venture a guess that you have a slightly perplexed expression on your face right now. Let me see if I can explain this a little better.

Most of us have a dress style. We have a look, a “style” that we feel most comfortable in. I don’t know, maybe yours is Goth, Classic, Athleisure, Streetwear…and so forth. Whatever floats your boat really. Over time, as we grew up, and even now, every decision we have made has culminated and cultivated the style that we have. The music we listen to, the friends we have made, where we live, celebrities we find fascinating, or even consciously ignoring any of these influences to strike out on our own with our clothing choices, all have created our style.

In photography that is no different. Over time we develop a style. The way we see things, the angles we shoot from, our preferred lighting, tones, colors, and so forth. The list of things and decisions we make is endless. Our consistency in repeatedly making the same decisions is what ultimately leads to a certain style in our photos. The more pronounced this style becomes the more recognizable it becomes.

Photography genres are not the same as styles

Just to quickly slot this into our conversation about styles. There is a tendency to confuse styles with genres and vis versa. I think if I differentiate the two for us, then it will be less confusing to continue. Photographic genres are the different categories of photography, such as portrait, landscape, photojournalism, street or architectural photography. The list goes on, it is quite extensive. And most of these genres all have sub-genres too. Within portrait photography there are sub-genres such as conceptual, self-portrait, fashion, fine art and editorial photography, just to name a few.

These are all genres and have nothing to do with styles. Your style is your photographic signature. And this is very apparent with well known photographers. Annie Leibovitz’s muted lighting and excess prop use in her celebrity portraits make her work instantly recognizable. Vivian Maier’s, one of the most prolific street photographers, had a more unpolished, momentary snapshot style. Gregory Crewdson is famous for his over-the-top cinematic style. British photographer Matt Porteous is known for his typically bold natural lighting and bright colors. Elizabeth Messina has a unique approach to wedding photography with her style of blending intimacy and artistry using unanticipated natural lighting and perspectives.

The list goes on and on. I am sure you have friends on Instagram, that you follow, whose pictures you recognize immediately because they have a very distinctive style. That is what style is. A signature look, that people learn to recognize and associate with you.

How do you find your photography style?

On to our photographic signature style, and how to develop one. With most things in our life that have to do with style, our way of dressing, our speech pattern, we already have found our style, and our personality infuses it. The trick is to recognize it and intensify it. I would venture that if you are at the point of your photographic journey, may it be purely a cell phone photographic journey or avid fan or even contemplating a career in this medium, and are looking into defining your own style, then you already have quite a collection of images. Review your photos, look for patterns in your compositions, techniques, and types of photos. Hidden in them is already your style that matches your personality.

Don’t be disappointed if your style does not jump right out at you and hit you over the head. You might need to take a few stabs at this. Maybe even involve a few friends. Oftentimes, others have already discovered our style. So many factors contribute to our style: showing or stopping motion, brightness or lack of, color cast, positioning of our subject, and in some form even the genre we gravitate towards.

Ok, let’s say that you have started to see your style, what is next? Time to intensify your style, hone it and make it even more recognizable. For this there is no magical formula, no catch all technic, but maybe I can give you a few ideas on how to go about it.

Tips on how to develop into your photography style

So how do you develop and refine your photographic style? Start by making an inspiration board, or moodboard as they are often called, and peruse through photos in the genres of photography that you like. When you come across ones that particularly stand out to you save them to your moodboard. Look at photographer websites, social media feeds, even your friends’ photos, just follow your gut instincts here, don’t try an analyze each picture yet, we will do that later. Just choose all those that resonate with you. You can use apps/websites such as Pinterest, GoMoodBoard, Behance or even create a physical moodboard.

Now that you have build your collection of photos, let’s say maybe 3 to 4 dozen images, it is time to become a style detective. Time to be introspective and go on a journey, of sorts, of self-discovery. Why did you pick these photos? Was it their composition, their color cast (or lack of), analyze them and find the patterns. One important thing to mention here, and maybe I should have mentioned this earlier, ignore the equipment used to shoot the photos you selected. This is about the creativity in these images. It really does not matter whether they were shot with a professional camera, cell phone or even on film.

Good, now that you see a pattern emerging in your own images and those you chose by others, the next step is to experiment. Take all this inspiration and go out and shoot. Practice, practice, and dare I say it, practice some more. There is nothing like experimenting, practicing and just plain going out there and shooting. Keep your camera of choice with you at all times, does not have to be a multi thousand-dollar behemoth of a camera system, even just your phone will do. Mix it up, at times just go out there and shoot whatever takes your fantasy. At other times plan it out, come up with an idea, plan it and then execute it. Shoot by your self and also shoot with friends, there is a great creative energy that happens when in a group of photographers.

Be inspired, don’t imitate

Yes, I know that imitation is touted to be the greatest form of flattery, but the purpose here is for you to develop your own style, not emulate other peoples styles. So, take inspiration from others, but don’t just copy them. There is a tiny, itty-bitty, small caveat here though. There are so many of us photographers out there but pretty much every style has been done before. That is just a statistical fact. Now that we said it we can ignore it again, forget it, and pretend we never knew. Just go, get out there and figure out what your style is there, be inspired by others, and find your inner photographer voice. Try to recreate and repeat those things that you saw as being part of your style. Hone in your proverbial eye to see what you want to capture with the style you are trying to achieve. Practice makes perfect. The more you practice the easier it will become.

Your style will evolve, live with it.

Time stands still for no one, everything is constantly in motion, and change is inevitable. You, as a person, change over time, every experience shapes you ever so slightly. The same will happen to your photographic style. Embrace this. It is a great gift, the ability to change and evolve as a person and as a photographer.

What about the editing process

I know I have not said much about the editing process of photography. It really goes hand in hand with the taking pictures. Especially if you are shooting RAW. Though it also applies to JPEG centric photography such as cell phones or point and shoot cameras phtography. I feel that the process here is the same, and thus I have not really talked about it much so far and won’t overly do so now. Safe to say, that your image editing choices will go hand in hand with your style. Your editing will compliment the style you are going for in your shooting. If your style is bright and airy, you will automatically edit in that direction too. If you like a more dark and moody style, you will definitely edit in that direction, especially since many photos can be completely changed from bright images to dark and moody in the editing process.

So, your editing will naturally follow suit to your photography style, in theory, and I can safely leave the topic of how to edit for another time, as it is on its own a very extensive topic. You still need to practice it, similar to going out there and shooting. Like I said, they go hand in hand and are complimentary. One tip I would like to give is to learn editing by yourself. Take your editing program and figure it out by yourself. If you start off by watching a brick load of YouTube tutorials you might end up pigeon-holed into some perceived editing rules, potentially limiting your creative intuition.

Creative intuition over equipment prowess

Your creative intuition is your most important tool in developing your photography and your photographic style. It is what makes your images emotionally charged and thought-provoking. It is really easy to fall into this hunt for the best of the best cameras, the one with the most features, and then to plunge into learning all the technical aspects of the equipment in your hands, and in essence forget to concentrate on your creativity.

No matter your equipment, try to sometimes limit yourself on the equipment side. Go out and explore the area around you with just your camera and one lens. You don’t need a bag full of lenses each time. You do not always need a zoom lens. Maybe next time you go and shoot, just take a nifty-fifty millimeter lens or maybe a longer focal length lens like a 70 – 200mm lens. It will give you a great nudge to tackle photo opportunities with a different approach, spring loading your creativity, and propelling you into trying different things or through different approaches.

What about all the rest of the things I need to learn

You are right, there is some much to learn in photography that goes hand in hand with finding your own photographic style. Composition, color, lighting, depth of field, and the list goes on. All topics that would blow this blog into near book length. So, I will leave them out of this. Will call them distractions to this topic and leave them for another time. This by no means is saying they should be ignored or are not important aspects to your creative approach. You will have to spend time on those aspects of photography too.

Why or when might having a photography style be limiting

I really wanted to spend more time on this question and might have to delve into it more in a follow up blog post. I really felt that introducing photographic styles was an important prelude to the more open discussion of whether it is always necessary to adhere to the ideology that a photographic style is absolutely necessary. I think for now I can leave it with the following food for thought comments. There will be many moments when you are shooting for a client, when you will need to pack your own photographic style into a little compartment of your camera bag, and just concentrate on meeting the client’s brief. Ultimately the greatest reward for having cultivated your own photography style is that clients will hire you for exactly that style, but most often that will take time before you get to that level of recognition. Some genres of photography require your own style from the beginning in order to get hired. Another argument is that a pronounce own style but restrict you, constrains you from trying other approaches to photography. Could potentially limit your creative intuition and cause you to miss a great shot.

Don’t listen to critics

Follow your heart, follow your creative intuition, be the artist that you want to be. Develop your photographic style and be proud of it. You are not doing this for anyone but yourself and your satisfaction. This is your creative voice, and as long as you are happy with it, then to hell with whatever people may be saying. Especially if you are sharing your work on social media. The online world can be such a harsh world, with a very vocal minority of conservatively opinionated, self-appointed critics whose sole objective is to feel better about themselves at your expense. End of tiny mini rant.

Be very selective of whose opinion you are going to value. And then ignore all the rest. Unless, of course, you are shooting for a client, then make sure they are happy and satisfied with your work.

Conclusion

By all means develop your own photography style, follow your creative intuition, experiment away, be inspired by others, go out there and shoot to your hearts content, develop and refine your style. Take pride in your style and cherish the journey getting there. Remain open to continuing to evolve your style and don’t be afraid to forget your photography style for a while and see what might happen if you approach photography with an empty slate.

Most importantly, have fun with your photography and be passionate about it.

Thank you for visiting my website and taking the time to read my blog, I will be trying to post a new blog weekly.