I woke up this morning in a rather contemplative mood. It’s almost Spring and all around me things are starting to come alive. That includes my otherwise old & tired grey matter which is still thawing out from what seemed to be a rather long and cold Northeast winter. Trying to find my muse in the vast expanse of the internet I stumbled upon someone calling themselves a lifestyle photographer, who they are is not important, but the fact that there was nothing “Lifestyle” about what I saw in their work was. It was posed, formulaic and planned. It had style but it was not life!
Moments later my non-linear brain took over and I found myself searching for the true definition of what a lifestyle photographer should be and everything I came up with quite literally sucked. It was all fluff, filler and marketing speak. That was until I ask our dedicated twitter followers to toss in their two cents…
- tinawilsonphoto: a true depiction of a family/child’s personality and a peek into their relationships.
- cesarrcabrera For me it is capturing every day things and life as it goes; but in an artistic manner.
- anayacubic: photography that captures a slice of life in un-staged, natural settings, as events are occurring.
The responses from DWF Portrait expert Tina Wilson and the others really rang true with me. Lifestyle photography should be about capturing the relationships and the personalities of our clients as we see it. Afterall, as photographers we are, in a way, casual observers of life documenting little glimpses into the psyche of our subjects. A good portrait should give us more than just smooth skin and a proper lighting ratio. The ultimate compliment being that someone tells you that “You’ve really captured your subject(s)”.
Tina Wilson’s work is the embodiment of this ideal but don’t just take my word for it, watch as Tina shows us what she calls “Life, actually”.
To me, the addition of the video really helps to show how strong the still images are. How they quite literally capture and tell the story of that moment, that relationship and that interaction. This is the definition of Lifestyle Photography! Don’t you agree?
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photos by Tina Wilson
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8 Comments at "The Definition of Lifestyle Photography"
Beautiful!
That is exactly how I see lifestyle photography. The challenge however, is always how to get the family (and usually it is more than 2) to be naturally themselves.
Here I am, a stranger, in their home and I ask them to be natural. I did not do many sessions like that but the times I did it, it was really hard to have them just being them.
At one session (that unfortunately I did for another photographer so I did not even keep the images), I started putting umbrellas (without flashes, just to bounce window light and on camera flash) and the family was just being there waiting and behaving absolutely naturally. I did not tell them that I am finished and just started taking photos. I told them that I am testing the light. It came out really nice.
The challenge many photographer will face is to be intimate with the family, people they don’t know.
My two cents,
Motti
The term got it’s startaim advertising and stock photography meaning active lifestyle photography. The images had expression and activity. A couple walking hand on the beach looking at each other smiling is a classics example. Paul Johnson’s work has the classic look of a lifestyle photographer.
I asked around a long time ago what people understand under the term lifestyle photography and answers were variations of ‘without formal posing’ and ‘outside of the studio’. When I showed some of my clients images that I considered as lifestyle photographs I got response – ‘happy snaps’. Should I add I did not sell any of those snaps…
Their will always be different definition for branding. I feel that the video we just saw is lifestyle photography. The photographer is capturing the essence of the relationship between people without posing them, catching the real emotions and moments and showing them in their own life and passions.
Great video BTW
I LOVE IT! That is EXACTLY what I think of when I think of modern lifestyle portraiture. That little boy is precious and at that age I find it easier to do lifestyle portraiture because they don’t sit still and children are the definition of natural.
Thank you so much! So inspiring!!
As a commercial shooter who shoots a lot of lifestyle photography for advertising purposes my definition is quite different.
To me lifestyle photography has always been a giant production where you have models, RV’s, a crap load of rental gear, 3 assistants and about 20 people from the client/ad agency standing around watching as you recreate reality to try to sell it on the page of a magazine.
I think most commercial shooters see lifestyle photography that way. So I don’t think lifestyle photography has to be “real” at all. It’s art and commerce.
dead on with the deffinition..
Lifestyle photography is to portray the style of life and emotions of your subject, as well as the moments of life that will never be duplicated again. what better way then to just follow someone around for awhile..
a lot of photographers have a difficult time figuring out how to get their subjects to “be more natural.”
As photographers we HAVE to be able to mold ourselves and shape ourselves quickly to match a persons personality, no matter what type of subject your shooting, in this case a small, outgoing, happy young child. be silly, and in some cases down right wierd and awkward just to show that your on their level… even if you’ve got 6000.00 worth of camera stuff around your neck.
great post.
[...] photography”. (For a more accurate and nuanced definition of Lifestyle Photography, read this awesome blog post. By the way, by those definitions, I do consider myself a lifestyle [...]
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