Defining Your Photographic Style
Things to consider when developing a signature photographic style and defining and long lasting portfolio.Photographers spend a great deal of time on the web viewing the work of professional or amateur photographers for ideas and inspiration. What you will discover is that there are a lot of very mediocre images out there and a great deal of this is due to a “lack of style.”
This should get you thinking, how can I improve on my photos? A potential solution is to develop your own image style or signature look!
So what is this style thing then? Think of it as a signature. There are many photographers out there who possess easily recognizable signatures to their photos. Ansel Adams, Jeff Ascough, Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton, Jerry Ghionis are a few easily identifiable by looking at their photos simply because they have a look uniquely their own – their signature or style.
Why is this important? Many photographers labour long and hard to figure out who, and what is their focus in photography. You hear photographers speak about their specialisation or genre in terms such as “Wedding Photographer”, “Wildlife Photographer”, “Portrait Photographer”, etc. and it is important to specialise and focus on a particular field of photography. However, most photographers take a wide variety of photographs outside their specialty for fun or necessity. In the end though, if you specialise then at most of your photography time should be focused on that area.
Specialisation is important but is it enough? Many photographers stop at this point when defining their work and leave out that most important aspect – generating a distinctive image style of their own. Images may well be cleaned up, colour adjusted, and ‘Photoshopped’ and in the end each photo is completely different from the others leaving the viewer with no sense of a present or emerging style from the photographer.