Are You Confused About Photography Styles?

What is the dif­fer­ence between pho­tog­ra­phy styles and types of pho­tog­ra­phy? Many times I think this can be con­fus­ing. If you look up pho­tog­ra­phy styles, you will often find land­scape, por­traits, family…etc. But those are real­ly types of pho­tog­ra­phy, not so much pho­tog­ra­phy styles. Pho­tog­ra­phy style is more of the per­son­al touch of “flair” that the pho­tog­ra­ph­er gives the spe­cif­ic type of pho­tog­ra­phy that they shoot. A way in which they set up the shot, are they a more can­did or tra­di­tion­al shooter?

Pho­tog­ra­phy style is what dri­ves the emo­tion in the pho­to. Is it light and airy, dark and moody, black and white? And your pho­tog­ra­phy style will more than like­ly change over your career as a pho­tog­ra­ph­er.
Part of find­ing your pho­tog­ra­phy style is under­stand­ing and “dab­bling” in a few dif­fer­ent types of pho­tog­ra­phy, nar­row­ing your niche down and then defin­ing your style. Often the cre­ative and tech­ni­cal skills required for one are need­ed for oth­ers as well.

I’ve put togeth­er some inter­est­ing pho­tog­ra­phy types and the pho­tog­ra­phy styles that often go with them for you to think about and try out.

Family Photography

The first pho­tog­ra­phy type that I want to talk about is fam­i­ly pho­tog­ra­phy. This one is pret­ty self-explana­to­ry. It can be posed or unposed, but the main goal is to cre­ate images that will stand the test of time and show the rela­tion­ship between the peo­ple you are shoot­ing. You want to make sure that you cap­ture the fam­i­ly’s inter­ac­tion, the joy of being togeth­er, and love for one anoth­er. When spe­cial­iz­ing in fam­i­ly pho­tog­ra­phy, you are in charge of doc­u­ment­ing the fam­i­ly’s lives.

Often with fam­i­ly pho­tog­ra­phy, the style is clean, nat­ur­al, and with warm col­or tem­per­a­tures. This is a clas­sic look that will stand the test of time.

Portrait Photography

Por­trait pho­tog­ra­phy is a pho­tog­ra­phy type that cap­tures peo­ple’s expres­sions and fea­tures and is one of the most rec­og­nized types of pho­tog­ra­phy. Por­trait pho­tog­ra­phy aims to cre­ate a con­nec­tion between your sub­ject and the view­er. There is no bet­ter feel­ing than to have your sub­ject or some­one they know say…” wow, you cap­tured their per­son­al­i­ty.” It is a grat­i­fy­ing feel­ing, and learn­ing how to do this is key to becom­ing a bet­ter por­trait photographer. 

Por­trait pho­tog­ra­phy typ­i­cal­ly is known for a few pho­tog­ra­phy styles…clean and nat­ur­al or often black and white, and some­times the vin­tage pho­tog­ra­phy style is used. Like the clean and nat­ur­al style, the black and white style is again time­less and makes the details in the pho­to stand out, where­as the vin­tage style gives the image a more dra­mat­ic effect.

Landscape Photography

Land­scape pho­tog­ra­phy involves pho­tog­ra­phy of nat­ur­al fea­tures of land, sky and waters at a dis­tance. Essen­tial­ly land­scape pho­tog­ra­phy is cap­tur­ing and set­ting a mood of a loca­tion. The goal as a land­scape pho­tog­ra­ph­er is to cap­ture the beau­ty of your loca­tion in a way that res­onates with the view­er and makes them want to go there!

There are numer­ous ways to add your pho­tog­ra­phy style to your land­scapes. Using a wide lens to show as much of the area as pos­si­ble vs a macro lens to show the details. Using the light in ways to cre­ate a dra­mat­ic mood vs a more peace­ful mood. Each choice cre­ates a dif­fer­ent style for your image.

Street or Candid Photography

With can­did pho­tog­ra­phy, you blend into the back­ground and tell the sto­ry of what is hap­pen­ing. This type of pho­tog­ra­phy is unscript­ed, unplanned, and unposed. Wikipedia defines can­did pho­tog­ra­phy as hav­ing the “cru­cial fac­tor of the absence of pos­ing.” The goal of the can­did pho­tog­ra­ph­er is to cap­ture the unplanned moments of the sub­jects. It is void of direc­tion, and you, as the pho­tog­ra­ph­er, want to devel­op the abil­i­ty to notice oth­ers and their actions but yet to go unno­ticed yourself.

Often, with street or can­did pho­tog­ra­phy, the pho­tog­ra­ph­er decides not to use any style to influ­ence the image but to let the image stand alone. Oth­er times black and white is used to cre­ate dra­ma in the shot. 

Baby Photography

Baby pho­tog­ra­phy is a very spe­cial­ized type of pho­tog­ra­phy. It cap­tures from birth through the first year of life and often includes preg­nan­cy, child­birth and new­born pho­tos. When spe­cial­iz­ing in baby pho­tog­ra­phy, you as the pho­tog­ra­ph­er must remem­ber that safe­ty is cru­cial in your settings.

Once again, with baby pho­tog­ra­phy, you will see the same style as with fam­i­ly pho­tos. The style is clean, nat­ur­al, and with warm col­or tem­per­a­tures. This is a clas­sic look that will stand the test of time. You will often see a light and airy, dreamy look.

Sports Photography

Sports pho­tog­ra­phers cap­ture the action, ath­letes and events sur­round­ing a sport­ing event. As a sports pho­tog­ra­ph­er, you have lit­tle con­trol over your sub­jects’ sur­round­ings, back­grounds, pos­es, or expres­sions. You must move fast and have com­plete con­trol and under­stand­ing of your equip­ment and move fast.

You do not want to see dull, drab sports pho­tos. The pho­tog­ra­phy style that is usu­al­ly used in sports pho­tog­ra­phy is strong, bright col­ors and crisp, clear images.

Fashion Photography

Fash­ion pho­tog­ra­phy focus­es on cap­tur­ing cloth­ing, items and acces­sories dis­played in fash­ion mag­a­zines or bill­boards. It is a fast-paced type of pho­to­graph, and fash­ion pho­tog­ra­phers often mix dif­fer­ent pho­tog­ra­phy styles in their shots: por­trait, street, etc and is the pho­tog­ra­phy styles often used in fash­ion pho­tog­ra­phy vary depen­dent on the mood that is meant to come across. Some­times light and airy, some­times bold and bright and oth­er times black and white. 

Architectural Photography

Archi­tec­tur­al pho­tog­ra­phy is the art of pho­tograph­ing build­ings either inside or out. When shoot­ing archi­tec­tur­al pho­tog­ra­phy, you want to cap­ture the true rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the struc­ture. Just as you would with any oth­er type of pho­tog­ra­phy, you want to make your sub­ject appeal­ing to the view­er. You do not want the image to be cold and harsh so the use of light in your pho­tog­ra­phy style is important.

Wedding Photography

This pho­tog­ra­phy type is pret­ty self-explana­to­ry and has many pho­tog­ra­phy styles to go along with it. Wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phers cap­ture all of the spe­cial day’s events, from the get­ting ready of the bride to the final dances of the evening. The emo­tions and rela­tion­ships between peo­ple are essen­tial in wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy. It is more time con­sum­ing than a por­trait or fam­i­ly pho­tog­ra­ph­er and, depend­ing on the size of the event, often requires a sec­ond shoot­er. Wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy styles are entire­ly depen­dent on the client and their wish­es. Light and airy, dark and moody or black and white, the pho­tog­ra­phy styles have a large range.

Dis­cov­er­ing what type of pho­tog­ra­phy you want to shoot and find­ing your pho­tog­ra­phy style takes time and effort. You need to shoot every day, and you need to shoot inten­tion­al­ly. Know­ing how to prop­er­ly use your cam­era, the rules of pho­tog­ra­phy, and how to use light to cre­ate amaz­ing images is key no mat­ter what pho­tog­ra­phy style or styles you choose. If you are inter­est­ed in under­stand­ing your cam­era and find­ing your pho­tog­ra­phy style check out The Begin­ners Pho­tog­ra­phy Essen­tials Pro­gram today.