Jump to content

Welcome to NikonForums.com
Register now to gain access to all of our features. Once registered and logged in, you will be able to create topics, post replies to existing threads, give reputation to your fellow members, get your own private messenger, post status updates, manage your profile and so much more. If you already have an account, login here - otherwise create an account for free today!




Signing your work

Posted by Thumper, 13 May 2014 · 2,568 views

Before I actually got into photography, there were photographers whose work I really admired, both amateur and professional. (Including a good friend of mine). Each one had their own style that made it easy to identify their individual work. It defined them. It inspired me. So once I actually got into photography myself, I found myself making the mistake trying to emulate their work. It wasn't until a few years later that it hit me that I didn't actually want to produce work like theirs, but rather I wanted to have that level of skill. I wanted to be able to shoot as well as they did (do), but I wanted to develop my own style that would make it easy to identify my work. (And not in a bad way, like "Wow, that is a really crappy shot. It must be one of Thumper's. :D ).

So thus is my pursuit. To learn and develop a command of the skills that would allow me to have or convey a particular style, unique to just me. Everyone has a different "eye" or viewpoint, thus the way a person captures, produces, and presents a particular image or imagery should by default be unique.

As a young child, I started out as an artist, using paints, pastels, charcoal, and other media. My (late) aunt was a high school art teacher, and she used to always remind me (and at times, scold me) "ALWAYS sign your work. A piece is not finished until you sign your name to it." It still rings with me to this day. And while putting a watermark or some other hard text digital imprinting would work as an identifier, I seek something else. I want that identifying style that would make identifying my work undeniable.


I have a long long way to go. But I am having a great time on the journey.




Great point and something to strive for.  However, I often see photographers who have an identifying style, but it's a boring and monotonous one.  Every shot looks like a carbon copy of another.  To truly master what you mention, you should be able to have enough variation so that each one is more of an extension and continuation of your own style.  Bring that style to each of your photos -- do not try to take a photo in order to match one particular style.  If that makes any sense.

  • Report

Great post! I've been thinking about this very thing lately--and I've been through that whole emulation phase (still there a bit--it's at least a good place to learn). Your realization that it wasn't their style but rather their skill that you wanted is a profound one. Well said. I don't have a style…yet. Someday when I'm not all over the board trying to figure everything out maybe I'll have something definable as my style.

  • Report

I think I understand what you're saying...The "core" of my photos tend to be pretty similar with cropping and edits applied.  But, my favorite ones don't necessarily follow any given pattern although I'm sure someone could probably pick them out...

 

I was thinking about your comment about signing your work - I keep getting on my wife about that since she paints and rarely signs her paintings.  In my case, I have the camera write copyright info into the EXIF from the start, so I effectively electronically sign my pix well before I finish them and end up "signing" lots of pix that don't get more than a couple of seconds of my time.

  • Report

Great point and something to strive for.  However, I often see photographers who have an identifying style, but it's a boring and monotonous one.  Every shot looks like a carbon copy of another.  To truly master what you mention, you should be able to have enough variation so that each one is more of an extension and continuation of your own style.  Bring that style to each of your photos -- do not try to take a photo in order to match one particular style.  If that makes any sense.

Actually, it does make sense, and it is exactly what I was trying (fumbling) to say.    

  • Report

I used to do a lot of drawing, and even for a while worked as an illustrator, even if it was as a technical illustrator.

 

Nowadays it is a lot of photography, something I used to do a lot of till I was around 40 years of age, and then could hardly afford it. 

 

Then I met this lovely woman, who later became my wife, and her first husband had been a photographer, with his own studio, so we both knew our Hasselblads, so to say.

Together we rekindled our interest in cameras, and now have a mix of brands, but for me it is mainly Nikon, while for my wife it is mainly Olympus (she does have two Nikons, just like me, till next week, when I get my third!).

 

Her main camera is an Olympus E-M5, while my main is a D600, but I use my Nikon 1 a lot more. Her most used, I think, is her RX100, but she also uses her K-30 a lot, even got a new zoom lens for it recently!

 

We began our life with digitals in the form of a Konica compact, then a Olympus compact, a Fuji super-zoom (terrible), and so on till we returned to SLRs, in the form of a lot of Pentax stuff — in total about six cameras, at once!

 

But we tired of the Pentax sensor noise, and the oil on sensors, and then Pentax launched the utterly ugly K-01, instead of the promised full format Pentax.

 

My wife dived deeper into m4/3, while I fell in love with the V1, that I originally had given my wife as a birthday present. But she got the E-M5 instead, and gave me the V1 as that wasn't really needed!

 

Now she have a V1 of her own, and we share the lenses, of course, but she has the new 70-300 on order, and I have a V2, that will be here next week!

 

I had a D3200 for a while, but it didn't really click for me!

 

Hope the next generation Nikon 1 will be my last upgrade, but time will tell ;-)!

  • Report

As a professional photographer I have come to the conclusion that I have TWO styles. I have the style I shoot when I'm being payed to capture the event I'm working and then I have a completely different style when I'm shooting my own shots. When shooting musical performances I need to stick to "stage lighting" and the idea is to reproduce the live look of the stage setting.without any added camera lights. For my own personal shots I still stick to only natural lighting, but I tend to play with the lighting to get the effect I'm creating

  • Report

March 2024

S M T W T F S
     12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627 28 2930
31      

Recent Entries

Recent Comments