Let us explore the 34 different types of photography. If you are confused about making a decision on which photography type suits you the best, then I highly recommend reading this guide. Once you go through this guide, you can easily decide your photography type.
👉🏼 📖READ: Different Types of Cameras
34 Different Types Of Photography 📷
#1. Wedding Photography 💃🏻🕺🏻
Wedding photography is one of the best ways to earn from photography.
If you are looking to make a career out of photography then wedding photography is a good choice. It can generate a decent amount of income for you.
You need to invest in a good full-frame camera (DSLR/Mirrorless) along with good portrait lenses for capturing beautiful wedding shots.
#2. Macro Photography 🐸
If your interest is in shooting frogs, snakes, and insects, or if you want to capture the fine details of a subject, you should go for macro photography.
You should buy a dedicated macro lens for your DSLR/ Mirrorless camera if your interest is in macro subjects. You can even make use of a lens reversal ring with your 18-55mm kit lens or 50mm lens and convert it into a macro lens.
If you are doing it as a hobby, you can even use the inbuilt macro lens that is available on smartphones these days.
#3. Black and White Photography 🎞
In this digital age where you have high-end cameras capable of recording all colors, why do you need to shoot in Black and White? This would be the question that comes to your mind.
Certain scenes look better in monochrome than in color.
Many great photographers still shoot in Black and White. You can bring the texture details, contrast, and emotions to life using black and white photography.
#4. Bird Photography 🦅
There are people who only photograph birds.
Some do bird photography just for documentation purposes whereas there are bird photographers who put lots of effort to get the best picture of the bird.
You will need a good telephoto lens to photograph birds. Learning more about bird behavior will help you to capture better bird images.
#5. Underwater Photography 🌊
People who are interested in marine subjects like fish and life underwater choose underwater photography.
You will need a good underwater camera housing to photograph marine life underwater.
#6. Fashion Photography 👱🏻♀️
In fashion photography, you will photograph models in different attire.
You will need a stylist for makeup. A location for shooting needs to be decided based on the theme.
You can shoot indoors as well as outdoors.
These photographs are basically for advertisement purposes. It is another great way to generate income from photography.
#7. Sports Photography 🤼♂️
Sports photography can be challenging at times. You need to act fast and capture the person in action.
You will not get a second chance. So, you should be able to predict what is going to happen in the field. It will help you to get the right shot at the right moment. It requires some practice.
You will have to use long telephoto lenses. So you need to be physically fit too.
#8. Food Photography 🍔
You might have already seen lots of Instagram account with awesome photographs of food.
You will need a good lens to capture great food shots. The macro lens will help to capture all the textures and details in the food.
Even the basic kit lens or a good smartphone can do the job provided the lighting is good. If you just want to publish on the web then this would be fine. Otherwise, you will need a good macro lens.
#9. Long Exposure Photography 🏞
You need to have a solid understanding of image exposure and camera settings if you want to take good long exposure shots. It comes only through practice.
You can create photographs that cannot be visualized by normal human eyes, like the star trails.
A good tripod is required for long exposure shots.
It is one of the different types of photography which requires lots of patience. Here, you will learn by trial and error method.
#10. Architecture Photography 🏘
Architecture photography deals with different types of architectural structures. It can be modern architecture like tall skyscrapers or old ancient buildings.
A full-frame DSLR or Mirrorless camera would be the right camera body.
You will need a good wide-angle lens for this type of photography.
#11. Documentation Photography 📽
There are people who photograph just for documentation purposes. They will include these photographs when they publish their final reports.
There are birders who just click the snap of the bird for documentation purposes.
A point-and-shoot camera or a bridge camera would be sufficient for doing documentation photography
#12. Landscape Photography 🌅
There are many good landscape photographers out there.
A good wide angle lens is the basic requirement for a landscape photographer. Many landscape photographers do carry a medium telephoto lens in the kit.
You must also consider investing in good camera filters like the ND filter and Graduated Neutral Density Filter.
#13. Photojournalists 📸
These are the people who work for newspapers or magazines. There are also freelancers who sell their pictures to newspapers.
A general-purpose zoom lens would be a good choice for photojournalists. A good external flash would be required to cover things at night.
#14. Aerial Photography 🗾
Aerial photography is done mostly with drones. Otherwise, you need to have an aerial view from the top. It is possible if you are inside an airplane or a helicopter.
You can also get aerial shots if you are on top of a mountain or a building. But nothing can beat the view of drones in the case of aerial photography.
Drone photography is one of the most popular types of photography these days. It unlocks a completely different perspective in photography.
#15. Product Photography ⌚️
As the name suggests, this photography genre deals with photographing products. These photos are used for marketing the products. It can be in the form of advertisements and labels.
It involves lots of retouching after the shoot. The retouching is done is to ensure that the final photo has all the details with good clarity.
You need to have a good wide-angle lens for photographing bigger objects and a macro lens for shooting smaller ones.
#16. Night Photography 🌃
There are many night photographers out there.
Tripod, Flash, and Torchlight are the best buddies of a night photographer apart from the camera.
You can create interesting light patterns and even do light paintings when you are into night photography. You will need a good wide-angle lens that supports maximum aperture opening.
#17. Fine Art Photography 🖼
Fine art photography is also known by the name “Conceptual Photography“.
The photographer unleashes the artist in him in this type of photography. These are mainly created for selling.
You can even turn your normal photos into fine art images through the photo editing process.
#18. Street Photography 👨🏻🌾
Street photography can be a challenging one. In the case of street photography, you need to capture the essence and feel of the street.
Here, people and their environment are the two main elements of your composition.
Here the image composition plays an important role. You need to bring life to the picture using the different elements in the frame.
#19. Candid Photography 🤳🏼
Nowadays, candid shots are gaining more importance, especially in the field of wedding photography and portfolio stuff.
It’s basically capturing the natural emotion and movements of the person with interesting frames, without asking the person to pose for the frame. Thus, you will be able to capture some natural moments.
#20. Portrait Photography 👩🏻💼
Portrait not only means photographing headshots. It also includes creative portraits, where a photographer conveys some message through his portraits.
He captures the emotions and feelings of the person in portrait photography.
There are people who shoot portraits alone. It is also a good photography genre to take as a profession.
#21. Infrared Photography 🌁
You can do infrared photography in two ways. You can either make use of an infrared filter or modify your camera to shoot infrared images alone.
The first one is easier to do as it involves only a filter change.
The second option is costly since you need a sensor modification. Once you make the sensor modification, you can only click infrared images using that camera.
You will get a completely different color tone in infrared images. You can also convert it to black and white.
#22. Event Photography 👯♂️
People who capture stage shows like dance and music concerts come into the category of event photographers.
They generally carry a wide-angle lens and a portrait lens. Flash is used in case of events at night.
📖 READ MORE 👉🏻 : Essential Camera Functions
#23. Travel Photography 🌆
If you are a traveler interested in photography then you belong here.
You can make use of the basic kit lens or a good zoom lens along with your camera for travel photography.
Even a point-and-shoot camera or a bridge camera would be fine. If you are interested in printing your travel images. I would recommend buying a DSLR or Mirrorless camera.
#24. Wildlife Photography 🐅
If your interest is in photographing animals then this photography genre is for you. It can be physically challenging since you need to be quick.
Here, you don’t have much control over lighting. So you need to have good control over your camera settings to get good exposure.
If you are interested in doing wildlife type of photography then consider reading this guide on 101 Wildlife Photography Tips
#25. Composite Photography 🌉
In this type of photography, the photographer creates a single picture using multiple images.
It involves the use of post-processing in tools like Adobe Photoshop. The software will use layering and masking techniques to stack one image above the other.
#26. Editorial Photography
Editorial photography involves capturing images for use in magazine articles and other online publications. Such images must align with the story or the narrative of the text.
One important aspect of an editorial image is that it must look natural. The main idea of this image is to convey the message to the reader and the text.
Here, you must try to capture storytelling images to bring more impact to the editorial image. It can be a single or a series of images.
#27. Headshot Photography 🙎🏼♂️
Headshot photography is one of the popular commercial photography types. Here, you will photograph the head and shoulders of a person.
People use these images for resumes, LinkedIn profiles, business websites, etc. You will need a good portrait lens for photographing headshots.
You can use a backdrop or the workplace environment as the background. Ensure there is a good background blur, so the viewer’s attention is always on the subject’s face.
#28. Newborn Photography 👶🏻
Newborn photography deals with the photography of newborn babies. It is one of the most challenging types of photography.
Here, you must ensure that the baby is comfortable with your presence. Otherwise, you will not be able to capture beautiful newborn shots.
You will also need lots of props for photographing newborns. The newborn photography is done when the baby is 2 to 4 weeks old.
#29. Pet Photography 🐶
Photographing pets involves photographing pet dogs, birds, cats, and other pets. It is one of the popular photography niches these days.
You must capture multiple pet photos if you want to be a pet photographer. It includes pet portraits, behavioral shots, interaction with the owner, etc.
You can do this type of photography outdoors and indoors.
#30. Cityscape Photography 🏙
Some photographers specialize in photographing cityscapes. It can be called a subset of landscape photography.
If you are interested in photography cityscapes, consider investing in an excellent wide-angle lens and a tripod with your camera.
The look and feel of a cityscape image will vary at different times of the day. So, try shooting at sunset, sunrise, blue hour, and daylight to see the difference.
#31. Still Life Photography 🏺
In the case of still life photography, you will be photographing non-moving subjects. It includes subjects like flowers, vessels, books, fruits, etc.
Here, the photographer has the luxury of arranging the subjects according to any compositional style along with the props.
The photographer will also get full control over the lighting of the subject. You can use natural or artificial lights for still life photography.
#32. Real Estate Photography 🏡
Real estate photography is a type of commercial photography. In this photography type, you will photograph real estate properties like houses and buildings.
You need to photograph both the exterior and interior of the buildings. Also, the turnaround time needs to be fast.
A good wide-angle lens is a must for real estate photography. You may have to use a drone to capture aerial pictures of the property.
#33. Abstract Photography 🌌
Abstract photography involves photographing colors, shapes, textures, patterns, light, and shadow.
You can capture these elements either from nature or create them artificially. In order to create abstract images, you need to look at the subject from a new perspective.
One good thing about abstract photography is that you can do it at your home. You don’t have to travel. But the hard part is you need to make the image visually pleasing for the viewer.
#34. Conservation Photography 🐘
Conservation photography is all about capturing images that show the connection between humans and other organisms.
These images are useful in bringing many environmental issues into the limelight. One of the main issues faced by many vulnerable species is human-animal conflict.
Many environmentalist groups use these pictures for their environmental campaigns. Here, the pictures are used to conserve nature.
Different types of photography demand different types of camera lenses. Now you have a basic idea of different types of photography.
Consider reading this article on how to get into photography if you are really interested in photography.
