If a photograph is a noun, then the way it is edited is an adjective helping to beautifully describe it.  (No, I wasn’t an English major in college!)

You capture an image to preserve a moment, feeling, or idea.  Then you edit it, among other reasons, to evoke some complimentary feeling.  It is up to a photographer’s style to best express that feeling, but what is style?  It is that wondrous place where an image and a vision collide.

So, how do you find yours?

This can be a daunting task!  There are an infinite number of editing techniques, and thanks to Facebook and Pinterest, photographers are inundated with images that pique their interest.  While all of that inspiration is great, it’s sometimes overwhelming.  You get dropped, as an artist, into this massive sea of potential with no rules about how to stand out as an individual.  This is why style matters… it sets you apart.

Some people just have a style that effortlessly and obviously represents who they are, and they own it!  For others, it doesn’t come as easily.  The search for style involves serious soul searching.  Thankfully, there are exercises that can be done to see where your style might be heading.

Exercises for Finding Your Style

  1. Choose your five favorite images.  What do they have in common?  What feelings do they generate?  Are there similarities in composition, editing styles, etc.?
  2. Get descriptive!  Ask yourself this question, “What do I want others to say about my images?” or “What do I want others to see or feel in my images?”  Do your favorite images accomplish your goal?  If not, how could you improve?  What could you do differently?
  3. You respect who?!?!  Give serious thought to the artists that you respect most.  Who inspires you?  Choose five photographers whose pictures you gravitate towards.  Why do their images resonate with you?  Do their composition or editing styles have anything in common?
  4. Create an inspiration board, but go tangible!  Pinterest is an amazing idea sharing community, but it is sometimes difficult to truly appreciate inspiration in digital format.  Create a real inspiration board for yourself.  Clip photos from magazines, articles, Pinterest, etc. and pin them by your workspace.  Don’t forget to include images from photographers that you admire as well as ones that you have captured yourself!  Before you begin to edit a session or series of photographs, look at your most inspiring images.  Prepare yourself with a conscious goal of creating images that intentionally evoke the right emotions.
  5. Study the answers to these questions and identify common threads. The common threads are likely the things that will define you as a photographer.  They will also likely help you identify goals that can help you grow as an artist.

Delving Deeper, Ask Yourself these Questions:

What are you lacking to consistently create the images that you want?

How is your creative composition?

Are you capturing emotion in a way that satisfies you?

Are your subjects and locations ideal for creating your vision?

Create a Plan of Action!

Try reaching out to those you admire.  Take a specific course in an area of weakness.  And, please, practice!  Practice!  Practice!

This doesn’t mean that all of your images will look the same, but there should be something uniquely familiar about them.  That’s the part that is you.  Think back to the artists you admire.  You could probably pick their images out of a lineup.  It is because of their style.

Finding your style is an evolutionary process so consider where consistency matters most.  Images within the same session should be processed in the same way.  Imagine that 4-5 images from each session will become part of a wall display.  You wouldn’t want them all to be edited differently.  Or, consider wall prints from multiple different sessions!  They need to be cohesive, showing a complete story without distraction!

Get there!

Brainstorm and create sessions that force you to grow! The perfect subject and location will fall flat without a vision.  Imagine your dream session.  Visualize the final images.  Then, work backwards.  Determine what it would take to actually get those images.  Once you feel ready, make your session a reality. Take stunning images, apply your style, and make them uniquely yours!  Best of luck!