You Photographic Style Is a Part of your Photographic Identity

This photograph is part of a collection that gave us a real photographic existence.

The Second Element of Your Photographic Identity: Your Photographic Style

Your photographic style defines the way you photograph. For example, you will love creating photos with fuzzy backgrounds or very sharp photos. Your style may include large frames or tight shots, with clear tones or dark tones.

Your style allows you to create photographs that resemble you and your personality. To have a style is to be recognized by an audience.

You can also define several styles because you may be attracted by different creative ways. However, do not keep more than three styles. Otherwise you will become visually inaudible. Having more than three photographic styles would be a guarantee of not being recognized, and this would dispel all of the work to create a style in the first place.

For example, in my case, I defined two styles for my art print collections. My first style is called "Shades of Blacks and Whites". My second style is called "Lights and Colors".

For each one, I defined precise rules to conform to when I compose, frame, or develop my photographs.

Having a photographic style allows you to always create photos with the same visual and emotional characteristics. This is very important when you want to exhibit or publish your work. Try to make an example of yourself. People deeply appreciate photos when there is unity, strong ideas, and a continuity in an artist’s creative works.

To define your photographic style, reuse the technique with your vision. Take a sheet of paper a pencil.

Add a new element. In every book and magazine at home, identify all the images that appeal to you and that make sense to you. If you can, cut them and mark them.

Make a stack of the pictures. This is the method I adopted when defining my two photographic styles.

Then, you unpick each of the images by creating two new stacks. The first contains the photos you prefer the most. The other pile consists of clichés that you like a little less.

You reiterate this process until you have about 10 photos left in the stack. At this precise moment, if you spread the ten pictures on a table so as to see them all, you face your own photographic style.

All you have to do is write keywords that the different images evoke for you. This list of keywords should be learned by heart because they will be remembered in the field or on front of your computer screen when selecting or developing photos.

This is a method that works perfectly and that I apply during custom photo courses.

As with the definition of your photographic vision, the definition of your styles will evolve over time. You will delete ideas, add new ones, modify others. It is the maturity and practice of the photo activity that pushes you to make these changes. This is a perfectly normal process. All photographers are subject to this maturation. Over time you will find that you simplify a lot and that your style will become more and more clear. As I often say , “It's very difficult to do simple things ". Only experience can deliver a tangible result. The important thing is to start and take the first step.

The Search for Inspiration Is the Indispensable Complement

I think it is absolutely necessary to define a strong photographic identity to create different and interesting photographs. However, this is only one step in the long process of making photos of interesting nature.

Do not forget to look for sources of inspiration to fuel your vision and your style. In this article, I gave you tracks to look for to better find sources of inspiration.

Inspiration enriches new ideas that will allow you to make original photographs.

You will seek inspiration by looking at the creative approach of other photographers or painters. The idea is not to copy the artists you like but to use what you see to fuel your vision and your style. You may be able to reproduce scenes, although you may add the spices of your own personality and creativity. Inspiration can be found in photography.

Finally

If you are a photographer who wants to express yourself fully with your photographic activity or if you want to be recognizable by your audience, you must define your photographic identity with a strong vision and a clear photographic style.

You will then become very effective in the field and you will not ask unnecessary questions when shooting. You will become more creative.

Be humble, patient, constant, persevering, and persistent because the road to excellence is long.

Why You Should Define Your Photographic Identity

Do you wonder why you are unable to create consistent series of photos?

Do you always recognize the signature of some photographers who inspire you, and wish others could do the same with your photos?

If you are asking yourself these questions, you may not have taken the time to define your photographic identity.

I will give you some directions that will allow you to create nature photos that will be identifiable and recognizable.

This article will help you understand how to implement a new tool in your photography toolbox. By implementing it, you will make your photos even more interesting and instill in them true meaning.

Spatule blanche en contre-jour photographiée depuis un affût flottant en Dombes.

Eurasian Spoonbill in backlight photographed from a floating blind in La Dombes in France.

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The Main Symptoms of the Lack of a Photographic Identity

In addition to the symptoms mentioned in the first lines of this article, the one that is most obvious is “I do not know how and what to do".

This symptom often occurs in the field during a photo session. You may be armed with good intentions. You may have prepared for your session with the proper materials and have several ideas in mind. However, once on the ground, you do not know how to approach the scene, for example, you may struggle with photographing a deer from 100 meters in such a way that it stands like a symbol of time passing, or you may not know how to capture a breathtaking dawn so that it seems immortal.

When you take pictures without the satisfaction of consistency, you miss this little plus that provides photographers with a unique photographic signature. When they are on the ground, they know exactly what they are going to accomplish, and they successfully complete their goals.

This is what I call the principle of photographic identity

What Is Photographic Identity?

When you look at the photographs of a photographer you like and who inspires you, it is because he has developed two essential elements:

A photographic vision.
A photographic style.

The establishment of these two elements allow him to be identifiable, to be recognized among hundreds of other photographers.

The vision and the photographic style give meaning to his artistic activity.

There may be other photographers whose photographic approach you do not appreciate, who can still be named because of their photographic identity. Is not this photographic approach essential to success?

It is important to note that having your own photographic identity allows you to be differentiated without confusion from other photographers.

To best summarize the photographic identity, I say that it gives the photographer an existence in his field of work.

Defining your photographic identity will allow you to say who you are, what you want to be, and how you are to be perceived by others. This should be apparent to each viewer, regardless of whether they are a photographer or not.

Your photographic identity will define how you will be perceived by the world around you.

Defining your photographic identity allows you to list all the artistic data that individualizes your artistic approach.

It's a bit like your administrative identity combined with your physical characteristics, such as your date and place of birth.

A photographic identity allows you to reveal yourself, to stand out among the crowd of photographers, to ensure your individuality and your irreplaceable artistic fingerprint.

The Impact of a Photographic Identity

The etymology of the word identity comes from the Latin "idem” which meant the same.

The main impact of a high-quality photographic identity is that it allows you to create series of nature photographs that are coherent and consistent. Once on the field, you will not jumble your ideas and projects, moreover, you will focus on specific shooting goals in exactly one direction.

You will understand why you are creating your photographs. When you have your camera in your hands, you will constantly refer to the values of your photographic identity when capturing shots.

Your photographic identity is not just an image you want to give to others. It also defines your actions in the present and/or in the past.

In this article, I defined photographic writing. It can be considered one of those actions that would be an extension of who you are.

The First Element of a Photographic Identity: Your Photographic Vision

Defining your photographic vision is much more than defining your goals in photography.

Your photographic vision is your course of action. It gives you reasons to go on the field to create photographs.

If you define your artistic vision well, you will answer the essential question that is often asked: "Why do you practice photography?".

For example, in my case, I invariably answer " I practice photography to share and reveal my passion for the wonders of nature".

If you do not yet have a clear and consistent photographic vision of your photographic activity, I can only encourage you to define it as quickly as possible.

My method is simple. Just take a sheet of paper and a pencil to write down all the ideas that come to mind. I do not recommend the computer. On paper, you can sketch, make diagrams, and organize ideas. In this situation of introspective brainstorming, the computer is not practical.

On this piece of paper, list everything you like to do during your photo sessions. Simply list the ideas of what you like and also what you do not like. It is almost as if you're listing your strengths and weaknesses.

At this stage, do not write long sentences. Just align your ideas.

For example, you can write ideas such as «contemplate nature », « listen to the silence », « observe the animals », « listen to the wind in the trees», « watch the fish swim », « immerse in a mood». Nature offers a multitude of sensations that are visual, gustatory, olfactory, tactile or auditory. The catalog of ideas can be long. But during this phase, do not hesitate.

Order your ideas by personal preference from the favorite idea at the top of the list to the least favorite at the bottom.

Once all the ideas have been consolidated and organized, the next step is taking the three strongest ideas and stringing them together in a sentence. This will express why you chose photography as a creative activity. This defines your vision.

The definition of your photographic vision is never final. The general idea will remain invariable in time, but the wording will change. The words will evolve because your vision will be refined over time, much like life. With experience, age, and maturity, your photographic vision will clearly be refined and simplified to achieve a deeply authentic definition of your photographic personality.

Even if you are not completely satisfied with the sentence that defines you, do not worry. You have taken a decisive step in your photographic activities. You have to start someday with something. By this point, you have made the most difficult decisions, and the rest will fall into place.

The consequence of a clear and well- defined photographic vision is that you fear it will vanish suddenly. It is important to keep in mind that the object of your vision is a powerful engine for creativity. When you want to create a photo, you have all the elements to guide you in the process: composition, framing, etc.