In order to be a success in photography you not only have to have the eye for it, you have to have a vast knowledge of camera work and tricks. Such things as lighting, angles, composition, and the many different types of photography out there are all crucial things to become familiar with. Getting to know what conditions and settings are appropriate for a digital or film camera will take your photography skills a long way in a world that seems as if digital photos have taken over.
The first and most important thing to familiarize yourself with aside from your camera is the different types of photography. We will start here with fashion photography; fashion photography covers everything surrounding the latest and strangest fashion trends. When photographing fashion you could be shooting everything from just shoes, dresses and makeup alone to models wearing the latest clothing from top designers. As a photographer you could find yourself shooting models on the fashion runways or the stores that carry the hot new designer trends.
Glamour photography is a slightly larger realm as it covers a little more flexibility and demand. A glamour shot can simply be a woman with done up hair and fabulous makeup. On the other end of the scale glamour modeling can be a model in lingerie or a classily posed nude model with a seductive look that adheres the audience. Glamour shots usually call for soft lighting and perfect angles to grasp the perfect intended desire. Many times in these type shoots the model needs to be assisted and or instructed in posing to attain the perfect seductive shots.
Gothic photography calls for the right settings, lighting, color scales and focus subjects. The idea behind gothic photography is to embrace the darker sides of life, rather that ignore them as if those darker things do not exist. Photographs of unusual headstones, tombs, cemeteries, and decaying aspects of a former life are all fantastic focus points in gothic photography. For example a photo taken of a lager redwood that once stood beautiful and large, fallen over and over come with parasites and rotting bark, depicts all the darker things gothic photography is focused on. Gothic photographs also use a sepia color scale, which is brown rather than gray. Live subject depicted in gothic photography are often wearing black and or leather, and many time fetish shoots are classified under gothic, even right down to the very stunning and classy Bettie Page herself.
Composition and angles are directly related in photography. Composition is the way in which the photographer sets up his subject in front of the camera. Angles are the positions the camera lens is aimed to shoot the perspective focus of the photographer. With a careful eye and dedicated attention the photographer can use these two important tools of photography to give a sense of movement to the photos taken. Coming together with lights and shadows these four tools can draw the audience right into the focus of the picture. Lights and shadows can be used to frame the subject of focus and draw in the viewers’ attention. Shadows and lights can also set a mood for the photo shoot as well as create a sense of viewer drawn emotion toward the subject focus.
Being an effective and successful photographer means that you must put all your greatest tools and efforts to work. You have to be able to catch the beauty, ugliness, sadness, or happiness within a still photograph. Being able to not only share with the world breath taken photos, but to also share the feelings and emotions those places, people and objects made you feel with the world, is an amazing talent that few photographers have the opportunity of doing. So work hard and develop your own personal techniques and you will make it big one day, just don’t give up.