Developing Your Style

Have you ever looked at a photograph and immediately known who shot it?  That photographer has a style so clear that it is unmistakable.  Herb Ritts had a style so identifiable that it launched him from his still fashion work into music videos for artists as renowned as Michael Jackson at the peak of his career.  David LaChapelle has a style like that.

There is no real way to define what a photographer’s style is.  You can identify characteristics of an individual style, but I don’t think that I have ever heard any style completely defined.  A style is as unique as a snowflake.  Can you tell me how one snowflake is so radically different from another?  It isn’t…yet it is.

The ultimate question is what is YOUR individual style?  How do you develop it and refine it?

When I started shooting 20 years ago I used to look at my work and think it had no style.  Sometimes black and white, sometimes color, sSometimes higher contrast and other times flat.  No discernable style.  At least that is what I thought.  A few clients came to me and made comments that opened my eyes to what my style actually was.  I like to shoot very clean images.  I gravitate towards beauty crossed with both fashion and glamour.

While I struggled trying to decide what style I would settle on, one emerged on it’s own.  Others could see it before me and the same will go for you.  Your style will emerge.  You DO have a style.  You don’t need to adopt one.  Just shoot and it will emerge.  Don’t make the usual mistake of trying so hard to adopt a style that your lose what is uniquely you.

Look at photography books and magazines that show the kind of photography you like.  Shoot  images similar to what you like.  Don’t be afraid to fill a folder with pages that you have torn out of magazines and keep it in your camera bag for inspiration when you shoot.  You are not copying a shot that inspires you unless you are truly copying absolutely every element in the shot.  Take a shot that you like and tweak it.  Make it your own.  Your style reveals itself.

Some people like black and white and shoot it almost exclusively.  Some people have embraced the whole tattooed pinup model genre.  Even within those types of shooting there are subtle, but clear differences from one photographer to another.  Look at your images.  What do you see that you genuinely like?  What do you want to improve?

If you spend the bulk of the time looking deeply into your images and the images of others  you will find elements that you like.  There are poses, lighting techniques, colors, tones and shades, expressions that ring true to you.  Experiment with those things and your style will emerge.  You already have a style just allow it to come out by not giving up.  Pick up that camera and fire away!