Genres Of Photography - Index For Beginners
Photography is an incredibly diverse art form, with countless ways to capture the world around us. Whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting your photographic journey, understanding the different types of photography can help you discover your passion and develop your skills. While the core genres like landscape, portrait, and wildlife photography offer a solid foundation, the world of photography is brimming with even more specialized and captivating niches. Let's delve deeper into some of these additional genres.
Core Genres of Photography
There are a few core genres of photography, and then the specialisms and techniques branch from there. As a beginner, here is where you’ll probably want to start in your photography exploration. Learn about the core genres and then specialise from there.
© Tom Archer - Taken from our Pro Landscape Photography Course.
Landscape Photography
This genre of photography focuses on capturing the natural environment and outdoor scenes, often emphasizing the beauty, scale, and mood of the natural world. This type of photography typically shows the drama of landscapes, ranging from wide, sweeping vistas to intimate close-ups of natural details. The goal is often to give a sense of place, evoke emotion, or showcase the awe-inspiring features of the Earth’s landscapes. Common subjects include mountains, forests, deserts, oceans, lakes, and rural or wilderness areas.
Want to become a landscape photography pro? Check out our course with Tom Archer.
© Sujata Setia - Taken from our Fine Art Family Portraiture Course.
Portrait Photography
A genre of photography focused on capturing the likeness, personality, and mood of an individual or group. In layman’s terms, this genre of photography is all about photographing people. The subject of portrait photography is typically the focal point of the image, in order to portray them in a way that reveals something about their character, emotions, or identity. Portraits can be taken in various settings, from studio environments with controlled lighting to natural, environmental settings that reflect the subject’s personality or lifestyle. The composition, lighting, and perspective in portrait photography are carefully considered to highlight the subject's features and convey a specific narrative or emotion.
Want to know how to take stunning portraits? Check out our portrait-based courses – Guide to Studio Lighting Course – Headshot Photography – Fine Art Portraiture
© Andy Rouse - Taken from our Wildlife Photography Course.
Wildlife Photography
Wildlife photography focuses on capturing images of animals in their natural habitats. This type of photography aims to showcase the behaviour, diversity, and beauty of wildlife, often emphasizing the connection between animals and their environment. Wildlife photographers may work in remote locations to document a wide range of species. The goal of is often to raise awareness of conservation issues, highlight the intricacies of animal behaviour, and capture the spontaneous moments of creatures in the wild. It often requires patience, skill, and knowledge of both the animals being photographed and the environment in which they live.
Master this genre in our Wildlife Photography Course with Andy Rouse.
© Mr Whisper - Taken from our Street Photography Course.
Street Photography
This is a genre of photography that focuses on capturing candid, spontaneous moments of everyday life in public spaces. It often reflects the human condition, urban environments, and social interactions. It is typically unposed and aims to document real-life scenes in a way that tells a story or offers a snapshot of a specific time and place. Street photographers often focus on the unpredictability of the streets, observing human behaviour and the dynamics of city life. The genre can range from capturing individual moments of solitude or joy to broader social or cultural themes, often with an emphasis on composition, light, and timing. Street photography is known for its emphasis on authenticity and the art of capturing life as it happens.
Learn more in our Street Photography Course with Mr Whisper.
Architectural Photography of the financial district in London.
Architectural Photography
A genre of photography that focuses on capturing images of buildings, structures, and interior spaces. The goal is to highlight the design, form and function of architecture. Architectural photographers may shoot both the exterior and interior of buildings, aiming to showcase the structure in its best light—literally and figuratively—while capturing its scale, proportions, and relationship to its surroundings. This type of photography requires a keen understanding of perspective, lighting, and composition to accurately represent the architecture while also creating visually compelling images. It is commonly used in real estate, commercial marketing, architectural portfolios, and design publications.
Learn more about Architectural Photography in our tutorial here.
© Oliver Wright - Taken from our Macro Photography Course
Macro Photography
Macro photography involves capturing extreme close-up images of small subjects, often revealing intricate details that are not visible to the naked eye. This type of photography typically focuses on objects like insects, flowers, textures, and small everyday items, bringing out their fine details, patterns, and textures. In macro photography, the goal is to showcase the tiny world in a way that emphasizes fine details like the structure of a flower petal, the texture of an insect's wings, or the surface of a leaf. Macro photography often requires specialized equipment, such as macro lenses or extension tubes, to achieve the necessary magnification and depth of field.
© Ben Bush - Taken from our Astrophotography Course
Astrophotography
This genre of photography that focuses on capturing images of celestial objects and phenomena, such as stars, planets, the moon, galaxies, nebulae, and other astronomical events. This type of photography often requires long exposure times, specialized equipment (such as telescopes, wide-angle lenses, and tracking mounts), and careful planning to capture the faint light from distant objects in the night sky. Astrophotographers often aim to reveal the beauty and detail of the cosmos, whether it’s the Milky Way stretching across a dark landscape or close-up images of planetary surfaces. The genre of photography also includes capturing time-lapse sequences of celestial movements, such as star trails or the passing of the International Space Station. Astrophotography can be both a scientific pursuit and an artistic endeavour, as it combines technical skill with an appreciation for the vastness and beauty of the universe.
Learn how to photograph the universe in our Astrophotography Course with Ben Bush.
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Specialised Genres
Environmental dance photography involves shooting dancers on location outside of the traditional setting of a studio or stage. This kind of dance photography works well to create a dynamic contrast between the dancer’s form and the background. This style generally utilises natural lighting and is about pushing forward a relationship between the dancer and the space – juxtaposing them or harmonising them with their surroundings within the frame. Your settings and kit can vary depending on your location and shooting conditions but try starting off with standard zoom lens, use it's a widest aperture this is generally around as f/4, and a fast shutter speed like 1/250th or above second. Take test pictures and view them on the back of your screen to see if the movement is frozen. If it’s not, then increase your shutter speed to 1/500th, 1/1000th or above.
Odiseo Castrejon on Unsplash
Food Photography
Food photography is a genre focused on capturing visually appealing images of food, often for commercial purposes like advertisements, cookbooks, and menus. It emphasizes the textures, colours, and details of dishes, with careful attention to lighting, composition, and styling to make the food look as appetizing as possible.
Khaled Ghareeb on Unsplash
Fashion Photography
Fashion photography centres on the portrayal of clothing and accessories, often featuring models in stylized settings. It typically aims to highlight the design and aesthetics of fashion, and can be used in magazines, advertisements, online catalogues, or runway shows. Fashion photographers often work closely with stylists, makeup artists, and designers to create visually striking and trend-setting images.
Maxim Hopman on Unsplash.
Sports Photography
Sports photography captures the action, energy, and emotion of athletic events. It often involves fast-moving subjects, requiring photographers to have quick reflexes, knowledge of the sport, and specialized equipment (such as telephoto lenses) to freeze the action. The goal is to convey the intensity, skill, and drama of the moment, whether it’s an athlete in motion or the reactions of fans.
Krivitskiy on Pexels. Develop your own unique style when it comes to dance photography.
Travel Photography
Travel photography focuses on capturing the essence of different places, cultures, and people around the world. It includes landscapes, architecture, street scenes, and portraits of locals, aiming to tell a visual story about a destination. This genre often conveys a sense of adventure, exploration, and discovery, and is commonly used in travel magazines, blogs, and tourism marketing.
Learn more about getting started in travel photography here.
Black and white Abstract Photogrphy
Abstract Photography
Abstract photography focuses on shapes, colours, patterns, and textures rather than representing realistic or recognizable subjects. The goal is to create images that evoke emotion, curiosity, or thought through non-literal depictions of the world. This genre often challenges traditional ideas of composition and can be both conceptual and experimental.
Austin Neill on Unsplash
Event Photography
Event photography involves capturing moments from various events, such as weddings, parties, corporate gatherings, and concerts. The goal is to document the atmosphere, key moments, and emotions of the event in a way that tells a story, whether it’s the candid interactions of guests or the formal highlights of the event.
© Marc Newton. Carpet Sales, 2014
Documentary Photography
Documentary photography is a genre that captures real-life events, situations, or social issues in a truthful and unbiased manner. It often seeks to tell a story, raise awareness, or convey a message about a subject or community. Documentary photographers aim to be observers, capturing moments without interference or manipulation.
Jack Anstey on Unsplash
Aerial Photography
Aerial photography involves capturing images from a high vantage point, typically from an aircraft, drone, or elevated platform. It provides a bird’s-eye view of landscapes, buildings, and events, and is often used for surveying, mapping, real estate, and artistic purposes. Aerial shots offer unique perspectives that are not possible from the ground level.
Abhyuday Majhi on Unsplash
Photojournalism
Photojournalism is a form of journalism that uses photography to tell news stories. It involves capturing images of current events, conflicts, social issues, and human-interest stories to inform and engage the public. Photojournalists work to document events as they unfold, often focusing on truth, accuracy, and ethical standards. These are the kinds of images you would typically see in newspapers or in news bulletins.
Nataliya Melnych on Unsplash
Product Photography
Product photography focuses on showcasing products in the most visually appealing way for commercial purposes, such as in catalogues, advertisements, or online stores. It highlights the product’s features, textures, and details with a clean, clear, and attractive aesthetic. Proper lighting, composition, and often a neutral background are crucial for emphasizing the product itself.
Freestocks on Unsplash
Glamour Photography
Glamour photography is focused on portraying the subject—often a model—in a stylized, idealized, or seductive way. It emphasizes beauty, sensuality, and elegance, and often includes soft lighting, makeup, and poses that enhance the subject’s features. This genre can overlap with fashion and portrait photography but leans more toward creating a fantasy-like or aspirational image.
© Trudy Kepke - Taken from our Fine Art Landscape Photography Course.
Fine Art Photography
Fine art photography is created primarily for artistic expression and aesthetic value rather than commercial or documentary purposes. It is often conceptual, exploring personal vision, emotions, or philosophical themes. Fine art photographers may produce limited-edition prints and exhibit their work in galleries, and their images are intended to be appreciated as art. Often, Fine Art Photographers will push the boundaries of typical genre conventions in order to communicate their message.
Walter Alejandro on Pexels
Conceptual Photography
Conceptual photography is a genre where the photographer creates images that convey specific ideas, concepts, or messages. These images are often staged and can be symbolic or abstract in nature. The photographer typically uses props, settings, or visual metaphors to communicate a deeper meaning or narrative beyond the surface of the image.
Conceptual Photography Explained: Examples, Tips and an Idea Generator!
Tom Morbey on Unsplash
Surreal Photography
Surreal photography explores dreamlike or fantastical imagery, often combining unexpected elements to create visually intriguing or bizarre scenes. This genre is influenced by the surrealist art movement and aims to create a sense of wonder, surprise, or mystery by manipulating reality, often with digital editing or creative in-camera techniques. Surreal photography doesn’t always have to be entirely fantastical in nature, it can simply incorporate the idea of ‘The Uncanny’ and still fit into this genre of photography.
©Jack Lodge - Taken from our Forest Photography Course.
Forest Photography
Forest photography focuses on capturing the beauty, tranquillity, and mystery of forested landscapes. It can include wide shots of dense woodlands, intimate close-ups of plants, trees, or wildlife, and shots that evoke the atmosphere of a forest environment. This genre often uses light, shadows, and natural elements to create a connection to nature.
Start capturing stunning forest photography in our Forest Photography Course
Quentin Basnier on Unsplash
Cinematic photography
Cinematic photography involves creating images that evoke the look, mood, and storytelling qualities of cinema. It often uses dramatic lighting, wide compositions, and a focus on emotion or narrative to create a sense of depth and atmosphere, similar to stills taken from a film. This style is popular in both portraiture and landscape photography where cinematic qualities are desired.
Niche Specialties
It is possible to niche down even further into photography genres. Imagine portrait photography, but instead of just taking people's photos, you specialize in only photographing musicians, or only capturing kids, or only shooting actors. These are photography sub-categories that let photographers become experts in one tiny, specific area. Sometimes these niches even overlap, creating unique combinations.
Mounir Abdi on Unsplash
Underwater Photography
Underwater photography captures images beneath the surface of water, often in oceans, lakes, or pools. It requires specialized equipment such as waterproof cameras, housing, and lighting to overcome the challenges of low light and visibility underwater. This genre can focus on marine life, landscapes, or underwater portraits.
Dimitar Krastev on Unsplash
Pet Photography
Pet photography specializes in capturing images of pets, typically dogs, cats, and other animals. The focus is on showcasing their personality, emotions, and unique characteristics, often in playful or posed settings. Pet photographers work with animals to create memorable portraits and candid moments.
Jodie Morgan on Unsplash
Still Life Photography
Still life photography involves capturing inanimate objects arranged thoughtfully to convey visual harmony, texture, and detail. Common subjects include flowers, food, books, or everyday objects, often styled in a way that highlights their form, light, and texture. This genre emphasizes composition and lighting.
Eugene Goloveso on Unsplash
Infrared Photography
Infrared photography captures images using infrared light, which is outside the visible spectrum. This technique creates surreal and dramatic effects, turning greenery into bright white or pink, skies into dark tones, and otherworldly appearances in landscapes or portraits. Special cameras or filters are required for this type of photography.
Long exposures of water can end up with an interesting glassy effect.
Long Exposure Photography
Long exposure photography involves using a slow shutter speed to capture a scene over an extended period. It can create dramatic effects, such as smoothing out flowing water, blurring movement, or capturing star trails in the night sky. This technique often requires a tripod to prevent camera shake.
Master Long Exposure Photography in our full course by becoming a member.
Photographing a water balloon bursting on camera requires a high shutter speed to capture the action.
High-Speed Photography
High-speed photography captures fast-moving subjects or events, often using a very short shutter speed or specialized equipment like flash strobes to freeze motion. It's used to document moments that happen too quickly for the naked eye, such as a water droplet splashing or a balloon popping.
Daniel Tafjord on Unsplash
Tilt-Shift Photography
Tilt-shift photography uses special lenses that allow for selective focus, creating a miniature or "toy" effect. It can make real-world scenes, like cityscapes or buildings, appear as if they are miniature models. This technique can also be used for controlling depth of field in creative ways.
Matthew Henry on Unsplash
Urban Exploration Photography
Urban exploration photography (often called ‘UrbEx’) focuses on capturing abandoned or forgotten structures, such as old factories, hospitals, or schools. It explores themes of decay, history, and the passage of time, often in dramatic and atmospheric settings.
© Ben Bush. Taken from our Astrophotography course.
Astrophotography (Deep Space)
Deep space astrophotography is the capture of distant celestial objects beyond our solar system, such as galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters. It typically involves long exposures and precise tracking to capture the faint light from objects millions or billions of light years away.
Learn how to capture deep space objects in our Astrophotography Course with Ben Bush.
Vintage Stereoscopic Camera
Stereoscopic Photography
Stereoscopic photography creates a 3D effect by taking two slightly offset images, which can be viewed with special equipment, such as 3D glasses or a stereoscope, to create depth perception. This technique mimics how human eyes perceive depth and is used for 3D visualizations.
Haloed outlines on pennies.
Kirlian Photography
Kirlian photography captures the "aura" or energy fields around living beings or objects by photographing them with high-voltage electrical discharge. The resulting images often appear as glowing or haloed outlines. It's more associated with pseudoscience than traditional photography.
Dylan Nolte on Unsplash
Equine Photography
Equine photography focuses on capturing horses, whether for portraits, action shots, or showing off their beauty and grace. This genre is often used in equestrian sports, horse shows, or to document the connection between riders and their horses.
Nischal Kanishk on Unsplash
Automotive Photography
Automotive photography specializes in capturing cars and other vehicles in visually striking ways. It focuses on showcasing the design, detail, and motion of the vehicle, often in dynamic environments like race tracks, streets, or scenic backdrops.
National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
Scientific Photography
Scientific photography is used to capture images for research, education, and analysis. This can include anything from microscopic photography of cells to documenting chemical reactions, environmental changes, or medical procedures. Rather than a creative art, the goal with this type of photography is to capture highly detailed, factual images to support scientific study.
Pete Godfrey on Unsplash
Experimental Photography
Experimental photography explores creative, unconventional methods to produce unique or unexpected results. This could involve techniques like light painting, double exposures, or using alternative processes like film manipulation, pinhole cameras, or digital effects.
Noel Nichols on Unsplash
Underwater Fashion Photography
Underwater fashion photography merges the high-fashion genre with underwater settings. Models wear designer clothes while submerged in water, creating ethereal and surreal images that combine beauty, movement, and fluid dynamics. The genre challenges lighting, composition, and environmental factors
Monika Kozub on Unsplash
Boudoir Photography
Boudoir photography captures intimate, sensual, or romantic images of subjects, often in a bedroom or private setting. The focus is on showcasing the subject's personality and beauty in a tasteful and empowering way, typically for personal keepsakes or as gifts.
Learn how to capture stunning shots of newborns at home in our tutorial.
Newborn Photography
Newborn photography specializes in capturing the delicate, innocent moments of a newborn baby, often in the first few weeks of life. The emphasis is on creating soft, gentle images that convey warmth, love, and the beauty of the early days of life.
Janko Ferlic on Unsplash
Maternity Photography
Maternity photography focuses on capturing the beauty of pregnancy and the anticipation of a new life. The images often feature expectant mothers and may include intimate or creative poses, celebrating the changes in the body and the connection between mother and child.
Aaron Huber on Unsplash
Real Estate Photography
Real estate photography aims to showcase properties for sale or rent by highlighting key features of the home or commercial space. The goal is to present the property in the best light, with well-lit, wide-angle shots that emphasize space, design, and features.
Israel Andrade on Unsplash
Stock Photography
Stock photography involves creating images for licensing, which can be used by businesses, advertisers, or media outlets. These images are typically generic and cover a wide range of topics such as business, travel, lifestyle, and nature, intended to be used in various commercial contexts.
© Sujata Setia - Find out more about fine art portraiture in Fine Art Family Portraiture Course with Sujata Setia.
Fine Art Nude Photography
Fine art nude photography is an artistic form that captures the human body in a tasteful, elegant way, often exploring themes of form, light, and beauty. The focus is on the artistic and emotional expression of the nude body.
© Ben Bush - Taken from our Astrophotography Course.
Landscape Astrophotography
Landscape astrophotography combines the beauty of the night sky with scenic landscapes. It often involves capturing starry skies, the Milky Way, or other celestial objects while incorporating natural features like mountains, lakes, or forests into the foreground.
© Andy Rouse - Taken from our Wildlife Photography Course.
Bird Photography
Bird photography involves capturing images of birds, typically in the wild. It requires patience and skill to photograph birds in their natural habitats, and often focuses on their behaviour, flight patterns, or unique features. Photographers often use telephoto lenses for detailed shots.
Learn how to capture winged wonders in your own garden in our Wildlife Photography Course with Andy Rouse.
Matty Adame on Unsplash
Concert Photography
Concert photography captures live musical performances, focusing on the energy, emotion, and action of the performers and the audience. It requires fast shutter speeds and low-light techniques to capture the dynamic atmosphere of a live show.
Karsten Winegear on Unsplash
Travel Portraiture
Travel portraiture focuses on capturing portraits of people from different cultures and regions while traveling. These portraits often reflect the subject's environment and can provide a powerful sense of place, identity, and local culture.
Black and white urban landscape photography taken from our Photographing Cities at Night Course.
Black and White Photography
Black and white photography removes colour from images, focusing on the contrasts of light and dark, shapes, textures, and composition. It often enhances mood, drama, and timelessness, and is a classic approach to many photographic genres.
Minimalist photography is all about capturing the beauty of simplicity in a photograph.
Minimalist Photography
Minimalist photography emphasizes simplicity, using a sparse composition with few elements. It highlights negative space, clean lines, and the power of simplicity to evoke emotion or focus attention on a single subject or detail.
Marco Chilese on Unsplash
Lomography
Lomography involves shooting with analogue cameras that often produce distinctive, experimental, and unpredictable results, including high contrast, vignetting, and saturated colours. It embraces a fun, creative approach to photography, often emphasizing spontaneity and imperfection.
Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash
Infrared Landscape Photography
Infrared landscape photography uses infrared light to create surreal and dreamlike images of landscapes. Foliage often appears bright white, skies darken, and clouds take on unusual textures, providing a unique, otherworldly view of natural environments.
Allef Vinicius on Unsplash
Documentary Wedding Photography
Documentary wedding photography focuses on capturing authentic, candid moments from a wedding day. Rather than posed portraits, it tells the story of the day as it naturally unfolds, focusing on emotion, interaction, and atmosphere.
Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash
Fine Art Wedding Photography
Fine art wedding photography combines traditional wedding photography with an artistic approach, focusing on creative compositions, soft lighting, and stylized shots to create visually stunning and emotionally evocative wedding images.
Jerry Wang on Unsplash
Environmental Portraiture
Environmental portraiture captures individuals in their natural surroundings or work environments, providing context that adds meaning to the subject. It emphasizes the relationship between the subject and their environment, giving insight into their personality, occupation, or lifestyle.
You can also use techniques like slow-sync flash to freeze a single part of a fast moving scene to create a sense of movement.
High-Speed Sports Photography
High-speed sports photography captures fast-moving athletes and action with extremely fast shutter speeds, often freezing split-second moments in dynamic sports like football, basketball, or motorsports.
Taken from our Photographing Cities at Night Course.
Urban Night Photography
Urban night photography captures cityscapes and street scenes after dark, often focusing on the interplay of artificial lights, reflections, and the atmosphere of the urban environment at night.
© Mark McGee - Taken from our Headshot Photography Course.
Headshot Photography
Headshot photography focuses on capturing clear, well-lit portraits of individuals, often used for professional purposes like resumes, actor portfolios, or social media profiles. The emphasis is on the subject's face and expression.
© Trudy Kepke - Taken from our Fine Art Landscape Photography Course.
Fine Art Landscape Photography
Fine art landscape photography captures nature in a highly stylized or artistic way, focusing on the beauty, light, and mood of the environment. The aim is to create visually striking images that evoke emotion or convey a deeper connection to the natural world.
Make stunning fine art landscape photography with Trudy Kepke’s course.
© Oliver Wright - Taken from our Macro Photography Course.
Macro flower photography
Macro flower photography involves close-up shots of flowers, focusing on intricate details like petals, textures, and colours. It allows photographers to reveal the beauty of nature that’s often overlooked by the naked eye.
Mikhail Pasynkov on Unsplash
Street fashion portraits
Street fashion portraits combine elements of street photography and fashion photography, capturing models in urban environments. The emphasis is on spontaneous, stylish images that showcase trends and personal expression in real-world settings.
Keren Levand on Unsplash
Editorial photography
Editorial photography is used in magazines, newspapers, and other publications to illustrate articles or stories. It can involve portraits, fashion, lifestyle, or conceptual images that support the theme or message of the accompanying text.
© Sujata Setia- Taken from our Fine Art Family Portrait Photography Course.
Family Photography
Family photography captures moments of families together, focusing on relationships, emotions, and memories. It can include posed portraits, candid shots, and milestone moments, such as birthdays, holidays, or family reunions.
Learn how to take Fine Art Family Photography with Sujata Setia.
Oliver Johnson on Unsplash
Beauty photography
Beauty photography focuses on highlighting the features of a subject's face, often with an emphasis on makeup, hair, and skin. It’s commonly used in fashion, cosmetics, and skincare advertising, as well as in portraiture.
Ammar Sabaa on Unsplash
Self portrait photography
Self-portraiture involves taking photographs of oneself, typically to convey personal expression, identity, or creative vision. It can range from simple selfies to highly stylized, conceptual works that explore the photographer's inner thoughts or personality.
Additional Styles and Techniques
These are the cool tricks and approaches photographers can use across almost any type of photography. Think of them as techniques that can make any photo more interesting - whether you're shooting landscapes, portraits, or street scenes. These are the universal skills that can transform an ordinary photo into something extraordinary, no matter what you're photographing.
Before and after HDR effect is applied to an image.
High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography
HDR photography involves capturing multiple exposures of the same scene at different exposure levels and then merging them together to create an image with a greater dynamic range—meaning it captures both the darkest shadows and brightest highlights. This results in a more detailed and balanced image, particularly in scenes with extreme contrasts of light.
In our Lightroom course, we teach you exactly how to create panoramic images in the software.
Panoramic Photography
Panoramic photography captures wide, sweeping views, often extending horizontally to encompass a vast scene. It can be achieved by using specialized panoramic cameras or by stitching multiple images together to create a wide-angle view that represents a broader field of vision than a standard photo.
There are endless things you can do when light painting - you can write, you can draw and you can experiment with different light sources for different effects!
Light Painting
Light painting photography is a creative technique where the photographer uses long exposure times while moving a light source (such as a flashlight, LED wand, or sparklers) in front of the camera. This creates a glowing or streaking light effect in the image, often resulting in abstract or artistic compositions.
Hans Isaacson on Unsplash
Multiple Exposure Photography
Multiple exposure photography combines two or more exposures into a single image, creating a layered effect. This technique can blend different subjects or scenes into one photograph, often conveying a sense of abstraction, dreaminess, or narrative through visual storytelling.
The cyanotype process produces interesting blue images.
Cyanotype
Cyanotype photography is an alternative photographic process that produces blue-toned prints. The technique involves placing objects or negatives on a light-sensitive surface (usually paper or fabric) and exposing it to UV light. The result is a cyan-blue image with unique textural and tonal qualities.
Quan Jing on Unsplash
Pinhole Photography
Pinhole photography is one of the simplest forms of photography, where light enters a camera through a tiny hole (the "pinhole") instead of a lens. The long exposure times and the lack of lens distortion give pinhole photos a soft, dreamlike quality. It can be used to create unique, low-tech images with a vintage or experimental feel.
Smartphone photography makes photography accessible for anyone that doesn’t have a camera. You just need your phone!
Smartphone Photography
Smartphone photography refers to taking pictures using a mobile phone camera. With advancements in phone camera technology, smartphones are now capable of producing high-quality images. This genre has become widely popular due to the convenience, portability, and increasingly sophisticated features of modern smartphone cameras.
Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Film Photography
Film photography involves using traditional film to capture images, as opposed to digital sensors. This analogue process requires developing the exposed film in a darkroom or via a lab. Film photography is prized for its grain, colour rendering, and organic look, and is often preferred for artistic or nostalgic purposes.
Digital photography is probably the most popular way to take photos and we can teach you all you need to know about it in our Beginner’s course.
Digital Photography
Digital photography uses electronic sensors to capture images, storing them on digital memory cards instead of film. Digital photos can be easily edited, shared, and processed with software. It has become the most common form of photography due to its convenience, flexibility, and ability to produce high-resolution images.
Master digital photography in our complete Beginner’s Photography Course.
Shiebi Al on Unsplash
Conceptual Still Life Photography
Conceptual still-life photography involves carefully arranging inanimate objects to represent abstract ideas, themes, or emotions. The objects, lighting, and composition are selected to convey a deeper message, making this genre a form of visual storytelling or artistic expression.
© Ben Bush. Learn how to take all kinds of Astrophotography in our course with Ben Bush.
Panoramic Astrophotography
Panoramic astrophotography combines the principles of panoramic photography with capturing celestial bodies, such as stars, planets, and galaxies. It involves taking multiple wide-angle exposures of the night sky and stitching them together to create a sweeping, detailed image of the cosmos.
We go into detail about how to create light trail photography in our tutorial.
Light Trail Photography
Light trail photography captures the motion of light sources, such as car headlights or street lights, over a long exposure period. This technique creates streaks of light in the image, often used to convey movement and energy. It's commonly used in urban or night photography.
Candice Seplow on Unsplash
Smoke Art Photography
Smoke art photography captures the fluid, ephemeral patterns created by smoke. Using long exposures, creative lighting, and careful control of smoke (often from incense or other sources), this technique produces abstract and mesmerizing images of smoke swirling in the air.
Get to know your way around a photography studio in our Studio Lighting Course.
Studio Photography
Studio photography takes place in a controlled environment, typically indoors, where lighting, backgrounds, and other elements can be precisely arranged. This genre includes portraiture, product photography, fashion shoots, and other images where the photographer has full control over the setting.
Control the light in your shots with flash photography.
Flash photography
Flash photography uses an artificial light source (a flash) to illuminate a subject, typically in low-light situations or when additional light is needed. Flash photography can freeze motion, fill in shadows, or provide creative effects, and is commonly used in portrait, event, and action photography.
Santiago Esquivel on Unsplash
Natural Lighting Photography
Natural lighting photography relies on sunlight or ambient light from the environment to illuminate subjects, rather than artificial lighting. It is often used for outdoor portraits, lifestyle shoots, and scenic photography, as it creates a soft, natural look that can add warmth or mood to the image.
Experiment with reflections in the compositions for interesting shots!
Reflection photography
Reflection photography captures the mirror-like reflection of a subject in water, glass, or other reflective surfaces. This technique adds a layer of depth and symmetry to the image, creating a striking visual effect, especially when combined with elements of the natural world or urban environments.
Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Instant photography
Instant photography uses specialized cameras (such as Polaroid or Fujifilm Instax) to instantly print a physical photo after it's taken. This genre is nostalgic and focuses on the immediacy of physical prints, often producing retro or vintage-style images with unique characteristics due to the instant printing process.
Iron wall photography produces lively and dynamic visuals.
Iron wool photography
Iron wool photography involves igniting steel wool and spinning it to create light trails and sparks during a long exposure. This technique produces fiery, dynamic images with intricate light patterns and is often used for dramatic and creative effects in night photography.
The only limit is your imagination with composite photography.
Composite photography
Composite photography involves combining multiple images into a single final image, often through digital manipulation. This technique allows photographers to blend different elements (such as different exposures, scenes, or subjects) to create surreal, conceptual, or fantastical compositions that wouldn't be possible in a single shot.
Creatively layer different exposures for interesting compositions with double exposure photography.
Double Exposure photography
Double-exposure photography combines two different exposures into a single image, often blending subjects or scenes in creative and artistic ways. This technique can be achieved through multiple exposures on film or by combining digital layers, producing surreal or conceptual results that tell a deeper story.
Conclusion
Of course, this is not an entirely exhaustive list. The world of photography is a vast and ever-evolving universe, offering endless opportunities for creative exploration. Embrace the challenge, step outside your comfort zone, and discover the hidden gems that await you in this diverse landscape. Remember, the most important thing is to find what sparks your passion and drives you to create.
Excited to embark on a photographic adventure? Become a TSOP member and we'll equip you with the knowledge and inspiration you need to master your craft.
Happy shooting!
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