What's Your Genre?
Landscape, wildlife, macro, street, sports, documentary, astrophotography, event, travel, urban, still life, food, abstract, fashion...There are a lot of photography genres.
Pros tend to be labelled as a (add genre here) photographer and I imagine most enthusiasts concentrate on a handful of preferred genres, showing little or no interest in others.
I would tell you I was a cityscape photographer if you asked, because that's what I enjoy the most. Exploring Berlin, looking for new ideas to give people a sense of my city. But it doesn't stop there of course. I have a few other favourite genres, which also help to sharpen some of the skills I may have let slip after dedicating most of my time to cityscape shoots.
Still life
Key skill: Imagination
You can't say you were too tired to get up early, or the light wasn't quite right, or the moment didn't come together as you'd hoped. There are no excuses. With still life you have complete control over every aspect of your image. You just need the inspiration to tell a unique story with your composition.
Not long after watching a tutorial on avoiding reflections whilst photographing glass subjects, I heard about a movie-themed competition and the idea for this image came to mind. That was the day I learned it's always good to finish off a shoot with a martini.
A good tip when evaluating your work is to ask yourself, how can this photo be improved? With still life you can critique your image and fix it straight away, as often as necessary until you're happy with the result.
Macro
Key skill: Focusing
The extreme close-ups possible with macro photography reveal incredible detail your eyes can't see, to create other-worldly images. Insects and flowers are typical subjects for this genre, so what else might unlock macro magic? Coffee beans perhaps? Let's try.
When you're this close to your subject, depth of field is measured in millimeters so precise focusing is essential. You can see in this photo, where I've focused on the central groove of the beans, that parts of the surface are already looking soft.
Dedicated macro photographers use a technique called focus stacking to achieve front to back sharpness. Multiple images are taken, each with a slightly different focal point, which are then blended together to show only the sharp areas. I've heard that it's not uncommon to have 70 or more images in a focus stack. Which does make me wonder, how is it possible to get 70 shots of an ant in exactly the same pose?
Portraiture
Key skill: Lighting
Portraiture is something I always intend to try more often to hopefully become more proficient in the use of studio lighting. Understanding the technicalities of light, its quality, temperature and how it can be precisely controlled with modifiers, in or outside, is what elevates a photograph.
Trouble is, I don't have easy access to a willing model. Whenever I ask my wife if she fancies helping out with a fun photo shoot, the roll of her eyes is usually accompanied with the inquiry, How long will it take? Understandable.
So, until I want to get serious about it, a bit of self-portraiture is as far as it goes. And aiming to immortalise myself as a Panini football sticker makes that much more fun than it might sound.
Astrophotography
Key skill: Long exposure calculation
I don't own the specialist equipment necessary to create the kind of spectacular astronomy images you see in professional science publications. But I do have a fast, pro-grade, wide angle lens that should be up to the job of capturing something in the night sky. I decided to attempt a single exposure of the International Space Station as it zoomed over Germany.
The ISS travels at 7.66 km/s, orbiting the earth in roughly 90 minutes. On a cloudless night it's one of the brightest objects in the sky - much brighter than most stars. Therefore, I reasoned, it should be relatively easy to photograph.
Prior research was needed for this project. Various apps will tell you the exact position of the ISS at any point in time, for how long it'll be visible and if the sky is clear enough to actually see it.
On location, everything needed to be ready in advance. The ISS passes over so quickly, there's only time for one shot. Using a high ISO test image and my long exposure calculation app, I figured out an approximate exposure time. I wanted it in the region of 3-4 minutes to render a nice arc in the sky but, taking into account it would be darker by the time the ISS popped into view, I had to fine tune it, along with the aperture, to ensure my final image would have a decent exposure.
Despite all the accurate data you can pull together, when you find yourself standing in a dark field it's not easy to predict the exact path the ISS will trace and precisely where to point the camera. There were a few mission failures before I managed a respectable result.
Landscape
Key skill: Composition
A committed landscape photographer will spend months researching and exploring locations, returning to their favourite spots time and time again until they've bagged the perfect photo.
That's because there's more to a great landscape image than stunning scenery. This kind of photography is about portraying mood and emotion; enough of it to make a viewer feel as if they're in the shot, experiencing the moment, and so much of that depends on the composition, the light, the weather, the time of day, the time of year even.
I expect most photographers try their hand at this genre without necessarily striving for such perfection. For me it tends to be when I'm on holiday, hiking in the mountains or relaxing by the coast - two geographical arenas with the potential to deliver incredible imagery if there are favourable conditions during your trip.
Live music
Key skill: All of them
Shooting a band performing on stage has parallels with sports and wildlife photography. You can only get so close to your subject and they tend not to accommodate you by remaining frozen in a photogenic pose.
Throw in the additional complications of fluctuating stage lighting and a sweaty heap of moshers who care nothing about the bozo behind them trying to take pictures and you've got quite a tricky genre.
It helps if you're accredited which gives you access to the front of the stage for a limited time. It's interesting to watch these guys, jostling for the best positions, wielding at least 2 cameras so they can take wide angle and close-up shots without having to change lenses. But when you're shooting from the crowd, the best you can do is arrive early, claim a good spot and hope surrounding fans won't spend the entire gig pogoing into you.
Although my general technique is to spray and pray, I try to pick my moment and concentrate on focus and composition. Exposure is beyond my control so not worth worrying about too much. 99% of these images will see no life beyond my hard drive but for one or two, all the elements will come together for a great photo to go with the memories of the show.
