What is the best photography niches for my career? This is one of the most common questions that bugs every wannabe photographer. Seeing the world through a lens is a completely unique experience but portraying your thoughts to the world through your photography skill is something that every photographer needs to become a pro in.
The best thing about becoming a photographer is that you have a variety of options at your disposal and you can select the one that best suits your interest. Most successful photographers are skilled in more than one niche. When a person gains experience with time, they tend to switch from one niche to another.
As photography has become a professional career choice, there are different photography colleges in India where you can learn about photography and become a professional photographer.
With the help of this blog, you will get to know about the different types of niches in photography. This will help an aspiring photographer and help him make a perfect choice. Let’s have a look at the different niches one by one:
1.Portrait Photography
This niche is one of the most popular types of photography and is commonly known as portraiture. You can find the feature of portrait mode in every smartphone and practice this niche using your phone. As in the present day, social media is all about posting highlights and activities of day-to-day life, it is considered as the perfect niche to click the perfect picture of such scenarios. The best thing about portrait photography is that it allows a person to capture the personality and mood of the subject. These images can be candid or posed, full-body or close-up pictures. It doesn’t matter what style is used to click the picture, the face and eyes of the subject are mostly in focus. The emotions in the picture are displayed with the help of lighting and backdrop. An aspiring portrait photographer can easily make a strong portfolio as there are many professional and newbie models who want to create a dashing portfolio and constantly need to update them. Creating a great portfolio can help a photographer land a good job and lead more business to you.
2.Food Photography
Food photography is one of the latest niches of photography. If this blog was written about a decade back, this niche would have been non-existent or it would have been very hard to write about it and make a profitable business out of it. With the increasing craze of food over social media and the rising number of food bloggers, this photography niche was born. Food photography is done for marketing purposes and for entertainment purposes as well. To click a picture of delicious mouth-watering food, it is not necessary to have a fancy professional digital camera. A decent quality phone camera is enough to capture the best shot. The lighting is a very important factor of food photography. To get a lip-smacking picture of the food you can increase the saturation of the images. It can make the picture more appealing. The backdrop majorly consists of fresh food ingredients, kitchen scenes or served dishes.
3.Wildlife Photography
This niche of photography is rewarding and high-paying but to get started in this niche as a professional you need to have some previous experience. Capturing clear images of the wild animals in their natural habitat is a challenging task, therefore, a lot of safety measures must be taken. One cannot start wildlife photography on a normal phone camera. A good quality digital camera with quality equipment is a must to get the perfect shot of the wildlife. The type of animal being photographed also determines the quality of the camera and the gears to be used with it. Being a wildlife photographer is not an easy task and that’s why people pay wildlife photographers a good amount for their pictures. These photos are taken in very challenging setups and in the dangerous corners of the world. It can take days to capture the perfect shot, therefore, patience is a key aspect of a wildlife photographer. Equipment like a tripod, wide-angle lenses or macro lenses and shutter release are majorly used in wildlife photography.
Image Source- Forbes
4.Fashion Photography
When a person is about to set their foot in the photography world, fashion is one of the most recommended niches. For decades, fashion has been one of the most lucrative niches and the most common choices of aspiring photographers. Fashion photography is in high demand because of the advertising and marketing companies. It is believed that fashion photography is one of the oldest forms of photography, existing since the mid-1800s. This style of photography is the practice of capturing models, supermodels and celebrities in designer clothes, shoes and accessories like jewellery, bags and much more. Fashion brands advertise and showcase their new arrivals with the help of the models by displaying their collections on them. It generally captures the full body of the models and can involve portrait skills. Therefore, if you have some experience relating to portrait photography, you can easily excel in this niche. To be the best photographer in this niche you must have some skill to deal with people, body poses and artistic and technical aspects of photography. Fashion photography can range from the striking images of haute couture which involves high fashion and the latest styles and trends to capturing pictures of models for departmental stores catalogues. Fashion images can be taken in a studio, in an exotic location, on a ramp or a contemporary landscape.
5.Event Photography
Event photography is one of the most popular niches of photography and has a wide range of events like birthdays, concerts, corporate parties, weddings, award ceremonies and much more. It is a mix of different photography techniques as it involves taking pictures of everything related to an event from people, their candid moments and food, guests and the ambience of the venue. What makes a portfolio of an event manager great is his ability to tell a story through his clicks. The skill of telling a story with the help of pictures takes a lot of practice as dealing with different people for various events is not an easy task. Different types of lenses are used to capture different emotions. These shots are used by marketing and advertising companies as they can capture personal and sentimental value.
6.Wedding Photography
A wedding photographer needs the skill of both a portrait photographer and an event photographer. As event photography is very wide, wedding photography is one of its sub-section and is a very demanding skill in the present day. This niche of photography is considered pretty intense. Sometimes you get a perfect shot of the rare moments but sometimes you struggle for the second shot. Also, wedding photographs are a treasure for the family as they contain lots of emotions in one photo, so capturing and getting the right moments and candid shots require a lot of patience and practice. That’s why a wedding photographer has to be proactive and keep moving around the event to make sure that they capture the perfect shots. They must have all the necessary equipment that can help them capture the perfect clicks on a sunny day or dim lights. A wedding photographer must be confident and must have creative ideas about different poses of the bride and the groom, as most of the time they require directions for posing in front of the camera. Most of the newbies go for this niche as they think that they can make money easily. But to make money easily you need to love your job. Having this mindset may not lead to fulfilment. Therefore, choose your niche based on your interest. If you have got the required skill you can easily make money.
Image Source- ShaadiWish
7.Still Life Photography
You can easily guess by the name that still life photography is about capturing the images of inanimate objects, be it natural or manmade. This photography style can be commercial or artistic. Most of the time still life photography is used in stock photography and product photography which is used for advertising purposes most of the time. These pictures are advertised through different mediums like magazines, billboards and catalogues. Using this style of photography you can feature one brand with the help of a single product or use a main single product with other elements that enhance the main product. One of the most important tips to capture a perfect still life picture is to use good quality lighting whether you are shooting indoors or outdoors.
8.Product Photography
Product photography is a whole new segment of photography and has various sub-sections within it. Remember the last time when you were on an e-commerce website? The main component that keeps an e-commerce website going is the photographs of various products. The magazines, print catalogues, be it online or manual, make use of photographs to advertise the products of various brands. Most of the product photography is done in a studio so that the quality of the lighting can be in control along with the background and shadows. If you are new in this niche then you can set your own studio at home as studio rental can be expensive. For some products, you may need to shoot outdoors too like a car or a bike. Product photography requires a lot of ground, therefore make sure that you have an ample amount of space while you are creating your own studio at home. One of the specialised categories of product photography is food photography. It is widely used by food bloggers and restaurant owners to create their perfect menus. Another category of product photography is jewellery photography which requires a balanced amount of light to get the perfect click.
Also Read : A Beginner’s Guide to Photography – The Hamstech Way
9.Business Photography
This kind of photography is used to show the glimpses of the working of the business world. It is mostly used for marketing, advertising and promotional purposes. Business photography depicts the growth and development of any business. The photographer captures the photos of the owner, employees, the product and services in such a way that allows them to tell a story through different pictures which helps the business sell their product and services. Business photography includes different styles of photography like portrait photography, candid photography, architectural photography, product photography and much more, depending on the type of business you are shooting for. Therefore, it is advisable to have some experience before entering this niche of photography. These pictures are used on the website of the company, brochures, magazines and other promotional activities.
Image Source- Photojaanic
10.Travel Photography
This niche is perfect for the people who love to travel. In the modern days, travel photography is gaining immense popularity mostly because of the bloggers who are posting pictures of aesthetic locations on social media. Travel photography is the best way to earn money while travelling. There are many things that you can capture with this style of photography, be it a historic scenery, a landscape or a cultural aspect of any location. Different photography blends together to form a perfect travel photography. You can enjoy your one trip and capture the landscape and the natural beauty of the surrounding, while on another trip you can sit together with the people of different communities and get to know about their lifestyle and tell their story with the help of pictures.
Image Source- Adventure Travel Tips
As you can see there are a variety of genres in photography and you can master any one of them to improve your skill set and portfolio. Photography has become one of the most promising industries and youngsters are drawn towards it a lot.
In the modern days, you can find many institutes that have come up with a variety of photography courses. Now photography has become professional and many photography colleges have been set up in India. Hamstech is one of the colleges where you can learn photography. Here you can learn this skill on a full time basis with courses like BA (hons.) in Photography and Digital Imaging or short-term courses like certificate course in photography, short-term photography course or weekend course in photography.
So what are you waiting for? Focus on your dreams and capture the best click of your career with Hamstech’s photography course. Enrol in the course of your choice today.