While some New Year's resolutions focus on hitting the gym or changing up a bad habit, for photographers, it's often about learning something new in the world of photography. If you're listening to art photographer and educator Scott French, one of those things to learn might be how to find your own style.
Style, as French talks about it, isn't just a matter of slapping a preset on or tweaking colors. It's the totality of the subject matter, lighting, composition, and editing process, among other things.
I often find myself struggling with the concept of "style" myself. At first, I thought that it was about the color and tones of my photos, and I dove headfirst into Olympus and Fujifilm gear (RIP E-M10 Mark II and X-T1) because of the wide variety of film simulations that gave my photos a certain look that I liked. But the look, or more precisely, the colors, don't really matter when my social media feeds are invariably a mix of lighthouses, children, and protests. Given the wide variety of subject matter I shoot, it doesn't matter whether they are toned the same, in the camera or in editing, it's just a lot for the audience to take in all at once. I've resigned myself to the fact that my social media is mostly a personal-ish photo album and another way for angry readers and long-lost friends to contact me.
One of the key takeaways from French's approach is that he worked on his style out of the public eye of social media, and once he had that nailed down, all of his social posts centered around a specific theme and look that he said may not have been for everyone but resonated with the right people. You can check out his beautifully curated and consistently styled architecture-themed Instagram here.
French offers a lot of tips in the video above to talk about how he arrived at his personal style. Do you have your own tips for finding a style? Leave them in the comments below.
