Editing style

[curtisl]

I have been taking photos for a while now and with that I have been editing them nearly just as long but so far I have not really settled upon my own style. By style I mean, the thing where you look at a photo and you know that it's by a particular person. The most obvious example to me here is flat plane crank, I know instantly if I see one of his shots who took it, or say loomax on flickr.

The majority of my shots are of fmx and to date there is no pattern to my pp. it's more just experimenting to what suits what but as you'll see from my Flickr that there is a huge mix of the appearance of my images.

What I'm thinking is, do you need one style? Can you progress in photography when people don't look at an image and can say 'lee Curtis took that'?

Here's a link to my Flickr to demonstrate.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/leecurtisphotography

[Simpo Two]

But if you apply the same editing (processing?) style to every photo doesn't that get a bit boring?

If you just want a 'look' and currently have several, well, just stop doing the others

I'd say - do what you feel like and let others worry about who took it.

[MartinP]

I'd suggest you just keep experimenting until you find a style (or styles) that you like. Bear in mind style is more than just editing, it's in the shooting too (could be a preference for using lighting in a certain way, viewpoints, focal lengths etc) - if Flat Planed Crank processed one of your shots, it's still not going to have that distinct fpc look to it.

Even when you think you have got your style it can evolve, so keep on trying different things and don't let it restrict you - not every shot has to look the same.

[_dobbo_]

curtisl said:

Can you progress in photography when people don't look at an image and can say 'lee Curtis took that'?

Here's a link to my Flickr to demonstrate.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/leecurtisphotography

I can look at those and say "Lee Curtis took that". Because it says "Lee Curtis Photography" on them all.



Edit: seriously though - using your example if you look at FPC's distinctive style you'll see that a lot of it comes from long focal length large aperture shots - you can't fake that with processing. You need to spend some money on good glass...

[curtisl]

I know that it's not all in pp where a particular style comes from.

Personally it doesn't bother me, I am happy experimenting and just shooting the stuff I like and how I like shooting but I wondered what peoples thoughts were and if people strive for some sort of uniformity in their work

[MartinP]

For pros the benefit of a consistent/recognisable style is that hopefully clients will search you out because of your style. Conversely, if your images are all over the place then how would a client have any idea what they're going to get, so are less likely to book you or pay top money for your work.

If you're not looking for any specific recognition then not having a style really doesn't matter.

[curtisl]

Well next year I am aiming to become a bit more of a player in the fmx scene and already have a few things planned so I think with that I will settle for something a little more understated than some of my shots and stick to something I am happy with whilst I am doing stuff in a professional capacity. I am getting excited about the up coming year!