Photography

How does it work, and what is it used for?

Contexts
Photos can be viewed in
art galleries
Sometimes, photography is shown in posh exhibitions.

This is because people like to look at art in large galleries, and photography can be a form
of art.

Only very, very fancy photos get displayed this way. Or work by famous photographers like
Hiroshi Sugimoto.

Displaying photos in this environment is chosen by some photographers, because it puts

them in control of how people view their work if theres background music, if the
environment is quiet, etc.

On top of this, in a gallery people can view the original photographs, rather than digital or
re-printed reproductions of them.

These images by Sugimoto are an example of photographs that are exhibited in a gallery,
as they are works of fine art. To create a reproduction printed or digital creates
deviations from Sugimotos original intentions and actions creating the pieces. Going to a
gallery ensures that your experience of his work is as intended.

Some of Sugimotos work

 Magazines use photographs mostly to make their articles more
Magazines interesting, and visually pleasing.
Other times, such as in fashion magazines like Vogue, the
photographs are the main focus and selling point of the
magazine.
Even very wordy, intellectual magazines such as The Economist
make use of photographs, in amongst their pages of block text.
This is because it breaks up the information, gives the makers
more varied options of how to lay pages out differently.
In the past there was a limit on the use of photography and
graphic design in magazines, but with improved printing
processes, and the recent advent of digital printing, there are
no technical restrictions for makers of magazines, these
decisions can be completely down to preference.
The photograph of the left is a good example of magazine
photography. This is because it is glamorous, easy on the eyes
and pleasant to look at. Characteristics visible here are the soft
lighting on her face to compliment her, and the blank
background, which puts the focus entirely onto the subject who
in this case is Lorde. The way that her hair and her shadow
contrast so strongly from her clothes and the background
makes her stand out immensely.
 Newspaper
Newspapers use photographs to give context to stories, and convey
the reality of situations.
Tabloids are essentially a daily magazine, and as such use
photographs in much the same way just to make the publication
exiting, to draw peoples eye, and to illustrate the stories.
Broadsheets, however, use photography much more sparingly, to
show specific situations (a picture is worth a thousand words,
especially in shocking stories).
Hoardings
These large advertisements, often mostly seen beside roads on billboards, or on the
side of buses, are a valuable marketing tool with such a large area to work with, they
can really make an impact!
With such large physical size, theyre bound to draw attention, but they need to use
photography effectively people should understand the meaning from a glance,
thats all people are going to get as it wizzes past them.
Hoardings also come in some very unusual shapes! Like unusually short but wide, or a
funny, stretched out T shape.
Book Photography
There are many purposes for photography in books!

Sometimes, in photobooks, the very purpose of the book itself is to showcase photography.

Other times, photos are just to illustrate the front! People do judge a book by its cover. Some good photography, used
well, can communicate a lot about the book to a potential reader.

The other, extremely common use, are very small photographs of writers for their about the author page, often
found on the inside back cover. These allow readers to learn more about their favourite author. Knowing more about
them and what they look like makes people more likely to become a faithful reader.

The example to the right demonstrate this, how images on the cover are used as eye-candy, often without substance
but hinting at the tone/genre of the text within for example, people will know if they are looking at teen fiction, non-
fiction, fantasy etc. from these cover images.

The example of the book cover below is a good example because its demonstrates the creative re-purposing of library
images, combining them together to create a new whole. The individual images used to create the collage are each
generic, pretty, and very softly lit.
CD ROMS
Although now out of date, CD ROMS were a common technology in the 90s and 00s.
Theyre digital storage like a USB stick that you can read from but not alter or write
to.
CD ROMS were used for selling stock images to newspapers and magazines.
Stock images are generic photographs that can be used to illustrate articles.
Its more cost affective for these stock companies to produce lots of these generic
images to sell to publications, than the publications themselves making them as and
when they are required.
Web-pages / web photography
There are many ways that websites can attract more
visitors, by Search Engine Optimising making search
engines like Google more likely to direct people to them.
Photos makes google rate them as better, more likely to
be what searchers want, and pushes websites closer to
the top of Googles results.
The Daily Mail, for example, has a thriving website,
allowing them to branch out into America and Australia
because of how they integrate pictures so effectively on
their homepage and in all of their articles.
A page with a photo is more likely to get visitors. A page
with multiple images is likely keep visitors on the page
for longer.
The Daily Mail is funded by adverts on their site. The
more sites people visit, and longer they stay on each
page, the more advertising revenue the site gathers.
Another website that makes great use of images is the
BBC homepage. Every link on the page has a photo next
to it, even if this is just a stock image, not original or
directly linked to the article.
 Individual client
Individuals can buy the services of professional photographer s from high street shops.

Often, this is for special occasions like weddings something that warrants the
professional touch, or people want to be able to enjoy without having to personally
worry about the photography.

In recent years high street photo shops like this are in decline people have powerful
phones in their pockets capable of shooting and viewing high quality images.

The examples on the left demonstrate the kind of services that individual clients often
use. For professional portrait photography, family group pictures, or for documenting
big events.

Big events that clients want to be photographed by a professional often mean a

wedding. This is because on the day they will want to enjoy the event without the
distraction of having to take photos themselves. And after the event, they want to
have very high quality images to look back on.

The photography on the left of a family posing together is a good example of

photography for an individual client. Its a type of photo shoot that is easy to
commission on a case-by-case basis. As the photographer has their own studio, and
families like to have nice photos together, it is easy to make this kind of photo for
them, charging them for the services and labour to make a nice profit.
APPLICATIONS
Advertising
Advertising is intended to sell you something to inform you of a
product or brand, and give you a positive opinion of it.
Photography in advertising communicates a clear message to the
viewer efficiently.
These messages seek to build associations in the viewers mind
between the product and/or brand being advertised with a specific
feeling.
The Toyota advert to the right demonstrates the product in use,
clearly shows what the project looks like, and gives a mood of
coolness, being in control and being in a position of comfort and
power.
Promotional
Commonly referred to as promos , these photos exist to help
promote often a TV series or movie.
Photos of the stars are taken in a studio environment by the
production, and edited to their pleasing, and then made available for
news and magazine publications to use for free.
This allows the production to have control over the images that
appear in other media.
Also, news outlets like to have good pictures in their articles, and
may choose to write an article in part because of the fact that good
photos of it are freely available.
In this example of Red Dwarf XI, the promotional images themselves
made news-site headlines like first look of new series!
On top of this, mainstreamed news such as The Metro and
RadioTimes made use of the promos in their articles. If the promos
had not been released, then no photos would have been used or
possibly the articles wouldnt have been written at all
 Fashion
Fashion photography is used to demonstrate styles and individual outfits in a
sticking way, and one that fits the tone that the designer wants people to
associate with their brand.
They use models, both in studio and on location, always in very controlled
locations the models will be specially lit and carefully positioned, with a
great deal of thought.
In fashion magazines, more emphasis in the photography is placed on the
model and aesthetic of the shot than the clothes themselves. The aesthetic
viewed by the consumer and the artful expressionism they read into it are all
part of the brand identity of specific designers.
Also, designers are promoting and selling a lifestyle, a frame of mind, as much
as they are promoting and selling clothes.
On top of this, clothes and high fashion are, to many, art, and showcasing
photographs of peoples work in magazines is a way of allowing more people
to view and appreciate the clothing as very few will be able to afford it for
themselves.
The image on the right demonstrates. While the model is depicted favourably
and glamorously, what she is wearing is the focus. This is exemplified by the
fact that her position has been used to draw attention to her jewellery, by
hooking her hand to her necklace, and draping the bracelet next to her eyes.
Documentary
Documentary photograph is a form of photography that captures the
way things are, in real life.
It is not sensationalist, false, or depicting extra-ordinary events. It exists
to show the world how it really is, and preserve for the future how things
were.
They are very efficient at communicating a lot of information, as well as
capturing detail that might not be recognised as significant at the time.
The photo on the top right was taken by The Farm Security
Administration during the great depression. While shocking to us now,
at the time it was taken, it only showed the mundane reality of what life
was like at the time. It acts as a snapshot of the time and era, allowing us
to look at what things were like, in a purely impartial, non-artificial
context.
Photojournalism
Photojournalism is very similar to documentary, but the key difference
is that it depicts extra-ordinary events for use in the news, rather than
the everyday or mundane.
Another difference is that, because of the nature of journalism, it isnt
nearly as impartial as Documentary photography. It is often used to
depict things in a specific dramatic way. The main intent of the
photographer is to produce a striking or shocking image.
The example on top is from the Vietnam war, and depicts children that
have been caught in a Napalm attack. It has become extremely famous,
and caused controversy at the time, for exposing the horror of the war.
Similarly, the bottom photo taken by Angelos Tzortzinis in 2015 shocked
the public by showing the turmoil faced by refugees fleeing war-torn
Syria. It flung the refugee crisis into the public eye, creating countless
news stories, and did so because of what a sticking image it was, and
how it showed the public something extra-ordinary, unlike anything
they had ever seen before.
 Portraiture
Portraits are photographs that
show somebodys face in
extreme detail.
They feel extremely intimate,
as the camera is up very close to
the subject, and because in day
to day life it would be rude to
stare at somebodys face for as
long as you do a portrait.
From so close up, a huge about
of detail is visible. And as our
faces are the most unique
things about us a humans, all of
this detail communicates a lot
of detail about the person.
Good portrait photography
captures the subjects
personality, and the viewer will
feel as though they understand
the person.
Regardless of how much the
subject conforms or not to
societys beauty standards,
portraits are seen as things of
great beauty.
High Street
Photography shops, now in decline but once seen on most high
streets, provide photography services and products.
An example of one of the services available are photographs for
passports. As these photos must be done in a very precise way, the
quickest and easiest way to get them done, and done correctly, is to
nip to a high street photographers.
The many different products they sell vary greatly, but all amount
roughly to the same thing taking general items like T-shirts of
mugs, and printing your photos all over them. The finished results are
at once totally unique, and painfully generic.
 Studio
Taking photos in a studio means that the photographer is in complete control
of the environment, lighting and other factors.
Within this context, photographers will carry out planned shoots compared
to other photographic applications, this is the most controlled and
repeatable.
Studio photography can encompass portraiture, fashion, promotional,
individual client, and many other types of photography.
Controlling the lighting, and cutting out external factors such as weather,
means that high quality images can be taken, and in a high quantity, so that
the best can be selected later.
The picture on the top right is a good example of studio photography.
Because of the studio setting, the photographer was able to be in full control
of all of the conditions the photos were taken in there is nothing distracting
going on around the subjects or visible behind them in the frame, and the
photographer has been able to control the light hitting them, in order to
flatter them.
 Architectural
Architectural photography is used to showcase the artistry of a
building and its design.
It allows the design and engineering to be appreciated and
marvelled at without being physically present.
Often, the aim of the photographer will be to capture the sense of
scale and awe that somebody would feel seeing a grand piece of
architecture in real life. Photographers employ techniques such as
wide or fish-eye lenses, and carefully choose which angle to
photograph from, in order to convey this meaning to the viewer.
The picture on the left is a good example of architectural
photography because the photographer has put emphasis on the
size, sale and design of the building, by shooting it from low to the
ground, and filing the frame mostly with the unusual roof
structure, rather than the building itself.
The emphasis on the sky, and bold, striking shadows, are also
typical of architectural photography.
Medical
Medical photography is used to clinically document medical and surgical
procedures, and patients.
Things like x-ray and MRI can be used to diagnose a patient.
Sometimes, it can also be to track a patients improvement.
It can be for the individuals doctors to use only in relation to them, or in
other contexts such as medical journals in relation to the illness or
treatment.
Sometimes, its also used to inform other patients about a procedure.
In some cases, its also used to promote procedures such as teeth
straightening.
The head scan on the right is a good example of medical photography. This
is because it has been taken not with aesthetics in mind, but purely as a
piece of documentation and for scientific analysis. On top of this, this
particular example has used specialised techniques to capture types of light
not visible to the naked eye, in order to take a photo that is otherwise
impossible.
 Fine art
Photography can also be used and appreciated as art, with
many talented people using it to express themselves.
Fine art photography often tries to deliver an aesthetic
quality or deeper meaning that distinguishes it from other
photographs.
They might employ unusual or complicated techniques in
order to achieve this.
The example on the bottom left was achieved with double
exposure, to merge two images into the same
photograph.
By taking two different photos on the same piece of film, it
creates an unnatural and painting-like end result.
This is perhaps one of the main goals of fine art
photography, to create something painting-like in its
uniqueness and beauty, but something only possible in
this way by capturing images of real things.
Illustration
Illustrative photography is used to accompany text, in a situation where
the text alone isnt enough to clearly or effectively communicate the
intended information to the reader.

A picture is worth a thousand words and can be used to represent a

thought or idea.

Sometimes, this can be in instruction manuals or demonstrations of a

product, such as a camera filter for photographers its no use just telling
the reader what the benefits of your product are without demonstrating to
them what its really good for.

The picture on the top right is a good example of photography used for
illustration of a concept or idea. This is because aesthetics are of a low
priority, and instead clarity of communication is more important. Captions,
and layering of different images on top of each other, have been used to
create clear meaning..