As a relative beginner, I once attended a workshop run by a professional photographer about how to take good portraits. It was interesting and useful, but one thing puzzled me. The point he stressed more than any other was the need for photographers to develop their own style. He hammered it again and again and again, so naturally I panicked and thought “oh shit, what’s my style? Do I have one? How do I know? And if not, how do I get one ASAP?”
None of those questions were answered in the workshop as far as I remember, other than ‘play around with studio lights’ and obviously I can’t really do that at Western Springs.
That was about five years ago now and, after all that time, I think I have finally begun to understand what a photographer’s “style” is and how one might go about developing one. So I figured I should write a blog post to potentially save you years of confusion. So here’s what you have to do.
Chill out.
End of blog post.
What’s that you say? Too blunt? You would like to know why you should chill out? Oh ok, I’ll explain…
The first mistake it’s easy to make in this realm is confusing style with a visual gimmick of some sort. It’s not always shooting dark subjects on dark backgrounds the way I often do, or always using a particular lens or filter in post. Your style isn’t necessarily something somebody can reproduce by buying your lens and copying your Lightroom settings.
There are no shortcuts. Developing a style is something that happens over time, mostly by osmosis. It’s an accumulation of choices. The subjects you keep returning to, the light that makes you reach for the camera, how close you want to be, whether you like clean or busy compositions, the moments you choose to photograph, and the frames you select to keep or cull afterwards.
You might not know what your style is, but you probably already know what you like. You know which of your pictures make you happy and which leave you cold. You know which other photographers’ work makes you stop scrolling and look. When you take cognisance of those things, and follow those instincts, your taste will lead you towards certain subjects, light, compositions and moments and away from others. Do that long enough and often enough and all those choices and preferences will become habits and eventually coalesce into a style.
You can be conscious of it, think about it, analyse it, but don’t fret about it. Just shoot and shoot and shoot, and like a lot of other aspects of mastering the art of photography, it will happen. Then when it happens, just keep going. Stay relaxed about it. Don’t feel like every picture you take has to conform. Don’t let it become a straightjacket. Styles evolve.
So yeah, just chill out.
