How To Find Your Photography Style

Don’t Compare Yourself

Have you ever looked at a pho­to on Face­book, Insta­gram, or Pin­ter­est and felt a twinge of envy? We are sat­u­rat­ed with images from every direc­tion ALL day long, and it’s easy to begin to com­pare your pho­tog­ra­phy style to oth­ers and even eas­i­er to let their pho­tos start to define your style. You see a pic­ture, and you try des­per­ate­ly to dupli­cate that image. But it’s not long before frus­tra­tion kicks in. Are you nod­ding your head? Why do you get frus­trat­ed? Because there is NO way, absolute­ly none, that you can dupli­cate some­one else’s photograph.

I say it all of the time… Pho­tog­ra­phy is a form of art, and being able to dupli­cate some­one’s pho­to is as dif­fi­cult as it is to dupli­cate some­one’s paint­ing. And what’s more…why would you want to?  You want to find your own pho­tog­ra­phy style. 

You want to define your pho­tog­ra­phy style, not dupli­cate some­one else’s. There are ways to define your style, but you’re going to have to face some truths, but let’s talk about the dif­fer­ent pho­tog­ra­phy styles before we do that.

Types of Photography

There are many pho­tog­ra­phy styles, and I won’t be able to cov­er all of them here, so I am just going to talk about a few. 

Family Photography

This one is pret­ty self-explana­to­ry. It can be posed or unposed, but the main goal is to cre­ate images that will stand the test of time and show the rela­tion­ship between those that you are shooting. 

Candid Photography

With can­did pho­tog­ra­phy, you are lit­er­al­ly blend­ing into the back­ground and telling the sto­ry of what is hap­pen­ing. This type of pho­tog­ra­phy is unscript­ed, unplanned, and unposed. 

Newborn Photography

This type of pho­tog­ra­phy is intend­ed to cap­ture the first few months of a sub­jec­t’s life, often includ­ing the birth.

Wedding Photography

Pret­ty self-explana­to­ry. Wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phers cap­ture all of the events of the spe­cial day. The emo­tions and rela­tion­ships between peo­ple are essen­tial in wed­ding photography. 

Portrait Photography

Por­trait pho­tog­ra­phy cap­tures peo­ple’s expres­sions and features. 

Let’s Talk Truths…

You want to be hon­est with your­self. I knew ear­ly on that I did not want to be a wed­ding pho­tog­ra­ph­er. Oh, I’ll admit it, when I see those jaw-drop­ping wed­ding shots, I do get tempt­ed, but then I lis­ten to that lit­tle voice in my head, and I am brought back to “my” real­i­ty and I know it’s not my pho­tog­ra­phy style. 

Truth #1

So, the first “truth” is to define the type of pho­tog­ra­phy that you want to focus on. Again, think of pho­tog­ra­phy as art. You aren’t going to buy a paint­ing from an artist that is a modern/impressionist/realist/still life/contemporary/abstract artist. You are going to buy a still life paint­ing from an artist spe­cial­iz­ing in still life paint­ings. You need to begin to think of your­self as an artist and own your style! Now, that’s not to say you can’t choose a few, but nich­ing down and per­fect­ing that one or two types will help you be a bet­ter pho­tog­ra­ph­er. I guar­an­tee you that most wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phers aren’t new­born pho­tog­ra­phers and vice versa. 

Truth #2

The next thing you need to do NOW is to stop com­par­ing your­self to every­one else. It is per­fect­ly okay to look at some­one’s pho­to and think, “Wow, I love …” or ” I like the way they did…” but STOP wish­ing your pho­tos looked like theirs! If you fol­low peo­ple on social media whose images con­stant­ly make you feel infe­ri­or, stop fol­low­ing them, at least until you become con­fi­dant in your photography.

That’s not to say that you can’t choose lit­tle things that some­one does in their pho­tog­ra­phy to imi­tate. Do you like the light and airy aspect of some­one’s photos…okay, shoot light and airy. Do you like how some­one cre­ates bokeh in their shots? Then, by all means, cre­ate bokeh…imitation is the high­est form of flat­tery. Copy­ing isn’t. 

Truth #3

The third hard truth that I am going to talk about is learn­ing the rules of pho­tog­ra­phy! Do not let lousy tech­niques define your style because the hard truth is it’s not your style. It’s just bad tech­nique. Chop­ping off peo­ple’s limbs isn’t a tech­nique, incor­rect white bal­ance isn’t a tech­nique, and bad, just bad shad­ows on your sub­ject is not a tech­nique. The soon­er you learn the pho­tog­ra­phy rules, the soon­er you will begin to define your­self as an artist. If you are inter­est­ed in the rules and how to take the pho­tos you know you are capa­ble of, check out my Begin­ners Pho­tog­ra­phy Essen­tials pro­grams!  

I remem­ber I went through a stage where I would accept any pho­tog­ra­phy job that came my way. I was busier than I had ever been, but I was hat­ing what I was doing. Why? Because I want’ being true to myself or my pho­tog­ra­phy style. I was shoot­ing in a way that brought me no joy what­so­ev­er, and I was­n’t true to myself. 

Truth #4

Be true to your­self. This may be one of the most bru­tal truths that I will throw at you today, but to become the pho­tog­ra­ph­er that you want to be, you have to do this. I want you to start to look at the images you see dai­ly and see what real­ly speaks to you. Look through mag­a­zines, social media, your own pho­tos and keep notes on what you real­ly like, and…what you don’t like, but be hon­est! You have an artis­tic voice. You have to lis­ten to it, which will be the hard­est thing to do on this journey. 

Truth #5

The last truth that I’m going to give you today is…Finding your pho­to­graph­ic style takes time and effort. Just like find­ing your dec­o­rat­ing style for your home or fash­ion style, find­ing your pho­tog­ra­phy style takes time and prac­tice. You need to shoot every sin­gle day, and you need to shoot inten­tion­al­ly. You need to lis­ten to your heart when your shoot­ing. If it’s not speak­ing to you, don’t do it. And again, you need to know the rules of pho­tog­ra­phy so that you can break them. The Begin­ners Pho­tog­ra­phy Essen­tials will help you learn them in no time to get on your way to dis­cov­er­ing your style. 

It is scary, but I promise if you fol­low these steps and are true to your­self, you will find a free­dom and con­fi­dence in your pho­tog­ra­phy, and you will be amazed at how peo­ple flock to you and your work. If you have any ques­tions, want sup­port, or just want to show off your pho­tos, come join us in my Face­book Group-Learn Pho­tog­ra­phy with Dena! I hope to see you there.

Hap­py Snapping-

Dena