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Develop your own style - part 2 of 1 2

Published 01/02/2008

Allow others to inspire you! It's perfectly acceptable to view websites from other photographers, but be wary of studying too much or you'll find yourself copying - using those ideas and build upon them. Decide what you like and dislike from others and then use those images as a source of inspiration. It's way too easy to look at an image on someone's website and copy it verbatim. This, in my humble opinion, is what's been happening in the USA over the past few years. Newcomers are buying digital cameras, learning the bare essentials, looking at the work of established photographers (who've worked hard to develop their own styles), and attempting to reproduce images that have already been done. This has contributed greatly to the homogenization of our craft here in the USA. There are times that it's difficult for the average client to distinguish one website from the next. This is another reason that it's essential for you to separate yourselves from the pack.

Gain inspiration from other sources outside of the world of photography. I'm a huge fan of motion pictures. Jim Jarmusch, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and scores of other brilliant directors use light and composition in ways that can inspire us.

Magazines such as Vogue, Elle, and Vanity Fair which aren't necessarily photography magazines, contain some of the hottest new artists with extremely innovative styles. Look at the way they treat their imagery. Notice the Photoshop work and the texture they create during capture, as well as their post-production styles. Pick, choose, borrow, and admire various aspects of what you notice, then interpret how you'd like to incorporate these ideas into your own work.

In addition to the points above, it's also important to keep in mind what I'll call 'essentials of creativity' to help enhance your style. The key element is to remove 'blinders of habit' which prevent us from stepping out of our comfort zones on the wedding day. When I work in a venue that I'm very familiar with, I'll do my best to forget about images that I've made there in the past. This allows me to keep my mind open to new, and fresh ideas that perhaps I hadn't used in the past. By eliminating pre-conceived notions of what we'd like to shoot, we're allowing our mind's eye to dictate the images we capture, instead of making the same photos in the same locations, time after time.

Finally, and perhaps most important for me, is to find the light and make it yours. Light is the key element in our craft in conjunction with the composition of our images. The way we use it dictates our style.

In conclusion, no matter what style you choose to create for yourselves, make it your own. One of my favourite quotes was by an unknown author who said "One photo out of focus is a mistake. Ten photos out of focus are an experimentation. One hundred photos out of focus are a style"!! Develop your style in order to stand out and be noticed.

Cliff Mautner's career in photography spans 26 years. After 15 years and 6,000 assignments as a photojournalist with the Philadelphia Inquirer, and working for an eclectic array of commercial clientele ranging from Comcast to Subaru, Cliff launched his wedding photography career and hasn't looked back. He's been recognized by WPPI as "one of the top photographers and educators in the world" and has shared his concepts and ideas across the country speaking for DWF, WPPI, PPA, and other photographic organizations. He's perhaps best known for his ability create quality images in some of the most difficult lighting conditions encountered. Rangefinder magazine describes him as having "a freshness and imagination that is new and important" and Joe Buissink says he "sees light like nobody he's ever met". He's also one of only four wedding photographers in the USA sponsored by the Nikon Corporation

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1st Published 01/02/2008
last update 09/12/2022 14:53:17

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