What makes a photograph stylish? Is it the subject in the portrait? The scene? The suggestion of a fresh perspective? These are some of the questions we debate and mull over endlessly as we produce and edit the thousands of photographs that appear in the Styles section each year.

Diana Vreeland, the legendary long-ago editor of Vogue magazine, had a good idea about making stylish photos. As she memorably said when describing her approach to creating the fantastical worlds of her fashion editorials, “The eye has to travel.” She made epic tributes to fashion, all to satisfy the insatiable, wandering eyes and minds of Vogue readers. No idea was too far-fetched to realize, no expense spared in her pursuit of depicting the seasonal collections. She used the genre of fashion photography to interpret and even invent the visual language of the 1960s. And while those pictures are classic artifacts of a moment, they are very different from journalism.

So the question is, If you want to make stylish images that satisfy the craving for novelty, but you’re not in the practice of staging fashion shoots, how do you go about it?

It’s something a reader might take for granted — that there would be stylish pictures in the Style section — but it’s not easy as it might seem to make an arresting, fashionable image without directing stylists, hair and makeup professionals. Because even though we think about what looks trendy and new, we are not in the business of making fashion shoots. Our eyes must report.

That’s why it’s worth noting, for example, that even if Erik Tanner’s portraits of future N.B.A. stars would be at home on the pages of the best men’s magazines, they were in fact the result of quick interactions in the atrium of Barclays Center. Sometimes our photographers have mere moments to make these pictures, unlike carefully arranged studio photography that you find in fashion magazines, typically requiring hours on well-lit, catered sets. Working quickly, and often with little notice, the photographers who shoot for Styles manage to make surprising, fresh, memorable portraits of some of the world’s most familiar faces, week after week.

Other wonderful examples of this include Simbarashe Cha’s street style pics from his Style Outside column, which capture the way clothes are worn beyond the confines of the runways. Our photographers including Rebecca Smeyne and Landon Nordeman are snapping moments inside parties, at weddings, on red carpets, at runways and practically anywhere else you can imagine — tattoo festivals, dog shows, political conventions. Wherever we are, we delight in capturing the way people look and live right now. Because as much as anything, Styles is about seeing the world anew and helping you see it differently, too.