Choosing your style: Lifestyle, Photojournalistic, or Fine Art

Photographers always are trying to describe the style of photography that they shoot using words like “Fine Art”, “Lifestyle”, and “Photojournalistic”. In doing this, photographers are trying to tell you their approach to photography, their level of involvement in the day, and the final outcome you can expect.

Unfortunately, unless you are in the industry, a simple word like “Lifestyle” may not communicate any of that to you, leaving you confused.

All right, so let’s do this! I’m going to explain what you can typically expect from a photographer who self labels as “Fine Art”, “Lifestyle”, and “Photojournalistic”.

Photojournalistic:

A photographer with a photojournalistic style is going to be focused on the story of the day; they are going to try to insert themselves in the day as little as possible. They are going to watch things unfold, and capture them naturally. A true photojournalist wouldn’t take the wedding dress out of the bag to photograph it. Think fly on the wall, with a camera.

Fine Art:

A fine art photographer puts beauty above all else. They, typically, are very comfortable inserting themselves into the day and will do what is necessary to give you individual shots that are breathtaking. A fine art photographer is less concerned with the story of the day. They will not only take the wedding dress out of the bag, but they’ll put it in a tree to get the most beautiful shot.

Lifestyle:

I like to think of lifestyle as the happy middle ground. A lifestyle photographer takes into consideration the story and the beauty and makes decisions based on what makes the most sense to their story, but also will be captured beautifully. A lifestyle photographer is going to be moderately involved in the day; taking the time to set up a shot to be beautiful like a fine art photographer, but from there, allowing things to happen naturally, like a photojournalistic photographer would. A lifestyle photographer is going to say things to get a couple giggling, and interacting naturally.

Okay, now that I have described these differences, totally unbiased ;), can you guess which one I identify with?