What does photographic style mean?
When we talk about “style”, we’re referring to two elements: The editing style, and the ‘contents’ of the photo itself
A beautiful example of light and airy by Savan Photography. Photo is bright and colors are soft. Overall, the image is easy on the eyes.
Editing style - Think VSCO or instagram filters. These filters are just presets for custom edits. Do you like your photos that are more bright and whiter elements? or dark and moody? You can also get more vibrant colors, or maybe your preference is more desaturated colors. Everyone has a preference on what they like; no one style is better or worse than other styles. There are however, more popular trends when it comes to wedding photos. For example, ‘light and airy’ desribe bright photos with a lot of whites that come out with colors desaturated and more minimal backgrounds. Many couples like this style if they are going for more of a ‘fine art’ feel. A good example of light and airy is KLenox. A good example of dark and moody style is Julia Rubinik. These aren’t the only two styles of editing, but the cover the spectrum of editing styles out there.
Make it stand out
An example of “edgy”. This is more street-art style. Non-traditional wedding attire. Very artistic and appropriate for certain tastes
Content Style - This refers to every other aspect of a photo that doesn’t describe how it’s edited. Do you like a more photojournalistic and candid type photos that tell a story? Maybe you prefer more formal, traditional, and posed types of photos that would be appropriate framed in a home with traditional interior design style. Perhaps you like more ‘edgy’ photos that would be really great to share with your circle of friends, but maybe not so great for sharing with family. Do you like a more romantic and dramatic feel, or something more light and playful? These are just examples and there’s so much more that goes into this style.
At the end of the day, photographic styles are fairly subjective. It’s an art, and artistic work like photography doesn’t have hard and fast rules that fall only into certain categories. When searching for a photographer, first look for someone whose content style resonanates with you. This is more important than editing style because you don’t want to be in a situation where your photographer directs you to make more bold and edgy poses, but you prefer more conservative or traditional types photos, or vice versa. After aligning on content style, editing style comes after. Why? You can always edit a photo however you like, but you can’t change the content. style. Granted, each photographer does specialize in a specific editing style so they would better be in a position to deliver a certain editing style you’re going for.
So what is my style? Well I can tell you it’s not light and airy, it’s not dark and moody either. It leans towards the brighter and airy side, but I incorporate vibrant colors into my images. I shoot more photojournalistic style because I believe in the art of storytelling. Everyone has a story and stories were meant to be shared. My photographic style is done in a way that best shares those stories.