11 Types of Photography - How to Choose the right niche?

The best thing about being an amateur & aspiring photographer is that you are free to explore the wide range of photography niche. You can start with wedding photography and land up in fashion photography at the end of the day. That’s the versatility of this profession and most guys do love this.

But as you begin to gain more experience and exposure, you’ll realize that it’s hard to master a specific style and type of photography. You may have tried other genre of photography but can you stick it to only one style? Well, that may be the very reason that could be holding you back from being a successful photographer in that particular niche.

In this article, we will highlight and briefly describe the most popular genre and types of photography, what they are like and how can you master each style.

Without further delay, let’s jump into each type of photography one by one.

Portrait Photography

Portrait photography is considered as one of the most popular types of photography. Also known as candid photography, it is famous for portraying and capturing the subject’s personality with genuine expressions.

Photo by Rabin Lama

This can be achieved through poses, close-ups, and candid expressions. Professional photographers may consider picturing professional models and personalities on red carpets. But that’s not all, Portrait photographer can also be the happy moments with family, your son graduation, or your children playing in the field.

To get compelling portrait shots, make sure to highlight your subject and play with some lights, shadows, and distance.

Stock Photography

Stock Photography is a pile of already created images, which are made available to the world with a license, which pays fees to both the artists and agency who manages it. In other words, Stock Photography is the supply of high quality and standard photos that you can use for Advertising, Marketing, Promotional Materials, Editorial & Entertainments, Design & Décor and for complete personal use.

Sita Maya Shrestha via Neptos

Some of the popular types of stock photography include crowds & people, pets, delicious foods, coffee & beverages, books, etc. Stock Photography has a huge market in Nepal and the world too. There are no boundaries in stock photography. You can simply click anything and make money out of it. However, you are required to submit a model release statement, if there are a recognizable model and private property in your photographs.

Read more about Stock Photography from here.

Photojournalism

Photojournalism is simply the art of telling a story through photographs. It is also a vocation that covers specific scenes and stories of people to be heard and listen with the help of news.

Rabin Lama via Neptos

In today’s world, media and journalists play a crucial role in providing truthful and unheard stories from people and streets. In regards, Photojournalism helps to aware and educate people through their photographs and they are very powerful. Sometimes, there covered stories is so strong & powerful that it directly impacts the government and political situation of the country.

Landscape Photography

Landscape Photography has been the favorite of both the professional and amateur photographers. If you are frequent travel then it can also be the starter to learn, improve, and master in Landscape photography. Besides, Landscape photography is an art to capture nature from the photographer's perspective which brings the viewer into the nature scene.

Rojen Maharjan via Neptos

From the great grand landscape to the small details, from mountains to trees, you can simply click anything that allures your eyes while exploring outdoors. However, it takes a lot of time and patience to capture the real essence of nature. It can be a simple yet very expensive type of photography. You may also need to upgrade your gears to capture the meaningful and beautiful landscape.

Still Life Photography

Just like the name or title indicates, this popular type of photography niche mainly involves photos of non-moving or still objects. Also known as Product photography, it is used for various branding, advertising, and marketing purpose.

Rabin Lama via Neptos

One of the secrets of taking amazing and mind-blowing still images is to have great lightings. Whether you are shooting indoor or outdoor, the lightings help to eliminate shadows resulting in great still life images. You can either use expensive lights or a simple lightbox to outstanding still images.

Food Photography

With the improvements in today’s smartphones, anyone can get into food photography and take a decent photo of their favorite food. But if it was about a decade ago, then you may require to practice a lot and have expensive gears to shoot perfect food images.

All thanks to present social media generation which has influenced us to take photos of our food, whether for fun or various marketing and advertising purposes.

Rohit Shrestha via Neptos

The only thing you need to take care of while clicking food images is the right lighting and positions. You can also try to boost the saturation of your images to make it more appealing.

Sports Photography

Whether its football or cricket or brutal men fighting for the championship title, we all love sports right? Every individual loves sports and has their favorite sports to follow. So, it’s a professional niche that involves varieties of sports to follow and lots of high-end gears to speed shooting.

Photographers who shoot sports photos are armed with long and heavy lenses that can zoom incredibly and shoot astonishing images. These lenses are quite expensive and are made to capture fast shutter speed images.

Ambir Tolang via Neptos

If you want to try your hands on sports photography, then remember the competition is high and try experimenting with faster shutter speeds with great angles and lenses.

Wildlife Photography

Another important, rewarding, and mind-blowing photography niche is wildlife photography. It is equally challenging, needs a lot of patience and major upgrades in camera gears. Besides, this photography genre also requires safety measures and mentality not to harm any natural elements while capturing clear images of wild animals.

Ayush Raj Pandey via Neptos

Remember not everyone can be a wildlife photographer, and that’s the reason people pay you a good amount of money for every wildlife photo. Likewise, it can take you to the most dangerous places on earth which are equally dangerous and challenging in terms of weather.

Macro Photography

Macro Photography also known as photomicrography is the art of making extremely small objects into a life-size image. If you love to make small objects bigger then Macro photography might be your thing. However, you have to have the right equipment like zoom lenses to click such incredible life-size photos.

Amosh Shrestha via Neptos

If you are looking for a regular kind of photo work, then this might not be the perfect genre of photography for you. However, try to click some, you might find some passion for it.

Fashion Photography

Whenever you think of making money out of photography, then many suggest you get into fashion photography. For several decades, Fashion photography has been taken as lucrative and high paying photography niches, big thanks to people who are into the glamourous fashion industry.

Rabin Lama via Neptos

Fashion photography typically features models and celebrities in high end clothe and fashion accessories posing different poses. Normally, fashion photography involves a full-length shot, but sometimes it’s all about portrait images. If you want to get into fashion photography, then you must be well skilled in portraits photography and excellent use of lights and shadows.

Wedding Photography

For the past couple of years, Wedding Photography is getting a lot more attention than before. People are taking more time for wedding photoshoot than the actual wedding. There’s Pre-wedding photoshoot, then Wedding Photoshoot, and people are also trying out after wedding photoshoot nowadays. With all these, the scenario of wedding photography is changing and many photographers have accepted this fact and have also enjoyed this photography genre.

Ayush Maharjan via Neptos

Besides, many take this as a gateway to follow their photography passion. It’s because there’s good money on it and if you are a bit creative, then you can build a good portfolio out of it. So, if you are practicing or thinking of getting it into wedding photography, then make sure you have adequate gears like flashlights, and good lenses.

Other types of Photography

Besides the above types of photography, there are few other types of photography you might want to try. These genres of photography also have huge career aspects.

• Event Photography
• Newborn Photography
• Street Photography
• Documentary Photography
• Long Exposure Photography

How to find the right niche for you?

If you have been practicing photography for a year now, then you might have tried and experimented at least two to three types of photography listed above. It’s good to experiment with different genres of photography, doing so you will not only discover your true passion but you will also learn different tricks and techniques which on the other hand help to develop your overall photography skills.

But when it comes to choosing one and making a career out of it, then make sure you ask the following question to yourself before jumping into it.

What do you enjoy most?

Well, you have tried different genres of photography right? So, what is that particular genre or type of photography that you enjoy doing it? What is that genre which makes you happy and motivates you to do it again and again with different angle and perspective?

If you can answer this question, then you are one step ahead of finding the right niche. If it’s hard to answer this one, then try clicking other genres of photography, you never know where your true passion lies, you just have to keep trying.

What are you good at?

You have tried clicking different types of photography right? So, what is that particular genre that makes you feel like yeah I am the guy for this? Remember, the thing you love to do and the things that you are good at can be two different things. The only way to get things right is to master and practice a lot for the thing that you love or simply adopt the thing that you are good at it and excel in it further.

Does it require additional and expensive gears?

We have come across many photographers whose true passion is something else and they are doing something else. The only reason for doing so is the genre that they want to go to later requires expensive equipment and gears. They are just hanging on to other genres of photography so that they can make enough money to buy those gears and switch to the genre that they love.

So, if that is the case then you might want to explore other genres of photography that are closely related to each other and don’t require an upgrade in camera equipment.

Is it risky?

Some photography niches are dangerous and risky. It requires you to go out of your comfort zone, it involves intense pressure and might even put your life at risk. So, it’s your call. If you can meet those challenges, then only we suggest you go for it. Otherwise, there’s tons of fish in the ocean. You can always try other genres of photography.

Is there a tough competition?

Some photography genres like fashion photography and portrait photography have a huge market and the competition is too tough. If there’s a competition then it’s good, you don’t have to worry financially, and you just have to work on your vision and skills. Though it may be pretty hard to break in such harsh completion, if you are good enough, then there’s always a place for you.

You can try to go in a deeper niche, for instance, toy photography, cosmetic photography under the product, or still life photography.

How’s the pay?

No matter what profession you choose, Money does come in. It’s inevitable. So, before choosing any particular genre, make sure you have done enough research on that genre and the amount of money you might earn.

If you don’t care about the pay scale and you're just up for your passion, then you can follow any genre of photography listed above. If you do care about Payscale, then Fashion Photography, Portrait Photography, and Wildlife Photography are some of the high paying genres of photography.

Does it require traveling?

Some of the photography genres like Travel & Landscape photography or Wildlife Photography requires a lot of travel nationally and internationally. So, if you’re the kind of person who simply hates traveling then you might want to look for different alternatives which hardly require any travel for instance Product Photography.

Well, that’s it. If you can answer all these questions without any difficulty, then you have already found the right photography niche for you. If it’s hard to answer any of the above questions, then go and find out all the answers and come back to those particular questions, work hard on it until you find the right answers.