How to Hack a Photographer’s Style

Studying and “hacking” a photographer’s style – working out how they use light, composition, colour and editing – is one of the fastest ways to learn. The key is to analyse, practise, then adapt it into your own style. Here’s how to hack a photographer’s style.

Most of us have got a favourite photographer. Someone who inspires, excites, amazes and surprises us with every new photograph. We are part of a grateful audience to see their work and sit in wonder at how they achieve these images.

But wouldn’t it be nice if, in some way, we could be just like them? This is a full guide on how to recreate a photographer’s style.

Get Inspired to Create Your Own Photos

Before we begin, can we just start off by saying that we aren’t trying to rip off, infringe or oversimplify another photographer’s work.

We know how hard it is being a professional photographer, so we are the last people to cheat hard working people out of their living.

Instead, what we are going to explore today is how to break down a photograph and emulate it using our own camera and lighting. If you have a favourite photographer and would love to aspire to their style, then you’ll need these tips to help you out.

Breaking Down a Photograph

Whether it’s fashion or photography, copying someone’s style is seen as flattering (providing it’s not ripping them off). For a new photographer these tips will also help you ‘read’ an image and understand how it was taken if you want to use elements in your own work.

Every photographer has a favourite photo and we’ll all have a different reason what we like about it. It may be the subject, background, lighting, colours, angle, expression, location.

To make it easier to understand I am going to take a 3 of our own favourite photographs to breakdown. I’ll discuss as many elements as we can so you can understand how to deconstruct your chosen favourite.

1. Kurt Cobain by Michel Linssen

Let’s look at this underground turned mainstream poster boy of grunge pop, Kurt Cobain. Linssen’s portrait of him is part of a series that he took during a recording session. The image is candid and captures Cobain in an isolated moment combining his musical genius as well as his nonchalant approach to professionalism.

Given the age and grainy detail of the picture straight away we know it’s shot on film. The black and white finish looks crisp and well defined which suggests it was shot on black and white film rather than converted from colour.

Along the edges of Cobain’s leather jacket, you can see specular highlights of a light off-screen. There must also be a light shining from the left-hand side to illuminate the face, backed up by the shadows around his jaw and neck. It suggests that both lights are high up and probably just ambient lighting in the studio.

So already we know the Linssen likes to shoot candid portraits using black and white film filled with ambient light. That’s a lot learnt already. But there’s more…

Can you see the wire dangling across the frame on the right-hand side? It may seem distracting, but it tells us 2 things:

1. Linssen shot this portrait instinctively and didn’t have time to get into the ‘perfect’ position. Therefore, he doesn’t direct / pose his subjects.

2. He chose not to edit it out afterwards meaning he obviously likes it. Therefore, it’s part of his style.

2. The Way Home by Tom Hunter

Tom Hunter’s uncompromising portrait is another favourite of ours for his seemingly incidental photographs.

Hunter’s image entitled ‘The Way Home’ straight away has a number of characteristics that builds up an impression that we can hack. Let’s look at them point-by-point.

The image is close to a 5:4 crop ratio which is rare in digital photography and more closely associated with medium/large format cameras which, providing it’s not been cropped afterwards, suggests he works on film.

The composition does not conform to the rule of thirds: the subject sits in the lower third with nothing on the power points. That is not carelessness. It is the first clue that the picture is quoting something else.

What it is quoting is a painting. The Way Home restages Millais’s Ophelia, and Hunter made it for his Life and Death in Hackney series after reading a local news report about a young woman who drowned in a canal walking home from a party. Every choice in the frame follows from that: the pose, the shallow water, the brambles closing over her, the near-square crop of a large-format camera, even the horizon that is not straight. Nothing about it is stumbled upon.

And this is the useful lesson, which is the opposite of the one you might take at first glance. A photograph that reads as accidental is often the most carefully built of the lot. The apparent artlessness – the flat light, the awkward placement, the sense that you have walked up on something private – is doing the work. Hunter is borrowing the composition and the emotional weight of a Victorian painting and dropping them onto a Hackney canal, so that a local newspaper story acquires the gravity of a classical tragedy.

So when you are hacking a style, ask what the photographer is referencing before you assume they were casual. Look for the pose you have seen in a gallery, the palette borrowed from a film, the crop that belongs to a different era of camera. Hunter leans towards darker themes, industrial settings and quiet tragedies, and he builds each one deliberately.

3. El Born by David Rodriguez

El Born is a residential district of Barcelona, a city known for its colour and energy which is perfectly represented by Rodriguez’s photograph.

The shot is vibrant and rich in detail, using an HDR or stacking type effect to bring out the textures. HDR editing should only really be used to exploit different textures in the right situation such as this.

This approach could also mimic the various stories ongoing in the photo. We can see two youths with a skateboard in the foreground contrasting against the older couple walking away in the background.

In terms of composition, the narrow alleyway forces our eyes towards the distance causing us to see different stories on our way through. Rodriguez seems to like using camera composition and editing to tell a story rather than working with a single subject.

Some may see this shot, with all the different colours and textures, as distracting and messy without a central character. But in truth, urban photography such as this, is about living in the moment and not waiting for something truly unique.

The small interactions, juxtaposition of lives and various characters make the shot more genuine and not staged. Rodriguez frames the energy of the story through his editing which draws us in further to inspect the finer details.

How We Recreated our Favourite Photograph

It’s all good hacking down these styles, but we wanted to see how we could emulate the findings into our own photography. For that we need to re-create one of our favourites, so let’s choose Tom Hunter.

Since we haven’t got a large-format camera to hand, we used our own equipment and worked on the atmosphere instead. Here is what that meant in practice.

The location. Shallow water with vegetation closing in over it, found rather than built – the edge of a canal, a pond, a ditch behind a hedge. Overgrown beats tidy.

The light. Overcast, flat and directionless, which is what makes the picture feel found rather than lit. Nothing was added.

The crop. Set to 5:4 in camera, so the frame is nearly square and sits closer to the painting than to a normal photograph.

The pose. Directed carefully, one hand at a time, until it matched the Millais – and with our model warm, dry and safe throughout, which is worth saying plainly. Nobody needs to lie in cold water to make this picture.

The edit. Greens pulled towards olive, contrast lowered, and the highlights held back so nothing in the frame draws the eye before the figure does.

The video below walks through the whole thing.

How to Take Photos Like Your Favourite Photographer: Summary

Fingers crossed all the analysis has been useful and will help your future projects. Hacking one picture creates a fast impression of a photographer’s style but to get a truer reflection then look at a body of their work instead.

A photographer with a good sense of direction and style will be easy to hack. You’ll see repetitive themes, constant lighting techniques and uses of certain colours, all of which will help you in your emulation.

If you’ve ever embarked on a style hack like this then please let us know how you got on and your results too.

If you’re an iPhotography member, then upload it to the gallery so we can check it out. If you aren’t then tag us on Facebook and Instagram.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I copy a photographer’s style to learn?

Analyse their work: the light, angles, composition, colours and editing they favour. Then recreate similar shots to understand their choices. Imitate to learn the techniques, then adapt them into your own style.

Is it OK to copy another photographer’s style?

To learn, yes, studying and recreating techniques is how artists have always learned. Copying to pass off work as your own or to plagiarise is not. Use influences as a springboard to your own voice.

How do I work out how a photo was taken?

Look at the light (direction, quality, time of day), the depth of field and likely aperture, the focal length and angle, and the editing (colour, contrast, tone). Reverse-engineering teaches you a lot.

How do I turn influences into my own style?

Combine techniques from several photographers you admire with your own taste and the subjects you love. Over time, the consistent choices you keep making become a recognisable style of your own.

What can I learn from studying other photographers?

Light, composition, posing, colour, editing, and how they tell a story. Studying the photographers you admire, and recreating their approach, accelerates your learning far faster than working in isolation.