Types of Portrait Photography

Here I have presented a range of different types of portrait photography, where I have included photographs to support my written work.

Different Types of Portrait Photography

Wedding photographers usually focus on full body and portrait shot shots, they do also take photographs of still object that would be at the wedding, but their job is to capture the essence of the wedding in the photographs. Professional wedding photographers almost always use digital cameras when shooting; this allows maximum editing after the photographs have been taken. Most wedding photographers shoot in Raw, this is because it allows the photographer to change the white balance, which is something you would not be able to do in a normal format. Also wedding photographers tend to be a bit creative with the shots, such as, shooting from different perspectives. For example they usually tend to shoot straight, but you can get that odd one where the angle maybe from the floor looking upwards towards a crowd of people. The most lucrative type of photography is probably wedding photography, as it provides the most stable income because almost everybody needs a photographer at their wedding day.

Photojournalism began in 1925 in Germany, it cam about from the invention of the 35 mm camera, this was designed to be portable and could be carried around anywhere. Before this photographers would have had to use heavy equipment and would only really be able to shoot in a studio. However after the invention photographers could really capture people’s everyday movements, making them look more natural, showing their lives through a new perspective.

Photojournalism is the combination of photographs and the news. This was important as before this the viewers only felt they were getting half the story, with photographs however, another perspective is added and therefore supports the written study. A photojournalist is a photographer who does not take photographs with the client’s ideas in mind and how they would like to be portrayed. But more of portraying an accurate photograph of the real life event, so a portrait of someone being photographed would be a straight forward recording, with minimal, or hardly any use of photographic techniques. The photograph must be unedited and pure.

Wedding Photography

Photojournalism

Fashion photography started in the late 1800s, this was usually popularised through fashion magazines such as, Vogue (1892) and Harper Bazer (1862). This type of photography was mainly used to resent clothes, and different types of garments to the public of readers. Adolphe De Meyer was considered one of the first fashion photographers, who worked for Vogue, she produced great photographs, most of them were full body portraits, but the style in which they were shot, only the clothes were the centre of attention, which was the aim of the photographs. After the second World War fashion had exploded, as it was a new movement in time, therefore fashion was enhanced. Photographers such as, Irving Penn, Richard Avedon and Norman Parkinson were some of the main photographers to reach popularity.

Fashion Photography

Studio Photography

Studio photography is the heart of photography; it is the most versatile and can provide great effects. Studio photography first started in 1853, where a photographer ‘Gaspard-Felix Tournachon’ open up his first portrait studio in Paris. A technology evolved greatly more and more photographers started using studio photography. In studio photography there is a lot of pre work that goes in the production of a studio, for example, the studio lighting should all be set up in conjunction to taking the photograph. This is important as depending on what shoot the photographer would like to take the lighting must be adjusted accordingly. The camera and tri-pod should all be set up as well as the type of background that the photographer would like to use, this again would depend on the lighting the photographer would want to use. The first use of studio photography was probably used for commercial.