8 Types Of Photography You Can Easily Conquer
Types of photography, there are many of them you can practice.
Lots of photographers specialise in one, but it’s worthwhile trying several.
You may develop a liking, or become attracted to one type of photography in time.
However you should have a go at as many as possible to be sure you’ve picked the best option.
It’s possible to be drawn to one, and later fall for another type of photography.
Some people will continue to take all types of photograph, never specialising in any particular one.
There’s probably more satisfaction in just shooting anything you want, when you want to.
Here’s eight suggestions for photographs you might like to try.
1. Landscape is easy to try
I always think of landscape as the most fundamental types of photography.
Just look out through a window, or step out through an exterior door, and you’re looking at a landscape.
It may be in a city, or deep in the countryside, but it’s a landscape.
There can be very few people who ever took a photograph, that didn’t shoot some form of landscape.
Even when something else is the focus subject, it’s often in a landscape setting.
Then from city streets to rural vistas, the variety is endless.
Even if you go for sub-categories; cityscapes, waterscapes, rural scenes etc., each has inexhaustible potential.
Break it down farther to mountains, lakes, city streets, you’re still left with enormous possibilities.
You can shoot landscapes close to home, or anywhere else in the world.
Despite the photographic possibilities for photographs, it’s not easy to make a career in Landscape Photography.
One good market was picture postcards, and that once huge field has all but disappeared.
People rarely send them anymore. Now they send text messages including their own photographs.
Regardless of that, have a go at Landscape Photography, you will conquer it.
2. Another great type of photography is Still Life
When one thinks of Still Life, painting comes to mind before photography.
Artists have been painting Still Life pictures for centuries, many making their reputations with the genre.
These were mostly pieces of crockery and fruit grouped into the artists chosen compositions.
Photographers still compose Still Life groupings like this.
However Still Life photographs can consist of much more than those objects.
For me, anything which isn’t moving, and can’t make itself move, can be regarded as Still Life material.
I think an outdoor sculpture, a parked car, or a moored boat could be classed as a Still Life.
Zoom close in, include as little of the surrounding landscape as possible, and it’s close enough.
Product and Food Photography are also Still Life.
This makes for two different types of Still Life composition, one arranged, and the other shot as things are found.
The ones you set up yourself are more fun, but have a go at both.
You will become good at all types of Still Life photography.
3. Food looks just as good in photographs
There seems to be more photographs of food being taken now than almost any other subject.
With the current popularity of recipes, that’s no wonder.
It’s one of the types of photography where it’s possible to still make some money from.
Restaurants produce menus and need images of the meals they cook.
Likewise stores publish magazines and need photos of the food they sell.
Then there’s websites that are full of recipes needing to be illustrated.
All you need is access to a kitchen, and the necessary gear for the job.
The kitchen need not be a commercial one, a home one will do.
It’s where the photograph is taken that matters, not where the food is prepared.
You can work in the middle of a mess as long as the photograph doesn’t show that.
If you want to take photographs of the process of preparing the food, then avoid working in a mess.
You can prepare the food yourself, or photograph someone else at work.
To photograph the work in progress, it’s better to leave the preparation to another person.
However if you only want to photograph the finished meal, then you can cook it yourself.
Have everything for the photograph ready first. Just set the meal in the prepared setting, pick up your camera, and shoot.
Off course you can just photograph raw food like food or vegetables.
4. Street Photography can be intimidating
Street photography is basically shooting outdoors, but focusing on what’s happening there, rather than the landscape.
It generally includes people, though I don’t think it always has to.
There’s more of a chance of getting winning shots when operating in cities.
That’s simply because much more happens in cities than in more sedate rural areas.
As types of photography go, this is one of the most unpredictable.
You never know what you will encounter when you take to the streets.
Most of the time the photographs will be similar to millions taken over the years.
But you never know when the chance of that very special photograph presents itself.
Street Photography, potentially the most interesting type of photography, is not for everyone.
You will be taking photographs of people you don’t know, and not everyone will like doing that.
It can be intimidating, and probably the hardest type of photography to conquer.
It’s worth having a go all the same, because you might love it.
5. Macro is one of the most interesting types of photography
Macro Photography is all about taking frame filling photographs of very small things.
It’s usually achieved by using Macro lenses, which can focus closer than standard lenses.
Insects make great subjects for Macro Photography, showing so much detail that you can’t see naturally.
Anything small can be used as subject matter and photographed at many times it’s own size.
Working as close to the subject as is necessary means there’s a very small depth of field.
For a subject with some depth this will mean only a small portion will be sharp.
To get a really good photograph you will have to take several and combine them.
You will have to focus on one point, either at the front or back.
Take a photo of that, move the focus slightly and shoot again.
Keep doing this, moving progressively from one end to the other.
When you’ve taken all the photos, combine all the sharp bits to get one sharp photo.
You will have to achieve this without moving the camera, just the focus ring on the lens.
A tripod is a must. There are special tripod heads that will allow the camera to be advanced without it moving otherwise.
If the subject is flat, one photograph will do.
6. Animals are great to photograph
Animal Photography includes Pet, Farm and Wildlife animals.
Pets and Farm animals are easy to find, and are rarely shy or nocturnal.
Indeed many of them are born posers, and love looking at a camera.
Dogs and horses in particular, seem to love human company and are very easy to photograph.
Wildlife is a totally different challenge, one where the animals are very wary of humans.
You have to learn how, when, and where they can be photographed.
After that you still have to nail the photo, which can be easier said than done.
This form of photography demands more patience than most others.
A photographer can often spend days, or longer, waiting to get a shot of a wild animal.
It can often mean a long wait in an inhospitable and lonely place.
With a good shot in the camera though, it can be extra satisfying.
There are very few photographs that wont look better with the inclusion of an animal.
See how the Pet and Farm photographs go before trying Wildlife Photography.
7. Sports Photographs are always in demand
This is another genre where there are an incredible variety of types of photograph possible.
That’s mainly because there are so many, and such different forms of sport.
Also this is one where there’s an ongoing market for new photographs.
Newspapers, magazines and websites always need photographs of sporting events, sometimes right as they happen.
It’s one area of photography were it’s still possible to have a career.
The casual photographer who can saturate photography in general, will be less able to supply instant Sports Photography.
This has more to do with have a ready definitive supply of photos, rather than a shortage of amateur shots.
They smartphone photographs will be available on Twitter and Facebook. They are not guaranteed though and can’t be relied on.
If you have a favourite sport, or several you like, photograph them.
Do so as a hobby, and just for enjoyment, and see what happens.
Post them online, and maybe you’ll get noticed, and gradually build a reputation, as a good and reliable Sports Photographer.
If your chosen sport is less popular there may not be much competition for photographs of it.
8. What is Abstract Photography?
Personally I don’t believe there’s a really abstract photograph.
A photograph has to have a subject, and as such can’t really be abstract.
Jackson Pollock created abstract paintings by dropping and throwing paint on a canvas.
A photograph of a Pollack painting, is a photograph of a painting, even if the painting is abstract.
Then I will accept that a photograph of something that you can’t identify is close to an abstract photo.
As such I will regard that as one, as this is amongst the most vague types of photography.
Too often I see a close up of part of an item called abstract, when the item is clearly identifiable.
That’s simply a photograph of part of an item, not an abstract photograph.
The photograph above is not one that I took as an abstract photo.
I don’t think everyone will know what it is though. That makes it as abstract as I think a photograph can be.
In a way this is an easy genre to conquer, because you can more or less make up your own rules.
