Style. Some photographers have it, others don’t, many people don’t even know what style is and in photography ask five professionals and chances are you’ll get five different definitions about the word style itself. Established style however is a key ingredient that will identify a professional photographer from their colleagues and subordinate beginners.

Personally I define photographic style as the following:

Photographic style is a consistent, identifiable quality in a visual body of work that portrays the artistic personality of the photographer and the life-influenced reflection of what the photographer saw and felt during that depiction of time.

Normally photographic style is associated with those that have made it as the leaders in specific genres of photography. When one sees Playboy style images, few know that Ken Marcus influenced that style, though today it’s more associated with the current number one contract photographer for Playboy, Arny Freytag, Marcus’ former assistant. [Read more...]

The greatest photographers in the world are those that understand the three “C’s” of being a professional photographer, comprehension, communication and creativity. While you’ll often hear the statement, “The difference between an amateur and a pro photographer is the pro never shows you his bad photos,” that’s more myth than fact, though practiced by some.

Let’s look at the first fact, comprehension. A photographer today not only needs to comprehend how his equipment works, i.e., the difference between an F/stop and a bus stop, but how his market, client and even audience functions.

While understanding your equipment is core to this first fact, especially knowing white-balance, lens choices, aperture and shutter-speed settings and all the gizmos cameras come with today like image stabilizers and matrix metering, comprehension has evolved to peripheral levels. Comprehending your market, its demographics including buying power and the intended audience is also important to you and your client. There are so many research tools available that there is no reason to fail in this category. [Read more...]