How to make your photography stand out & more engaging

“How do I make people connect with my work more?” it's difficult! Bringing your images alive and making them stand out can feel daunting, but I'm hoping that I can give you a few quick tips today.

Depth of Field + Foreground:

The image on the top is a really good example of this. I deliberately placed the tree branches in the foreground of this shot. This is a technique that you see a lot of documentary photographers do because it makes the viewer feel like they're seeing something that they shouldn't be seeing, or that the subject isn't aware of them there. It's quite “voyeuristic." I love doing this in my work. Try it yourself!

Ask your Model to do an Action:

Instead of giving your model a standard, static pose to hold, why not ask her to do an action? I love to get my models to walk and laugh, spin and smile, bring movement into their clothing.

Be Harmonious with Colour:

A really quick and simple way to draw a viewer in and create a pleasing image is to keep all of your colors harmonious. For example, sticking to just blues and whites. Or just pink tones. Or looking at complementary colors.

Plan A Storyline:

I am a big believer in storytelling, and it's for good reason. I love to create Pinterest mood boards & imagine fictional tales before my shoots. This forms a real character in my mind, and I can relay that character to my model. Then planning shots becomes easy! For example, if the story is about a man/woman who lives off the grid & among nature, I can ask myself “What would someone who lives in that environment do? What mood/vibe would he/she have?" and before you know it, I've got a list and an idea of poses that I can put my model in. My shoot “Nomad” is the perfect example of that.

For the longest time, I resisted planning my shoots and thought that I did better if I just turned up and figured it out on the day.

I'll be honest, the main reason that I didn't plan my shoots was that I didn't know-how. I genuinely didn't know what I should be doing, or how to do it.

When I realized that I needed to be more organized on my shoots, and come prepared, I began to learn how to do it, and now have a really robust system that I follow before almost every single shoot that I do - especially any personal work that I create.

Ever since doing all of this work, my work has improved beyond my wildest dreams, and I'm booking clients that I could only have ever dreamt of working with.

I am putting everything I know about planning the perfect shoot into an online course called “Planning the Perfect Shoot” that I will be sharing here on my website soon!