Developing your own unique style can be fantastic. It is, possibly, one of the questions I get asked the most. In today’s podcast episode 012 I am talking to you about some of the things to help you develop your own
Podcast Episode 012 – Developing a Style
I go through quite a few ways to help you if that is what you really want to do.
In the podcast, I did also talk about some artists and have some links for you to look at.
Joel Grimes http://www.joelgrimes.com/Artist.asp?ArtistID=12191&Akey=P7FJP8B4
Peter Eastway http://www.petereastway.com/
Kristy Mitchell https://www.kirstymitchellphotography.com/
Joel Tjintjelaar http://www.bwvision.com/
Julia Anna Gospodarou http://www.juliaannagospodarou.com/
Art Wolfe http://artwolfe.com/
Brooke Shaden http://brookeshaden.com/gallery/
https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/?group_accession=128.1996.1-9
Matty Smith http://www.mattysmithphoto.com/
Rick Amor http://www.rickamor.com.au/
There are so many different styles of photography out there. With that means you can also try so many different things. Experiment as you try to work out what you want to do.
Experimenting
I’ve been playing around with my own style for many years, however, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t changed over the years. It is always changing and evolving. As I change, it changes as well.
If you follow me on Instagram you may have noticed that I have been experimenting a lot more. I’m playing around with some new techniques for me. It is good to do. I like to see where I can go with it and then decide if I like it. There is no guarantee and I could end up disregarding it.
At the moment the experimentation is just with processing, but eventually, it will go to taking photos as well.
Gallery
I am going to show you a few of the new photos. There was going to do a whole blog post on it, but I’m not sure I am ready to do that just yet. I hope you don’t mind. There aren’t many photos, but you can see what I’ve been trying.
On white balance, I see it more like as a color balance in different light settings like bright daylight, cloudy/overcast daylight, etc. But, of course, my understanding can be wrong – I let the camera handle the white balance as you can sometimes see the camera make the adjustment in the electronic viewfinder.
Regarding style, I’m probably all over the road. The photographers I follow, I look at their body of work, from where they were several years ago to present. I can see it in your work, how it has evolved. Since you rely on post-processing to complete your image, I can see how you’ve become quite excellent in setting the mood. In the pure sense, there has always been a measure of post-processing. In the film days, it was the processing lab that adjusted the brightness/contrast, the color balance, vibrancy, etc. depending upon which tech was developing your roll(s) of film.
You mentioned Chernobyl, that has become one eerie place. Those that have gone back into the dead zone say it’s like time just stopped, everything left in place. I don’t know if you saw a WP photoblog several years ago (2012-14) that focused strictly focused on abandoned places in Asia, mostly Japan. He did very little post-processing except to resize images for the blog. He kept it at a minimum to preserve the eeriness of the places he visited.
I use white balance sometimes, but more in the way I used filters for light when using film, but I think my camera handles it well most of the time.
Thank you David, glad to see that you have seen my work evolve. It certainly has and seems to be going through another transmission right now. Not sure where it will end up, but that is the fun of it all I think. You are right, people who never did film never seem to realise that. Places that just put your photos through and did nothing else were not highly regarded.
Yes, I would love to go to Chernobyl, I think it would be an incredible place to visit, for the reasons you have said. Time standing still. I know there is an island off Japan that is like that. I may have seen the blog post you are talking about, but don’t really remember it.
Thank you David.