Are There Other Types Of Photography?
As we have discussed there are many avenues open to a
professional photographer. Some actually graduate from the world
of business into corporate photography. Corporate photography
has many facets; it is used for publicity, in the form of
advertisements; for public relations, for historical purposes,
and for in-house brochures. Some corporate photographers can
work for the same company for many years. They cover special
events in the companies' history, as well as being as in some
cases an important aspect of industrial history. The history of
the steamboat, the transition from the Agrarian to the
Industrial revolution has all been captured on film. Not only
industrial history but history has been captured on film. War
photographers usually by press photographers' have captured
history.
In the 1940's Ansel Adam's was probably the best-known American
photographer. He captured images of the enforced internment of
American citizen's of Japanese descent at the Manzanar War
Relocation Center in California. These prints record history in
another way as the Photographic Division of the Library of
Congress show digital scans of his negatives as well as his
prints; this allows a student to study his dark room techniques.
The art of action photography is a specialised art that presents
unique challenges, requiring both technical skills in capturing
a moving image, as well as knowledge of the activity you are
photographing. A sense of timing is vital as well as having the
ability to pre-focus. Some types of photography has peak
moments, such as the hour before dusk, action photography has
peak milliseconds! Your sense of timing has to be well developed
to know when this is going to be, because you have to shoot a
millisecond before that to give the camera time to actually
shoot. This is where knowledge of the activity is very helpful
to allow you to anticipate the peak second. However, this is a
very specialised aspect of the photography business, your
techniques can be improved. Sport photography is easier than
moving wildlife, or breaking news stories, as it is more
predictable in its outcome. Common sense is fairly important
with your positioning, you need an interesting backdrop, as well
as a place that allows you to make best use of ambient light, be
it also to keep yourself in a position of safety. The Pulitzer
Prize for photography is no use to anyone when they are dead.
Often these skills can be refined at amateur sporting events,
where you do not need a press pass.
Another specialist type of photography is underwater
photography, partly because you also need to be a qualified
diver and partly because the equipment is specialised. It is
possible to take shots underwater, with a normal camera, but
amphibious cameras, get better results, unfortunately they are
expensive, with a lot of things to learn and the possibility of
very expensive repairs. As with action photography this is best
left to the specialist and it is not a feasible option, unless
you work in this media for the majority of your time. The sea
can be a dangerous medium to work in, and it presents special
challenges such as night, and wreck photography, as well as
drift photography, all of which challenge both your diving
skills as well as your technical skills.
Scientific photographers take images of a variety of subjects to
illustrate or record scientific or medical data using knowledge
of scientific procedures. They typically possess additional
knowledge in areas such as engineering, medicine, biology, or
chemistry. Often the photography of this type of record is an
adjunct to a scientific career. Assignment photography is the
delivery of material for a specific assignment, often with
limited appeal. It includes portrait photography, as well as
wedding photography. Portrait photographers often have their own
studios, as their clients come to them to have a formal portrait
photographed. SLR digital cameras are often preferred to do this
type of work, as there are more opportunities to "view real
timework", you do not have to wait for the negatives to be
printed to see if you have created a shadow on the face with a
hat. Also they can be retouched, pixel-by-pixel, which means the
small time imperfections can be glossed over. The adage the
camera does not lie has never been completely true, but in
today's world is even less so. A portrait photographer has the
opportunity to go out on assignment and covers events such as
weddings, and christenings. Photo Journalism is another branch
of photography that covers the breaking of various events; it
can be general, on a local paper, covering local events such as
school plays etc. International freelancers often cover specific
areas such as war photography. Press photographers are often
characterized under the banner of "journalism", as they collect,
edit and present news material, yet despite this they use images
to tell a news story. It is distinguished from documentary
photography, street photography and the photographing of
celebrities because they have a timeline in that they tell a
story in a chronological order. A narrative to further complete
the story nearly always accompanies the work. Implicit to a
degree in this type of work is a level of objectivity rather
than creativity, as the images are recording real events in real
time. For these reasons it differs from a wedding photographer,
even though in theory he covers an event in real time and for
publication. A further aspect of photography is the "celebrity"
and "Society" photographer. The two are distinguishable, though
the person being photographed can fall in both categories. The
society photographer may be also a photojournalist himself. In
Europe at least the Society photographer, is nearly always of
the same class, partly on the ground that they have the
"breeding" to cover such events, which may be Wimbledon, or the
Melbourne Cup, or even a charity-raising gala. It is implicit
that the Photographer has permission to take the photograph.
That's quite different to the inherent distaste often applied to
the methods used by the celebrity photographer, whilst at the
same time the public retain an insatiable desire to be able to
see the photographs. Celebrity photographers are often these
days called paparazzi, after a famous Italian photographer known
for his dogged determination to trail after celebrities, and
publish photographs taken in an unguarded moment.