Tip Tuesday: Cultivating Your Style, Part 2!

As I was finishing working out...the little wheels in my head were turning, I then realized something. Something VERY important that I forgot to talk about in our last Tip Tuesday post. I forgot to talk about how important it is to have CONSISTENCY in your photos!!! As you stumble along figuring out your style (with time and practice!)...I can not stress enough how important having consistency in your style is. Having consistency through your photos emphasizes your "style". It helps people to be able to identify and recognize your style whenever they see your photos. If people can spot your photos anywhere with no logo on them...then you're doing your job! It means something about them is different then other photographers work. Something about them stands out.

I can tell you, look at a successful professional photographer's work and you are SURE to see consistency and fluidity to their work. Each shoot and edit may be different, but there is still a common thread throughout all of their work and every shoot. There is consistency in their angles and compositions, poses, lighting, backdrops, editing and the general "feel" of the photos.

It is important to be consistent in each of these areas. If I had to pick 2 important aspects of photography to be the most consistent in, it would have to be, composition & poses. Composition: "the act or process of composing, specifically : arrangement into specific proportion or relation and especially into artistic form". In my words concerning specifically wedding & portrait photography, where the individuals are in the photo in relation to how they are uniquely framed in the photo. Okay, that is not the best definition, but I think you get it. I have to say that when shooting, I now solidly use only a handful of compositions and stick to them. At this point in my career, from lots of shooting & praciting, these compositions flow from me naturally, and don't take a lot of thinking. 

The other area to be strongly consistent in is posing. Whatever type of posing your going for...more formal or more candid, be consistent in this! This will strongly help the "feel" of your photos and most clearly communicate your style. I tend to strive for natural, relaxed, candid, "REAL" poses...and in result my hope is that that is the "feel" of my photos and that my style is carried through by this. Of course being consistent in lighting, backdrops & editing is very important as well, if you nail composition & poses first, this will give you a great start to "cultivating" your style!

It's very important to remember to be CONFIDENT in your style. Follow what makes you most passionate about photography. What you love. What makes you get home from a shoot or wedding, SO excited to edit them, you can hardly wait till they're uploaded! The world we live in is saturated with photographers...very talented photographers. But, you have to remember they all started somewhere and I'm sure they all have those first photos their not so "proud" of! It's easy to try to copy other photographers work...sometimes without even realizing it. I encourage you to of course look to other photographers for inspiration...we ALL do it. But still strongly pursue your unique love for photography and out of that will come your very own amazing style, that is YOU and no one else! :)

I will leave you with a recent photo of me and my love! I just LOVE this one! :)

Photo taken by the lovely, Kristen Privett :)