Should you think more about having a consistent and distinct style for your photography? If you want to elevate your game, then finding your own look is a must. There is a surefire way to develop that. However, some major obstacles will try to push you along the way.
What is style?
In photography, style is the distinct appearance of a group of images. As in other arts, great photographers have their own distinctive styles, although these styles can change over time. Style is the result of a combination of variables that come together, creating a unified look across the entire work.
Genre and Style are not synonymous
Are you interested in a particular genre of photography? Perhaps you consider yourself a wildlife or landscape photographer. Perhaps shooting portraits in the studio is entirely up to you. Yet again, you can roam the streets with your camera looking for people interacting with urban environments. Alternatively, you can look for danger and put your life at risk as a war or extreme sports photographer.
If you do, bravo bravissimo. You have joined the ranks of some of the most famous photographers who have ever lived. Ansel Adams photographed landscapes in black and white, Cartier-Bresson famously photographed people on the street, and Mr Donald “Don” McCullin commonly known as a war photographer. But this is genre, not style.
All those photographers also cover other areas of photography. For example, his excellent book “McCullin in Africa“Documenting the sometimes life of pastoral tribes in Ethiopia, near the volatile border with Sudan. Then a more recent collection of his is an exquisite collection of black and white landscape; the tranquil serenity of the natural world, in stark contrast to the horrors of war and deprivation his lens witnessed. However, despite the different genres, there are overlaps in his photographic style, similarities that help identify the photographs as his.
Style can be something that we cannot easily define or describe, and so it is often overlooked in discussions of photography. That’s because it is the result of a complex combination of creative elements to create a particular look.
How to find our style
There are countless things you can do to develop your own unique photography style. First and foremost is your photographic eye. That means being able to identify a range of subjects that work well together and compose photos to show those subjects in a way that helps get your message across.
That continuity depends on several factors: the location of the subject; focal distance; shell mouth; proximity, showing or stopping motion; brightness, projection angle and color; positioning camera; frame rate; Category. Of course, you don’t have to keep all of these elements the same for all photos. Just choosing a few photos for a series of photos will create coherence for all the photos.
Where has all the styles?
Those 12 factors alone have 479,001,600 possible combinations, and that’s not including other variables like lens filters, weather conditions, plus image processing and retouching.
Yet despite this variety of possibilities, we keep seeing images that look the same. This is partly because we try to emulate the styles of our forefathers who inspired us. If you’re a fan, say, Annie Leibovitz, your photos have the potential to mimic her amazing work. On top of that, because they haven’t developed their own style yet, novice photographers tend to take very similar photos. It’s not just a lack of skills. Even when they learn to override the auto settings, beginners use most cameras very similar to beginners and more importantly, the kit lens, although the quality is okay, it is not. limited creativity.
The opinions of others are keeping us coming back
Digital photography, more than any other art, is constrained by pressure from the sometimes extreme opinions of the internet. The online world has a vocal minority of conservative, bigoted, self-appointed critics with the goal of restricting photography and preventing it from expanding.
Take, for example, street photography. I have read that you must not use a telephoto lens. But, that is nothing more than opinion. Others say pictures of people talking on mobile phones should be removed. Why? They are perfect examples of contemporary living.
The worst sin, according to self-appointed experts, is photographing homeless people begging for food. Utopian assumptions are made immediately about photographers capturing images of homeless people. The photographers are clearly taking advantage of their unhappiness. However, is taking pictures and raising awareness about social injustice really worth doing? Furthermore, most photographers will do some kind thing in return for the photo. Perhaps we should question the motivations of those who want to wipe the description of the homeless under the rug and insist instead that we present only a clean version of our society. ta.
Why You Shouldn’t Listen to Criticism
Historically, it was the editors of magazines, especially fashion magazines, who decided which styles were worthy of publication. They act as a restriction filter, preventing experimentation in new areas that do not align with their views; they decide which style of photography should be trendy. Now, however, their influence has dwindled.
While far from perfect, the internet should be a much more pro-democracy driver than its critics. Although magazine critics have been superseded by internet bigots who think they have the power to decide what is and isn’t acceptable, fortunately, they have undue faith in their beliefs. its influence. Style becomes fashionable not because of the words of a few noisy individuals, but by the majority.
But there are two problems with that. Firstly, for any field of art, the vast majority of audiences will choose a low, agreeable face over a more difficult face. Whether it’s TV, books, music, wall art, movies or photography, most are more likely to watch, read, or click the like button if the art is easy to understand. Furthermore, people who produce art are more likely to try to please their audience. This leads to a decrease in overall quality. Worse than that, the style stagnates into comfortable mediocrity.
Second, visibility, and therefore wide acceptance, is skewed by commercial interest. For example, social media companies are not democratic. They change the number of views the posts get to maximize their own profits; unless you pay them, if you want your image to be seen more widely, then you have to bow to their optimization algorithms. To reach the widest audience and get the most engagement, some say Instagram requires you to post fourteen times a week, although others claim that it is at least once a day. Either way, can any self-respecting photographer produce that amount of quality content? Not much can. As a result, the fastest images posted on Instagram are filled with mass-produced mobile phone shots. As a result, unconventional styles struggle to break through. So perhaps we should look for other means to share our photographic art.
How to develop a style
If you want to develop your own style then first accept that there is nothing new under the sun. Find out what was out there. Do research. Then experiment with different techniques. Do this by looking at other photos and discovering what you do and don’t like, figure out how the pictures were made, captured and developed, then try to repeat that. Also, read articles on photography techniques and especially interviews with photographers. They often contain great hints and tips.
Next, go out and try to combine those different approaches in new and creative ways. Don’t be afraid to fail in your efforts. The worst that can happen is that your work is not appreciated, or some people will criticize it in the comments. Although, that might not be a bad thing. After all, van Gogh’s paintings were dismissed by his contemporaries. However, experimentation can put you ahead of the game and start a new trend in photography.
By experimenting, you can discover photography styles that work for you. Only when photographing to meet a client’s contractual requirements should you limit your style and capture what they expect. Even then, they may have commissioned you because they know and like your style.
Ultimately, the images I included for this post are a style test. Some I like better than others, and so will adopt the techniques I prefer and reject others. Have you developed your own style yet? Or, isn’t uniqueness the only thing that interests you? It will be interesting to hear your opinion and see proof of your style in the comments.
