Why I Quit Conforming My Photography to a “Style/Look”
Today’s topic is about photographic styles, looks, and aesthetics.
I say photographic, but this does extend to all art and creativity.
For context, about 5-7 years ago, (and even now still) photographers on Instagram posted their photos to fit a “look” or “aesthetic”. Doing so allowed each photo to match one another, allowing for a sense of uniformity on one’s profile. And although it does look nice, in my opinion, it seems now to be a poor way to share your photos - everything looks the same.
So although it’s your work and your art, today I want to share my thoughts on the idea - advice I believed would’ve helped me had I known before.
“Lunar Teal Pilot”
2023
Having a Style/Look Limits You Creatively
Although conforming to a style has some benefits, I grew to see it as a limiter in the creative realm. I carry my camera everywhere. Therefore, I take photos of lots of different types of subject matter - and types of photos as well. Photography for me in some aspects is a record of my life. Due to this, a lot of my photos will look different, simply by course of nature.
Because everything is different it is simply too difficult to get everything to look the same - whether by editing everything to look the same in post or by posting only one type of photos.
That is inherently a limiter in itself since it limits you in terms of not only the photos you can share but the photos you’ll begin to take. I found myself going out on photo sessions thinking, “will this look good on my instagram?" instead of just taking the photo. It can cause you to not take many good photos, which would otherwise be good photos, because you’re shooting with your “style/look” in mind.
So nowadays, I just post whatever I want. It’s freeing.
“DNA” in Color and B&W 1/2
Presets WONT Make You a Better Photographer
Because in my photographer there are many varying elements (time of day, subject matter, color) I’ve simply chosen to edit to the specific photo itself. I’ve found that although you can make everything look the same, it’s boring. And non-conducive towards your learning. I myself enjoy trying new things in terms of both shooting and looks.
The difficulty is that, amongst this wave of style and looks came a whole era of presets. And this is a whole nother topic on it’s own, but I’ll cover it very briefly: presets WONT make you a better photographer.
When you focus on presets you realize you wont get the same look as the other photographer.
This is because each situation is conditional in itself. You have various times of day, lighting conditions, subject matter, etc such that dropping in a preset will require many tweaks on its own - sometimes enough tweaks such that you may as well just edit the photo yourself to begin with.
So don’t use presets thinking it’ll allow you to do something crazy or magical with your images. Learn the basics of photo editing yourself and you’ll be fine.
“Ukimido Mono”
Nara, 2019
And so, here’s the secret (imo) to actually getting a Style/Look.
If you want a style, fixating on getting one will not get you there. Here’s why. If there’s anything I’ve learned from the past years of editing thousand and thousands of photos is that we all have a unique set of preferences and decisions. Photography is all decision making. And our creative choices ultimately determine the outcome of how the photo will look. So simply trying to get a style wont get you a style. It’s important to learn and replicate how a photo can look a certain way, but trying to be unique can deviate you from your own uniqueness.
To sum it up: your preferences and decisions end up dictating your “style/look”.
The more you do the more you understand this.
Style is attained, not by trying to get it - it simply develops naturally by your creative preferences.
Therefore my recommendation is if you want a look, take thousands and thousands of photos and you’ll figure it out along the way. That’s how it worked for me in my case. Before, I was just trying a bunch of stuff and everything kind of different. So I don’t actually know if my work has a “style” anyways. But for me, it doesn’t matter. Because now I know my own preferences and what I like to do in each and every type of situation. And knowing my own preferences but also experimenting and trying new things is much more fun and fulfilling towards my own photography.
So anyways, a bit of a long winded answer. I hope this article could help anyone struggling or thinking about a “style”. In conclusion, don’t worry about it too much and just take photos - you’ll figure it out.
