Photographic Applications - Photography Assignment 1
There can be many various applications for photography. These can range from creative purposes, for the photographer to express their own creative individuality or commercial purposes, for the photographer to make a profit from his work as opposed to trying to stand out from other photographers.
Advertising
One such application for photography is advertising. This is when photos are taken to advertise a product. Products advertised can range from anything such as a brand of coffee to a brand of clothing. Photography is used to advertise in order to attract the viewer and also convey information about the product through the image. It is a much cheaper way to advertise than Tv adverts and a lot of photographic adverts will eventually be included in magazines and such. Advertising photography begun in the 1920's and to some extent the 1850's when due to limited technology actual prints of the photographic advertisement would be handed to people. In modern advertising a lot of photo manipulation occurs during the editing of the image. These manipulations can include improving the look of a product or creating an unrealistic effect for the advert. There is some slight artistic viability in this application of photography as many adverts are more creative than the standard photography as many adverts have to be more imaginative in order to capture the attention of anyone looking at it. Despite this however most of the time, the advertiser will have a specific idea in mind for the end product and the photographer will be given a brief. This means that photography for the purpose of advertising is much more viable commercially as the primary purpose of this kind of photography is to make a profit since much of the specifications of the photograph are decided by the person who commissioned the advertisement. An example of a photographer specialising in advertising work is Jonathan Knowles (http://jknowles.co.uk/advertising/portfolio/). There are many examples of his advertising work on his website, which features many different kinds of advert, some more creative than others. Jonothan Knowles is an example of a photographer with his own studio who will likely often work with other people who assist him on professional shoots.
Promotional
Promotional photography is photography that carries the purpose of introducing people to something and promoting it to them (hence the name). Things that promotional photography can cover can include anything from a band, store, activity,etc. It is similar to advertising witch the obvious difference that while advertising photography is designed to advertise actual products, promotional photography is to promote an event, group, band, etc, anything that is not an actual product and is not encouraging people to buy it. Just like with advertising there is some space for artistic expression in this work. many of these images can be creative and concept driven allowing more creativity form the actual photographer both when taking the actual image and manipulating it afterwards. This freedom is however limited by the person or company who comissions the photograph. This means that the freedom of artistic creativity is limited by what it is the person or people in charge desire and how specific the brief is. Jonathan Knowles is again an example of a photographer working in this field of photography as his works include both those of advertising and promotional material (http://jknowles.co.uk/music/portfolio/). There are various examples of promotional photographs on his site, much of which are music based and are heavily manipulated digitally.
Fashion
Fashion photography is a type of photography designed to display the fashion on show in the photograph and highlight the fashion choices in the outfit. Fashion photography will often be included in large portfolios of work or on a brands official website or in a fashion magazine. A common theme in fashion photography is the use of exotic or beautiful locations to better enhance and accentuate the clothing on the photo. There is room for a lot of artistic expression in fashion photography as some of it is not contracted by an actual company or person which allows the photographer to be completely creative with their own work and express themselves. This means they can make their photographs unique and form their own style. Fashion photography is commercially viable as the work is often contracted by clients and photographers can usually charge their own rates for a set of fashion photographs. One very well known fashion photographer is Bill Cunningham whose career is driven entirely by his own artistic choices. Since no one contracts him to take the photographs he takes he has complete freedom over what do do with his images and what images to shoot.
Photojournalism
Photojournalism is a form of photography specialising in journalism (hence the name). Photojournalism is when an image is used to convey an understanding of a situation such as an image of a riot shows the viewer what's going on by showing them the actual riot, photojournalisms primary purpose is news related because it is designed to tell a news story through images. There is next to no room for artistic liberty in photojournalism. Photojournalism is entirely about conveying facts and the overalll story through images and usually must remain impartial. This means that a photographer working on a photojournalistic project has no room to set up their own photo journalistic identity.Photojournalism is mostly commercially driven as the photographer will usually be working for a specific news company and will be taking shots for them to show the public what is happening wherever the story is. An example of a photojournalist is David Burnett, whose work takes on many different stories, from the aftermath of natural disasters to the London 2012 Olympic Games. (http://www.davidburnett.com/index.html).
Portraiture
Portraiture is an application of photography that means taking a photograph of the persons head or head and upper half of their body and usually showing some kind of emotion on their face. The focus of this kind of photography is generally on the subjects face. Portraiture can feature a single subject or multiple. There is quite a lot of room for artistic liberty in portraiture as many varying factors of the image can change the mood of the image such as, background, expression, foreground, clothing, etc. The photographer can have full control over how to make the image. This can be somewhat commercially viable as a profit can be made through commissions and such, it is however not as commercially successful in the same way as high street studio photography. Angus Thomas is an example of a photographer who has a lot of portraiture work to his name. (http://www.angusthomas.com/)
High Street Studio Work
High street studio photography is a form of photography for the purpose of taking quick simple shots of subjects, usually families, children or couples for customers passing by on the high street or wherever the studio is located, because of the nature of this form of photography each photo can be taken quickly and efficiently meaning that the photographer can move onto the next photo much quicker. The same setup is generally used for every photo. Usually a plain white background or a simple colour to make the subject stand out. High street studio work is not very viable in terms of artistic freedom as this form of photography is designed so that each photo is taken in rapid succession using the same setup and customers who want their photo taken usually don't have the time nor patience for a photographer to express his creativity during the shoot. High street studio work is almost purely based on comercial viablility. This is due to the nature of it. Using the same setup, is designed both to make each photo quick to produce and to lessen costs, making it efficient for use on the high street where potential customers pass by every second. An example of a high street studio is Hamilton Studios who have a gallery full of different high street studio work of single subjects, families, pets, etc.
Architectural
Architectural photography is the application of photography to photograph buildings that are interesting or generally aesthetically pleasing. Architectural photographers are usually very skilled with special techniques for this kind of photography. This kind of photography has some limited artistic freedom. While a photographer can choose how they shoot the image usually this is limited by the building itself as while a photographer can move the camera and make any adjustments to the image the building itself remains the same and usually the background (E.I. The sky) is unchangeable for the photographer as higher angles are needed to capture the building itself. Architectural photography is somewhat commerciallly viable as a good photographer could be comissioned to photograph a specific building, most likely from the architect however mostly architectural photography is recreational for the photographers own purpose. An example of an architecural photographer is Simon Kennedy (http://www.simonkennedy.net/).
Illustration
Illustration photography is a form of photography that requires manipulating the image after it has been captured. This can be used for a variety of purposes. There is a lot of artistic freedom in this form of photography as the ways to manipulate the image tkane are limitless for the photographer. It is very commercially viable as a lot of businesses will pay for an image that has been manipulate, for a variety of purposes. An example is a company called Behance, which specialises in the field. (https://www.behance.net/)
Fine Art
Fine Art photography is a form of photography completely focused around the creative vision of the photographer. Due to this the creative freedom of the photographer is almost absolute. They have full contol over their own images to create them however they want. There is some commercial viability for fine art photography as some of the purpose of this form of photography goes towards ensuring that the art can go up for sale or be put on show to ensure a profit. An example of a fine art photographer is Scott Mead (http://scottmeadphotography.co.uk/)
Documentary
Documentary photography is a form of photography that focuses on and event in the past or present. It is similar to photojournalism in that the goal is to accurately convey the story of events. One key difference being documentary footage does not have to be professional and can be undertaken by anyone for any purpose. Whereas photojournalism requires a degree of skill and the accessibility to go out and photograph such events. Documentary photography allows for a little freedome for the photographer as they can choose how to cover the story and also are not required to remain completely impartial like in photojournalism. There is some commercial viability in documentary photography as the photos can go towards a full documentary which may make a profit but it is not completely reliable income-wise. And example of a documentary photographer is Erica Mcdonald (http://www.ericamcdonaldphoto.com/).
I have taken some of my own images for this purpose. The first of which I would put under the category 'Fine Art' as they are a result of my artistic creativity. To set up for the first of the these images I decided on a concept and went through with this concept. Then changed the shutter speed on my Canon EOS 750D to a lower setting so that I would capture the motion of the sparkler. As I have no image editing software I was unable to edit any of my images so they all remain in their original state. I was also limited with the lighting used. Had I a portable light I would have been able to use it for some better shots however due to shooting all of these on my own therefore having no one to help with a reflector I made the best of the lighting avaliable. The only equipment I used for all of these shots was a Canon EOS 750D, Tripod and the subject of each shot.
