Today, photography is known both as science and art. Main idea in photography is taking light and shape from real structures and copying them to photographic films or hard disks. Word photography firstly used by Sir John Herschel in 1830s and word’s origin is coming from Greek word φωτός which means “drawing with light”. There were manual cameras since 1990s and today they mostly changed to Digital cameras. There are lots of points while taking a photo as focus, aperture, shutter speed, white balance, metering and iso speed. But today digital cameras are mostly automatic for amateurs and making this settings automatically. Mostly after digital cameras with high quality photo taking are released, lots of photography forms are born. How many forms of photography are there?
Today there are 37 official forms of photography. They are various from wildlife photography to food photography. New forms are adding to this list with new technologies of photography.
One of the most popular photography forms today is Architectural photography. It’s about photographing building and other aesthetic structures. Architectural photography is a harder form of photography because it needs to shine perspective and art of engineer to be a good photo.
Documentary photography is another popular form of photography. In last century, Documentary photography released lots of unforgettable photos from moments. Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange is taken on Great Depression era and it’s a symbol of this era.
Fashion photography is popular today and it was popular in 1800s and 1900s. It’s known that first example of fashion photography is from 1839. Fashion photography’s born idea was selling fashionable clothes to far away countries. Fashion photography’s development created famous magazines like Vogue and Elle. Today there are famous fashion photographers like Annie Leibovitz and Mario Testino.
Sports photography is also a popular one and includes all types of sports. After development of video and live coverage, sports photography is lost its main role but it’s still an important form of photography. Sports photography also needs special accessories for good photos like lenses and bodies. There are lots of universities today teaching on sports photography.
Stock photography is the new age form of photography. There are lots of photo sites in internet and it’s possible to find licensed stock photos on them about nearly all topics. There are lots of sectors using these photos like web pages, newspapers and TVS. Also there are some famous stock photo agencies like Getty Images, Sipa Press and Corbis. Main ways to use these stock photos are hiring them for a specific period.
Underwater photography is the main way to photo ocean and sea activities. It has two kinds of underwater photography as hobby usage and documentary usage. In documentary usage, deep divers photos shipwrecks and underwater caves. Important camera producer brands producing special underwater cameras. First underwater photographing idea was on 1850s and it developed very slowly. After 1960s, underwater photography groups are started to establish.
Wedding photography is an old and commercial form of photography. First wedding photographs were only from wedding day. But after 50s, bride and groom started to pose esthetically for wedding photos. Today wedding photography is one of the largest categories in photography.
Also war photography is an old and classic form of photography. First examples of war photography are from American Civil War. It’s a very dangerous way of photography as natural and over 30 photographers are killed on Iraq war.
Also there are forms like wildlife photography, portrait photography, food photography, digiscoping and medical photography. There will be also new forms of photography as photo technology is growing fast.
