How I Found My Photographic Style

Finding your photographic style is step one in being a fashion photographer. But so few know how to actually do that!

In this episode, I chat about how I found my own style, why it's so important to figure out your style, and how you can find yours.

Sign up for Find Your Style, the masterclass here: https://www.oliviabosserteducation.com/find-your-style-masterclass

Transcript from the episode:

0:03

Welcome to the Fashion Photography Show.

This is a podcast teaching you how to build a creative and profitable fashion photography business.

I'm Olivia Bossert, a london-based fashion photographer with over 10 years in the industry.

I've shot for magazines like Elle, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, Grazia and more.

0:22

I've also worked with brands like Rixo Daisy Jewellery, Blink Brow Bar and many more.

If you're a fashion photographer interested in building a business that's made to suit you, then you're in the right place.

I'm so happy you're here for a really long time.

0:42

When I was starting out as a fashion photographer, people would ask me what is your style of photography And I would genuinely look at them blank.

Faced with a monologue in my head that went something like I have no idea what are they talking about?

1:01

I don't know what kind of photographer I am.

Why can't I even answer this basic question?

Oh no, Now I look really, really, really stupid and this kind of thought pattern went through my head every single time for years.

1:17

And it got to the point where I went to see a fashion photography commercial photography consultant and she asked me that question.

She said, what is your style?

Like what?

What makes you stand out?

What makes you different from other photographers?

And I didn't have an answer to her question.

1:35

I had no idea what the answer to that was.

I just didn't know what to say.

I was like, I don't know, I like to take pictures on location.

I like to shoot with natural light, like those were the things I would say and that went on for years.

1:55

I just didn't understand what I was meant to be doing, let alone what mine was.

So she told me in that meeting that my work was all over the place, that I had no individual style.

That essentially the reason I wasn't getting further in my career, because I'd really plateaued at that point.

2:16

I went to see this person because I had hit a rock and I couldn't move past it and I didn't know why.

And she was very honest with me and she said you're technically good, like you can take a good photo, you've got a good eye, you've got a good eye for composition, you can take a pretty picture, but that's it.

2:36

Like there's nothing unique, there's nothing that sets me apart.

Everything looks a little bit disjointed and I was trying to do lots of different things and I was meshing different styles together and I was looking at different themes and I was trying to be Moody and edgy but but romantic and and ethereal and dreamy and natural and also be bringing in like dazed and confused vibes into my work and just nothing made sense.

3:09

So that meeting was pretty pivotal.

Pivotal.

Pivotal for me because it it rang home to me just how much more I had to do and how much work I had to do, which felt scary because I was like, wow, I've been doing this for so long.

3:29

I feel like I've been doing this for such a long time and I'm realizing now just how little I know and just how much more work I have to do.

And that was terrifying.

Thankfully, I went home after that meeting and I sat down and I did an exercise that changed my life.

3:51

And I really worked out very quickly what my style was and what was going to define me going forward.

And it didn't take a huge amount of work, but I I'm going to take a moment to sort of talk a little bit more about why you need to learn what your style is and what it is that you need to specifically do to figure that out.

4:14

So you need to know what your style is.

Because honestly, without it, you're always going to be overlooked by clients.

I know that you have not worked it out yet because you're probably like me and you don't even know where to start.

Or maybe you do know what your style is, or you think you know what it is, but you're not 100% sure because something still feels like it's not clicking.

4:37

I was there for such a long time when I went to that meeting.

I had a vague idea of what I stood for and what my work was about, but I'd never truly defined it and I'd never gotten clear on it.

So I felt disjointed.

I felt all over the place.

I could see the other fashion photographers who were miles ahead of me really had their thing, and they were so consistent with that thing they hadn't really stood for.

5:03

And that was the kind of work that I wanted to create, but I couldn't figure out how I was going to get there.

So I'd spent all these years trying to replicate what I liked and other people, what I saw as trendy, what I thought people wanted me to do.

5:20

And it really led me nowhere.

In a nutshell, your photographic style is a way of describing your artistic voice.

It's how you interpret the world and use that interpretation and the way you see things to create the work and the photos that you create it.

5:43

You know, it's things like colour palettes, mood boards, emotions, themes, creative methods that you use to make the stuff happen.

And that is just a small summary of what style can be and how you can create your own style.

5:59

But there are so many photographers out there who have such distinct styles.

And on it, if you look at any of the top photographers in their field, anyone who is shooting for the top brands, the top magazines, you can go on their profiles on their websites.

6:17

And you can see immediately that they have a thing that they do and they stick to it and they do it over and over and over again, and they've become known for doing that thing.

Think of Annie Leibovitz.

She's a really perfect example.

6:33

Because I think when you see a Leibovitz image, you don't even have to see that.

It's like her name attached to it and you just know it's hers.

Tim Walker's another one I love to reference as well because I think that you can look at his work and immediately know that it was his image.

6:52

Like he shot that Paulo Reversi, another really good example, one of my favorite photographers who I think is used as inspiration for so many people, especially when people are starting out, they seem to like reference a photographer heavily, and they'll try and recreate the same kind of work that they did, but it never quite lands.

7:13

And it's because no one else can be Paulo Reversi.

No one else can repeat Annie Lubovitz.

You know that's been done, but then what do you do to make yourself stand out?

And that is why you need to tap into yourself.

I go on about this a lot, but your style as a fashion photographer actually is found within you and is why I say all the time you need to stop looking ironically at other photographers as work for ideas.

7:44

And it's the first thing we do when we're getting started.

As photographers.

Like, we look at the people we admire, we look at the photographers we admire, and we want to create work like theirs.

So we spend all our time, like looking at their work, studying their work, pinning their work, saving their work.

8:01

But actually that just dilutes our own vision so much more.

So if you take nothing away from this episode other than I want you to mute all your favorite photographers, then I'll have done a good job.

Because when you mute the photographers that you follow and you admire so much, you allow yourself to tap back into your own imagination and stop being influenced by what other people are doing so much.

8:26

It's so easy to look at what other people are doing and think that that's what you should do too.

I really remember a specific time when I was really obsessed with watching vloggers like travel vlog photographers on YouTube.

8:43

And I definitely had a six month period where I was like, I'm going to incorporate this like travel vloggery style of work where I want to go to Iceland and I'm going to be like the nomadic brand photographer that shoots with cars and is all like, what's the word, granola girl vibes.

9:06

And I I I really got distracted by that for a while and it took me a few months to be like, whoa, what am I doing that?

This is not at all who I am.

I'm just being drawn by aspirational stuff that I'm seeing online.

9:24

I'm really easily influenced and I'm easily swayed.

So I had to force myself to pause watching all of these travel vlogs for a little while, just while I worked out what like once.

Like Well, I had to tap back into myself basically.

9:41

Once I'd done that and I was able to basically know that I wasn't going to be over influenced by those those amazing, talented photographers, I could go back and watch their stuff again.

But I had to take that break.

So what changes when you actually work out your style?

9:58

First of all, it makes putting portfolio shoots and personal projects together so much easier.

Like when you're trying to figure out what it is that you do and you don't know what your style is.

And you want to create work and you want to build a portfolio and you know that you need to build that portfolio to create the work.

10:16

That you can attract brands with, that you can pitch those brands, which is what I talk about all the time.

But you second guess everything you come up with because you're like, oh, I don't know if this is going to suit me long term when you have a super clear definition of what your photographic style is.

10:33

Putting all those shoots together, planning all those shoots is so simple you never have that doubt in your mind of second guessing.

Is this going to be a waste of time?

Because you just know what you need to focus on and what you shouldn't focus on, you know what to spend time on and what to leave behind.

10:50

Another byproduct of this, which is a bit more of a vain one, but I know that it's something that really is feels massively important to so many of you is it actually makes you grow your social media following so much quicker because people follow people that they know what they can expect stuff from like you have to, unless they will friend your family, people are going to follow you so that they can expect something from you.

11:17

They want to see more of what you've done before, so when they can expect a certain style of work from you, you become someone that's more interesting to follow because they know what to kind of expect and they're excited about what you're going to do next.

So people follow you because they love your style, because they like the cohesive work that you produce.

11:37

That makes you so much more followable.

Is that a word?

Followable?

Another fantastic byproduct of simply knowing your style is that you will begin to find that clients inquire with you because they want to hire you because of what you do, not just because you're the cheapest option or because you're the most available option.

12:03

They'll want you because of you because no one else can do what you can do, because you do your thing so well that you're the only option for them at this point.

Like, they know that they need you to do that thing because you're the one that does that thing so perfectly.

12:21

Well, This is how you stand out from the hundreds of thousands of photographers there are out there and make yourself different.

And you need to be different.

You need to be doing something that is not recreating someone else's work that you admire so that clients have a reason to pick you over them, the other people.

12:43

Does that make sense?

Pitching also becomes it's so much easier when you know your style because you know exactly who to reach out to.

You are able to pick the brands that you align with based off the work that you're creating.

13:01

That is your style of work and stop reaching out to brands that actually are a waste of time for you to be reaching out to, but also a waste of time to for them to be reaching or hearing from you because you just don't align.

You'll be able to reach out to magazines and create editorials that are better suited to them.

13:21

Because again, if you're like me and you're more of a Harper's Bazaar photographer, you're going to stop sending dazed and confused emails because you don't really align with them.

And that's that's not because either of them are good or bad.

13:36

It's just because that side of work that you do is suited to one or the other.

We cannot appeal to everyone.

We cannot be someone for everyone.

If you are a Jack of all trades, you truly are a master of none.

And that is a saying that I will die on a hill for when I began to really just embody what it is that I do and put blinkers on, what other people were doing, what was trendy, what is like really cool right now.

14:08

I stood out and I got more work even like, and I would say this, I will handle my heart, say this.

My work is not the trendy stuff that you see right now.

I have friends who are killing it out there and their work is incredibly trendy, but there is nothing that there.

14:28

There would be no point in me trying to recreate that because it's not me.

And that's OK.

I'm still getting work.

I'm still getting booked, I'm still making and booking more jobs than I've ever done before.

But the good news is, and I promise this is really good news, is that finding your style is not difficult and it doesn't take long.

14:52

In fact, you can do it in under an hour.

And that might sound too good to be true, But I promise you it is that easy because your style is in you and it's always been in you.

You just haven't known how to dig it out from yourself.

15:10

And this is exactly what I uncovered when I did that exercise all those years ago that changed everything for me.

I just had to peel the layers away and figure out what it is that was going to make me Me.

15:26

I believed that I was going to have to slave away for years to chip away and work and figure out what it was that was going to make me unique.

Like I had this belief that I had to be a photographer for 20 years before I knew what was going to make me stand out.

15:43

But in reality, it really was there all along, since I was a little kid.

So there's a tool that I have developed and I teach it in my brand new master class.

Find your style.

In this exercise, I walk you through exactly what I did and how you can do it too.

16:01

And it literally can take you 10 minutes.

Like it's that easy to do.

But once you have that initial exercise done, you can you can use that you can peel apart and you can use it for the rest of your career.

16:17

Every single shoot that I have done since I made this, this little thing, this exercise, and since I did this exercise, everything has stemmed from it.

Every L shoot, every Marie Claire shoot, every Harper Bazaar shoot.

16:33

All of it has come at its root from uncovering what my style is from this 10 minute exercise.

And I'm so excited about this master class because it it really is step one in mastering your career as a fashion metropographer.

16:50

From this, everything else becomes so much easier and so much clearer.

It becomes easier to build that portfolio.

It becomes easier to pitch yourself those brands.

It becomes easier to become the absolute no brainer for all those clients that you want to work with.

17:07

And it's only going to cost you 47 lbs.

Like a promise step one, I want this to be as accessible to everyone as possible.

It's quick for everyone to do so that you can get on and create and build that portfolio and get all those clients.

17:24

This is not something I'm going to be charging a ton of money for because it's got to be accessible.

I want you to be able to do this even if you've like never been able to do any of my other courses.

If all you've ever done is stuck to my free content, this if you buy nothing but this from me ever, that's fine.

17:42

I'm I'm thrilled because I will have done what I needed to do.

I will have given you that start that you need to build that business for yourself and make yourself stand out.

Become the next and leave of it's become the next Tim Walker.

When you finish the master class, you don't just leave with your style.

18:02

You leave with three shoot ideas as well, because there's no point in obviously working at your style and then not knowing what to do from there.

So I teach you the exercise I get, I walk you through it, I make you do it, and then you come up with three shoot ideas during the master class that you can then use to build your perfect portfolio with.

18:25

I want you to leave with something tangible that you can work on and this is a really good time of year to do that because we're doing so much reflection during the month of December and January.

We're preparing for the next level.

We're preparing for the next year.

If you're listening to this in the future, I'm recording this in December 2023.

18:43

We are about to enter the Christmas, the holiday period and we're all doing this reflection.

A lot of us are going to have time off where we can have a bit more time to think, a little bit more time to reflect.

So what better time than now to do this, To figure out once and for all what it is It's going to make you you, and it's going to make you stand out from the rest of the crowd.

19:05

And then be able to tackle 2024 knowing exactly what you're going to do going forward, exactly who you're going to reach out to, and exactly how you're going to move beyond this next level.

So how do you know if you should sign up for this master class?

Basically, I've listed out a few things, and they could be things like you're worried that you're copying other photographers because you haven't found that unique style yet.

19:28

I know this is a huge fear for so many people that you're worried that you're looking at too many other people's work and that you're going to even subconsciously recreate something that you've seen because you love it so much.

And I know you.

I know that you'd never do that intentionally.

19:44

But you have this weird fear because I had this weird fear that you were copying other photographers because you hadn't figured out what was you yet.

If that's the case, this this master class is going to be perfect for you.

If you spend your life on Pinterest and you're constantly scouring it for inspiration, this is perfect.

20:04

We need to get you off Pinterest.

Like, don't get me wrong, I love Pinterest.

I use Pinterest for so much, but I go to Pinterest after.

I don't use Pinterest to come up with the idea.

I want you to learn how to come up with the idea 1st and then use Pinterest as a tool.

20:22

If if you this sounds like you, If you sound like you're just looking on Pinterest for ideas, you need this master class.

If you believe that your work is unoriginal and it's holding you back from pitching and really getting to your full potential, then this again is going to be perfect for you.

20:39

If you've been pitching and you've not heard back from a single person, this could really help because this is going back to basics.

This is working out the very foundation of your business, and it could help you work out why your work isn't standing out and what you might need to do more or less of or tap back into What made you unique from the start.

21:02

If you find yourself reaching out to make up artists, stylists, hair stylists, model agencies, and you're being ghosted, because I know that happens to a lot of people.

Again, doing this master class can really, really help build that foundational unique feel to your work.

21:23

And if you're reaching out to brands, magazines, sorry.

If you're not reaching out to brands and magazines because you're worried that your work as an original, this will help with changing that for sure.

By the time you finish with the master class, you'll be able to absolutely put together a bunch of portfolio shoots together seamlessly.

21:43

In no time.

It'll be so easy for you to come up with ideas for shoots because you'll know exactly what you need to make.

As I said earlier, you're going to start growing your social media following more.

It's almost inevitable because when your work is more cohesive and more unified, people are drawn to that.

22:01

It's a no brainer.

You'll have clients coming to you more than you've ever had before because they want to hire you for your thing.

They need you specifically because of what you do.

You're going to, in turn, be able to pitch more easily because you have all those brands aligning with you and you know exactly who you align with.

22:21

You're going to be able to feel like you're stopping copying others, and you're not going to be worrying about that anymore.

You might even have your inbox filling up with people saying that they love your style.

Like that is quotes.

I get directly all the time from people inquiring with me.

They say to me I'm here because I love your style.

22:39

I'm here because I love what you do.

You can become known for your specific thing, your type of work, your style of work, your photographic style of work, and you'll get to enjoy your shoots more, both client shoots and personal shoots more, because you're no longer doing something that doesn't feel exciting, that doesn't light you up, that doesn't make you feel like you love it.

23:01

I have been there for years.

I worked on shoots that I was just doing because they made me money, or was doing because I thought I should be doing, or I was doing because, yeah, I felt like they were the right thing to be doing.

But when I began to really tap into what made me unique, what was my style of work, All the shoots I booked going forward was so much more aligned.

23:25

Or if a job came to me that I was like, this is really random, like this is not aligned at all.

I could really clearly see that and I could tell them I don't think I'm the right photographer for you.

I think that you should actually speak to this person because they're way more aligned with what you do.

23:42

That has helped so much and it might to some of you.

You hear that and you think, well, why would you turn away work because it's not in their interest or mine.

If I do something for a client that is not my area of expertise, they're going to be disappointed with that final result.

23:59

I'm going to resent the entire process because I'm not going to enjoy the process of it and no one wins in that situation.

It's much better for me long term to say no to a job and point them in the right direction of someone who can help them who can do a good job than it is for me to say yes to a job just because I think that I should do it.

24:21

If you are interested in signing up for Find Your Style, it is available right now.

The link is in the show notes of this podcast episode.

Go to the link below and sign up right away.

Like I said, it's £47.

It's very very affordable and I can't wait to welcome you in.

24:39

You can also head to oliviabosserteducation.com/find Dash, your dash style Dash master class and that is where you can sign up right away.

The master class is hosted on Teachable so once you sign up you'll immediately get your login access and you can watch the master class.

24:57

And the best thing is you can watch it as many times as you like, so if you want to revisit it in a year's time, refresh yourself.

You can if you want to buy it now and watch it during the holiday period when you have time off, you can do that as well.

There is no limit to how many times or when you can watch it.

25:15

This is available to you and is yours to keep.

And if you do sign up, please come and tell me.

I really, really love to hear from you all and please share when you do my magical exercise that you will see when you join the course, the program, the master class.

25:30

I've got too many courses and things in my head.

When you do it, please show me.

I am so excited to see.

I'm so excited to hear what you do and I can't wait for you to finally, finally, finally find your style.

Thank you so much for listening to the fashion photography show.

25:48

I really hope that you enjoyed this episode.

If you have, please share it over on Instagram and tag me at Olivia Bosford Education so I can see.

Or just send it directly to a friend.

I'll see you next time.