Types of Photography Styles – Spice Up your Photos

When thinking about what types of photography styles and fields you want to get into, you may quickly get overwhelmed by the sheer plethora of different types that’ll make your head spin and make you think that you need to master them all.

While you certainly can try, there is no point in learning to be good at every type of photography. That’s why you need to master a few branches and be the best at those.

Whichever you go for, we assure you that you won’t make a mistake as long as you follow your interests and heart.

We’re going to talk about a few types of photography styles, and they are:

• Architectural Photography
• Macro Photography
• Candid Photography
• Black & White Photography
• Abstract Photography
• Composite Photography
• Double Exposure Photography
• Long Exposure Photography
• Minimalist Photography

Types of Photography Styles

Now let’s take a look at each type and explain some more.

Architectural Photography

Architectural Photography is a pretty self-explanatory style that involves taking images where the subject is all kinds of exteriors and interiors of various buildings. You can take the pictures in daytime, where structures are shown in all their glory with unique details, or in the nighttime with compliments from the ambient lighting such as the street lights or moon for a more artistic effect.

You can achieve architectural photography through experimentation with different perspectives, colors, lenses, and post-editing, making the subject pop.

Macro Photography

Macro photography is a style of photography where the subjects are taken up-close, often as far as a few centimeters apart. This could include many things, but the most prevalent subjects of macro photography are insects, flowers, toys, animals, small patterns and textures, and anything else, really. 

This type of photography requires a special, you guessed it, macro lens which will help you get up close and personal with your subjects.

Candid Photography

Have you ever seen a picture of two or more people laughing at an event, having the time of their lives, thinking to yourself, “Wow, that looks so fun. I really want to be there!”. Well, that’s where candid photography comes into focus. This type of photography takes the modeling, studio lighting, and awkward posing out of the photo. Instead, it introduces a more natural and spontaneous feeling overall, where the photographer isn’t directing the image’s subjects.

These images are often taken from afar and of people who are doing anything. They could be chatting with friends, running around, dancing, anything that the subjects are doing naturally without any direction. This doesn’t mean they don’t know they’re having their picture taken, just not focusing on that while they’re there. Wedding photography is a type of candid photography because the photographer’s job is to capture all the attendants in a fun natural state.

Black & White Photography

We’ve come to the classic of photography–black and white. There’s a reason why it will always be elegant and timeless; think of the beginnings of photography itself! All photos a few decades ago were a black and white or sandy color, so it’s no wonder that you get a very nostalgic feel when you see or take a black and white photo today.

Black and white photography relies on a few things; since it has no color and, with that, a limited sense of dimension, its two main components are contrast and texture.

If you have enough experience, you can play with different types of textures and levels of contrast to achieve amazing effects in just one single photo. But, as a rule of thumb, don’t overdo it. There’s often a reason a photographer may use black and white instead of color, so if that’s not adding any artistic value to your photos, we’d say scrap it. But hey, at the end of the day, it’s your world!

Abstract Photography

This type of photography is a little more challenging to pin down. It can be anything you want. It uses a combination of fun compositions, colors, perspectives, textures, shadows, lights, shapes to make a photo that drives a certain feeling. You can achieve all of these things through composition or post-processing afterward, removing all of the meaning and context of the subject that’s being photographed but still making it speak for itself in multitudes.

Composite Photography

Composite photography is a style where you combine two or more images into one to achieve or tell a story that you couldn’t any other way. This style started way back when they used the old plates we talked about. Additionally, a more prolonged exposure allowed the photographers to insert more subjects into the photo. But, now, with how far technology’s come, we can do all of that in post with the help of blending options and masking.

Think of a face in a tree, which you could achieve with just your camera, or a floating cat in space, where you’d need a little help from Photoshop. The possibilities are endless!

Double Exposure Photography

Double exposure is achieved through combining and merging two photos in one. Before the age of Photoshop and blending options, special procedures were a need to achieve a double exposure effect. Today, most cameras have the option, and smartphone editing apps have built-in double exposure effects that you could make in just a few taps.

This effect is very versatile where you can make cool effects, even some scary ones, if you nail the setting due to its ethereal and otherworldly feel.

Long Exposure Photography

This type of photography uses a longer shutter speed duration to create a “motion-like” effect in the photos taken. For example, have you ever seen those pictures of the night sky where it looks like it has white streaks all over it or the ones where glowing letters are floating in mid-air? Well, that’s thanks to this very unique and fun photography technique.

Its execution is relatively simple, you mount your camera or smartphone (yes, even smartphones can do it!) on a tripod and set the shutter speed to last longer. Then, you let the creativity run wild. You can draw stuff with a penlight in mid-air or leave it on for the whole night to get those gorgeous star trails in the sky.

Minimalist Photography

What a way to end things off than with the most simple yet maybe the most powerful style there is? Minimalist photography comes from the 50s, where there was a shift to a more clean and straightforward look to the art. These images usually contain simple lines, textures, the dichotomy of colors, and much more. Even though it’s simple, you can do so much and tell stories not told before.

Trying new styles could give you new perspective, which can result in new beginnings and excitement in your career. All these different types of photography styles will give your art a new angle to look from.