Photography by Genre and Category
Octubre 6th, 2007
Photography is a big monster that can be split by genre and category. I would like to present here some of them along with the definitions of what they are:
Aerial photography:
Aerial photography is the taking of photographs of the ground while not supported by a ground-based structure. Cameras may be hand held or mounted, and photographs may be taken by an active photographer, or triggered remotely or automatically. Vehicles for aerial photography include fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters; balloons, blimps and dirigibles; and rockets. kites can also be made into platforms, as can skydivers.
Architectural photography:
is the blend of photographic skill, technical aptitude, artistic vision and whimsical thinking. Often using multiple exposures of the same image, architectural photography blends the “best of the best” to create a visual oasis and an architectural utopia for the structurally excitable. Architectural photography at its best will convey the experience of being in and around a built environment.
is a specialized type of photography that entails making photographs of astronomical objects in the sky such as the Moon, Sun, planets, stars, and deep sky objects such as star clusters and galaxies.
is the act of capturing images of aircraft, either in flight, or on the ground. Like other specialties in photography, aviation photography requires knowledge of special techniques and of the aircraft to be done properly. There are different types of aviation photography, including air-to-air, ground-to-air, ground-static, and remote photography.
is a commemorative photograph typically in a hotel or club banquet room from a high angle where foreground to background each person is in focus while seated at their table.
Birth reportage:
is a genre in photography which has the birth of a human as its subject.
Candid photography:
is snapshot photography that focuses on spontaneity rather than technique, on perfecting the immersion of a camera within events rather than focusing on setting up a staged situation, focusing on lengthy camera setup, or focusing on particularly strong lenses.
Chronophotography:
is a Victorian application of science (the study of movement), and art (photography). It is the technique precursor to cinematography. The word is from the Greek chronos and photography, “pictures of time.” Chronophotography is divided into two separate processes: Motography (continuous exposure of the subject) and Strobophotography (intermittent exposure of the subject)
Cloudscape: is photography showing a view of clouds or sky.
Color photography:
is photography that uses media capable of representing colors which are produced chemically during the photographic processing phase. It is contrasted with black-and-white photography, which uses media capable only of showing shades of gray, and does not include hand colored photographs. Some examples of color photography include prints, color negatives, transparencies and slides, and roll and sheet films.
Commercial photography: is photography made or licensed for the purpose of selling a product, service or idea where fine-art photography is created as an ad in itself.
Computational photography: refers to computer image processing in which the image acquisition is influenced by the desire to process multiple pictures of the same subject matter, into an aggregate image or image sequence. Computational photography is also known in the literature as “Intelligent Image Processing”.
Conceptual photography: is a photography genre in which the artists makes a photograph of a concept or idea. Thus the subject is strictly abstract, even though what is depicted in the photograph are real objects.
Digital camera astrophotography: is astrophotography using common digital cameras mounted on clock-driven telescopes. The cameras are typically medium to high-range D-SLRs with remote control, long-exposure capability and high-ISO settings. Due to the wide field of the cameras’ sensors, they are best suited for photography of deep-space objects such as nebulae, or transitory celestial phenomena such as comets or supernovae. They are unsuitable for planetary photography, or imaging of galaxies other than the very closest, except when mounted to very large telescopes.
Documentary photography: usually refers to a type of professional photojournalism, but it may also be an amateur or student pursuit. The photographer attempts to produce truthful, objective, and usually candid photography of a particular subject, most often pictures of people. The pictures usually depict a certain perspective of the photographer. Usually such photographs are meant for publication, but are sometimes only for exhibition in an art gallery or other public forum. Sometimes an organization or company will commission documentary photography of its activities, but the pictures will only be for its private archives.
Environmental portrait: is a portrait executed in the subject’s usual environment, such as in their home or workplace, and typically illuminates the subject’s life and surroundings.
Fancy portrait: is an art historical term for an imaginary portrait of a real or literary character. The fancy portrait takes the form of a conventional portrait but is defined by the fact that its depiction of the character is derived from the artist’s imagination rather than any authentic record of the person’s appearance. Though imaginary portraits of historical characters have existed since antiquity, the term came into use in the nineteenth century, when “portraits” of literary characters became popular, and were widely reproduced in the form of engravings. It was also applied commonly to humorous caricatures and later to photographs in which the subjects adopt imaginary personas.
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 such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, or Allure. Over time, fashion photography has developed its own aesthetic in which the clothes and fashions are enhanced by exotic locations and story lines.
Fine art photography: is sometimes simply called art photography and refers to high-quality archival photographic prints of pictures that are created to fulfill the creative vision of an individual professional. Such prints are reproduced, usually in limited editions, in order to be sold to dealers, collectors or curators, rather than mass reproduced in advertising or magazines. Prints will sometimes, but not always, be exhibited in an art gallery.
Food photography: The art and science of food photography is a specialization in general commercial photography. Food and Drink Photography is one of the most challenging aspects of still life work. The main areas of food photography are: Editorial for Magazine and Books on food including but not limited to cook books, advertising and packaging design. The near perfection, the subtlety of flavor and the almost palatable sense prevalent in some of the best food photography today, is almost never the result of the photographer alone. The food stylist, home economist and props stylist all play very important roles in building a strong image and making an impression.
Forensic photography: is the art of producing an accurate reproduction of a crime scene or an accident scene for the benefit of a court. It is part of the process of evidence collecting. It provides investigators with photos of bodies, places, items involved in the crime. Pictures of accidents show broken machinery, or a car crash, and so on. Photography of this kind involves choosing correct lighting, accurate angling of lenses, and a collection of different viewpoints. Scales are often used in the picture so that dimensions of items are recorded on the image.
Glamour photography: is the photographing of a model with the emphasis on the subject. Photographers use a combination of cosmetics, lighting and airbrushing techniques to produce the most physically appealing image of the model possible.
Home movies: are motion pictures made by amateurs, often for viewing by family and friends. When the hobby began, home movies were produced on photographic film, but availability of video cameras and camcorders and digital storage devices has made the making of home movies easier and more affordable to the average person. The boundaries between consumer movie-making and professional movie-making are becoming increasingly blurred as prosumer equipment often offers features previously only available on professional equipment.
Infrared photography: the film or image sensor used is sensitive to infrared light. The part of the spectrum used is referred to as near-infrared to distinguish it from far-infrared, which is the domain of thermal imaging. Wavelengths used for photography range from about 700 nm to about 900 nm. Usually an “infrared filter” is used; this lets infrared (IR) light pass through to the camera but blocks all or most of the visible light spectrum (and thus looks black or deep red).
When these filters are used together with infrared-sensitive film or sensors, very interesting “in-camera effects” can be obtained; false-color or black-and-white images with a dreamlike or sometimes lurid appearance known as the “Wood Effect.”
Kirlian photography: refers to a form of contact print photography, theoretically associated with high-voltage. It is named after Semyon Kirlian, who in 1939 accidentally discovered that if an object on a photographic plate is connected to a source of high voltage, small corona discharges (created by the strong electric field at the edges of the object) create an image on photographic plate.
Kirlian photography is completely different from “Aura photography,” in which a colorful image is produced of a person’s face and upper torso, using various methods of biofeedback. People commonly use the term “Kirlian photography” to erroneously refer to “Aura photography,” and vice-versa. The terms have almost become interchangeable, even though the techniques are completely different. This leads to confusion among those who not familiar with the two different techniques.
The Kirlian technique is contact photography, in which the subject is in direct contact with the film which is placed upon a metal plate that is charged with high voltage, high frequency electricity. In Aura Photography, no high voltage is involved as with the Kirlian technique, and no direct contact with the film is made. The images made with an Aura camera do not result from coronal discharge; the colors are projected with fiber optics.
Kite aerial photography: is a hobby and a type of photography. A small camera is suspended from a kite on a Picavet and is used to take aerial photographs. The camera rigs can range from the extremely simple, consisting of a trigger mechanism with a disposable camera, to complex apparatuses using radio control and digital cameras. On some occasions it can be a good alternative (in many ways) to any other form of aerial photography.
Light painting: also known as light drawing is a photographic technique in which exposures are made usually at night or in a darkened room by moving a light source or by moving the camera.
Lo-fi photography: is a style of photography generally using poor equipment, such as toy cameras or pinhole cameras, for stylistic effect. It is often considered a reaction to the perceived ease of creating technically perfect photos in the digital age. Generally the emphasis is on using film, rather than digital technology, a preference most marked in sprocket hole photography.
Lolcat: are images combining photographs of a cat with a humorous and idiosyncratic caption. The name “lolcat” is a compound word formed from lol and cat. The phenomenon is also referred to as cat macros. Lolcats are created for photo sharing imageboards and other internet forums.[citation needed] Lolcats are similar to other anthropomorphic animal-based image macros such as the O RLY? owl, but the cuteness of cats “enhances” the appeal and increasing prominence of the Internet meme.
Long exposure multiple flash photographic technique: is a method of night or low light photography which use a mobile flash unit to expose various parts of a building or interior using a long exposure time. Long exposure means that the shutter of the camera is kept open for longer, allowing more light to be exposed to the images sensor or film of the camera. This causes the photograph to be lighter, and is good for night and dark photos’. This technique is often combined with using coloured gels in front of the flash unit to provide different colours in order to illuminate the subject in different ways. It is also common to flash the unit several times during the exposure while swapping the colours of the gels around to mix colours on the final photo. This requires some skill and a lot of imagination since it is not possible to see how the effects will turn out until the exposure is complete. By using this technique, the photographer can illuminate specific parts of the subject in different colours creating shadows in ways which would not normally be possible.
Long exposure photography: is a technique that requires a slow shutter speed to capture light and movement. When an image is taken including stationary and moving subjects (for example, a fixed street and moving cars or a camera within a car showing a fixed dash-board and moving scenery) using a slow shutter speed, interesting effects, such as light trails occur. Long exposures are easiest to accomplish in low-light conditions, but can be done in brighter light using neutral density filters or specially designed cameras.
Macro photography: refers to close-up photography; the classical definition that the image projected on the “film plane” (i.e film or a digital sensor) is close to the same size as the subject. On 35 mm film (for example), the lens is typically optimized to focus sharply on a small area approaching the size of the film frame. Most 35mm format macro lenses achieve at least 1:2, that is to say, the image on the film is 1/2 the size of the object being photographed. Many 35mm macro lenses are 1:1, meaning the image on the film is the same size as the object being photographed. Another important distinction is that lenses designed for macro are usually at their sharpest at macro focus distances and are not quite as sharp at other focus distances.
Micrograph: is a photograph or similar image taken through a microscope or similar device to show a magnified image of an item. Canadian inventor Reginald Aubrey Fessenden is credited with inventing photomicrography.
To produce a micrograph, a camera may be affixed to a microscope either in place of the eyepiece or a specialist microscope may be used which has a camera and eyepiece arrangement. A prepared specimen is put under the microscope in the usual way and photographs taken. Alternatively, the image may be scanned and stored electronically and displayed on a screen and/or printed.
Micrographs are widely used in forensic engineering and forensic science, especially for recording Trace evidence. It is also routinely used in scanning electron microscopy, often combined with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy so that the area of the sample selected for analysis is directly visible.
Mobilography: is a branch of photography that creates pictures using such devices with built-in cameras, as cellular phones, palm pilots, compasses, binoculars, lighters, etc, not originally intended to be used for professional photography. Mobilography first came on stage at the start of the 21st century when home appliances with built-in cameras became widely available to the general public. The term “mobilography†implies that a change in the primary function of the device has taken place, whereby the built-in camera, originally intended simply as an add-on feature, has taken on the primary function. As a rule this type of a camera is equipped with just a bare minimum of technological elements, frequently causing the resulting pictures to be of a fairly poor quality. Nevertheless mobilography has proved that poor quality of an image does not have to become an obstacle for the creation of full-blown high-quality pieces of art, a.k.a., mobilographs.
Mug shot: is a photographic portrait taken after one is arrested. It was invented by Allan Pinkerton, a famous US detective of the 19th Century. Most mug shots are two-part, with one side-view photo, and one front-view. The Pinkerton National Detective Agency first began using these on “Wanted” posters from the “Wild West” days.
Nature photography: refers to a wide range of photography taken outdoors and devoted to displaying natural elements such as landscapes, wildlife, plants, and close-ups of natural scenes and textures. Nature photography tends to put a stronger emphasis on the aesthetic value of the photo than other photography genres, such as photojournalism and documentary photography. Nature photographs are published in scientific, travel and cultural magazines such as National Geographic Magazine and Audubon Magazine or other more specific magazines such as Outdoor Photographer and Nature’s Best Photography, as well as a growing hobby as photography is getting more popular in general.
Nensha: better known to English speakers as thoughtography or projected thermography or nengraphy, is the ability to psychically “burn” images from one’s mind onto surfaces, or even into the minds of others. It is common in fiction, and made noteworthy by the recent Ringu/The Ring media franchise. It should be noted that while the term “thoughtography” has been in the English lexicon since 1913, the more recent term “projected thermography” is a neologism originating from the 2002 US remake of The Ring.
Night photography: refers to photographs taken outdoors between twilight and dawn. Night photographers generally have a choice between using artificial light or using a long exposure, exposing the scene for seconds or even minutes, in order to give the film enough time to capture a usable image, and to compensate for reciprocity failure. With the progress of high-speed films, higher-sensitivity digital image sensors, wide-aperture lenses, and the ever-greater power of urban lights, night photography is increasingly possible using available light.
Non-nude photography: also called “NN” or simply “non-nude”, is a genre of photography which contains sexually suggestive images of human subjects intended to arouse, but never complete nudity. The genre is closely tied to certain online communities whose purpose is the sharing of photos within the genre. Non-nude communities vary in the level of sexuality they allow, and whether or not they permit “implied nudity” and the depiction of sexual acts. Not only an online phenomenon, non-nude photography is the focus of such contemporary lad mags as Maxim or FHM, which showcase scantily-clad photos, often of celebrity subjects. Detractors of non-nude photography claim it is unequivocal softcore pornography, and prefer to call it “non-nude pornography”; a label that is not favored by adherents of the genre. Non-nude photography can be of both candid subjects and professional models, can include the subject in normal street clothes, swimwear, lingerie, and even technically nudity through obscuring the private areas with such techniques as the handbra, or careful posing. The vast majority of websites featuring non-nude photos focus on photos of women.
Old-Time Photography: is a kind of novelty photography. It is very popular family activity at amusement parks and other tourist destinations, mostly in the United States. Old-time photography allows consumers to pose for a vintage, or old, style photo (usually in themes evoking The Old West, the Victorian era, or the Roaring Twenties) in costumes from a particular period and in sepia tone to give the photo a vintage look.
Panorama: In its most general sense, a panorama is any wide view of a physical space. It has also come to refer to a wide-angle representation of such a view — whether in painting, drawing, photography, film/video, or a three-dimensional model. Further, the motion-picture term, pan or panning is derived from “panorama”.
Panoramic photography: is a format of photography that aims to create images with exceptionally wide fields of view, but has also come to refer to any photograph that is cropped to a relatively wide aspect ratio (see Panoramic format) While there is no formal definition for the point at which “wide-angle” leaves off and “panoramic” begins, truly panoramic image are thought to capture a field of view comparable to, or greater than, that of the human eye – about 160° by 75° – and should do so while maintaining detail across the entire picture. The resulting images are panoramic, in that they offer an unobstructed or complete view of an area – often, but not necessarily, taking the form of a wide strip. A panoramic photograph is really defined by whether the image gives the viewer the appearance of a “panorama,” regardless of any arbitrary technical definition.
Paparazzi: is a plural term (paparazzo being the singular form) for photographers who take candid photographs of celebrities, usually by relentlessly shadowing them in their public and private activities. Celebrities claiming to have been hounded by such photographers often use “paparazzi” as a pejorative term while news agencies commonly use the word in a broader sense to describe all photographers who take pictures of people of note.
Photo essay: is a set or series of photographs that are intended to tell a story or evoke a series of emotions in the viewer. Photo essays range from purely photographic works to photographs with captions or small notes to full text essays with a few or many accompanying photographs. Photo essays can be sequential in nature, intended to be viewed in a particular order, or they may consist of non-ordered photographs which may be viewed all at once or in an order chosen by the viewer. All photo essays are collections of photographs, but not all collections of photographs are photo essays. Photo essays often address a certain issue or attempt to capture the character of places and events.
Photo op: short for photograph opportunity (photo opportunity), is an opportunity that results in a memorable and effective photograph of a politician, a celebrity, or a notable event. The term has acquired a negative connotation, referring to a carefully planned pseudo-event, often masqueraded as news. The phrase is often thought of in a political sense, relating to politicians who do things such as plant trees, pick up litter, and visit senior citizens, often during election cycles, with the intent of photographers catching the events on film, generating good publicity.
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. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, and in some cases to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such as documentary photography, street photography or celebrity photography) by the qualities of:
* Timeliness — the images have meaning in the context of a published chronological record of events.
* Objectivity — the situation implied by the images is a fair and accurate representation of the events they depict.
* Narrative — the images combine with other news elements, to inform and give insight to the viewer or reader.
Photojournalists must make decisions instantly and carry photographic equipment, often while exposed to the same risks (war, rioting, etc.) that are faced by text-only journalists. The fact that they rarely have the option to stand back or wait until the dangerous parts of an event are over means they may take even more risks.
Photovoice: is a methodology mostly used in the field of education which combines photography with grassroots social action. Subjects are asked to represent their community or point of view by taking photographs. It is often used among marginalized people, and is intended to give insight into how they conceptualize their circumstances. As a form of community consultation, photovoice attempts to bring the perspectives of those “who lead lives that are different from those traditionally in control of the means for imaging the world” into the policy-making process. It is also a response to issues raised over the authorship of representation of communities.
Photowalking: is the act of walking with a camera for the main purpose of taking pictures of things you may find interesting. While not exclusive to digital photography, in practice digital photography makes Photowalking more realistic as a hobby due to its experimental nature, the number of pictures typically taken in the process, and the possibility of post-processing afterward.
While closely related to Street photography, photowalking is differentiated by the main impetus being to photograph things of interest rather than people specifically. It is also often done as a method to practice and improve one’s own photography skills rather than a with specific focus on documentary photography.
Photowalking is also a form of exercise as it can take the photographer over the course of several miles as they wander a particular site or neighborhood.
Pictorialism: was a photographic movement in vogue from around 1885 following the widespread introduction of the dry-plate process. It reached its height in the early years of the 20th century, and declined rapidly after 1914 after the widespread emergence of Modernism.
Pictorialism largely subscribed to the idea that art photography needed to emulate the painting and etching of the time. Most of these pictures made were black & white or sepia-toned. Among the methods used were soft focus, special filters and lens coatings, heavy manipulation in the darkroom, and exotic printing processes. From 1898 rough-surface printing papers were added to the repertoire, to further break up a picture’s sharpness. Some artists “etched” the surface of their prints using fine needles. The aim of such techniques was to achieve what the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica termed, in discussing Pictorialism, “personal artistic expression”.
Despite the aim of artistic expression, the best of such photographs paralleled the impressionist style then current in painting. Looking back from the present day, we can also see close parallel between the composition and picturesque subject of genre paintings and the bulk of pictorialist photography.
Portrait: is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this reason, in photography a portrait is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position. A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the painter or photographer, in order to most successfully engage the subject with the viewer.
Portrait photography: The goal of portrait photography is to capture the likeness of a person or a small group of people, typically in a flattering manner. Like other types of portraiture, the focus of photograph is the person’s face, although the entire body and the background may be included. Many people enjoy having professionally made family portraits to hang in their homes, or special portraits to commemorate certain events, such as graduations or weddings.
Portrait photography has been around since the invention and popularization of the camera, and is a cheaper and often more accessible method than portrait painting, which had been used by distinguished figures before the use of the camera.
Post-mortem photography: involved photographing the deceased. While an unusual practice by modern standards, this type of photography was fairly common up into the late 19th century and early 20th century. During these times, early death, especially the early death of a child, was much more commonplace, and photography was still somewhat of a novelty. This lent societal acceptance to the practice of photographing the dead, often with some of the living family members included in the portrait.
Red Shirt School of Photography: is a trend in photography which first became popular in the 1950s. It was pioneered by National Geographic photographers, who had subjects wear or chose subjects who wore overly colorful clothes (not necessarily of the color red, though red was preferred as it rendered best on Kodachrome film).[1] The earliest use of such techniques can be traced back to autochrome pioneers of the 1920s – like Gervais Courtellement – who worked on National Geographic assignments around the globe.
Rollout photography: a type of peripheral photography, is a process used to create a two dimensional photographic image of a three dimensional object. This process is the photographic equivalent of a cylindrical map projection in cartography. It is used predominantly for the projection of images of cylindrical objects such as vases or ceramic vessels. The objective of this process is to present to the observer a planar representation of the object’s characteristics, most notably the illustrations or artwork extant on the outside surfaces of such vessels. This planar representation is captured using photographic imaging techniques.
Satellite imagery: consists of photographs of Earth or other planets made from artificial satellites.
Secret photography: involves a person or persons being unaware that they are being intentionally photographed. It is sometimes called “covert photography”, but this is a term used mostly among professional investigators.
Snaparazzi: are citizen journalists or passers-by who are witness to a newsworthy event and capture it on video or digital picture using their mobile phone. The 7 July 2005 London bombings provided a large number of cases where stills from the bombed underground trains were made available online almost immediately after the events. Another example would be of the Virginia Tech Shootings on April 16th where several students used their camera phones to capture footage of the shootings.
Snapshot aesthetic: refers to a trend within fine art photography in the USA from around 1963. The style typically features apparently banal everyday subject matter and accented framing. Subject matter is often presented without apparent link from image-to-image and relying instead on juxtaposition and disjunction between individual photographs. The style became especially fashionable among from the late 1970s until the mid 1980s.
Soft focus: is a lens flaw, in which the lens forms images that are blurred due to spherical aberration. A soft focus lens deliberately introduces spherical aberration in order to give the appearance of blurring the image while retaining sharp edges; it is not the same as an out-of-focus image, and the effect cannot be achieved simply by defocusing a sharp lens. Soft focus is also the name of the style of photograph produced by such a lens.
Sports photography: refers to the genre of photography that covers all types of sports.
Still life photography: is the practice or products of depicting inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural or man-made. Still life is the photography of small groups of objects, either found or put together for the purpose. Still life photography gives the photographer more leeway in the arrangement of design elements within a composition than do photographs of other types of subjects such as landscape or portraiture.
Still life photography represents one of the most demanding aspects of photography. In this area the photographer is expected to have a highly refined sense of lighting coupled with superb compositional skills because the photographer is making pictures rather than taking them. Knowing where to look for propping and surfaces is also a valuable trait.
In addition to knowing the fundamentals of photography, successful still life photographers are intimately familiar with the tools of this field: tremendous studio lighting skills, ability to use large format view cameras, a strong visual technique, and distinctive stylistic approach.
Stock photography: consists of existing photographs that can be licensed for specific uses. Book publishers, specialty publishers, magazines, advertising agencies, filmmakers, web designers, graphic artists, interior decor firms, corporate creative groups, and others use stock photography to fulfill the needs of their creative assignments.
Straight photography: refers to photography that attempts to depict a scene as realistically and objectively as permitted by the medium, renouncing the use of manipulation. The opposite of pure photography is pictorialism.
Street photography: is a type of documentary photography that usually features people in candid situations in public places such as streets, parks, beaches, malls, political conventions, and other settings.
Strip aerial photography: is a method of aerial photography that uses a high-speed, low-altitude aircraft to take a continuous picture, rather than using overlapping high-altitude photographs, as in conventional aerial photography. Popular from the 1940’s to 1970’s, strip aerial photography was once used internationally for aerial mapping and surveys of highway degradation, but has been replaced by satellite photography, which is less expensive and less prone to image artifacts that required complex post-processing to remove.
Subminiature photography: is the practice of using unusually small cameras with unusually small film formats to make photographs. The exact boundary between cameras and formats that are “subminiature” and those that are merely “small” is the subject of debate among enthusiasts. The term “miniature” was originally used to describe the 35 mm format, so cameras that used a format smaller than 35 mm were referred to as “sub-miniature”. The smallest of the small are often referred to as “ultra-miniature”. In the interest of specificity, cameras that produce an image on the film smaller than the standard 135 format (24×36 mm) are usually included in the genre, but some do not consider half-frame 135 (18×24 mm) cameras “subminiature”, since the cameras can be almost as large as a regular 35 mm camera.
Tele-snaps: are off-screen photographs of British television broadcasts, taken by John Cura before the advent of home video recording. For many early programmes tele-snaps are the only surviving record of their appearance. From 1947 until 1968, Cura operated a business selling the 250,000-plus tele-snaps he took. The photographs were snapped in half of a normal frame of 35mm film, at an exposure of 1/25th of a second. Generally around 70-80 tele-snaps were taken of each programme. They were mostly purchased by actors and directors to use as records and examples of their work before the advent of videocassette recorders.
Travel photography: is a subcategory of photography that is characterized by documenting the landscapes, inhabitants, cultures, customs and history of a specific region of the world.
Ultraviolet photography: is a photographic process of recording images by using light from the ultraviolet (UV) spectrum only.
Underwater photography: is the process of taking photographs while underwater. It is usually done while scuba diving, but can be done while snorkeling or swimming. Underwater imaging is considered an especially challenging area of photography, since it requires very specialized equipment and techniques to be successful. Despite these challenges, it offers the possibility of many exciting and rare photographic opportunities. Animals such as fish and marine mammals are the most common subjects, but photographers also pursue shipwrecks, submerged cave systems, underwater “landscapes”, and portraits of fellow divers.
VR photography: is the name the emerging field of virtual reality photography is being called. VR photography is the art of capturing or creating a complete scene as a single image, as viewed when rotating about a single central position. Normally created by stitching together a number of photographs taken in a multi-row 360 degree rotation; the complete image can also be a totally computer generated effect, or a composite of real word photography and computer generated objects.
The composite image created is known as a VR Panorama and is a fully interactive digital image where “the viewer” is placed in the centre of a cylinder or a sphere onto which is projected a 360 degree wrap-around image; within which the viewer can rotate horizontally and vertically, as if they were immersed within the real world scene.
Vernacular photography: refers to the creation of photographs by amateur or unknown photographers who take everyday life and common things as subjects. Examples of vernacular photographs include travel and vacation photos, family snapshots, photos of friends, class portraits, identification photographs, and photobooth images. Vernacular photographs can also be considered types of “accidental” art, in that they often are unintentionally artistic in some way.
Vintage print: is the first print that the photographer makes immediately after developing a negative. Vintage prints are considered the original piece of art, as it is possible to arbitrarily obtain many copies from the same negative. This means that vintage prints are often signed by the photographer.
War photography: captures images of armed conflict and life in war-torn areas. War photography depicts the terrors of war mingled with acts of sacrifice. Unlike paintings or drawings of war, photographic images are not easily altered, although in some cases, photographers manipulate the subjects and scenes depicted in a work, resulting in an image that is not completely objective in nature.
Wedding photography: is a major commercial endeavor that supports the bulk of the efforts for many photography studios or independent photographers. With the advent of the digital revolution in photography, today’s contemporary wedding photographer needs to stay abreast of all the latest developments in the industry.
Wildlife photography: is the act of taking photographs of wildlife. The art of good wildlife photography is regarded as being one of the more challenging forms of photography as it has several different requirements.
Related posts:
Entry Filed under: Photography
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed