Photography‘12 Applications and 8 Contexts’

AdvertisingAdvertising has one goal; to sell a product. As such, marketing has grown a myriad of different techniques to beautify or romanticise a product - often making food items inedible in an attempt to make the product look as good as possible.

Application

Some techniques used include;

● Manipulation of products - physical techniques that add decour such as condensation on soft-drinks, or gloss to meat.

● Large image size - Advertising images need to be very high-resolution to accommodate larger signs and billboards.

● Romanticized camera angles - Low-angles, color filters, and DOF effects help to bring the product to the forefront and emphasize its presense.

PromotionalWhereas Advertising is used to sell a product, Promotional photography - such as in celebrity twitter accounts or tabloid newspapers - exist to increase interest and brand value of a specific person, group, or product.

Application

Some techniques used include;

● Focus on character - typically, promotional photography exists to boost the public personas of celebrities, as such it often extenuates the subjects with props and creative posing.

● Traditional Technique - artistic techniques such as varying camera-angles, focus, and blocking.

FashionFashion photography isn’t just about selling the clothing - though that is obviously the end goal - fashion photography is often more similar to ‘lifestyle-photography’. As such, further care and consideration is put into the environment and prop work of a particular shoot - often including on-location shooting.

Application

Some techniques used include;

● Similarities to Promotional - Fashion photography has much the same goals of promotional; it exists to improve the brand identity of someone or something, as such they share similar styles and techniques.

● Lifestyle - Fashion often focuses on location and set, using association to make clothing seem more attractive for the season.

PhotojournalismPhotojournalism is a documentative form of photography, its main goal is to explain and elaborate on real events accurately. As such there is an element of straightforwardness of photojournalism - however, photojournalism is a tricky art form, as often photographers work under tight deadlines for magazines and newspapers, and the form is often under heavy criticism in terms of its legality - often including the illegal activities of so called ‘paparazzi’.

Application

Some features of the style include;

● In-the-moment Shooting - Photography is a very staged artform; it requires its participants to pose and work with the setting. Photojournalism on the other hand is taken in the moment - there is no faking photojournalism - and whilst some might take it out of context, there is a sense of accuracy to the things portrayed than excuses the lack of technique.

PortraitureA classic staple of renaissance and victorian painting, portraiture has been with us for hundreds of years; however its versatility and importance is never overstated. Portraiture main goal is to express the character and image of a person, and often features a simple front-facing position from the shoulders up.

Application

Some features of the style include;

● A perfect mid-shot - Some people coin Portraiture as ‘a look into the soul’, as portraiture is first and foremost a representation of the person. However, the interesting thing about this description, is that the style has almost no technique behind the camera; portraiture is a characterised by a very steady and front-on image, level with the face. As such, expression and character portrayed by the subject is key.

DocumentativeMuch like photojournalism, Documentative photography exists to capture a realistic depiction of real events; however, Documentative photography is a much more well practiced form, and as such often tries more traditional technique to express the emotion of a situation as much as the actual events. Documentative journalism is also far less constrained in terms of deadlines, leading to the increase in photographical quality.

Application

Some features of the genre include;

● Accuracy to mood - Documentative photography is an artform as any other, however, as it is a journalistic form of photography, it leads itself well to including the tone of the history within the style; using traditional techniques.

● Longer Shoots - Some Documentative photography can last over several years as part of a larger project of documentation.

High-streetHigh-street photography is becoming a lost art due to the proliferation of smartphones; though the artform still has value as an example. High-street photography is characterised by clear and colourful family portraits, often depicting the group in an abstract studio environment. As a pay-for form of photography, the style is more for the sake of meeting consumer demand, and usually doesn’t stray too wildly in terms of conventions.

Application

Some features of the style include;

● Studio Setups - Studio setups allow for a standard of work needed for High-street photography, that allows for versatile yet easy to set up shoots. It is still common for high-street photography to happen in outside venues - such as weddings - though most will work out of an easy to use studio.

StudioStudios - as a controlled environment - offer a lot of benefits to photographers; for one, much like the high-street example, they offer clean images without too much fuss in terms of lighting, allowing for controlled lighting, without restrictions from environment either. It also allows for convenience, as studios are easily bookable and don’t have the problems that more public forms of photography may have.

Application

Some techniques used include;

● Staged Performances - Studio shoots are, by nature, staged. As such most studio shoots involve various dramatic posing and performance from the subject themselves.

● Malleable lighting - Lighting is as easy as flicking a switch, and as such photography in Studios tends to be a lot better staged - though less natural or ‘full’ than in venue shoots.

ArchitecturalArchitectural photography is a much more grandiose form of photography, capturing large-scale buildings, skyscrapers, and monuments in a fantastical perspective. Architectural photography is interesting, as it makes use of the blockier lines and shapes of buildings for clear perspective, allowing tall buildings to look genuinely grand.

Application

Some tropes of the style include;

● Low-angle shots - Many pieces of Architectural Photography enjoy focusing on the buildings from a low-angle, this allows the buildings to seem taller and more grandiose than a standard shot, and is sometimes necessary for larger buildings.

● Natural Perspective - The generally utilitarian or geometrical design of most larger city buildings leads to a lot of natural leading lines, extenuating the perspective of the images.

IllustrativeIllustrative photography is photography to support points provided by other mediums - such as news articles and instructive books. Illustrative photography is somewhat comparable to stock photography - in that both act as visual supports, and can often be released as stock photography.

Application

Key features of this style include;

● More relatable than drawings - illustrations, whilst effective, are also more removed visually from the audience, as such photographical examples help audiences to connect with instructions to a more detailed level.

● Self-explanatory - Illustrative photography is almost designed to be educational, as such the focus of illustrative photography is often clear and visible for the article, so as to elaborate in a simple to understand way.

MedicalMedical photography is not a form for technique, so much as clarity. Medical professionals may sometimes refer to images in books to perform accurate medical exercises, as such it’s important for such images to be accurately lit and photographed, as any accidental issues with the image may lead to confusion.

Application

Fine ArtFine art - whilst a rather wide style - is synonymous with many traditional artistic tropes, focusing on the language of photography, allowing story to be told through pure photographical technique.

Application

What makes ‘Fine-art photography’ Fine Art is several things;

● Interpretive - Fine-art photography is generally abstract and left to interpretation, this lets the audience decide the worth of the piece and gives a higher element of analysis to the work.

● Experimentation - Fine Art photography can cover a huge amount of themes, as such the form is experimented with often to support said themes.

MagazineMagazines are one of the biggest places - at least traditionally - for promotional or advertising photography, and due to their monthly release, have a much higher standard of quality than something like a newspaper print.

Magazines are usually printed in an A4 portrait form, though some have experimented with extended pages and or other effects such as texturing - though the most common use of the form is for double-page spreads for larger articles. This is sometimes important to plan, as double-page spreads must account for the fold between pages.

High quality pictures would attract people to buy the magazine rather than a competitor, as the visuals of a magazine are more easily sold than the contents of an article.

Context

NewspaperNewspapers are traditionally focused on larger articles, though feature a large amount of photojournalistic photography within them. Newspapers are a weekly - sometimes daily - print format and, as such, require photos to be submitted fast and easy for the printing company. This focus on efficiency can sometimes lead to a lack of technique in Newspaper photography, sometimes taking on a more paparazzi-esque look - sometimes literally paparazzi - though clarity is rewarded most for print.

Newspaper photography’s aspect ratio is often malleable, as articles can simply be arranged around the images. The importance of photography in a journalistic setting cannot be overstated; as it gives validity to many articles and helps to visualise stories.

Context

Advertising hoardingsAdvertising Hoardings - such as billboards or large posters are an imposing form of photography, designed to pop out to passersby; they tend to be a variety of different proportions and aspect ratios, and often use a variety of different tactics to ‘catch the eye.’

Posters for movies are usually heavily edited, and often require incredible attention to quality for the sake of advertising. Often said pieces are edited together entirely from previous studio photography of cast members or locations. One poster can appear on a multitude of different billboards of different size and shape, and as such multiple versions of advertisements are constructed.

Context

BooksBooks can have a variety of different cover types; some can be portrait or landscape, abstract, medical, fine-art - it really depends on the book in question.

Genre fiction often works with heavily photoshopped studio-shoots - so as to allow easy cover design creation for many smaller book series’, such as sci-fi or fantasy novels.

Photography within larger picture books is also common - especially in medical science books, and is usually made to varying sizes for publishers to insert into pages.

Context

Web PagesWeb-page photography is generally best as landscape - so as to better use modern wide-screen displays - however the proportions are variable, from banner ads too splash-pages, web page photos vary wildly.

However, due to the speed of displaying such images, it’s important to use JPEG formatting for most, as it allows for a much smaller file-size - and therefore faster display speed.

Context

CD RomsCD Rom photography - whilst mostly a thing of the past due to modern file-sharing and stock asset companies online - was a common practice for news and print outlets, as it was a simple and affordable way to collect stock assets to use in future articles. They are more commonly comparable to ‘stock photos’ as seen on websites such as Shutterstock.

CD Roms are non-rewriteable, and as such can only be used to retrieve information from the original disk, rather than burn more onto it.

Context

Individual ClienteleIndividual clientele are common business for high-street photographers, and usually consist of family portraiture or wedding photography. Most individual clientele - at least from the consumerist market - expect a professional level of quality.

It’s also common for organised venue shoots to take place, such as weddings, and said shoots usually require portable equipment for ease-of-use.

Context

Galleries and MuseumsGallery photography is normally reserved for Fine-art photography, usually consisting of large displays and featureless rooms - so as to not distract from the piece.

Some question the purpose of said events, though the value of museum displays is often in their pristine presentation and coordination. There is also the social aspect.

Context