What Is Lifestyle Photography? Despite the frequent resurgence and decline of photographic trends, lifestyle photography has recently gained widespread attention. What then is “lifestyle photography”?
Lifestyle photography is different from photojournalism and portraiture in that it focuses on people and families and tries to capture real-life events or milestones artistically.
A planned variation of candid photography, or planted, is the ideal kind of lifestyle photography. You want to be visually appealing while also capturing the art of the ordinary in someone’s life.
The following information will help you conduct a successful lifestyle photography shoot:
1. Even though it’s not planned, you should nonetheless have a strategy.
A careful balance must be struck in lifestyle photography between following a detailed plan and having no plan at all. Although the photo session isn’t planned, you should get to know the family you’ll be photographing. What do they enjoy and find objectionable? What does a typical weekend day entail? Do they relax at home or do they go to the neighborhood coffee shop for the afternoon? Find information about the children’s personalities by asking whether they are quiet and reserved or boisterous and outgoing.
Hopefully, their responses will help you narrow down potential shooting places. Your photo shoot will look more natural if your subjects are at ease. Once more, it should seem as though their real life is being documented on camera!
2. What Is Lifestyle Photography? Be a little bit more direct.
To photograph carelessly, your subjects should ideally lose awareness of the fact that you are holding a camera. But most families will feel uneasy at first, so they may need a little more help than just telling them to “be yourselves!”
Ask the children in the household you are photographing to show you their favorite toys. Try eliciting information about their hobbies from parents or other adults (which, of course, you already knew before the shoot! ), or propose turning on some music.
3. What Is Lifestyle Photography? Accept what you have been given.
On the kitchen counter, there can be the juice that has spilled. Perhaps one child will continue to run up and down the stairs. Maybe only one parent has any energy left before the morning java kicks in. Accept the chaos because that is what makes it genuine. Your session should not look like it belongs in a meticulously maintained open house.
4. Don’t ever put down your camera.
Never, I mean. Every moment deserves to be documented during a lifestyle shoot. In contrast to lifestyle photography, asking your subject to repeat what they just did will make it appear planned and artificial. Focus on taking pictures of the moments just before and after what you expect to happen.
Additionally, if you’re always shooting, you have the opportunity to switch up your viewpoint. You can capture something incredibly unexpected by doing it.
5. Bring the appropriate tools.
For a lifestyle shot, you might be in several different places, or at least in several rooms of the home, so you’ll likely encounter various lighting conditions. As a result, I advise using a lens like a 24-70mm that will let you zoom in or go wide. You can utilize a 35mm lens with a second camera if you have one, which is ideal for taking quick, wide images.