Why Copying Someone Else's Style Might Be the Best Way to Find Your Own

If you spend any time in r/AskPhotography, you'll notice a recurring type of post: someone shares a photo and asks how it was made. Often, the image barely reads as a photograph at all — outside a few sharp, in-focus elements, the rest looks more like a painting. It's a small window into a bigger shift: these days, there's a growing assumption that any photo's "look" should be reproducible with a handful of simple adjustments...