Photography Styles/Genres

Landscape photography:

Case study-Ansel Adams 

Depth of field: all in focus, lower the aperture to wide/open.

Repetition: use creative techniques to represent what you’re taking a picture of- for example, repetition of trees or use of reflection.

Symmetry- aesthetically pleasing- basic optical illusion.

Shapes- reflection of shapes in landscape pictures can be effective.

Leading Lines- draws focus to the main point of the photo.

Candid Street Photography

Process of taking photography of the natural (but usually) urban life of things and person who are unsuspecting.

If the subjects are prepared or the environmental stage, it ceases to be candid. Often easier than other types of photography as it means less planning and idea generation. However, can lead to other potential problems.

The Law:

• It is legal to take photos in public of anything except private places.
• Legal to take pictures of people in public.
• Not legal to harass members of the public.
• Police officers have the right to stop and search but security guards do not.
• Not legal to become a public obstruction.

The Rules:

• Be prepared to explain yourself.
• Respect personal privacy.
• Play it safe.
• Be culturally competent.
• Stand on public property (some places are open to public but are private.)
• Be confident and calm when you are asking someone to take their photo.
• Don’t approach them from behind.
• Full body shot first as it is less uncomfortable then get closer.

Concert Photography:

• Low Aperture:
• Use fast lenses and shoot them wide open. Set aperture to the smallest number on your lens e.g. f/1.8 (which reflects a big aperture). This allows the most possible light to enter your sensor and is a must-have setting in ultra-low light stage conditions.
• The best zoom lenses have an aperture of f/2.8, the best prime lenses f/1.4 or f/1.8. For beginners on a budget, get a 50mm f/1.8  which is cheap and a no brainer for concert photography.

Fast Shutter Speed:

• To freeze these movements you have to use a fats shutter speed. In general, set shutter speed at 1/200 sec and faster. Otherwise you risk blurry photos.
• High ISO
• The higher the ISO setting, the less light is needed for a proper exposure but the more noise you encounter in your pictures. Depending on the ability of your camera good starting point for ISO is a setting of 1600. If the shutter speed is low, crank up the ISO setting to 3200/6400.
• 

Spot metering:

Set camera’s internal light to spot metering. When shooting concerts, you will often find the artist is lit by a spotlight and the rest of the stage is almost dark. When using spot metering mode, place the artists face in the middle of the viewfinder and you’ll get the right exposure for it. When using the Matrix metering setting, the camera will take a light reading at several points in the scene and you’ll get less overexposed faces.

Single Auto focus Point in the Middle 

Use the central focus point in low light situations. This will be the most accurate one. if you don’t have the artist in the middle of the frame, then you have to recompose. Simply push the shutter button halfway down until you lock focus. Now move the viewfinder until you get the desired framing and push the shutter button down fully.  To use this technique, you have to set the camera to auto focus single (AF-S for Nikon, One shot for Canon).

Multiple Shot (Burst mode) 

Set your camera to multi-shot mode (high speed shooting mode). It allows you to rapidly shoot three or four photos in a row depending on the frame per second of your camera model. It’s more likely that at least one of the four photos is track sharp whereas the others might not be in focus.

No Flash:

Shoot in RAW; If you shoot in JPEG mode, the internal camera computer adds contrast, saturation and sharpness. If you shoot in RAW format, the camera doesn’t process the photo at all. The advantage is that you can change parameters like exposure, white balance, saturation, contrast, clarity and so on afterwards.

Auto white balance:

Can adjust white balance setting in post production.

Product Photography:

Working with many different textures, backgrounds, etc in product photography.

Reliant on a client brief.

Fashion Photography:

• Similar to product photography but much more creative- more creative freedom.
• Websites, magazines, social media, etc. is where you are most likely to see more fashion photography.

Long Exposure Photography 

• The lens is open for a long period of time- a lot of light will come in.
• This creates an image where movement has merged into one single frame. Usually this makes the image blur, therefore it’s important that the camera is steady.

Light Painting in Photography

• When a photography take advantage of the movement of light through long exposure.
• Camera is logging off a trail of light- only works when there is  contrast between the light source and the background.
• Camera settings must compensate for the long exposure (slow SS, narrow aperture, low ISO).

Direct Sunlight Photography

• Usually a picture of a silhouette with the sun directly behind it/them.
• Make sure subject is fully defined.
• Play with the line of gravitation with subjects.

Powder Play Photography

• Shutter speed- mid speed – freezes particles in time.
• Using flour- the background should be contrasting.
• Narrow aperture
• Minimum- 2 sources of light- 45 degrees.

Underwater Photography 

• Photos will be lacking red- reflection of light changes the colour, therefore needs good source of light.
• Water will bounce light to different directions.

Aerial Photography 

• 90 degrees from the ground.
• Parallel to the horizon line.
• Must read legal framework for aeriel photography.
• Never shoot anything that belongs to the Queen E.G Palaces.