Describe different applications of photography

AO1: Describe different applications of photography

Describe the nature and purpose of the following types of photographic practices:

Advertising –

Commercial or advertising photography is probably best defined as photography for which the photographer is paid for images rather than works of art also it uses photographs made to illustrate and usually sell a service or product. Advertising and commercial photography started during the 1850s but was restricted due to the technology at the time. Prints of the products were handed out to customers as a means of advertising. In the 1920s photographers used black and white photographs until the 1950s when colour reproduction became dominant. In 1920 fewer than 15 per cent of illustrated advertisements in mass-circulated magazines employed photographs; by 1930, almost 80 per cent did. Sobieszek, R. A., the Art of Persuasion: A History of Advertising Photography (1988). After the Second World War, there was a huge growth in the amount of money allocated for advertising which resulted in a higher quality of photographs.

Promotional –

Promotional photography is the use of photography to publicize or advertise the only real purpose of such a campaign is to build sales in the short term, either to move a company back into the black, to build capital reserves for expansion, or as a long-term strategy of constant promotional pushes to reach sales goals.

Fashion –

Fashion photography is a genre of photography devoted to displaying clothing and other fashion items. Fashion photography is most often conducted for advertisements which will be placed on buses or billboards essentially.  The original function of fashion photography, in the 1920s, was to simply record clothing worn by women and serve as a visual guide on how women in society should behave However fashion photography’s purpose and the visual representation of women has changed with each decade, according to the cultural, economic, social and technological advances.

Fashion photography eventually developed into a medium which photographers were able to use to comment on specific elements of the current time. Polly Delvin showed that fashion photographs became visual representations of history, with each image conveying certain moods, manners, preoccupations, artistic influences, styles, trends and society’s expectations of how women should conduct themselves Women would look at magazines when seeking role models.

The equipment used for fashion photography is Lighting Equipment, a Nikon 28mm f/1.8G AF-S, DSLR Camera, and Lighting triggers.

Photojournalism-

Photojournalism the practice of communicating news by photographs, especially in magazines it is now usually understood to refer only to still images, but in some cases the term also refers to video used in broadcast journalism. During the Crimean War, the ILN pioneered the birth of early photojournalism by printing pictures of the war that had been taken by Roger Fenton. Fenton was the first official war photographer and his work documenting the effects of the war on the troops, laid the groundwork for modern photojournalism. Other photographers of the war included William Simpson and Carol Szathmari. Similarly, the American Civil War photographs of Mathew Brady were etched before publication in Harper's Weekly. Disasters, including train wrecks and city fires, were also a popular subject for illustrated newspapers in these early days.

The main purpose of photojournalism is to capture the people and events that make the news. Photojournalism can supplement or can serve as a stand-alone story. We remember news stories in images because they are powerful and emotional.  The equipment used for photojournalism is a Nikon D7100, Lenses, Flash equipment such as a Nikon SB-700 and lastly audio equipment.

Portraiture - Portrait photography or portraiture is photography of a person or group of people that displays the look, personality, and mood of the subject. Portrait photographs have been around since the beginning of time as a means to describe not only physical features but more importantly power and status. Testaments of portraiture as a genre can be seen as early as Ancient Egyptian wall paintings of gods and pharaohs.

 The purpose of the portrait photographs is to depict visual representation of that person, the equipment used for portraiture photography are a Canon 1Ds Mark III a 70 – 200 mm lens, tripods, and lighting equipment.

     

High street studio work – High Street Studio Work is simply photography that features the person taking photographs within public places and does not require presence or even the urban environment.

Architectural - Architectural photography is the photographing of buildings and similar structures that are both appealingly and accurate representations of their subjects chosen.

Medical –

Medical Photography is a specialized area of photography that circles around with the documentation of the medical presentation of patients, surgical procedures, medical devices and specimens from autopsy. Illustration has been an important part of medical documentation since the 1500s, however the first application of photography to medicine happened in 1840 when Alfred Donne photographed sections of bones, teeth, and red blood cells using the microscope-daguerreotype. During the American Civil war countless photographs were made of wounds and have since been exhibited at the National Library of Medicine in Washington D.C. In 1927 R. P. Loveland made a medical teaching film using cinephot-omicorgraphy, demonstrating the life history of the yellow fever mosquito. 

The main aim of medical photography is to capture and document a patient’s medical condition. It is therefore vital that the image taken provides an accurate representation of the patient’s condition. Medical photographers usually use digital cameras and flash to photograph patients in the ward, in the operating theatre during surgery and sometimes in the post mortem room. They also use a variety of specialist techniques and equipment. These include micrography, where a camera body is attached to a microscope; time-lapse or high-speed cinematography to records events which occur either too slowly or too quickly for the human brain to see, and the use of infra-red and ultra-violet radiation to record images outside the normal visible range. Endoscopy is used to photograph internal organs. A tube with a light source and a lens is attached to a camera body and fed into a patient’s orifices so that shots can be taken.

The range of equipment used will vary with the application and institution. The standard setup includes 35mm single lens reflect (SLR) film camera with a range of lenses, lithing equipment, and accessories. 

Illustration –

Photo Illustration is a type of computer art that begins with a digitized photograph. Using special image enhancement software, the artist can then apply a variety of special effects to transform the photo into a work of art. Illustration photography is now used in books, magazine, blogs etc. The main aim of photo illustration is to produce expressive images

Fine Art –

Fine art photography is photography created with the vision of the artist as photographer. The primary focus of which is to advertise products or services and this method of photography has been used for many of centuries now. Successful attempts to make fine art photography can be traced to Victorian era practitioners such as Julia Margaret Cameron, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, and Oscar Gustave Rejlander and others. In the U.S. F. Holland Day, Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen were instrumental in making photography a fine art. The purpose of fine art photography is to ennoble the beauty of what is in front of the lens. It is the photographer's job to fortify this. The range of equipment’s used for this field vary from a ANON 1DS MK1, HASSELBLAD H3D11-39 and FUJI 6X17 PANORAMIC

Documentary –

 Documentary photography usually refers to a popular form of photography, it can be used to document anything such as historical events and everyday life. Documentary photography generally relates to longer term projects with a more complex story line. The true purpose of documentary photography is to create an impact with their pictures and to raise speculation along with the photographs as well such as “Why has this been placed in that specific position”, “What happened to the individual afterwards” (if this is a photograph based on a person).