Develop your own style

By Cliff Mautner

Cliff Mautner In this incredibly competitive and over-saturated marketplace in this crazy world of wedding photography, the need to stand out from the crowd is becoming more and more imperative. The digital age has allowed hobbyists, soccer moms, and just about anyone, the opportunity to foray into the field, while the number of weddings stays relatively constant. Take note of how many new photographers are battling for their share of the market. Distinguishing yourself and your own sense of style will allow you stay ahead of the curve.

I spent 15 years and shot 6,000 assignments with the Philadelphia (USA) Inquirer before I began my wedding career in 1998. The term “wedding photojournalism” was only recently popularized. It seemed to be the perfect transition for me. However, I felt my images were lacking something early on. Wedding photography wasn’t as simple as just documenting the events that happened in front of me. I soon realized that I’d need to incorporate some traditional aspects into my coverage, while also making sure I continued to provide an edge to the work - which is why I was hired to begin with. By Cliff Mautner

I always made fun of wedding photographers when looking at the bride and groom staring at the camera, next to the big tree and other recipe-motivated imagery. I was also critical of the trite, posed, and formulaic images that many traditionalists dwelled upon. So, I quickly realized that my overall approach and style needed to change. The bottom line was…Evolve or Die! I knew I needed to fuse styles together to create my artistic interpretation of the day, along with the traditional elements of wedding photography.

Today, my style and approach is one that encapsulates the day in a photojournalistic manner, while mixing in elements of fashion and creative portraiture. I’ll set the stage for moments to take place, but I won’t EVER stage the moments. I’ll ask a bride to get into her gown in the most flattering light available to me, but I’d never tell her how to do it. I’m not subject to the same journalistic ethics as when I was working for a newspaper, so I do take liberties with certain situations. It’s for this reason, I’d never classify myself as a true wedding photojournalist since I’m not opposed to doing what I occasionally need to do, in order to make a picture.

I’m perhaps best known for my ability to create texture, dimension, and mood, while encountering nearly any lighting situation from noon to midnight. I do my best to give my images an edge by placing my couples in myriad situations that are out of the ordinary. It’s not uncommon for my favourite images to be captured in the harshest lighting condition, under overpasses, in gritty alleys, subway stations, or other challenging compositional scenarios that aren’t always considered to be ‘wedding friendly’. After all, Elliot Erwitt said, “you can make good pictures anywhere, you can even make good pictures in New Jersey”! My style is still evolving, and it’s taken me 26 years to get to where I am, but there are ways to help your style evolve fairly quickly.

In order to develop one’s style, without question, the single most important element, in my opinion, is to make sure the technical aspects of photography are innate. Think about it - if you need to think about shutter speeds and apertures while attempting to compose an image, you’ve missed your moment. One needs to comprehend exposure values, and do so quickly, in order to properly and consistently expose images. In addition, it helps to use your eyes in such a way as to visualize what lens would work best in a given situation. Dorthea Lange said, “the camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera”. If we can use our eyes and predict which focal length would work best for a particular image, we’re then choosing the right tool to complete our vision. The goal is to ‘see’ with your mind’s eye. Seeing with your mind's eye is a lot different than just looking through your viewfinder. In order to accomplish the former, a photographer's skill set must be secured before they can begin developing their own style. That’s what my workshops are all about, but that’s another story entirely!

Allow others to inspire you! It’s perfectly acceptable to view websites from other photographers, but be wary of studying too much or you’ll find yourself copying - using those ideas and build upon them. Decide what you like and dislike from others and then use those images as a source of inspiration. It’s way too easy to look at an image on someone’s website and copy it verbatim. This, in my humble opinion, is what’s been happening in the USA over the past few years. Newcomers are buying digital cameras, learning the bare essentials, looking at the work of established photographers (who’ve worked hard to develop their own styles), and attempting to reproduce images that have already been done. This has contributed greatly to the homogenization of our craft here in the USA. There are times that it’s difficult for the average client to distinguish one website from the next. This is another reason that it’s essential for you to separate yourselves from the pack.

Gain inspiration from other sources outside of the world of photography. I’m a huge fan of motion pictures. Jim Jarmusch, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and scores of other brilliant directors use light and composition in ways that can inspire us.

Magazines such as Vogue, Elle, and Vanity Fair which aren’t necessarily photography magazines, contain some of the hottest new artists with extremely innovative styles. Look at the way they treat their imagery. Notice the Photoshop work and the texture they create during capture, as well as their post-production styles. Pick, choose, borrow, and admire various aspects of what you notice, then interpret how you’d like to incorporate these ideas into your own work.

In addition to the points above, it’s also important to keep in mind what I’ll call ‘essentials of creativity’ to help enhance your style. The key element is to remove ‘blinders of habit’ which prevent us from stepping out of our comfort zones on the wedding day. When I work in a venue that I’m very familiar with, I’ll do my best to forget about images that I’ve made there in the past. This allows me to keep my mind open to new, and fresh ideas that perhaps I hadn’t used in the past. By eliminating pre-conceived notions of what we’d like to shoot, we’re allowing our mind’s eye to dictate the images we capture, instead of making the same photos in the same locations, time after time.

Finally, and perhaps most important for me, is to find the light and make it yours. Light is the key element in our craft in conjunction with the composition of our images. The way we use it dictates our style.

In conclusion, no matter what style you choose to create for yourselves, make it your own. One of my favourite quotes was by an unknown author who said “One photo out of focus is a mistake. Ten photos out of focus are an experimentation. One hundred photos out of focus are a style”!! Develop your style in order to stand out and be noticed.

Cliff Mautner’s career in photography spans 26 years. After 15 years and 6,000 assignments as a photojournalist with the Philadelphia Inquirer, and working for an eclectic array of commercial clientele ranging from Comcast to Subaru, Cliff launched his wedding photography career and hasn’t looked back. He’s been recognized by WPPI as “one of the top photographers and educators in the world” and has shared his concepts and ideas across the country speaking for DWF, WPPI, PPA, and other photographic organizations. He’s perhaps best known for his ability create quality images in some of the most difficult lighting conditions encountered. Rangefinder magazine describes him as having “a freshness and imagination that is new and important” and Joe Buissink says he “sees light like nobody he’s ever met”. He’s also one of only four wedding photographers in the USA sponsored by the Nikon Corporation

Photo Quote: Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true. Diane Arbus