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Swipe Files: The Photographer's Treasure Chest of IDEAS

Would you like to create some of the best images without having to attend a single workshop or going to a seminar or taking any classes whatsoever? It's really easy. One of the best kept secrets for advancing your photographic skills is, what I call, swipe files. This is nothing new. A lot of people in many different industries use swipe files for ideas, for inspiration, for new innovations. Especially in marketing.

For photographers, this is an ideal thing for us to use in order to create new looks, to get a better understanding of photographic lighting, to expand our repertoire of poses, to create new and exciting angles for composition or whatever it is you are trying to do. The idea here is to push the envelope. Head into a different direction. Try something new. We can achieve this by using swipe files.

First of all, let me explain a little more of what a swipe file is and then I'll give you some strategies on how you can create and expand your own files with which you can shoot from to create new and exciting photographs. The swipe file is a collection of images that another photographer has created. Strictly speaking for photographers, it's fairly obvious - posing, lighting, expressions, angles, etc, etc.

How many times have you been to a seminar workshop or seen another photographer's work somewhere and thought to yourself, "Geez, I like that. I'd really like to be able to take photographs like that." Well, grab that image and put it in your swipe file. Either print it out or put it in a folder on your computer.

Now here's the exciting part. Take that image. Go into your studio or where ever it is you want to 'recreate' the image or something similar, and try and recreate that exact look. Try and recreate the look, the feel, the pose, the lighting and the exposure and see how close you can get. Now the idea here is not to steal or plagiarize images. That's not the idea whatsoever. That would be totally immoral, unethical and just down right wrong. You're merely borrowing an idea, and expanding your skills, your repertoire.

When you try and replicate the look of another photographer, you are expanding your photographic skills. It's giving you the opportunity to practice. It's giving you inspiration for new poses and new looks. What happens in most cases, if not 100% of the time, is that when you try to recreate the look from another photographer, you end up recreating your own unique look.

This is really exciting news because what happens is you are not exactly copying another photographer's work anymore; you're actually using their work for inspiration. And because you're pushing yourself, you will automatically (through inspiration, through creativity) learn new and exciting things that will come from within you. So you can take another photographer's work and other ideas and make them uniquely yours.

This happens a lot in photography anyway. Whether we know it or not, we are impressed by another photographer's look. We want to be like them and we automatically instill many components. We borrow little pieces here and there of other photographers,' and again we create our own unique look.

On a practical level, having the swipe files is something that you could strategize and formalize.

I have several swipe files. I have one on my computer consisting of images I've saved, screenshots of other photographers' websites, videos from workshops I've attended (a few years ago at Yervant's workshop I video'd with my little point and shoot camera- I even asked Yervant if he minded and he was totally cool- as a matter of fact, other photographers have posted some of his vids on youtube. Go see for yourself!).

I also have one in my browser bookmarks. Well, I wouldn't call that so much a swipe file as a list of bookmarks of websites of photographers that I'd like to go and visit for inspiration. Admittedly, I will take some of the images and try and recreate the looks there and again, make them my own. But on my computer in the internet browser, I have a long list of wedding photographers and I have a separate folder filled with portrait photographers. On Saturday morning when I've got a wedding that day, I'll spend time going through these sites for inspiration. I generally keep the whole morning open. I'll be sitting around having a cup of coffee and I'll go visit these websites and just fill my mind, fill my consciousness with all these exciting new ideas.

I also have a binder in my car. What I've done is taken many different images from many magazines that I've collected over the years. Actually, I've asked my daughter a couple years ago to go through all these magazines and cut out any wedding picture she sees I asked her to cut them out and just to tape them onto pages for my binder. I paid her a few dollars. She thought that was a pretty exciting project.

That binder is in my car to this day. Now it's not the nicest looking thing. It doesn't matter. It's full of notes and ideas and pictures with which I can at any moment while I'm driving to a wedding or if I'm a little early at the bride's home, I'll pull out the binder and I'll got through it for a quick review of some of the exciting and new ideas.

I also have a similar binder and a stack of tear-out sheets that I've collected from many different sources, many different trade association magazines and admittedly from other photographers whom I admire and I have this in my studio. Now it is categorized into babies, families, couples, and what have you. Whenever I have a free moment in the studio and I have a session coming up or if I want to specifically replicate a certain look, I'll keep that image there for reference. This is a great way to have easy access to new and exciting ideas. Try it, you won't be let down.

Another source of inspiration for modeling and swiping looks from other photographers is helping to train younger photographers. When I started training James Hodgins many years ago, he created exciting new looks based on some of the stuff I had taught him. Oddly enough, he was also very inspired by one of the greats in the industry, Monte Zucker, who by the way is inspired by another photographer who taught him many of the basics with which he then created his unique look. And he also trained many other photographers, who took the essentials -- the fundamentals that he taught and went on their own creating their own distinct new looks.

That's exactly what happened with myself and James. And I also acquire a lot of ideas through teaching other photographers and workshops or seminars that I attend, that I both present at and attend as an attendee. When I show someone else, they in turn teach me!

When I showed James an exciting new look, he would go and make it his own and come back with a whole new twist on it and I would say, "Wow, that is exciting (you dirty bum)." New ideas. Something for me to swipe from him. So, as you can see, it's a two way street in that respect.

You can find swipe file images just about anywhere. Any modern magazine such as People or Glamour or any fashion magazine. There are many many places where you can see photographs that reflect new styles within different industries that you can bring into your wedding photography, into your baby/family portrait photography.

You can also look in movies. There are so many cool little scenes and lighting techniques and just these little ideas that will come to you if you pay attention during movies to look for ideas, for any story telling image or any creative use of lighting or composition. If you pay attention, you'll see many of the really good movies, the better movies are kind of shot with a lot of lighting and composition strategy. And if it's really well done, most people don't really notice it. They just really enjoy the visual essence of the movie. But, as a photographer, you can look for different ideas and break them down and borrow them. Swipe them for your own use.

I also find images when traveling. A few years ago while at Disney World, I grabbed a bunch of shots of posters that I liked. They were cool, creative shots of families and stuff. I recently found a great pose that I recreated right on the spot while in Las Vegas walking around doing nothing, really. Just hanging, chatting with Inner Circle moderator Shawn Von Ins and his wife Julie, and voila! There it was. As a matter of fact, here's a video I shot showing exactly what I saw and how I re-created that look.

My final advice to you? Get a swipe file going! Do it now and expand your skills and your talent base. You will find it an exciting and awesome learning tool like no other.

Here's that video I promised: Link

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