Is Consistency Important in my Photography?

This episode is sponsored by Squarespace, whether you need a domain website or an online store, make your next move with Squarespace. One of my most viewed videos on this channel is about how to edit color in your images and then I talked about not just relying on presets. There's nothing wrong with presets per se, it's just that there's real skill and value in learning how to color edit your images at your own pace using some basic color theories and editing techniques. In that video I also talked about the benefit of defining your own. look for color in your images and start to achieve some coherence in your work and I must say I was very surprised by the negative reaction;

There were a lot of people in the comments who were really unhappy with me talking about

consistency

as if I was saying it's a good thing to have in your work, they were saying things like: you know each color should be represented as it was on the day without being touched and if you're doing something else you are lying or you are ruining things. I mean, one guy even accused me. to kill

photography

, I think a lot of that reaction came about because people don't really understand what coherence means in your work and what its places are, a lot of people just assume that coherence equals homogeneity or equality, it means that If you are going to have

consistency

in your work, all your images will look like each other without variety, if you have done that you are wrong, that is not what we are talking about when we talk about consistency, so let's break it down a bit, let's get started.

Saying that coherence is not a new idea in art, many artists we know defined a look for themselves and use particular techniques and consistent forms to create that look. This week I went to the Van Gogh exhibition at Tate Britain with a friend of mine and looking at his work it is so clear when you look at it that he had a great affinity for the color yellow and in all its shades and he incorporated yellow and blue to counteract it. that yellow in many of your pieces, my friend. To let me get into the background a little bit, it says that one of the theories is that Van Gogh was really into absinthe and one of the side effects of absinthe is that it starts to tint your world a little bit yellow, but either way meant that his work has a very recognizable look in its color tones, one of my favorites, Rembrandt had really earthy brown tones in his work from the beginning, if you were looking for a portrait with Rembrandt wearing a bright yellow or blue top, you knew it would be was going Muted in favor of this kind of earthy, dirty texture that he put into all of his work that he's now known for, but let's focus on the

photography

, I mean, take Steve McCurry for example, he shot Kodachrome film and Kodachrome gave him to your images a warm feeling.

That's what that film did: boost the reds, if they appeared in the frame, would darken the blues of the sky and mute much of the green in the image and whatever other magic happened in Kodachrome to give it that look, but while shooting with that film gave his work a look and consistency and he didn't change films all the time, he didn't put out a roll of Velvia one day and then test you the next day and then akhtar the next day because he wanted a lot of disorder and variety, he wanted a consistent look, so he always selected Kodachrome and Kodachrome was almost, if you think about it, like his analog preset that he was applying to his work in general and that's why, even though I don't use them myself.

I'm not a snob about other people who would choose to use a digital preset because in essence how is it any different than going out and selecting his favorite film emulsion that he put in the camera in the past? give your images the look you want, they didn't create that film emulsion and if you didn't create your digital preset it's not really a problem if you like use it. What I was suggesting in the video I mentioned before is that you could go a step further and design your own look, your own film emulsion, your own digital preset, your own color look, which is a thread that can start to go through your images to give them consistency and, in my opinion, that requires a lot more skill, not less.

I mean it's just a very Luddite view of technology that would put on a pedestal the idea of ​​walking into a store and handing over money for your favorite roll of film, but then denigrate the idea of ​​designing your own custom color look on a digital publisher, and in all honesty, I think a big part of the problem is fear. Many people are afraid of how complicated it might be to start creating some consistency in their work, so instead they get up on a soapbox and tell everyone how to do it. Their photography is much purer because they just take the photo and post it straight from the camera without any work, but of course the irony is that these are also the people who tell you that you should only shoot roars and that a raw file it's just a collection of data it's not even really an image, but you have to put that file into a program like Capture One, Lightroom, Camera Raw or some other raw converter that will read that data and convert it back into an image and each of those programs. it will do it slightly differently and give you a slightly different image and a raw file is designed to contain as much information and dynamic range as possible so you can work on it.

That's why your image and a raw converter often look pretty flat and boring because the expectation of a raw file is that you put your stamp on it in terms of how much color and how much contrast and what happens to those individual colors because they are expect you to create your look from that file if you want to post photos directly from the camera, it's actually much better to just shoot JPEGs in-camera with your favorite picture profile applied. I mean, when I took Street with the Fugees I would use JPEG and I would use the classic Chrome preset because I considered It's my movie stuff, it gave me the look I wanted and I'm 90% of the way there.

If I wanted to make any adjustments afterwards, there were small changes before I posted it right away, but if I shoot in the studio, I will do it. raw because I want all that information, all that dynamic range, but I know that I will have to get to work later, it will take me a while to recover that contrast, that color that defines the style of photography that I want to present. the world, but coherence is more than just a matter of color and people ask me this question in many different areas and in general, why my work needs to be coherent, why is it so

important

and I would say it depends on what what you want from photography. and what stage you are at, if you are a beginner photographer I would say that a lack of consistency is not

important

, in fact it may not even be useful because I think when you are starting out in photography it is very important to experiment and play. and to try a lot of different styles, shoot a lot of different subjects because defining your style is a long journey and to take that journey to speed it up, try as many things as you can because in doing so you will cross things off a list. depending on what you enjoyed or what you didn't enjoy what you felt you did a good job at what you didn't and what gives you life what gives you juice when you shoot it what just drains you and leaves you tired everything Those questions as you try and play are how you define a style, so starting your journey by trying to say "I need to be consistent" will cripple that experimentation and you should give yourself the freedom to play even if you wouldn't qualify. as a beginner because you have been shooting for a long time and now you have a lot of skills, but you are still just an amateur who shoots for yourself, you are an amateur.

I would say it's a personal choice at that point. It's up to you if you start creating a style and look for your work or if you prefer to just photograph a little bit of everything in your own way and have your edits be different and not consistent with each other and fun, that's absolutely fine if it's just about you for your creative output, fill your boots, do your thing, but if you have any aspirations with your photography, whether it's making money as a professional photographer or generating some kind of following for your work, then I'm afraid yes, consistency it matters.

I've been on the other side of this industry. I ran photography studios for two large companies and it was often the case that there was too much work to do on my own, so I needed to hire other photographers to come and help me. for a while and that meant I needed to go through hundreds of portfolios and I remember having to scan other people's work and I always overlooked people who had no consistency in their portfolio because it reads like a lack of control when looking at someone's . I work where everything looks different and there is a strong contrast between black and white and then there is a washed out color look and everything is all over the store.

I wonder which photographer I will choose on this particular day, what mood there will be and in what style. I'm going to put these images up as someone who has a consistent look in their work. I know I can tell them what look I want and they will be able to deliver a consistent look. Consistency is often read as control. I know a lot of people complain. coherence because they say it makes them feel locked in or robs them of their creative freedom, but believe me, when you hand out a portfolio and ask people to hire you to work, you can't be undisciplined, you have to show that you have control over your art form and Your consistency will do it for you, take my word for it, even if you don't care about making money from your photography but want to generate some kind of following for your work, consistency is still important and test me on this.

Think about the photographers you follow on Instagram or any other social media platform. You probably don't follow photographers who are very inconsistent, the people who post photos of their dogs and then their family and then a landscape and then try it. portraits and they went on vacation and then to a wedding they went to with those people you follow. I guarantee you are people you know and they are your friends, that's why you follow them, if you follow a photographer who doesn't know them purely for their work, I guarantee they have a style and a consistency and that's why you're following them.

I think it's basic psychology. I mean, if you're like me and find an image online that you like, you'll be right. On the like button, you can jump below and write a comment and then you'll review and see the rest of their work and if their work is consistently good, if there's a theme and a look that it really resonates with, that's when you'll hit the button to follow, but if it's a mess, if you can see that that image was unique, often it's different types of things and you're not really sure what they're going to produce next, you probably won't do it.

Hit the follow button, you'll get away from it. I would venture to guess that your favorite photographers you follow have an aesthetic, a look, and a point of view to their work that you resonate with and will be the same for people. who follows you and the best photographers you follow, you can recognize it's their work even before you look at the name. I think you could tell us our Gardo image and Annie Leibowitz image - Steve McCurry image. Before reading the name, I would know that it works because they have a worldview and aesthetic that I resonate with and am now familiar with, it's almost like if my favorite authors put a new book out into the world, I would buy it and read it.

I would read even if I know. nothing because I trusted their voice, the same goes for photographers, there are photographers that I have come to know and I trust their visual voice and wherever they go in the world I want to see how they see things, does all this mean they are professionals? Now we are limited and can no longer be creative or experimental because we are locked into our style, of course we don't have to experiment, play and try new things, that's how we grow, but I would just say be careful where you show that. work I mean, I'm working on some stuff right now with medium format film photography that you don't see much because, to be honest, it's still a mess, it's all over the place.

I'm still working on it, so I'm trying to define. anesthetic for it and how I want to use it and I'm playing around and really enjoying the experimentation there and when I'm ready I could include it in the mainstream of my work and start publishing it so it could even be included in my portfolio if I really like it and feel like it fits there or it could be a standalone project that has its own aesthetic and consistency. The point is that I'm going to experiment and play, but you won't see it. Until it's ready, I think of it as comedians building their new comedy hour.

I mean, if they're big, they're not going to book stadiums and fill them up, which they might do just to work on their material. and try out new jokes, they'll go to little comedy clubs with twenty-three forty people for six months just to slowly work through that material to read the reactions, people will rewrite things and change them so that the hour they build isconsistent. in quality to the work they have done previously and when they feel it is ready that is when they announce their tour and start filling stadiums and releasing that work to the general public and that is how I think about my work as a professional photographer, so if you are someone who If you have aspirations to work professionally or gain followers, let's talk about a couple of types of consistency that you can start incorporating into your work.

First, one is to develop a consistency in appearance and your appearance comes down to a cocktail of details, such as the focal length you like to photograph with the colors. you like to include in your images the light you like to photograph the editing techniques you use the contrast levels you introduce into your images across the board all those things will define the look you give your work, I mean, take my word For example, if I just look at my Instagram and the street work that I do, I mainly photograph between 28 and 35 thousand. I like bright light, which is what I normally photograph in.

I really like a diagonal portion of shadow across a frame, but I usually play with shadows and make sure that in the edits I make to the images, whether they are color or black and white, the contrast ratios and the depth of the blacks are more or less similar and, personally, I do not feel limited or confined in that style that I chose it took me years to get there I liked it a lot I like that I have an aesthetic and a vision of the world I like that when I leave the session I can see things that other people may miss and I can take those photos and edit them, my stamp and present them to the world.

I like having that visual voice, so if you want to start thinking about the consistency of your appearance, it all comes down to figuring it out. What is your visual voice? And they do that by answering a series of questions. What images have you taken in the past that really resonate with you? What was the composition technique you used? What kind of colors do you like to see in your images? a contrast ratio, so you want what kind of focal lengths give you the view of the world that you want to show everyone else because when you run those details through your images, that starts to create a consistent look for you, the second type of consistency a Think about consistency in your topic.

It is one of the most frequently asked questions I receive. People say I want to create a website for myself and show my images to the world. I have some lovely landscapes, but you should see the. The food I had on my recent vacation to Santorini was beautiful. I took beautiful photographs there. I have some lovely portraits of my friends. I want to carry all of that and recently I went to my friend's wedding and took some amazing photos. that I want to upload them too and then they tell you at the end that their purpose with that website is to become a wedding photographer.

Now think about it for a minute if you want to go out and hire a wedding photographer. for your wedding and you have a bunch of websites in front of you and one is a website like the one I just described with a little bit of everything, there may be some good pictures but there's just a little bit of everything spread all over the place or even like three or four pages with totally different topics, some food, some travel, some landscape and some wedding, and then you go to another website with a photographer and she uploads only wedding photos and there is a consistent look and there a lot of wedding photography on that website, which photographer are you going to hire for your wedding, of course, the second one because it's too important for you not to do it.

I know there are a lot of different opinions on this, this is just me, but for me personally, if you want to get hired for a specific genre of photography if you want to be a wedding photographer post only wedding photos in your portfolio if you want to be a food photographer post only food photos in your portfolio because it gives you the best chance of getting hired and not That doesn't mean you can't film that other experiment and play around as much as you want, just don't post it in your portfolio, keep your portfolio as a clear statement the type of job you want to get hired for and the same goes for Instagram, make sure that if you are trying to get hired on Instagram for a specific type of job or want to pursue that genre of photography, you make the best of your images in that regard , if you want to open a second account, you can do so.

It's all free and post your other work there and the things you're trying out, whether you're on vacation for your friends to see or anything else, but as far as the portfolio goes, make it a clear statement of the work you you want to obtain. hired to, at the end of the day this consistency issue is completely up to you, what you want to do with your photography if you're just starting out, don't worry about it yet, it's not important right now if you're just shooting so you learn to experiment and Playing is the best way to learn if you're a hobbyist and you're just shooting for yourself it doesn't really matter shoot for yourself do whatever you want if you want to take on the challenge of creating a consistent look for your work go for it but if you don't mind that session and post whatever you want, fill your Instagram or your website with wildly inconsistent but hugely creative work because you just enjoy it, that's absolutely fine. but if you're getting to that stage where you're starting to think that maybe you could build a career out of photography.

I'm really enjoying it, maybe I could make some money from it. What if I could make this my daily job? Even if you don't care about the money you started out thinking, I'd love to build some sort of following around my work, it's time to start looking at how consistent your images are and if they're not, start. To take that journey towards defining a look and style for what you photograph, you don't need to be afraid of the journey. It takes time to define the look you want and you don't have to get too complicated or technical either. define that appearance, you can do it very simply personally.

I found this journey really fulfilling and I don't want to say it hasn't been long and frustrating at times and it's still going. I don't think it ends for anyone, but I found it really satisfying to figure out what my visual voice is and incorporate it into my work over time. Thanks again to Squarespace for sponsoring this video. If you need a new website or domain, it's a fantastic option. I've used them for eight or nine years. now long before they are sponsors of this channel and if you're getting to the stage where you think you're ready to start putting together that online portfolio, they have beautiful, minimal templates that really make your work look good and we recently launched an app that helps you manage your website on the go.

It's fantastic, so I can change our images, change text and move my website from my phone, so it couldn't be more convenient. Start your free trial today. at squarespace.com and go to Squarespace com forward slash Sean Tucker to get 10% off your first purchase.