Genres of photography for professional photography | Articles | Photo, video, optics

Every­one who plans to engage in pho­tog­ra­phy pro­fes­sion­al­ly, soon­er or lat­er asks him­self the ques­tion of which genre to choose as the main one. The role here is played not only by the crav­ing for a cer­tain genre, but also by the oppor­tu­ni­ty to build a career on it.

We’ll take a look at the most pop­u­lar types of shoots and explain why they’re the most pop­u­lar.

Do not for­get that in addi­tion to them there are niche areas that are not suit­able for every­one.

Source: wildcoast.love

wedding photography

The most pop­u­lar com­mer­cial genre is wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy. Wed­dings take place all the time, even dur­ing quar­an­tine, and every­one wants to cap­ture hap­py moments.

Wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy includes sev­er­al gen­res: you will have to work with por­traits and mas­ter event pho­tog­ra­phy, that is, loca­tions and group pho­tos.

At the same time, wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy can­not be called a sim­ple process. It’s an intense job where it’s often nec­es­sary to get the best pos­si­ble shot on the first try.

A wed­ding pho­tog­ra­ph­er must be fast, move around the loca­tion a lot, care­ful­ly observe every­one around. But the main thing, per­haps, is to quick­ly adapt to changes. You will have to shoot indoors, out­doors, with the lights off. Also, you will have to give instruc­tions to every­one around, while remain­ing as incon­spic­u­ous as pos­si­ble.

Wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy requires such qual­i­ties from the pho­tog­ra­ph­er as the abil­i­ty to com­mu­ni­cate with peo­ple, self-con­fi­dence and charis­ma.

The best pho­tog­ra­phers are those who love their work. You should not go into wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy sole­ly for mon­ey, because it is a huge stress and a big respon­si­bil­i­ty.

Shooting events

This direc­tion is very sim­i­lar to wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy. Like­wise, it requires the pho­tog­ra­ph­er to be dynam­ic and adapt­able. Events include every­thing from cor­po­rate par­ties and birth­days to con­certs. Here, too, you will have to work with peo­ple and with dif­fer­ent con­di­tions. For exam­ple, con­cert shoot­ing is always asso­ci­at­ed with com­plex light­ing. Social events are like­ly to require addi­tion­al retouch­ing.

Again, in terms of genre, you will have to show diver­si­ty: por­traits, group shots, reportage pho­tos, all this takes place in shoot­ing events. And every­one wants to get the most pleas­ant result.

The pos­i­tive side is that with a con­fi­dent port­fo­lio, you can make good mon­ey on event pho­tog­ra­phy. But it takes a long time to build a port­fo­lio, and most of the time will be spent on pro­mot­ing your own ser­vices.

Source: YouTube

portrait photography

Por­traits are dif­fer­ent: some­one needs them for a port­fo­lio, some­one for a web­site, for a resume, for book cov­ers. There are a lot of options and many of them require less cre­ativ­i­ty and more abil­i­ty to please the cus­tomer.

There is also an alter­na­tive way to make mon­ey on por­traits — shoot­ing for com­mer­cial tasks and stocks.

Por­trait pho­tog­ra­phy is a good way to get your hands dirty in a com­fort­able envi­ron­ment. You will have to work with one per­son, and it is much eas­i­er to estab­lish com­mu­ni­ca­tion, learn how to inter­act with the mod­el, etc. You can train on your friends and acquain­tances, and over time you will notice that orders will begin to arrive.

Since por­trait pho­tog­ra­phy is always in demand, you will not be left with­out work.

subject photography

One of the most dif­fi­cult, but also the most prof­itable areas is the pho­tog­ra­phy of objects for com­mer­cial pur­pos­es. Here you will come across a very estab­lished pool of pho­tog­ra­phers who work in adver­tis­ing. This is not an easy task, because you will have to deal with very dif­fer­ent things. It can be cars, jew­el­ry, sou­venirs, food, etc. And the pho­tos will be used on web­sites, in adver­tis­ing or in cat­a­logs. That is, it is nec­es­sary to empha­size all the best char­ac­ter­is­tics of the sub­ject, hid­ing its short­com­ings.

In most cas­es, the work will be stu­dio work, great for intro­verts. There will be an object as a mod­el, and com­mu­ni­ca­tion is kept to a min­i­mum. But it is nec­es­sary to skill­ful­ly han­dle the light. Ide­al­ly, the sub­ject pho­tog­ra­ph­er will use their own home stu­dio, as rent­ing is not prof­itable.

Often you have to shoot on the street or on the ground. There will be more than enough vari­ety, but the con­di­tions are not at all hot­house.

Source: New Atlas

Artistic photography

Per­haps the most dif­fi­cult career path is artis­tic pho­tog­ra­phy. On the one hand, the pho­tog­ra­ph­er is free from cus­tomer require­ments and rules. On the oth­er hand, the search for agents, gal­leries and exhi­bi­tions falls on his shoul­ders. It is very dif­fi­cult to get pro­mot­ed and earn fame in such con­di­tions. Only a few tru­ly gain fame, and not all of them are able to gain finan­cial inde­pen­dence. At first, artis­tic shoot­ing will always have to be com­bined with the main work, and this will seri­ous­ly com­pli­cate the task. Any oth­er genre can lead to pro­fes­sion­al burnout, and this is extreme­ly dan­ger­ous for an artist.

The main goal of a fine art pho­tog­ra­ph­er is to cap­ture emo­tion in a sub­ject, char­ac­ter or scene. He enters into a dia­logue with the view­er.

This direc­tion is undoubt­ed­ly attrac­tive for pho­tog­ra­phers, but it will be much more dif­fi­cult to suc­ceed in it. This does not mean that you should not try, but you should always be sure that you have an alter­na­tive plan.

fashion photography

Anoth­er type of film­ing that can take two dif­fer­ent paths. If you want to shoot clothes, you have to start small. First you have to work with pho­tog­ra­phy for cat­a­logs, web­sites and online stores. And only then, if you man­age to prove your­self, you can go to a more seri­ous lev­el, col­lab­o­rate with big brands and even film fash­ion weeks.

If stan­dard shoot­ing is more focused on por­traits and work­ing direct­ly with the mod­el, then cat­walks are a com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent genre. It com­bines ele­ments of doc­u­men­tary pho­tog­ra­phy and event pho­tog­ra­phy.

You should not count on work­ing in the stu­dio, many peo­ple pre­fer to shoot in inter­est­ing loca­tions, includ­ing out­doors. So you have to mas­ter both the set­ting of light and adap­ta­tion to nat­ur­al light. You will have to take a lot of equip­ment with you, take into account the require­ments of design­ers and acces­sories spe­cial­ists. You will need to work in a team, and at the very last stage you will find a lot of retouch­ing.

Source: Arch­Dai­ly

architectural photography

We often loose­ly use the term archi­tec­tur­al pho­tog­ra­phy to describe the pas­sion. But there is also a pro­fes­sion­al genre that address­es this par­tic­u­lar direc­tion. Archi­tec­tur­al pho­tog­ra­phy includes sev­er­al types: these are shoot­ings for bureaus and con­struc­tion com­pa­nies, for real estate tasks, and pho­tos of inte­ri­ors. All these branch­es require a dif­fer­ent approach, but in gen­er­al, it is quite with­in the pow­er of one per­son.

The dif­fi­cul­ties of the pho­tog­ra­ph­er also lie in wait for a vari­ety of. For exam­ple, to suc­cess­ful­ly cap­ture a build­ing, you need to be able to cap­ture its essence. It will be nec­es­sary to remove both ele­ments of the exter­nal decor and gen­er­al plans. We will have to look for an orig­i­nal approach, for exam­ple, to shoot from the win­dow of the build­ing oppo­site. But the most dif­fi­cult thing is to choose the light­ing con­di­tions.

The same goes for shoot­ing inte­ri­ors. Only in this case, it is often nec­es­sary to work with a dec­o­ra­tor, since it is he who gives the inte­ri­or a spec­tac­u­lar look that caus­es a reac­tion in the view­er. An archi­tec­tur­al pho­tog­ra­ph­er must always remem­ber that his main task is to sell. It is nec­es­sary to take pho­tos that can sell a ser­vice, build­ing or premis­es.

Travel photography

It would seem that this genre is pure­ly for fun, but it is not. From Nation­al Geo­graph­ic to any trav­el site. Such pho­tos are need­ed every­where. In addi­tion to the excit­ing part that tourism itself makes up, you will have to be able to con­vey the mood and atmos­phere of the place where you are. And it lies both in beau­ti­ful land­scapes and sun­sets, and in peo­ple. That is, you will have to deal with reportage, doc­u­men­tary and land­scape pho­tog­ra­phy, and all this in very diverse con­di­tions. One day you’ll be film­ing a warm sea­side city, and the next you’ll be pho­tograph­ing the icy expans­es of Antarc­ti­ca. The work of a trav­el pho­tog­ra­ph­er is nev­er easy, it is suit­able for the most endur­ing and patient, for those who are able to get up at five in the morn­ing and walk long dis­tances in order to be at the right time in the right place and catch a gold­en watch.

Source: Light Stalk­ing

Photojournalism

Anoth­er pop­u­lar genre that requires endurance. A pho­to­jour­nal­ist, like a trav­el pho­tog­ra­ph­er, has to find him­self in a vari­ety of places. But his work is much less con­nect­ed with land­scapes, and more with events, includ­ing nat­ur­al and polit­i­cal dis­as­ters. There are many risks in this pro­fes­sion and it is not easy. But the prob­a­bil­i­ty of gain­ing fame by mak­ing a suc­cess­ful and prob­lem­at­ic shot is much high­er than in oth­er pro­fes­sions. A large num­ber of awards are pre­sent­ed each year for the most social­ly sig­nif­i­cant images.

The task of the pho­tog­ra­ph­er in this case is to tell a sto­ry, to make a dis­tant prob­lem per­son­al and impor­tant to the view­er. This is cre­ativ­i­ty and skill at the same time, this is visu­al sto­ry­telling. You will have to work main­ly in the doc­u­men­tary genre, but some­times you will come across sto­ries where there are por­traits, often psy­cho­log­i­cal ones, and archi­tec­ture, and much more. A pho­to­jour­nal­ist must be able to switch between gen­res in order to tell a sto­ry in the most touch­ing and effec­tive way.

sports photography

It is very dif­fi­cult to start a career in this genre. This is a job for those who love and under­stand sports, who know anato­my and are able to react quick­ly. And such a pho­tog­ra­ph­er will also need the most mod­ern and pow­er­ful equip­ment.

The biggest prob­lem is per­haps get­ting enough prac­tice. You will have to shoot ama­teur com­pe­ti­tions in order to get your hands on it and build up a port­fo­lio. Only then will it be pos­si­ble to turn to pro­fes­sion­al news agen­cies and sports pub­li­ca­tions in order to gain access to tru­ly seri­ous events. But if you suc­ceed, the job will allow you to trav­el and vis­it even the most closed tour­na­ments, get­ting the best places to watch, and meet famous ath­letes.

Sports pho­tog­ra­phy also includes pro­mo­tion­al pho­tos, pro­mo shots, and more. So it will nev­er become bor­ing and monot­o­nous.

There are still a lot of oth­er gen­res, and with a cer­tain skill, almost every­one can be made into a pro­fes­sion. The main thing is to real­ize how it is bet­ter to approach the imple­men­ta­tion of your ideas. The rest is a mat­ter of prac­tice.