16/ Defining my own style

My fashion portfolio is predominantly shot with flash with ambient light. There is a good balance of location and studio photographs and the majority of the images are of female models. Female models mainly appear strong and content with themselves and they range in sizes from 7 to 14. A shallow depth of field is common in ambient-lit photographs while a wide aperture (usually f/11) is common in those photographs lit with flash. Models generally take up half to one third of the frame thus they are predominantly the most important element in terms of composition and the focal point. One distinctive element of my signature style is to off-centre my subjects - the focal point is very rarely centered. Another common aspect of my work is underexposing the background by a stop or two to enhance the subject that is being photographed. In each photograph the focus point is on the model's eyes (not the focal point but the actual autofocus point). Another common feature of my photography is that I shoot mainly in colour that is either enhanced or desaturated in post production.

Plain white, black or grey graduated backdrops are most commonly used in my studio shots, gels are very rarely used, although I am beginning to experiment with slight toning in backgrounds. Makeup is predominantly simple but sometimes semi-dramatic. Nudity is not a common theme in my work and styling is always somewhat simple and never overpowers the image as a whole. Retouching is evident in my work but not often to the point of artificiality. There is a good balance of landscape and portrait photographs, square formats are not common in terms of aspect ratio. Props are rarely used and if props are evident they are limited in quantity. Posing is a key element in my body of work, as is moody lighting.

What I love

I love collaborating with different clients and working with them to come up with unique shots based on their work. My favourite clients at the moment are fashion designers and models or emerging models. My ideal clients in the future will be established designers and models and shooting for big campaigns. I am continually pushing myself to produce different concepts while still being true to myself, and I push myself to try new things (in terms of lighting, location, posing, etc). I love that fashion photography allows so much creativity because there are so many elements under the control of the photographer, and each of these elements contributes to the final image. I am inspired by photographers such as Mike Ruiz, Annie Leibovitz, Russel James, Jez Smith, Nigel Riches and many others (click here). Apart from this I always keep my eyes open; magazines, billboards, movies, music, locations when I am driving, people walking in the street, everything inspires me. Because I visually consume so much I determine what stands out the most and analyze what makes that photograph stand out, whether it is the lighting, posing, styling, technique, idea etc., or a combination of these.

Over-consumption and self-evaluation

I find it easier (and I'm sure many of you will agree) to analyze and evaluate the work of others; I am getting 'better' at selecting my 'strongest' images but this is still very difficult for me, so I value other people's opinions and ask for their justifications and I ultimately make my own decision. I have also established (as many of us have this semester) that the more you look at photographs the more they loose effect - when I look back to the initial time that I view my images after I come home from a shoot to the time of assessment I they do not seem quite as strong as the first impression. And I think this is because we over-consume our own images - from the time of capture, editing, selecting, printing, hanging, blogging, briefing... I do believe that a great photograph will always be a great photograph but I also believe that over-consumption leads to a loss of effect.