All 43 photographic styles

Early processes

The first decades of photography: daguerreotypes, cartes de visite, studio portraits and survey views.

Daguerreotype portraiture 1839–1860 A skylight or large window high to one side of a rooftop daylight studio, shaped with screens and blinds.
Calotype and paper-negative photography 1841–1865 Direct sunlight outdoors, in a courtyard, garden or against a house wall, falling from one side so it rakes across faces, cloth, stone and straw; reflectors were probably used to lift the shadow side.
Carte-de-visite studio portraits 1854–1900 Broad daylight from a skylight and side windows in a glass-roofed studio, softened with blinds.
Yokohama photography 1863–1910 Even daylight from a studio skylight on models before a painted backdrop.
Autochrome colour photography 1907–1935 Bright outdoor daylight, summer sun or a bright overcast sky, because even a sunlit landscape needed about a second.

Photography as fine art on the model of painting: soft focus, hand-worked prints, atmosphere.

Pictorialism 1885–1930 Contre-jour daylight through mist, rain or haze, so forms dissolve into the air.
Chinese salon photography 1928–1985 The diffuse light of morning mist, cloud or haze, so far planes dissolve into blank paper and near branches read as dark ink.

Sharp, straight and new: the lens and the machine age as the measure of photography.

Straight photography 1917–present Hard direct sun that models form and throws crisp, dark-edged shadows.
New Objectivity photography 1922–1933 Even daylight, overcast or diffused, with no hard shadows.
New Vision 1922–1939 Hard midday sun throwing long, sharp cast shadows across pavements, balconies and walls.
Mexican modernist photography 1923–1940 Hard, high sun with crisp cast shadows on walls and pavements, the shadow drawn into the composition (the shadow of a puppeteer's arms on the wall behind his hands).
Modernist architectural photography 1929–1980 Hard or raking sun, the shoot scheduled around the sun's movement so it skims across facades and throws crisp shadows.
Fotoclubismo (Escola Paulista) 1946–1964 Hard midday or afternoon sun on façades, stairs and pavements, so sills, stairs, railings and roofs cast long, dark-edged shadows that become lines in the picture, and poles and cables stand black against sunlit walls.
Subjektive Fotografie 1949–1958 Street lamps, headlights and other lights at night, recorded as traces during an exposure of seconds or while the camera or the light moves.

Photographs as witness: survey, social documentary, photojournalism and the photo essay.

FSA/OWI documentary photography 1935–1944 Available daylight, overcast or hard rural sun, with no reflector or fill.
Picture-magazine photo essay 1936–1972 Available light indoors (a kitchen bulb, a clinic window, a mill furnace), fast film, lens wide open.
Drum magazine photography 1951–1965 On-camera flash at night in dance halls, shebeens and clubs, on police raids and on the night the Sophiatown removals began, freezing the action against black or throwing hard shadows on the wall behind.
New Color photography 1970–1987 Late-afternoon sun low across streets, car bodies and walls, with long shadows.
New Topographics 1970–present High midday sun or bright haze, with short shadows on walls and roads.

The candid instant in public, and the snapshot turned into a way of seeing.

French humanist photography 1930–1968 Soft grey overcast daylight in the street, no fill.
New York street photography 1955–1975 Hard midday sun with long, dark shadows on the sidewalk.
Provoke and are-bure-boke 1968–1975 Street lights, neon and headlights at night, the film pushed to its limit.
Diaristic snapshot photography 1979–present Direct on-camera flash at night in flats, bars, clubs and taxis, the background falling to black.
Girly photo (onnanoko shashin) 1993–2001 The compact's built-in flash at close range, indoors and at night among friends: faces lit flat and bright, hard shadows on the wall behind, dark backgrounds.

Photographs as constructions, typologies and ideas rather than captured moments.

Surrealist photography 1924–1950 A single hard lamp from one side or above against a black ground, so the subject floats out of darkness.
Kharkiv School of Photography 1971–present Flat overcast or snowy daylight on streets, markets and parades, giving an even grey print to colour by hand.
Düsseldorf School of Photography 1976–present Flat overcast daylight with no fill and no flash.
Staged tableau photography 1977–present Film lighting rigs at dusk: daylight fading to blue, mixed with lamps in windows, headlights and street lights.

Pictures made to sell: fashion, advertising, product, food and glamour.

Hollywood glamour portraiture 1925–1955 A hard spotlight high and in front of the face, above the lens, casting a small butterfly shadow under the nose, with a weaker fill from low in front.
Postwar couture fashion photography 1945–1965 A top-floor daylight studio: soft daylight from one side, a discarded theatre curtain or plain grey or white paper behind (Penn, Paris 1950).
E-commerce packshot on white 2000–present Two large softboxes, one at about 45 degrees as key and one as fill, with the white sweep lit or overexposed until it clips to pure white.
Street-style fashion photography 2005–present Open shade or overcast daylight on the pavement: the subject asked into a patch of even light or the shadow of a building, so the colours of the fabric read true.
Dark and moody food photography 2012–present One window to the side or slightly behind the table, the set angled so no direct sun falls on it, black foam boards opposite and no white fill.

Photographs by and for ordinary people: studio portraits, albums, keepsakes and local studios.

Indian painted photographs 1860–1980 Soft daylight from one side in a studio or palace room, the sitter against a plain dark or neutral backdrop that the painter later covers.
Malian studio portraiture 1948–1985 Open daylight in a courtyard, falling evenly from the front and above onto the sitters and the hung cloth.
Indian candid and pre-wedding photography 2008–present Available light at evening and night ceremonies (stage and decor lamps, fairy lights, oil lamps and fire), often beside continuous lights in umbrellas set up by the photo or video crew, with the ISO raised and no direct flash.
Light and airy 2010–present The sun low behind or beside the people, metered for the shadow side of the faces so the background glows and the lens flares.
Korean four-cut photo booth (classic frontal strip) 2017–present A broad diffused light just above or around the fixed camera, with white booth walls or a reflector returning fill into the eyes and under the chin; use a plain coloured background and retain its colour rather than burning it white.

Looks born in phones, presets, feeds and screens.

Meitu beauty-app selfie 2008–present Bright frontal window light or open shade, the face turned to the light so that shadows almost vanish.
Flat lay 2010–present A large window to one side of the table (not directly above it), softened by a sheer curtain, tracing paper or an overcast sky, with a white foam board opposite to fill the shadows.
Teal-and-orange cinematic look 2010–present A low sun or sunset beside or behind the subject, warm on skin and walls, while the shadows take the blue of the open sky.
VSCO film-preset look 2012–present Soft daylight: an overcast sky, open shade or a bright window.
Y2K digicam and flash revival 2021–present The camera's built-in flash at close range in a dark room, club or street, the background falling to black.