Do you need your own style as a photographer?

Sunday 20 March 2022, 16:08 by Laura van der Burgt | 5,289 views | 3 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Is having a recognisable personal style in photography only something for professional photographers, or is it a goal for every serious photographer to pursue?

Since deciding to spend more time and energy on photography, it is something I have been thinking about a lot.

You may sometimes hear from others that you have such a recognisable style, while you have no idea yourself. But when you want to present yourself more as a photographer, it becomes important to understand your way of photographing and editing images.

It then becomes important to distinguish yourself from the masses.

What actually is your own style, and what characterises it?

Your photographic style starts with the choice of how you capture a subject, so the choice of a particular composition, what to include and what not to include, the use of light in your photo and the techniques you apply.

Tips for developing your style

There are plenty of tips that can help you find and develop your style:

1. Take lots of photos and look at lots of photos
Perhaps an obvious one, but you need to put in the miles to discover your preferences. Which images fascinate you? And why?

This could be a particular area within photography, portraits, nature, macro, still lifes, travel, fashion, food, et cetera.

2. Look for a pattern
Have you been photographing for a long time? Go through your photo archive. Do you notice anything? Do you see a particular pattern or similarity in your images?

3. Create focus
Do you prefer several areas? Then choose, for example, two areas that connect with or complement each other. Make sure you have focus.

4. Choose a clear technique
This could be black-and-white photography, or light and colourful, dark and moody. Everything sharp in the image, or nothing sharp at all. Lens choice and settings are important.

5. Develop expertise
Whatever technique you use, make sure you learn to master it thoroughly. By practising and experimenting a lot.

6. Make a choice in post-processing
The photo from your camera is only 50 per cent finished. By using post-processing, you can add strength to what you want to show.

Perhaps you like editing your images extremely, or you develop a preference for a particular colour sauce. The combination of composition, depth of field, light and colour ultimately creates your image.

7. Create a moodboard
Create a moodboard. Browse through magazines and cut out images that appeal to you.

How and why does not matter. Work impulsively and do not think about it too much. Once you have around thirty or more pictures, put them on the table in front of you or spread them out on the floor.

Let it all sink in. Do you see a particular pattern, use of colour or subject? This is a good guide to explore further.

8. Write down your discoveries
Write down for yourself what you discover along the way while searching for your own style. What are the elements that appeal to you most, in your own photography, but also in the images by others that you like.

9. Individuality
Develop a style that suits you and breathes. Not because you happen to see it a lot on social media. Do not let yourself be guided by lots of likes or criticism from those around you either. Stay true to yourself. Persistence pays off.

Copying other people's photos is educational, pick out the things you can apply to create your own images. A bit of Maggi and.....

10. Ask those around you
Ask those around you how they would describe your photos.

Design your visual identity

Closely related to your own style is choosing and developing a visual identity as a photographer. Also known as branding.

This means that the choices for your business cards, your website, your Instagram page and your photos all create a coherent whole. Uniformity might be a better word.

Online tools

I use Canva and Adobe Creative Cloud Express myself, for example, formerly Adobe Spark. Both tools can be used freely as long as you do not use pro templates.

For creating business cards or discovering a particular style or colour palette, both programmes/apps offer plenty of templates. For creating Instagram pages, you could take a look at Unfold.

Another interesting online tool is the Canva colour palette generator. Here you can upload your favourite images, from which Canva then extracts four main colours.

You can then apply the specific colour codes that are generated in other applications, on your website, and in Instagram pages and stories.

Developing your own style takes time, attention and focus. It is not something that suddenly appears. It is the total of your efforts that ultimately makes it possible for you to put your stamp on the photos, the images you create and the way you publish them.

You may wonder whether you can still photograph spontaneously without putting your own style at risk.

But by continuing to photograph spontaneously or by following your instincts, you also learn new things and continue to enjoy photography. And keeping pleasure in what you love doing is also very important.

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