How do you develop your own style in photography? This is a question that every budding photographer will ask, and here on the internet, you’ll find many articles and videos on the subject.
This may be just another article among many others, but what’s different is that here, I’m going to tell you what I really think and how I went about trying to discover my own style.
The greatest photographers have managed, through practice, to discover the point of consistency in their own work in order to transform it into their own style. And we want that, too, for our work to be easily recognizable.
Developing your own style in photography seems like a very complicated challenge. You need to learn a vast number of techniques in photography, understand composition, how to combine colors, how to expose your photos and how to edit.
Realize that it’s not one or the other. It’s a combination of all of these. At least, that’s what I believe!
As well as developing technical skills, you need to have a large enough body of work to be able to show your style and how you want to express yourself.
It’s through quantity and consistency that you’ll begin to realize WHO YOU ARE!
As much as we know the points, it’s not an easy task!
Developing Your Photographic Style
Credit: Henri Cartier Bresson
Firstly, how can we define photographic style?
A photographic style is more than editing, as we see with so many Instagram influencers.
It’s a combination of each and every decision you make as a photographer.
Photographic style is influenced by your choice of:
Compositional techniques
Tones and colors applied in post-processing
Your use of camera shots and angles
Which lighting techniques and setups you use (for example, artificial vs natural light, use of modifiers, etc.)
Your choice of lens focal lengths
Your camera gear (including whether you use a digital or film camera)
How you interact with and direct subjects – documentary style, posed, etc.
One of the best ways to discover your photographic style is to review your old work and identify patterns that are still present in your photographs today.
Look for patterns in technique, composition and editing, for example.
Before Everything: Search for References
Developing your own style in photography isn’t about inventing something entirely new. It’s about combining various elements you’ve borrowed and reproduced to create something unique.
You need to look for references that you like and that influence how you express yourself.
Use social media to look for these references. Look at Instagram, Pinterest, even Facebook groups. Go after what you like visually and what you envision your final work to look like.
Once you have a clear visual idea of how you want your photographs to look, let’s move on to the most important and time-consuming point… COPYING!
Photo: Ansel Adams
Can You Copy?
Pablo Picasso once said that “good artists copy, great artists steal.” But how is that?
When I talked about references, I ended by saying that you should copy. And I still stand by that.
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I say that because when I say “copy”, you’ll end up following Picasso’s phrase without even realizing it, and instead of copying, you’ll “steal”.
Now, let me explain what I mean…
When you copy your references, it’s not copying for the sake of copying. It’s your moment to study, to understand that style and the reasons why it’s attractive to you.
No matter how hard you try to copy your references, you’ll never get the same end result. It may be similar, but never the same!
You won’t have that combination: the same equipment, the same light, the same model, the same environment, the same editing technique, the same worldview.
All of this influences the final result that made the photographer take that photo. And if one of these elements is missing, you could end up with a photo that is similar, but not the same.
And that’s how you start to study and understand what each photographer you’ve marked as a reference does to get a photo that you like and that makes you want yours to be similar.
You’re bound to fail when it comes to copying your reference. And that’s the beauty of it… by repeating this process of copying, studying and understanding, you’ll find yourself.
Where you can’t copy, that’s where you’ll have the freedom to develop your style. By repeating the process several times, the changes you make will become part of your style and that’s where you’ll differentiate yourself.
If you set out to copy your reference photographers, you’ll have the space to discover what works for you.
Believe in Your Potential
If you really want to develop your own photographic style, understand that there is nothing new under the sun. As I said above, go after what you like and what you want for your work.
Experiment with techniques, ideas and editing until you find what you do and don’t like. Put it into practice and try to combine everything you’ve selected as something you like. Don’t be afraid to fail; it’s part of the process.
Keep in mind that the most important thing is that your style is influenced by your passions and that it reflects who you are. That way, you’ll enjoy your final work even more and you won’t be doing it just to please the “internet critics”.
Follow your instincts and let your photographic vision emerge, believing in your potential. That way, you can be sure that your photographic style will emerge naturally.
