“How do I get a consistent style” is one of the top questions I get asked. And if that’s something you struggle with too, then this post is for you!

Melis Fiahlo is an Advanced Grad with a very consistent recognisable style, and she credits all she learned in the Advanced Photography Course for helping her achieve it.

 

 

Today I chatted to the gorgeous Melis about how she gained the confidence to try new techniques, to experiment with light and exposures, and how she came to finding her own style as a photographer.

She’s a mum of 3 from Turkey, now living in Charleston SC with her husband. She’s now a professional photographer and loves what photography has allowed her to achieve as a business owner!

 

 

The Key is Experimentation & Confidence

We truly believe finding your style comes from experimentation. But in order to experiment, you need to know what’s available to try in the first place. And that’s where the Advanced Course comes in.

We move you beyond your soft light comfort zone to try lots of different kinds of light. We show you how to interpret light, and different ways to harness it, and expose for it. We give you new compositional tools so you’ll start breaking the rules like an artist to create more powerful visual imagery.

And we give you a safe and uplifting space to do it, because when people feel supported, they gain confidence and the freedom to try anything.

So with confidence and experimentation, our students come away with a much firmer idea of what they love and and a consistent style that truly speaks to them.

And that’s exactly how Melis feels and was the focus of our chat today!

 

Before & After

First up Melis talked about the vast difference between the photos of her children, as her two girls came along before she found Click Love Grow, but by the time she was doing the Advanced Course, her third child, a baby boy, had arrived.

“My girls have lots of cell phone pictures, but my son was my model for lots of the Advanced Course lessons so he has beautiful portraits”.

 

How She Found Her Style

The next photos were taken not long after finishing the Advanced Course, and we can see already a strong use of light and colour that would become her signature style.

So I asked Melis to share some of her favourite aspects of the course that helped her create images like this.

“All the lessons on the Advanced Course were incredibly useful in helping me understand everything in much more depth.  I learned my style through the light and exposure lessons, they taught me to experiment and gave me confidence to play around and use the light in different ways”.

 

Big Transformations

From the Enthusiast Course to the Advanced Course, Melis experienced a huge transformation in her photos. So you might be wondering, how does it feel to go from mastering the basics to elevating your photos to something like these images below? Melis’ answer really warmed my heart!

“It feels amazing. In general I don’t have a lot of confidence in a lot of things, but I can say that I have confidence in my photography thanks to this course. Everything was so easy to understand, easy to follow, the community is amazing, you constantly get positive feedback and encouragement. I really feel it took my photography to the next level”.

 

Confidence to Shoot in Any Light

Something else people take away from the Advanced Course is the confidence to shoot in any kind of light and still create magic with it. Even really challenging light.

“This beautiful young lady she came to the session with hopes of sunshine and beautiful blue skies, but as you can see it wasn’t meant to be. It was a very dark and cloudy day. But I added her scarfe for some movement and a colour pop, and the backdrop is beautiful”.

In fact, Melis told me she will never cancel a session just because the light isn’t right.

“I always tell my clients I will never cancel a session unless it is actually raining and there is thunder and storms. I love shooting in these kinds of conditions because the skies can be so dramatic”.

Imagine that… not being afraid to let a session go ahead regardless of the weather, the light and the skies! Liberating!

Favourite Lesson

Melis said the light module was her absolute favourite lessons, because light offers the most opportunity to play and manipulate colour. In fact she loves to under expose in order to bring out colour, which she learned on the course.

 

Last Words

And to wrap up, we love to ask our Grads what they’d say to anyone thinking about donig the Advanced Course or who are ready to build on their foundational skills:

“The Advanced Course really changed the course of my life. I became so confident and I cannot believe I became a photographer and a business owner and doing really really well, and that’s credit to the Advanced Course. If you’re thinking about it just go for it because it’s amazing. The community is amazing too and you can always get advice and guidance”.

 

Thank you so much Melis for your words and stunning photos! If you want to see more of her work, you can find her here.

If you’re shooting in manual mode, our Advanced Photography Course is the next step. You will learn to shoot with confidence in any scenario, and push yourself creatively to develop your style through intensive 1:1 critique on your work.  Our next course is starting soon.. click HERE to find out more!