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Photography Types Defined

To find photographers, use our Photographer Directory.

 

Here follows a list of the various meanings or descriptions used in our listings. They indicate what types of photography photographers specialize in or able to do:

 

 

Aviation photographer
Aviation photography is the act of capturing images of aircraft, either in flight, or on the ground.

 

  

Architectural photographer
Architectural photography is specialized photography of structures. It involves special lenses and techniques to portray the subjects in proper perspective and without photographic distortion. It is primarily concerned with accurate portrayal of the structure, rather than artistic merit.

 

  

Candid photographers
Candid photography is photography that focuses on spontaneity rather than technique, on the immersion of a camera within events rather than focusing on setting up a staged situation or on preparing a lengthy camera setup.

 

  

Cloudscape photographers
Cloudscape photography is photography of clouds or sky. The photographer normaly captures unusual cloud shapes and colours.  

  

Digiscoping
Digiscoping is a neologism for the activity of using a digital camera to record distant images by coupling it with an optical telescope.

 

  

Documentary photographers
Documentary photography usually refers to a popular form of photography used to chronicle significant and historical events. It is typically covered in professional photojournalism, but it may also be an amateur, artistic, or student pusuit.

 

  

Erotic photographer
Erotic photography is a style of art photography of an erotic, sexually suggestive and even sexually provocative nature. Though the subjects of erotic photography are usually completely or mostly unclothed, that is not a requirement. Erotic photography should be distinguished from pornographic photography, which is of a sexually explicit nature.

 

  

Fashion photographer
Fashion photography is a genre of photography devoted to displaying clothing and other fashion items. Fashion photography is most often conducted for advertisements or fashion magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, or Allure. Over time, fashion photography has developed its own aesthetic in which the clothes and fashions are enhanced by exotic locations and story lines or could be having great models with different vehicles or animals just to be an eye catching effect.

 

  

Fine art photographer
Fine art photography refers to photographs that are created in accordance with the creative vision of the photographer as artist. Fine art photography stands in contrast to photojournalism, which provides visual support for stories, mainly in the print media, and commercial photography, the primary focus of which is to sell products or services.

 

  

Fire photographer
Fire photography is the act of taking photographs of firefighting operations. Individuals that practice this form of photography are called fire photographers.

 

  

Food photographers
Food photography is a still life specialization of commercial photography, aimed at producing attractive photographs of food for use in advertisements, packaging, menus or cookbooks. Professional food photography is a collaborative effort, usually involving an art director, a photographer, a food stylist, a prop stylist and their assistants.

 

  

Forensic photographer
Forensic photography (sometimes referred to as forensic imaging or crime scene photography) is the art of producing an accurate reproduction of a crime scene or an accident scene for the benefit of a court or to aid in the investigation.

 

  

Glamour photographers
Glamour photography is a genre of photography whereby the subjects, usually female, are portrayed in a romantic or sexually alluring way. The subjects may be fully clothed or seminude, but glamour photography stops short of deliberately arousing the viewer and instead portrays the model as the focus of adoration.

 

  

Head shot photographers
A head shot is a photographic technique where the focus of the photograph is a person's face. Headshot is essentially the same as portrait. However, headshot is an image that portrays people as they are and is more of a 'mug shot', however simple or stylized it might be. Whereas, a portrait will often 'portray' the person with elements of his life, such as his work, interest, etc.

 

  

Landscape art photographers
Landscape art is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, and especially art where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition.

 

  

Landscape photographer
Landscape photography is a genre intended to show different spaces within the world, sometimes vast and unending, but other times microscopic.

 

  

Nature photographer
Nature photography refers to a wide range of photography taken outdoors and devoted to displaying natural elements such as landscapes (See Landscape Photography), wildlife, plants, and close-ups of natural scenes and textures. Nature photography tends to put a stronger emphasis on the aesthetic value of the photo than other photography genres, such as photojournalism and documentary photography.

 

  

Social photographer
Social photography is a subcategory of photography focusing upon the technology, interaction and activities of individuals who take photographs.

 

  

Nude photographer
Nude photography is a style of art photography which depicts the nude human body as a study. Nude photography should be distinguished from erotic and glamour photography, which has a sexually suggestive component or emphasises the models sexuality.

 

  

Old-time photographer
Old-time photography, also known as antique and amusement photography, is a genre of novelty photography. Old-time photography allows consumers to pose as if for an antique photo in costumes and props from a particular period, sometimes printed in sepia tone to give the photo a vintage look.

 

  

Photojournalism
Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism (the collecting, editing, and presenting of news material for publication or broadcast) that creates images in order to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, but in some cases the term also refers to video used in broadcast journalism.

 

  

Portrait photographer
Portrait photography or portraiture is the capture by means of photography of the likeness of a person or a small group of people (a group portrait), in which the face and expression is predominant. The objective is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the subject.

 

  

Sports photographer
Sports photography refers to the genre of photography that covers all types of sports.In the majority of cases, it is a branch of photojournalism.The main application of sports photography is for editorial purposes; dedicated sports photographers usually work for newspapers, major wire agencies or dedicated sports magazines. However, sports photography is also used for advertising purposes both to build a brand and as well as to promote a sport in a way that cannot be accomplished by editorial means.

 

  

Still life photographer
Still life photography is the depiction of inanimate subject matter, most typically a small grouping of objects. Still life photography, more so than other types of photography, such as landscape or portraiture, gives the photographer more leeway in the arrangement of design elements within a composition.

 

  

Stock photographer
Stock photography is the supply of photographs licensed for specific uses. It is used to fulfill the needs of creative assignments instead of hiring a photographer. Today, stock images can be presented in searchable online databases. They can be purchased and delivered online. Often, they are produced in studios using a wide variety of models posing as professionals, stereotypes, expressing stereotypical emotions and gesticulations or involving pets.

 

  

Street photographer
Street photography is a type of documentary photography that features subjects in candid situations within public places such as streets, parks, beaches, malls, political conventions, and other settings.

 

  

Travel photographer
Travel photography is a subcategory of photography involving the documentation of an area's landscape, people, cultures, customs and history.

 

  

Underwater photographer
Underwater imaging is considered an especially challenging area of photography, since it requires very specialized equipment and techniques to be successful. Despite these challenges, it offers the possibility of many exciting and rare photographic opportunities. Animals such as fish and marine mammals are the most common subjects, but photographers also pursue shipwrecks, submerged cave systems, underwater "landscapes", and portraits of fellow divers.

 

  

Vernacular photographer
Vernacular photography or amateur photography refers to the creation of photographs by amateur or unknown photographers who take everyday life and common things as subjects.

 

  

VR photographer
VR photography, or virtual reality photography, is a technique which allows the interactive viewing of wide angle panoramic photographs. A VR Photograph is generally a wide photographic image encompassing a 360 degree circle, but can also encompass an entire spherical view. VR photography is the art of capturing or creating a complete scene as a single image, as viewed when rotating about a single central position. Normally created by stitching together a number of photographs taken in a multi-row 360 degree rotation; the complete image can also be a totally computer generated effect, or a composite of real word photography and computer generated objects.

 

  

War photographer
War photography captures images of armed conflict and life in war-torn areas. The photography of war depicts the terrors of war mingled with acts of sacrifice. Different to paintings or drawings of war, photographic images are not easily altered; although in some cases, photographers manipulate the subjects and scenes depicted in a work, resulting in an image that is not completely objective in nature.

 

  

Wedding  photographer
Wedding photography is the photography of activities relating to weddings. It encompasses photographs of the couple before marriage (for announcements, portrait displays, or thank you cards) as well as coverage of the wedding and reception (sometimes referred to as the wedding breakfast in non-US countries). It is a major commercial endeavor that supports the bulk of the efforts for many photography studios or independent photographers.

 

 

 

Wildlife photographer
Wildlife photography is the act of taking photographs of wildlife. Wildlife photography is regarded as being one of the more challenging forms of photography. As well as needing sound technical skills, such as being able to expose correctly, wildlife photographers generally need good field craft skills.