Transcription
Photographic style is what will separate your photographs from all of the others that are out there competing for attention. Style isn't the gear, the lenses, or using certain Lightroom presets. Photographic style is that subtle voice in your head that helps you immediately feel the difference between an Ansel Adams and a Robert Adams landscape.
The secret to unlocking your creative voice and creating images that are unique and have a captivating power lies within you already. We just need to recognize what that photographic style is and to help you unlock it. How's it in your photography right now? Irrespective of how long you've been creating photographs, there is a style that is uniquely yours.
The reason you possibly don't think that you have one yet is that you're really not quite sure what a photographic style is and what it looks like. The gear, lenses, and the Lightroom presets are just tools. They're there to help you express your photographic voice, but they are not there to give you one. In fact, they won't give you one.
The reason that there are so many bland and generic images around is because photographers are failing to understand this crucial difference. That's not really surprising, as most people will tell you a style is a Lightroom preset or it's a checklist of how to photograph a scene so it looks like some other photographer's work. Or perhaps someone has once told you that once you've mastered the technical side of things, only then will your style emerge like some butterfly.
You'd be pleased to know there are none of these things and that you don't need to go searching for it like some sort of lost treasure. It's there; it's right in front of you. It's hiding in plain sight.
So what exactly is photographic style and how do we recognize it? If you've never heard the Beatles before and you listen to just one song, it doesn't really give you an idea of their style. Listen to a few albums and you'll start to recognize the vibe that runs through their music.
Now these days in photography, most people tend to think of photographs in terms of every single image. Each one exists in its own little world. When you look at your photographs one at a time, especially when you're new to photography, it's so hard to get a feel for your photos.
However, when you look at the work of other photographers as a whole body of work, especially the famous photographers, and this is why it's so important, I feel, to look at great photographers, you'll start to recognize their style. This will make the process of seeing your own style so much easier.
Later in the video, I'm going to share with you a little tip to help you find the style that you've been developing in your photography in secret, even if you're not aware of it. Your style isn't a certain use of color or technique; it's how you interpret the world around you.
How you photograph things in a way that feels natural to you—that's the key idea here. It's being true to your own feelings, and that's at the root of why finding a photographic style is so hard for some photographers: because they are slavishly ignoring those feelings.
So how can you learn to feel natural and confident in your photography? Well, it all comes down to a simple exercise that you can do anywhere, and even if you've only picked up a camera yesterday. Right now, I'd like you to take a second just to picture a tree in your head. Don't think about it too much—just a tree.
It doesn't matter; it can be in the forest by itself, long torso—it really makes no difference, right? But hold on to that image, as we're going to come back to it in a few seconds.
Have you ever heard the expression that you should photograph the world with the wonder and the curiosity of a child? That if you can tap into that, then peak photography is yours for the taking? Unfortunately, of course, it's not really that simple. We can't see the world like a child because we know too much about the things to look at it like a three-year-old does.
You know, we carry around these preconceived ideas in our heads. So when you pictured that tree, you pictured it in a way that is the preconceived idea in your mind about a tree. You don't really think about a tree; a tree is just there, part of our lives. It's a thing; it's confined to a neat little box.
So when we go off to photograph a tree or some other object that we're familiar with, we photograph it from that perspective. However, when you start to explore that tree in ways that go beyond those neat little boxes, you're also starting to tune into the feelings that you have about photographing it.
The best way to do that is to photograph that tree or any other object that you'd like to in as many different ways as possible. Don't worry about the technical aspects right now; just try anything you can think of—up close, far away, upside down, blurred, sharp, in the rain, in the sun. It makes a difference—just try anything and everything.
Now you're going to notice that some things feel slightly forced and other things feel natural. It's those natural feelings that I want you to pay attention to. This is why I said you already have your style inside you. You're going to see that when you photograph things in a way that comes naturally to you, you're going to start giving your photography that vibe.
Those creative shackles are going to be thrown off because you're not trying to conform to a style that somebody else came up with. If you've ever been on a workshop, you're going to know exactly what I'm talking about. There's a group of photographers; they all stand in the same place. They photograph the model from exactly the same vantage point that the workshop leader used.
None of them want to go off and do their own thing. They aren't doing what comes natural to them, but what they think is required. They think that if they stand there long enough and take enough pictures, then a style like the workshop leader's that they want to have will magically glom itself onto their images.
It's in that idea of copying others that lies the great mistake. If you're not careful, it's going to stomp your voice—your photographic voice—into the dirt. As you well know, there's a great number of photography videos on YouTube, and it can be extremely overwhelming for people to find helpful content that they enjoy watching.
I'd like to take a moment just to ask you to help other people like yourselves discover great photography videos. When you leave a like or a comment, YouTube takes this as a signal that that video is worth suggesting to other people like you whom it thinks would enjoy it.
It's such a simple and quick way of helping other photographers to discover useful ways of improving their photography. The great mistake that is going to trip you up is if you allow technical correctness, or TC, to tell you that there is only one way you should photograph something.
We know that the word "should" is forbidden around here. Now, certainly, you should make every effort—haha, you see what I did there?—every effort to improve your photography technically because this will help you refine and be more eloquent in your style. But don't let it hold you back from expressing yourself in a way that comes naturally.
You know, camera clubs in their obsession with parallel vertical lines spring to mind as somebody else telling you how to photograph things. The reason behind so much of this bland, generic imagery that you see is because rules have sprung up. It's almost like a doctrine that, on Instagram, it's required that you photograph portraits with a fast, wide-open lens, that the eyes must be some sort of odd, pretty natural shade, and not forgetting, of course, some sort of contrasty, cross-processed type color.
So we know what we're looking for when seeking out your photographic style and what sort of mistakes you want to avoid. So let's go and unearth that unique voice that I was mentioning earlier. We talked about having to look at our work as a whole body of photographs rather than a single image.
Your photographic style, even though you don't know it, is hiding in plain sight within these images. Because of course, now that we know what you're looking for, and it's not a look per se but a feeling, you can start to kickstart discovering your own style.
The easiest way to do that is to print out a postcard slide of as many of your photographs as you can. Even if you're an out of 10 or something, you don't blue tack them to the wall; lay them out on the floor—just somewhere you can step back and look at them as a whole.
I want you to let your eyes wander over them, not in any sort of particular order—just randomly. You know, look for photographs that grab your attention for any reason. Don't overthink it; just let your gut guide you.
Place pictures into a pile. Once you've done that, do the same with that pile, and again, and again. Pretty soon, you're going to start seeing ideas, patterns, approaches, and feelings all being distilled out of the photographs that you have taken.
Of course, that is your photographic style coming up now. Just remember, this is not a concrete, set-in-stone thing. You remember what I said about rules? Your style is more like a very wide guideline that is more about that feeling than a specific look.
Throughout all of this, the most important thing is that you continue to photograph in a way that feels natural to you. You know, don't be like those photographers all standing in a gaggle. Move around, try things out until you feel natural, and that's your style at work and growing.
It's up to you to go and hone it and polish it. Thank you ever so much for being here today, and I look forward to seeing you again soon.