Genres of Photography: Worth Making a living
Genres of Photography: Worth Making a living
In order to build a strong foundation for your career, you need to learn and practice repeatedly the different genres of photography. The technical and creative skills will improve only if you try out different styles of photography. You need a lot of patience and passion for what you do and the courage to experiment with new trends to excel in various fields.
How do you master a particular genre of photography? This might be a question most of the people might be interested in. It is the most challenging and hardest decision to make at the early stages of pursuing your career in photography. In today’s social media connected world, it is easier for anyone to share their experience with the mass audience and to convert it into a business.
Versions of photography and it’s scope
1. Portrait photography
The portrait style of photography is used to capture the personality of an individual or a group. The image taken under this category can be either candid or a posed image in close up or full size. Monochrome is commonly used in portrait photography. The lighting and classy backdrop setting will help in conveying the right tone and emotions of the shot. The subject’s face and eyes will be the focal point of the photo. The retail customers will require portrait photography in every phase of their life including general family photos, school photos, etc. Corporate portraits are used to update the headshots of a business person on their official website or publicity material. Once you become an expert in portrait photography it can lead to fashion and product photography gigs.
2. Fashion Photography
This is the most difficult yet glamorous one under all the genres of photography. It is used to document the latest fashion in clothing, shoes, and accessories to attract the customers towards the brand. Fashion photographers, work in an array of locations including fashion shows, studios, city streets, and open fields. They also require the skills of a portrait photographer and should have good control over the communication skills when working with the creative directors, models, and shoot stylists. In today’s world fashion photography is one of the gold-digging genres.
3. Wedding photography
It is the perfect combination of portraiture and event photography which is shot in different locations. Wedding photography is the toughest and pretty intense job where the photographer has to be on their toes capturing the right moment as they don’t get a second chance. The photographer must be very efficient and should have a good command over the communication to coordinate well with the bride and groom. They have to be adaptable as they will have to shoot at a different location under adverse conditions. The wedding industry indeed is a booming industry but one should never pick it up until unless they have a real passion for it. Wedding photographers are the only ones that haven’t been affected by the pandemic outbreak because all the customers photograph the memories of their best day.
4. Product photography
The product photography has been used in all the industries, every product you have recently shopped for is either photographed on their company’s website or print catalogs or packaging. The product shoot takes place mostly studio-based with appropriate lighting and background settings. The food industry is one of the niche customers of product photography, they use product photography to advertise their meals or to create a menu card. The jewelry industry is another industry where product photography is mandatory, sometimes this shoot might also require models and shoot stylists. Images play a crucial role in attracting customers and driving them to make a purchase decision.
5. Architectural photography
The interior and exterior design of the architecture is the subject of architectural photography. The photographs are used to showcase the structure in the most aesthetical way where the interesting parts and colors are emphasized. While shooting the architecture, light settings can be challenging as photographers will have to shoot indoor and outdoor. Architectural photography is most commonly used by architects, building investors, and leasing companies for their business purposes. The tilt-shift lens, tripod, lightings, and panorama head is often used by architectural photographers.
6. Travel photography
Make your best hobby your best source of income through travel photography. In travel photography, one can focus on different genres like landscape, macro, wildlife, culture, or the natural habitat of the surroundings. The ultimate goal of a photographer is to take their prospective customers on a virtual ride through their enchanting presentation. A picture conveys a million emotions, this saying is a lot apt when it travel photography.
Even though travel photography is not considered as the mainstream job one can take up travel photography as their leisure time hobby. Under travel photography, one can make a huge sum of money through travel blogs, by providing their images to travel and tourism-related magazines like National Geographic magazines, etc, and also by participating in various competitions to gain recognition at a global level.
7. Stock photography
In Stock photography, the photographer sells their rights to use their photographs. The images that are sold will be used by big agencies and small websites for their business purposes. You can provide them any image and once the picture is been passed on, they will have to spend the time on cataloging and finding the right keyword to ensure that the audience can find the relevant images that they are looking for.
8. Photojournalism
In today’s world of the digital age, just by sitting at home, we get to know what happens around the world in a fraction of seconds through photojournalism. Photojournalism is an unavoidable part of newspapers, magazines, and other online publications where it would help to communicate the real story to the mass audiences. It is the most stressful and risky job considering the fact that the photographer has to be real quick and well aware of the current situation. The photojournalist covers the breaking news whether be it in a war zone, natural disasters, political rallies, community celebrations or press meets. In photojournalism, you can never plan your shot you should always have a keen and sharp eye to pick the right moment as the events unfold. The majority of the work is candid shots and obtrusive. The Pulitzer Prizes is one of the most recognized awards given to the best photojournalist every year.
9. Sports photography
These photographs converse drama, passion, and emotion behind the sporting events to the world in an understanding way. It is about capturing a shot of real-life action in a still mode and it can be of an athlete, coaches, or even the fans. The photographer has to be really quick to keep up with the action happening around them and should learn to use the camera at higher ISO. In sports, the photographers use the heavy and long lenses to zoom in and out to get a closer and clear picture of the action. The photographs have been used as advertising and marketing materials for the team, or as a piece of news in print and online media. The photographer should stay abreast of his knowledge when it comes to sports events to predict the perfect shot to capture.
