Developing your photographic style

And what it says about you as a photographer

Hello, I’m Gill and I write a photography blog inspired by the landscapes of Suffolk and beyond. Please subscribe to read more of my writing and visit my website to view my images.

This week I have been thinking about my photographic style, a process that began with a podcast I recorded with Kim Grant of Photographic Connections on Tuesday. (More to come on this at a later date and please look out for the episode when it goes live sometime in the new year).

Talking about my photography journey always makes me reflect on where I started and how far I have come. It is easy to forget these things and get bogged down in the stresses that inevitably come with being a professional photographer, but it is always good to look back, and take stock every now and again.

As part of my chat with Kim we touched on photographic style and how that might have developed. We all have a style, whether we realise it or not. Just like our personal style it says something about us and the things that connect with us and inspire us.

Looking at my photo galleries and instagram page I think my images definitely have a recognisable style. I have been told they are very feminine and I suppose I can see why someone might reach this conclusion, but it isn’t something that I have deliberately set out to achieve.

If I analyse my photographs I would say they have a sense of calm. They tend to have a soft colour palette, a tranquil, sometimes dreamy aesthetic and their subject matter is mostly wild and natural. They are like that because I like showing the beauty that I see in the world.

Style developes over time and is born from what we enjoy and what inspires us. When I first started out on my photographic journey I listened to a lot of photographers talk about style and I really didn’t think I had one. I would look at all my images and I couldn’t see a common theme linking them other (than the person who took them) - they all seemed a bit disparate and random. But over time my photography became more refined and considered. I began to see a pattern develop in the subjects I was drawn to, the conditions I liked to photograph in and the processing style that I applied to each of my images. I began to see a style develop.

As an example I will use this weeks photography to show you what I was drawn to on a morning out with the camera at Upper Hollesley Common. I think the subject matter and the way I have chosen to render the images is a good representation of my style.

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I went to the heath to photograph a frosty morning. There was still some autumn colour on the trees and the landscape had a ‘between seasons’ feel which I loved.

Fire and Ice, Hollesley Common

I am always drawn to vegetation when I go out with the camera - whether that is grasses, flowers or trees. I love making images around the different textures and colours that plants provide, so a frosty morning really appealed to me photographically.

Having photographed some wider scenes I was drawn to the smaller details and all the beauty in the frost covered grass and heather.

Frosted Heather

I love this style of photography - close up shots with a shallow depth of field, shooting through foliage to give a calm and dreamy effect. These small scenes aren’t really commercial but I love shooting them and I feel they compliment my wider landscape shots really nicely.

Frosted Heather

Grasses on the heath

Frosted grass

Autumn leaves - a focus stacked image

As a small body of work from that morning I feel these images represent me and my style as a photographer really well.

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So how do you go about developing your own style?

Find out what inspires you and stay true to that.

1. Photograph the things that mean something to you and photograph them in the way that you enjoy.

2. Find out what you want to say with your photography. I like reading around my subject matter and I will try and identify the plants and trees that feature in my images. This doesn’t really help my style but it makes me more aware of my surroundings and will also provide me with some good stories if I find something rare, interesting or endangered.

3. Put something of yourself into your work. When I first started in photography my home life was chaotic and volatile and I would use photography as a means of escape. I actively sort out calm, peaceful images because that was the complete antithesis of my life at the time. Now life is more settled, I seek to portray the beauty in the natural world, in the hope that people will connect with that through my images. I still seek those calm, tranquil, dreamy images because that is what I am drawn to.

4. Shoot small bodies of work every time you go out. I think mixing up your image making is a great way to watch your style evolve. Shooting wider scenes and more intimate landscapes help you find the things that interest you and will ultimately give you a greater appreciation and knowledge of the world around you.

5. Build a ‘style file’. You can do this by starting a new collection in Lightroom or collating prints in a scrapbook. Choose your favourite images and the ones that mean something to you because of their subject matter or the emotions you felt when you took them. See what sort of collection develops. You may not think you have a recognisable style but I bet you will be surprised!

Finally, I think your style is something that evolves naturally. It is something that you seek intuitively, that evolves over time and is something that showcases your personality as a photographer. When you find it, stay true to it because it is the thing that gives your work authenticity.

I will leave you with this quote from Ansel Adams

In my mind's eye, I visualize how a particular... sight and feeling will appear on a print. If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph. It is an intuitive sense, an ability that comes from a lot of practice.