Techy to Artsy # 2

Right, I left you with a portfolio of images in the style of your favourite photographer and you were comparing them. there are two possibilities. First, your images are just as good as your favourite - in which case congratulations, you might want to try copying a few more styles until you start to develop your own style - this is not something you have to work at - it simply comes from having your own preferences - some things will move you, others won't. Any attempt to force a new style is I suspect doomed from the start.

The far more likely scenario for most of us doing this exercise is that our images don't hold a candle to our hero's. The deficiencies can be in several different areas - and working backwards - it could be a question of print quality, composition, subject matter, subject presentation and or timing (including waiting for better lighting or clouds or whatever).

With the above information you now go out again for several weeks and reshoot, all the while thinking about what made your idol's pictures better. Don't concentrate on the deficicencies of yours, rather look at the strengths of his/hers. it's better to have a target to aim for rather than a place to run away from.

If the problem is print quality - you can try reprinting.

If it's composition, then it's a matter of returning to the scene of your crime and seeing if you can move around and find a position in which the elements of the image come together in a stronger, more pleasing or more balanced relationship.

Perhaps the problem is that your images try to say too many things in which case, you work on simplifying your images. There is a risk that as you reduce the number of elements, those remaining are not strong enough to make a picture, in which case all you can do is move to a different location - the world is full of 'almost made a good image' sites and the ability to recognize when a spot doesn't quite have it can save tremendously on time, film, frustration and lets you move on to something with hopefully more possibilities.