L.E.C.C.R.A.P. & Photographic Style

Hopefully you've spent some time on the previous tutorials and learned that good photography and great photographs can be simple to to make. While you can get seriously technical with photography, sometimes the technical stuff can get in the way and scare the beginners away. Even the novice with a good amount of experience under their belt will find the approach to photography presented here rewarding, and the serious pro can use these exercises as a fresh or alternative viewpoint to their tried and true ways of thinking. If your just starting out this is meant to help you find your way. If you're well on your way but in a rut, hopefully this will help you out!

Good Photography

The whole idea is to take good photographs, better photographs, great photographs, right? sort of. A technically good photograph is only half of the equation. Developing your style is what really sets you apart. You need your technical chops to reinforce your style. There are many photographers out there who take technically good pictures, and there are many artists out there with great style (you may be one of them). It's when you combine both good style and good technique that your career, hobby, passion starts to take off. Who am I to make such broad confident statements? Nobody. Somebody? Everybody! In many ways I am, was, or will be just like you. In other ways I'm unique, different, and special. Photography is like that too! The technical part is the same for everyone but the style part is uniquely you.

Photography Basics - LECCRAP

leccrap - lighting, exposure, composition, contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity. These are the basics of good technique. My french sounding acronym is meant to make it easy for you to remember. If you make a mental note to consider each aspect of the acronym when taking a photograph, your technique will quickly and dramatically improve. Once leccrap is second nature, you are well on your way to real photographic art! I say that because when you can unconsciously pull off the technical parts of photography, you can put more thought and consideration into the artistic side of photography - your style.

Photographic Style

This is where it gets good. Style is uniquely you. Style can be formal, trendy, conservative, eccentric, eclectic, derivative, and just about any other adjective or adverb you can think of. You get to choose your photographic style, just as you get to choose your photographic subject.

In the photographic examples on this page, the style is predominately illustrative, with plenty of negative (or empty) space and lots of room for titles and body text. The top most image is rather traditional in pose with both subjects looking toward the camera. The center images is slightly more contemporary, and the bottom image has a more photojournalistic feel. All of the images use elements of the L.E.C.C.R.A.P. photographic design system.

While these images are rather conservative (traditional wedding here - not a punk rock show), there can be as many different styles as there are subjects. It's my opinion that you should develop your style as early as possible, while crafting and improving your technique to enhance and support that style. Although photographic styles are wide ranging and varied, there are ways to categorize anything.

The next tutorial will loosely define the general categories of style; Traditional, Contemporary, Photojournalistic, and Illustrative.

What is your photographic style?