8 Different Types of Photography and How They Can Enhance Your Home

8 Different Types of Photography and How They Can Enhance Your Home

The amount of things you can achieve nowadays with a camera is quite spectacular; whether it be the camera included on your smartphone to an expensive DSLR or whatever type of luxury camera you would want to use, you can capture practically anything with full clarity, color, and tons of options for stylizing and editing your photos. But a question may arise: what are the best types of photos to hang on your walls? With how versatile cameras are, it’s overwhelming how much you can do with them. But there are a ton of pre-established types of photography, and this article is here to showcase 8 of the most interesting and/or beginner-friendly styles out there, along with presenting the ambiance they would bring if you had it hung up on your wall.

1. Still Life

Still Life is described in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as both “a picture consisting predominantly of inanimate objects” and “ the category of graphic arts concerned with inanimate subject matter*” . This type of photography is probably the easiest to practice due to its use of normal, everyday objects in your home: this means that technically, anything you take of your home could be used as the subject of your photography, though most Still Life photography generally sticks to things you would find in your kitchen, such as food or silverware, set on a dining room table. Don’t let that stop you from getting a shot of your living room or even of your back yard though: the medium is very flexible in that manner.

This type of photography hung on your wall can bring a sense of homeliness to the room: whether it be a nice, high-quality photo you took of a thanksgiving dinner or even a small dish from a home you used to live in, it can remind you of your favorite things around your home while also potentially peaking the curiosity of any guests you may have. And another good reason to hang up a Still Life photo could be as a constant reminder of one of the statements of Still Life: life is beautiful when we stop and take a moment to admire it.

2. Street

Street photography is just as the title describes: photographs of the urban outdoors, whether it be a small neighborhood street or the middle of Times Square. This type of photography is also fairly practical to practice: unless you live in the middle of a massive desert or arctic region, there is a very high likelihood you can get to a town and get photos of the streets in it. It can be done at any time of the day as well, though a large city at night with all of its lights on could provide a stunning aesthetic for your photo compared to taking it in the middle of the day.

When you put up a framed street photograph on your wall, it can serve the purpose as a showcase of urban life in a single moment: sometimes you may not live super close to a metropolitan city, and you’d want to chronicle the one time you had the chance to visit it, and this type of photography can do that perfectly. And with a few of the other styles, we will mention in a moment, you can add a further beauty that you normally could not see from your normal perspective.

3. Astrophotography

Astrophotography’s subject matter can be easily inferred from its name: it is the practice of taking photos of the cosmos, whether it be a picture of the moon, a gorgeous sunset you just so happened to catch, or getting technical and capturing stars and galaxies beyond - though that requires some extra setup that may not be doable for everyone. Nonetheless, this type of photography is for those who have a penchant for astronomy, whether it be for research papers or just for the love of space, though we doubt anyone hates space with a burning passion or even feels indifferent about it.

Astrophotography makes the perfect thing to hang up on your wall considering its beauty. It evokes something similar to the beauty of nature with macro photography while giving its own unique spin: we’re not admiring just how beautiful the smallest details of life is, we’re admiring how beautiful the vast, largely-unexplored depths of space are. And with how much more we are able to observe, the potential for this field of photography to develop in the future is quite high with photograph-taking telescopes, and even our own personal satellites if the future is kind enough to us.

4. Underwater

Underwater photography is also quite self-explanatory: it is simply the act of photographing underwater, mainly of the ocean or sea and capturing whatever you may find in its beautiful blue depths. This can be split off with many other genres of photography as well, such as macro, which we will discuss in a moment, but the general overarching theme is that these shots are taken of the underwater world. Unless you just do not like the ocean whatsoever, underwater photography can provide an enchanting look at a world just a few thousand feet below us that we otherwise would never see.

This type of photography, when hung on your wall, provides a very similar effect to astrophotography, though with the obvious caveat that instead of staring into a field of stars, you’re looking upon a vast ocean teeming with interesting aquatic life. And if you have a penchant for aquatic studies, whether it be a field of study or not, you get the added bonus compared to most other viewers. A perfect way to show that interest.

5. Aerial

Aerial photography is the practice of using either an object such as a drone - a remote-controlled device that usually has a camera mounted on it - or photographing things from something like a plane or helicopter to take pictures of things from an angle normally not seen by humans: far above the actual subject. Practically anything on earth can be subject to this type of photography, and there is a high likelihood that you are already familiar with this style if you’ve used a map application before - those apps use satellite photography, whose principals aren’t too far off from drone photography. You can use a drone, which is nowadays getting cheaper quite quickly, to capture anything ranging from a vast forest landscape to the bustling downtown of a metropolis, all without having to go too far from your home depending on the range of your drone.

This type of photography can serve as a great piece of artwork to hang up on your wall. While it isn’t going to make you nostalgic for a specific moment that it captured, you will be amazed at just how gorgeous life from this far above can be, especially with a high-quality camera. And if you use some of the principals of street photography, such as going for nighttime photos, they can be quite the wondrous thing to look at.

6. Macro

Macro photography is a type of photography that uses macro lenses, which are used to take photos of incredibly small objects. This is usually translated into nature photography, which includes photos of flowers, bugs, small reptiles and birds, and even water droplets if your lens allows for it. However, macro photography is totally possible on other subjects. The main theme is to show the scale of the earth, to show just how big our world is from the perspective of the tiny life that lives on it, to ground our own perception to theirs.

This type of photography is quite a stunning centerpiece to your home: having a nice, large photograph of a tiny little detail you were able to capture can evoke similar feelings to what drone photography can bring, only instead of admiring the world for how vast and grand it is, you’re admiring the tiniest of details that you would otherwise not even see.

7. Long-Exposure

Long-Exposure photography is described by Shutter Muse as “using much longer shutter speeds...to achieve a certain effect.”** It basically boils down to letting your camera capture an image for longer than it is supposed to be exposed for, which is usually just a fraction of a second under normal circumstances. Letting the image be exposed for much longer than intended causes an effect where it captures everything it was exposed to, which makes the whole picture appear as a big streak of light. This is generally combined with street photography, but like every other type of photography, it can be used however you wish to use it.

This type of photography is primarily used to be admired as artwork, so of course, it would fit perfectly being hung up on your wall. It is an aesthetically interesting style that lends itself to being a centerpiece for your room, while also being quite easy to practice in and of itself - most cameras come with the option to lengthen the exposure time to allow you to make your own stunning pieces whenever you please, even certain smartphones have the ability to do this. This makes it by far one of the most accessible artistic photography types.

8. Monochrome

Monochrome photography is the practice of taking your pictures with a monochromatic color palette, which consists entirely of blacks, whites, greys, and other such plain colors. This isn’t a genre of photography in and of itself, but monochrome changes the context of a picture to the point where it can be considered its own style. The transformative nature of monochrome can turn the ambiance of any picture into a nostalgic or somber piece depending on what the original subject was, or it can simply be used as a stylistic choice from the beginning: either way, monochrome can serve as an interesting artistic choice.

While this is more of a subtype to add to your normal photographs, monochromatic photography can bring a unique feel to any picture that you wish to display. Though it does have the unique restriction of potentially not meshing well with a bright and colorful room, it does bring a moody ambiance to any picture that receives the monochrome treatment. So if you’re looking for a good way to spice up your photos without a ton of effort, monochrome is the way to go.

And there you have it, 8 types of photography that look absolutely stunning when hung up on your wall. Did you notice a pattern? Yep, a lot of these photography styles share a very common theme of just being beautiful. Art is subjective to each and every person, and it is really hard to quantify why you would love a certain type of photography over one another. A lot of the reasons why you would love a certain style over every other. Ultimately, this list only scratches the surface of just how versatile your camera can be, so experimentation and further research are very much encouraged to find exactly what you would want in photography to hang on your wall. And if you want some hangers to help get those photos in your home, consider Levitate Hanger as your best option; you can find details at our pre-order page to see why it would complement your photos the absolute best. So get to being creative, future photographers; we hope your home changes for the better because of it.

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(n.d.). Still Life | Definition of Still Life by Merriam-Webster. Retrieved November 21, 2019, from - https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/still%20life

** (n.d.). What Is Long Exposure Photography? - Shutter Muse. Retrieved November 21, 2019, from - https://shuttermuse.com/glossary/long-exposure/

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