I think there is at least one point in every photographer’s career where you start to look at your work and you think it just looks terrible. The images just aren’t the way you envisioned them in your head. Or they don’t match your personal style as much as you had hoped they would. For me, second guessing myself and my work happens all the time, but I’d like to think that just forces me to grow. But the second thing, the feeling that your images just don’t match the vibe that you love, that is a struggle I think you can move past!

The style of photography that I love, love looking at is film inspired with lots and lots of negative space and muddy tones, overcast days, and moodiness. My work on the other hand, is bright and colorful, with an emphasis on intimate and close portraits of people who are genuinely happy. My photography seemed so perky! And it might seem like I’m perky because I’m small BUT I’M SO NOT PERKY.

I tried Lightroom presets to no avail. VSCO presets. If you’ve never heard of them, they’re a set of film inspired presets that give your images tones that make them look like different types of films. Honestly, they’re really great presets, and I’m sure for some people they are such a life saver. But I was searching for some kind of answer that couldn’t be found in presets or even editing at all. After trying to edit several sessions and a wedding or two with these presets I realized that the images I felt like were my best work weren’t edited with a preset or action. To my surprise, my favorites were clean, classic edits of these incredible moments between my clients. Once I put down all of my expectations about what I wanted my style to be and what it was, I finally learned one of the most important truths about style:

Your style is more about light, posing, and composition than anything else. 

You know how Oprah talks about light bulb moments? That was mine. Somewhere inside of me, something clicked and I finally understood that editing is actually the SMALLEST part of creating your style. Editing is the last thing I do, and is probably the easiest thing I do now that I really understand my style. What really makes an image “my style” is what happens when I’m behind the camera! It’s the soft light that I prefer to shoot in, the wide apertures, the mix of fun and intimate poses, and the way that I compose each image. Instead of worrying about how I was going to edit an image, I tried to focus on how to compose and/or capture the genuine moments that I love so much. My style now isn’t really PERKY, but it’s not really moody and deep either and that’s okay, because it’s ME. And even more than my work being ME, it’s my clients as well. They’re fun, stylish, silly, romantic, and modern and that shows through in my images!

My advice for anyone who is still trying to find their style is to STOP. Seriously. Stop. Since your style is so ingrained in how you shoot, focus on that. Focus on finding beautiful light, and creating compositions that make you swoon when you’re behind the camera (or if you’re a guy, you can fist pump instead of swoon). Look at your favorite images and figure out what it is about them that you love. Focus on clean edits (exposure, contrast, etc), and then go from there!