Which genre should I name in a prompt?

Start from the geometry you want, not the subject. Close and wide with everything sharp is street. Far and long with a melted background is wildlife or sport. Centimetres away with a millimetre of focus is macro. The genre name then carries the rest of the numbers for you.

Why does naming a genre change a picture more than naming a mood?

Because a genre carries numbers and a mood does not. Moody street photography tells a model nothing. A 35mm lens at eye level, one stride away, shot into the light with deep depth of field and a background full of strangers tells it everything.

Is there a silhouette entry on this page?

No. Silhouette is published as a lighting entry in the cinema catalogue at /techniques/cinema/, because it describes what the light does rather than what the photographer does. Use it there, and combine it with a genre from this page.

Can I combine two genres in one prompt?

Yes, when their numbers agree. Macro and underwater work together, because both want a very short working distance. Portrait and wildlife do not, because one stands two metres away and the other fifty. When the geometries fight, keep one and drop the other.

Photographic genres

Each genre written as the lens, the light and the distance that make it.

A genre is a set of physical decisions, not a mood. A portrait is an 85mm lens two metres away with one soft light. A wildlife picture is a 600mm lens fifty metres away from a low hide. Name the focal length, the working distance, the light, the shutter speed and the height of the camera, and the picture comes back as the genre. Name the mood on its own and it comes back as anything at all. Every entry here carries the numbers, the trap, and a line you can copy today.

People

Four genres built around a person. The difference between them is the distance the camera stands at, the light it accepts, and how long the photographer stays.

Portrait photography

One face, a long lens two metres away, one soft light, and the room deleted.

Wedding photography

Available light, a fast 35mm wide open, and a camera standing inside the group.

Street photography

A wide lens at one stride, everything sharp, and nobody looking at the camera.

Documentary photography

The street photographer's plain gear held on one subject for months, then captioned and sequenced.

Places and things

Four genres where the subject holds still. The camera goes on a tripod, the aperture closes down, and the decision moves to the light and the ground.

Landscape photography

A wide lens on a tripod at low sun, sharp from a near rock to a far ridge.

Architectural photography

Parallel verticals, a level camera, and an interior exposed to hold the window as well as the room.

Still life photography

One light, one table, and every object placed by hand.

Food photography

Soft back light for steam and gloss, a 45 degree camera, and a plate built rather than cooked.

Hard to reach

Four genres defined by the thing between the camera and the subject: a hundred metres of air, five metres of water, the whole atmosphere, or forty metres of nothing at all.

Wildlife photography

A 600mm lens from fifty metres, the animal's eye sharp and the background melted away.

Underwater photography

A wide lens thirty centimetres away and two strobes putting the red back.

Astrophotography

A fast wide lens on a tripod, a high ISO, and an exposure long enough to record stars.

Drone photography

A wide lens forty metres up, looking straight down or at an angle no ladder reaches.

Speed, scale and intent

Four genres which are set by a number rather than by a subject: the shutter speed, the reproduction ratio, the length of the exposure, and what the picture is finally for.