Past and Contemporary Photography
Long before the first photographs were made, Chinese philosopher Mo Di and Greek mathematicians Aristotle and Euclid described a pinhole camera in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE. In the 6th century CE, Byzantine mathematician Anthemius of Tralles used a type of camera obscura in his experiments.
First camera photography (1820s) Invented in the first decades of the 19th century, photography (by way of the camera) seemed able to capture more detail and information than traditional media, such as painting and sculpting. Photography as a usable process goes back to the 1820s with the development of chemical photography.
Portraiture: The photographs which have high emphasis on the mood of the subject and the facial expressions are called portrait photographs. Here subject eyes are keenly directed towards the camera aperture which gives a feeling that subject is in direct eye contact with the photographer later viewer once it is published. It can be of solo subject or family photographs, basically it came from the portrait painting which was highly on demand before the invention of camera. Portraiture usually tells a story and subject’s mood is clearly noticed through the eyes.
Floral photography: It is a simple and colorful type of photography. The name itself reads, it’s about the photos of different flowers. Although it may not seems all that difficult but it’s a genre of macro-photography and sometimes it’s tedious task to find the good colorful blooming flowers with a complementing natural light, for which one has to wait for a particular time of the day. Most of the amateurs photographer prefer to go for floral photography, most of these photos are used for medicinal and botanical studies. It is the most highlighted sub branch of nature photography.
Photo Genres
Classifying the types of photography is a really difficult exercise. First of all, it has been difficult discerning what is a genre and what is a technique. Is 'portraiture' a genre or a technique? And what about 'high speed photography'? Even if you can identify genres, there is often lots of overlap between the different genres. And it is tough deciding what is a genre and what is a sub-genre. Although it is nearly impossible to be accurate and comprehensive about it.
Photographic genres can be divided into four basic categories - Creative, Editorial, Retail and Personal
Long before the first photographs were made, Chinese philosopher Mo Di and Greek mathematicians Aristotle and Euclid described a pinhole camera in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE. In the 6th century CE, Byzantine mathematician Anthemius of Tralles used a type of camera obscura in his experiments.
First camera photography (1820s) Invented in the first decades of the 19th century, photography (by way of the camera) seemed able to capture more detail and information than traditional media, such as painting and sculpting. Photography as a usable process goes back to the 1820s with the development of chemical photography.
All photography was originally monochrome, or black-and-white. Even after color film was readily available, black-and-white photography continued to dominate for decades, due to its lower cost and its "classic" photographic look. The tones and contrast between light and dark shadows define black and white photography.
Color photography was explored beginning in the mid-19th century. Early experiments in color required extremely long exposures (hours or days for camera images) and could not "fix" the photograph to prevent the color from quickly fading when exposed to white light. The first permanent color photograph was taken in 1861 using the three-color-separation principle first published by physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1855. Maxwell's idea was to take three separate black-and-white photographs through red, green and blue filters. This provides the photographer with the three basic channels required to recreate a color image.
Digital photography: In 1981, Sony unveiled the first consumer camera to use a charge-coupled device for imaging, eliminating the need for film: the Sony Mavica. While the Mavica saved images to disk, the images were displayed on television, and the camera was not fully digital. In 1991, Kodak unveiled the DCS 100, the first commercially available digital single lens reflex camera. Although its high cost precluded uses other than photojournalism and professional photography, commercial digital photography was born. Digital imaging uses an electronic image sensor to record the image as a set of electronic data rather than as chemical changes on film. [25] An important difference between digital and chemical photography is that chemical photography resists photo manipulation because it involves film and photographic paper, while digital imaging is a highly manipulative medium. This difference allows for a degree of image post-processing that is comparatively difficult in film-based photography and permits different communicative potentials and applications.
(Research resource from Wikipedia)
Photography is a science and art combination, the camera has its own evolution,
Contemporary Genres
Technical photography as product shots in which you are capturing the pure physical aspects of something with no vision in mind. Even documentary photography could be called technical photography as it is the capturing of moments or events without necessarily any previous thought or plan. Of course there are many very powerful, artistic documentary photos, but again, the photograher did not usually go out with some vision in mind.
There are many photography genres from the history till now; in contemporary photography, there is a different era of photographic genres.
Images containing socially ‘correct’ aesthetics, such as perfect exposure and centered in-focus subjects are now definitive of a past artistic generation. Today, photographs that a vast majority would have discarded because of ‘incorrect’ aesthetics are now highly celebrated by popular culture.
What aesthetics are generally associated with ‘wrong’ photographs? Compared to Fine Art photography, images with blurred focus, off-center composition, shifting light, imbalanced exposures, and subject issues such as odd facial expressions and entirely cropped features, contain these ‘wrong’ aesthetics. As well, the informal frontal flash of a point-and-shoot camera and drugstore over-saturated processing are classic indications of amateur photographic production. Ironically, as popular culture evolves parallel to contemporary photography, these ‘incorrect’ aesthetics have slowly become correct.
These new tendencies in photography are welcomed because of the natural, constant evolution of society and art together. (Research resource from F-STOP A Photography Magazine) http://www.fstopmagazine.com/pastissues/43/milbrath.html
People around the world use different styles of photography. But if we classify in general; Commercial photography, Artistic photography, Technical photography are major sub divisions. Apart from these, there are so many genres/types of photography.
Light painting: It is one of the most interesting kinds of photography. Photography itself is playing with lights. But light painting is something where the photograph looks like a design. Here the camera’s exposure is set in Bulb mode and the light painting is done to hand held lights. Use of tripod also plays a key role, but one has to make sure that the frame is fixed. The light painting photographs are very attractive and as said earlier give an expression of a design. It is something little unusual from reality and it depends on photographer about how he/she balances the subject and the mix of light painting in a photograph. This is a very challenging type of photography.
Sports photography: It is known that everyone would love to see the photographs of the players. This genre has been the most economical, there are so many still photographers appointed for many international matches irrespective of any game. It is more about freezing a moment when it comes to sport photography. It does come under photojournalism as many work in the context of covering the event rather than a hobby. These photographs are really relished and are documented. In this genre, the joy, anger, spirit and sportsmanship is seen in the photographs rather than beauty, story etc. It is used for advertising purpose as well.
Street photography: It is the capturing of human activity in those particular outdoor surroundings. Street photography is not about capturing the street rather it is capturing the soul and life of those streets. Most of them are candid moments. Street photographs are lively and have a story and moment in it. Many photojournalists are street photographers. It falls under both professional and a hobby genre as well.
Bokeh Photography: “Bokeh” is a Japanese word, which means blur or aesthetic beauty of blur. In simple, the creative usage of blur parts in a photograph which looks very color and glorious is what Bokeh photography is all about. It is very easy and exciting once you know how to get Bokeh photograph. If you want it in the form of lights (heart, diamond shaped lights) a little home work is needed. But this has been the most creative genre which creates a sense of attraction even at the out of focus portion in a photograph.Portraiture: The photographs which have high emphasis on the mood of the subject and the facial expressions are called portrait photographs. Here subject eyes are keenly directed towards the camera aperture which gives a feeling that subject is in direct eye contact with the photographer later viewer once it is published. It can be of solo subject or family photographs, basically it came from the portrait painting which was highly on demand before the invention of camera. Portraiture usually tells a story and subject’s mood is clearly noticed through the eyes.
Floral photography: It is a simple and colorful type of photography. The name itself reads, it’s about the photos of different flowers. Although it may not seems all that difficult but it’s a genre of macro-photography and sometimes it’s tedious task to find the good colorful blooming flowers with a complementing natural light, for which one has to wait for a particular time of the day. Most of the amateurs photographer prefer to go for floral photography, most of these photos are used for medicinal and botanical studies. It is the most highlighted sub branch of nature photography.
Studio Photography: How many times you have gone to studio to take a passport photograph in the studio? It is the basic indoor photography, where in indoor fashion, food and product genres are also seen. Studio photography includes even wedding and portraiture photographs as well. Here group of professionals combine and build a studio which is completely meant for economical gain. Many big studios are meant for fashion purpose. When it comes to indoor food and product it is useful for advertising purpose.
Food Photography: Food photography is commonly seen in all the places. It is high in demand due to the advent of advertising. It does need some skill as it depends on photographer to show the group of food products and different varieties of food in a pleasant and attractive way. This is one of the most common category, as it can been on all our food products. This genre is very commercial and at the same time aesthetic as well. Many professionals and even amateurs go for food photography which is easy, economical, professional and creative too.
Wild life photography: Wild life photography is the most challenging and adventurous type of photography. One needs to have telephoto lens to capture the animals in the jungle. Many aspire to be a wild life photographer, but it is risky and equally thrilling as well. It is again meant for both as a professional or a hobby as well. Some are paid very high when take on such projects e.g.: National Geographic, Animal Planet etc. Many amateurs go out for adventure trips and try wild life photography just as a hobby. But this genre has a lot of scope, money, creativity and risk factor in it. Photographs are used for zoological studies as well. Remember, the photographer must be very patient, alert and sometimes a stalker while capturing the wild animals.
Candid photographs: Capturing the photographs of the subject, where he/she is clueless about the camera and photographer is called candid photography. Here the subject is not looking directly into the camera he/she and is completely unaware of the photographer. Most of the photographs we see in the news papers, books and many historic pictures are candid. The photographs display the natural expression of the subject. These are generally seen in wedding photographs. It even comes under the rubric of photojournalism. Sometimes it is called secret photography, generally in sting operations. It is very difficult to categorize this genre of photography as it is almost seen in all subject based photography genres. All sorts of emotions and expressions are seen in these photographs. Sometimes these candid photographs really captures the ‘honest’ moment ,that can be shocking and too hard to take.
(Research resource from List Dose) http://listdose.com/top-10-photography-genres/
And so on there are many more interesting genres in photography, in past photography or contemporary photography.
ActionShot: is a method of capturing an object in action and displaying it in a single image with multiple sequential appearances of the object. One of the methods of this shot is manual image editing, to create a dynamic panoramic image manually, a photographer needs to take several shots of a moving object and then combine them together using manual image registration, followed by manual image stitching. Image editing programs can assist in this process.
Aerial photography is the taking of photographs of the ground from an elevated position.
Architectural photography is the photographing of buildings and similar structures that are both aesthetically pleasing and accurate representations of their subjects. Architectural photographers, are usually skilled in the use of specialized techniques and equipment.
Color photography is photography that uses media capable of representing colors, which are traditionally produced chemically during the photographic processing phase.
Conceptual photography is a type of photography that illustrates an idea.
Cosplay photography is a form of photography where the subject of the photo focuses mainly on a cosplayer and their attire and/or prop making skills.
Documentary photography usually refers to a popular form of photography used to chronicle significant and historical events. It is typically covered in professionalphotojournalism, or real life reportage, but it may also be an amateur, artistic, or academic pursuit. The photographer attempts to produce truthful, objective, and usually candid photography of a particular subject, most often pictures of people.
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
Fine art photography is photography created in accordance with the vision of the artist as photographer. Fine art photography stands in contrast to representational photography, such as photojournalism, which provides a documentary visual account of specific subjects and events, literally re-presenting objective reality rather than the subjective intent of the photographer; and commercial photography, the primary focus of which is to advertise products or services.
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 semi-nude, but glamour photography stops short of deliberately arousing the viewer and beingpornographic photography.
Lomography is an analog camera movement and community, and is also a commercial trademark of Lomographische AG. The Lomographic Society International was founded in 1992 by a group of Viennese students after they discovered the Lomo LC-A camera[1]created by LOMO PLC of Saint Petersburg, Russia. Since 1995, Lomography has been the sole distributor of that camera outside of the former Soviet Union, and has since moved into producing their own range of analog cameras, and other imports such as the Diana camera.
Macro photography is extreme close-up photography, usually of very small subjects, in which the size of the subject in the photograph is greater than life size.
Monochrome photography is photography where the image produced has a single hue, rather than recording the colours of the object that was photographed. It includes all forms of black-and-white photography, which produce images containing tones of grey ranging fromblack to white.
A mug shot, mugshot is a slang[1] term for police photograph, or booking photograph, is a photographic portrait typically taken after a person is arrested.
Night photography refers to photographs taken outdoors between dusk and dawn. Night photographers generally have a choice between using artificial light and using a long exposure, exposing the scene for seconds, minutes, and even hours in order to give the film or digital sensor enough time to capture a usable image.
Panoramic photography is a technique of photography, using specialized equipment or software, that captures images with elongated fields of view.
Paparazzi /pɑːpəˈrɑːtsi/, /pæpəˈrætsi/ (singular: (m) paparazzo Italian: [papaˈrattso] or (f) paparazza) are photographers who take pictures of athletes, entertainers, politicians, and other celebrities, usually while they are going about normal life routines.
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.
A snapshot is popularly defined as a photograph that is "shot" spontaneously and quickly, most often without artistic or journalistic intent.
The term snapshot aesthetic refers to a trend within fine art photography in the USA from around 1963[citation needed]. The style typically features apparently banal everyday subject matter and off-centered framing. Subject matter is often presented without apparent link from image-to-image and relying instead on juxtaposition and disjunction between individual photographs.
Classifying the types of photography is a really difficult exercise. First of all, it has been difficult discerning what is a genre and what is a technique. Is 'portraiture' a genre or a technique? And what about 'high speed photography'? Even if you can identify genres, there is often lots of overlap between the different genres. And it is tough deciding what is a genre and what is a sub-genre. Although it is nearly impossible to be accurate and comprehensive about it.
Photographic genres can be divided into four basic categories - Creative, Editorial, Retail and Personal
Creative genres tend to allow an element of fantasy and so are more liberal in terms of photographic ethics, allowing significant retouching and blending of images and so on. Just because the genre is listed here does not mean that we condone each one. Pornography and propaganda, for instance, we would consider to be exploitative and unethical. Be mindful that this is not an exhaustive list. Are there any other genres of photography that you think should fit in here? Editorial genres tend to be governed by a more stringent code of ethics. Again, not all these genres can be considered ethical all of the time. Public relations imagery, for instance, may include a good deal of invention, and spy photography may be a plain violation of human rights. Just because we list the genres here, does not mean we condone them or suggest you begin to practice them. Be mindful that this is not an exhaustive list. Are there any other genres of photography that you think should fit in here? Retail genres are about serving private persons primarily in aiding them to record a significant milestone or achievement in life. Personal genres don't require the services of a professional photographer. Any income to be made here is in enabling people to take good pictures themselves either by providing equipment, training, post processing or products that can be created from their photography. (Research resource from shutha.org)
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