Assignment 1 - Applications of Photography: Wildlife Photography

Wildlife photography can be difficult because as well as needing good technical skills, the photographer must understand the animal's behaviour and learn to approach it and photograph it in a way that does not frighten the animal. Wildlife photography sometimes requires special equipment such as long focal lenses for birds and macro lenses for insects.

One wildlife photographer is Craig Jones. He has been interested in wildlife and nature since he was young, and as a result has a great understanding of animals and their behaviour allowing him to get close to animals and create captivating images. Below are some of his photographs.

In the 1800s, wildlife photography was virtually non-existent as, at the time, the cameras were too big and too slow to be able to photograph any animals, so wildlife photography really took off in the mid 20th century when cameras became more advanced, and it's even more popular now with digital cameras which make it easier for almost anyone to photograph wildlife.

Assignment 1 - Applications of Photography: Music

Music photography

Music photography is photography that shows a band or artist usually when they’re playing a show, but often professional photographs are done in studios or other locations, depending on what the artist would like. Nowadays, music photography can be done by almost anyone if they’re watching an artist, but they’re often not very professional looking, so music photographers are still wanted to get professional photographs.

Music photography really started in the 50s and 60s with Rock & Roll. Artists such as The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Elvis Presley had music photographers follow them around trying to get pictures of them as, back then, people’s interest in these artists and memorabilia were growing rapidly. Below are some images from this era of music photography that would have been very popular:

Music photography today is very different as, for a start, it is usually in colour, and different coloured and different intensity lighting can make an image more interesting to look at. There is also the addition of digital cameras and the ability to edit the photographs so they can be changed depending on what the artist wants or what the photographer thinks looks best. Below are some recent examples:

Assignment 1 - Applications of Photography: Advertising

Advertising photography

Advertising photography is classed as a sector of commercial photography and is well known and popular among many people. It is used to promote products such as food, perfume, clothing, cars, and many others and in this way it can overlap with other applications of photography.

Each year, over £500 billion worldwide is spent on advertising, which shows that this is a very important photography application as it is seen every day by many, many people and can influence them into buying certain products, which is why it’s so important to businesses that have paid people to photograph their products for them.

In advertising photography, images are often manipulated to make them look more appealing than they actually are. For example, in car advertisements the photograph taken is often manipulated to look darker and more dramatic such as the image below:

In this image, the car is made to look shiny and it’s made to look like it’s glowing in the dark background. This will interest the average consumer and make them want to own this car. They would have achieved this effect through Photoshop. 

In the 20^th century, people became more aware of advertising and more specifically, photographic advertising. With the development of technology, companies started to use photographic advertising more and more often, and it was found to be more successful than the traditional illustrated advertisements. Below is an example of an illustrated advertisement and a photographic advertisement: