Ever since I attended my first workshop two years ago I’ve been pondering personal style. At first I had no clue as to what my personal style was. But as time has gone by and I become more aware of the kind of work I produce, the idea of a personal style is starting to become clearer. So, I plan to write a number of posts on personal style and my journey of self discovery.
Personal style is a lot easier to discern in music I think. As one becomes more familiar with a particular genre one can hear a piece for the first time and identify the composer (my frame of reference is classical music – hence ‘composer’ instead of ‘performer’ or ‘band’ or ‘group’). You begin to recognize composers by the musical vocabulary they use, a vocabulary that has certain recognizable ways of expressing complex concepts and emotions.
I think it’s more difficult for photographers to develop a distinctive, recognizable personal style although the great ones certainly have achieved that. And that’s good news for those of us who aspire to achieve some degree of greatness. It is possible to develop a personal style with a camera. To do that we need to become conscious of our style and develop the unique perspective each of us has on the world. Many factors go in to defining ones personal style.
Let’s begin with the tools we use in our digital darkroom. We all have our favorite tools and I believe the end result, the final photograph is influenced by them. Why is that? Well, it’s simply that some tools are capable of producing results that others cannot. Here are some examples.
A lot of people are very enthusiastic about Lightroom. I’m one of them. And there are quite a lot of people for whom Lightroom is all they use. You can get some splendid results just with Lightroom. But there’s one thing Lightroom is incapable of doing – masking. Lightroom is great for many kinds of global adjustments, that is, adjustments to the entire image. In fact, Lightroom is superior for some of these adjustments; nothing else comes close. But if you need to make local adjustments by masking, it can’t be done in Lightroom.
My point here is not whether Lightroom is an adequate tool with which the photographer artist can express himself. No, the point is that the, what shall we call it, the ‘vocabulary of expression,’ our ‘expressive vocabulary’ in Lightroom is defined by its functionality. And our personal style is strongly influenced by our expressive vocabulary.
Another favorite tool of mine is PhotoMatix. This is the amazing software that brings such power, flexibility and control to HDR (high dynamic range). This tool not only allows its own unique expressive vocabulary in the digital darkroom but extends its influence into the field. Wonderful shots that in the past I would have walked away from because of lighting challenges now can be captured and powerfully rendered thanks to PhotoMatix. So knowing that tool is available back on my computer allows me to tackle more challenging situations and create expressive images that communicate a whole new range of feelings.
Powerful software like Photoshop has a huge range of built-in tools for our enjoyment. Most of us don’t come close to using even a small fraction of everything that’s available. We end up with our favorites, the ones we think of when addressing an image and deciding what it needs. We begin to see the possibilities in an image in terms of the tools we know and use. When correcting contrast, some may choose Brightness/Contrast (which isn’t so bad in CS3 any more) while others may use Levels. Still others may select Curves. These differences may be subtle but they do produce different results.
But some might be more daring and use some of the Artistic filters or others of the many available filters and plug-ins to achieve truly unique and remarkable results.
So the tools one uses can have a profound effect on the end result. But let’s be quick to recognize that it’s not the tools that determine an artist’s personal style but rather the interaction, the interplay between the artist and the available tools. We are each drawn to a subset of tools that feel right to us, that provide us with our expressive vocabulary. We use these tools to create images that communicate something of ourselves to others in our own, unique personal style.
So think about the tools you use, both in terms of the software you use and the functionality within the software, and consider the influence these have on your finished images.
Read the next posting – Musings on Personal Style #2
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