Styles - do you have one?

[The_Traveler]

I've been spending a fair amount of time, importing images into LightRoom, tagging them with keywords. It became really obvious that the pictures of mine that I liked had a particular style, even when I worked in different content areas.

My questions are:

• do you have a style?
• is it unconscious i.e. did it evolve or did you work towards it?
• did you 'discover' it or were you always aware of it?
• does your 'style' limit what pictures you want to take?
• can you/do you work outside your style?

 

[mysteryscribe]

yeah my style is to compose as if everything was going to be an eight by ten print for a person with no taste at all....

 

[cherrymoose]

DO I have a style?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/emmacherry/

You tell me.

 

[mysteryscribe]

Yeah way too much attention paid to the rule of thirds..... That just my opinion by the way.

 

[cherrymoose]

Yeah way too much attention paid to the rule of thirds..... That just my opinion by the way.

Thanks. Haha, it's strange, though, because I guess that's all accidental. Most of my shots aren't composed before hand-- I usually just take them and that's how it comes out.

 

[julius]

I'm still learning a lot about what I like/don't like and what works. I love certain looks and features in photographs so I obviously like to take photos that appeal to me. With that said, I don't think I have a specific style because I'm still learning but I think I'm definitely moving towards one

 

[Garbz]

Heavy contrast, lovely colours. It is one of the reason I favour direct off camera flashing, sunny days in the shadows, and dusk/night-time photography.

I didn't actually think about it like that, but looking back nearly all of my photos I like have those qualities.

 

[mysteryscribe]

I worried that might sounds short and insulting but honest its more about balance, than where things are in the frame. People try to make a single object fit into that rule and wind up with a picture that looks as though its going to tilt from being over weight on one side.

I tend to compose to the right side, probably because my eyes aren't good. I usually have to do a little cropping to get it right. I grew up shooting for 8x10 which requires cropping anyway so I was able to fake it. No harm meant.

 

[cherrymoose]

I worried that might sounds short and insulting but honest its more about balance, than where things are in the frame. People try to make a single object fit into that rule and wind up with a picture that looks as though its going to tilt from being over weight on one side.

I tend to compose to the right side, probably because my eyes aren't good. I usually have to do a little cropping to get it right. I grew up shooting for 8x10 which requires cropping anyway so I was able to fake it. No harm meant.

Don't worry, I was glad for that little 'critique'.

 

[craig]

My style has been evolving since day one and it continues to evolve I am nothing without it. I think I always had it, but it was not until college that I learned to develop it. It fully limits what kinds of photos I take. In some of my commercial and editorial work the style is a collaboration.

My theory is that your personal style is your signature. It must always evolve. The greatest complement as a photographer is when some one says wow that is a (insert your name here) photograph.

Love & Bass

 

[Peanuts]

Interesting question. I just went to my flickr site, and looked at the first three photos - I doubt someone would be able to connect them as being taken by the same person if they were displayed seperately. (Minus the fact that al three have the subject right splat dab in the middle of the frame, but, I don't quite think that is a common theme/style of mine!)

That being said - I don't think I have a distinct style - which probably isn't a positive thing.

 

[DigitalDiva]

yeah my style is to compose as if everything was going to be an eight by ten print for a person with no taste at all....

HAHA! Do you work for Kinderfoto?


I have a sort of style, I suppose. However, I try not to limit myself as I don't earn the amount of money that David LaChapelle (my hero) makes. I must have:

juicy colour
contrast

I think it's better overall if you can bend to meet customer's needs. Every customer expects something different.

 

[The_Traveler]

Most of my shots aren't composed before hand-- I usually just take them and that's how it comes out.

I looked at a bunch of your pix and you have a definite style, maybe you just haven't realized it yet.

I used to think that it was pretentious of me to have a 'style', I wasn't that good. Lately I've begun to think that style, mine or others, is a mixture of hard-wired (mental-emotional) likes/dislikes and a conscious decision not to shoot things in ways I don't intuitively like.

 

[JimmyJaceyMom]

I don't have one in what I shoot yet I don't think. But I know I get all excited when I see a picture with high contrast and deep saturation for some reason it just looks special to me.

 

[mysteryscribe]

Okay here goes the most foolish of foolish answers. What I said had a lot of truth in it. I began right out of tech school shooting for money and people. Not always a lot of money or a lot of jobs but always shooting for the bucks. Hince I always thing 8x10 as I said. In 35mm leave a little on the edges for the lab to crop out. Since most of my early work was portraits most often I see verticle crop first. Most of you don't because your influences are more modern.

In other words that was my style for years. A working freelance photographer for years had no control over what he produced. The prolabs pretty much controlled what we got. I would complain now and then but it didn't do much good,

All my stuff was higher in contrast with a strobe light, so I mostly shot strobe. Natrual light was dangerous, but strobe was dependable. So now that I can I tend to add contrast. But mostly beyond that I don't have a style. I try to tailor how I shoot to what I shoot. Always thinking in the back of my mind can I sell this image to anyone anyway.

So see I wasn't kidding and No I never worked for a kiddie studio. Just my own and I hate kids so it was very very few who ever got shot there. Worse than little kids are preteens... They can ruin a shoot faster than you can say fuji.