Defining your style - Good or bad?

[ryanwaff]

Recently I have been looking at alot of photographers work mainly on 500px and have been trying to work out their 'style'.

And with some of them, their 'style' of editing and shooting is quite obvious and you can see that they have selected what they like to shoot and how they like to edit those shots. Where as with others their photography is more broad, same goes for their editing. One thing I have noticed is that those who have defined their style tend to stick with one or two genre's whereas those who don't really have a defined style don't.

So my question is by defining your photographic are you limiting your photography to your 'comfort zone' of shooting? Thus limiting your further growth as a photographer because you aren't trying anything new?

I do realize that by narrowing your focus and style you could become one of the 'masters' in that style, which is generally better than being a 'jack of all trades'?

I guess the reason for this thinking is that I read a quote recently that said something along the lines of:' being human is about creation, if we dont create we wont feel as fulfilled or get the most enjoyment out of life.' And that got me thinking about if you have your genre that you specialised in, will there not come a point where your photography will 'freeze' and no longer fulfill you s much because you are no longer having to stretch yourself to create?

So yay or nay for defining your style and why?

 

[12sndsgood]

just because someone is just putting out one style doesn't mean he isnt progressing or is limiting himself. i could sell photos of flowers all day long and then go home and take photos of cars.
Some could have a certain style. that is noticed and wanted and requested a lot. so that is the style they are putting out there for the world. but still doing there own thing on the side. and then there are those that do likely do just one style and nothing else. its just dependant on the person really. Right now i'm still trying out a lot of diffrent things and finding what I like and what I dont like. I doubt I will continue do so. As i progress I will move in and narrow down more what I want to do and what just doesn't intrest me.

 

[runnah]

Personally I think you need to do the legwork and become proficient at all types. Who knows, after you put the time in you might accidentally discover you havea style all along.

I think its kinda bass ackwards to go into it with a style already predefined.

 

[Light Guru]

Photograph what you are passionate about and produce images that speak to you and you then will have a "style"

 

[Benco]

Photography is like other visual arts in that way, your style will develop as you develop. That's not to say that you should be lazy and never push yourself of course, just that IME it's not helpful to have a preconcieved idea of what your individual style will be.

 

[cgipson1]

The more you shoot, and the more you learn! "Style" will evolve, and become obvious! It is not really something you pick.. it just happens based on what you like to shoot, and how you shoot it, and how you finish it in post. The emphasis on "style" is way overrated... just focus on becoming a good photographer, and the "style" will happen!

 

[amolitor]

A great deal of "style" comes down to what decisions you make the same way every time.

Photography is, more than any other fine art, a process of making decisions. Really all a photographer does is make choices. Where to stand, when to press the button, what to leave out of the frame and what to leave in, what focal length lens to use, how much contrast to use, how saturated to render the colors, etc.

To keep from going insane, we all tend to simply pick some defaults for many of these choices. We're using a fixed focal length 50mm lens, and shoot closed down for a lot of depth of field and print in black and white, say, but many other choices are made day by day or shot by shot.

The "style" is really just a set of photographic choices made more or less consistently from shot to shot. Whether these choices are conscious or not doesn't matter, what matters is consistency. I do not think that your unique style will naturally grow if you just go out and shoot enough, however. Going out and shooting a lot seems to be presented as a magical solution for many photographic problems, and I simply don't see the causal relationship.

What is true is that people who are successful have shot a lot. What is not true is that shooting a lot will produce success (in any sense of that word).

What you can do is shoot a lot, but with purpose. Look at a lot of pictures, see what you like and what you don't like. Copy elements that you like 'I like popped colors' say. If you're working with purpose, to discover and refine what it is you like, it may well be that one or more styles will emerge. You'll start making those default choices, because you know what you like, and you're trying to make things you like, and THAT includes making certain choices the same way every time. Once you're making those choices the same way, more or less, for every shot in a portfolio, the portfolio will be styled, and it will be your style.