What is Lifestyle Photography?| Family Beach Session | Sedgefield

SPOILER ALERT: This post gets a little geeky so if that’s not your thing and you’re only here for the pretty pictures, ignore the words and simply enjoy the photographs.

Most people are a bit vague about what Lifestyle Photography is and often confuse it with Photojournalism. Let’s compare the differences.

PHOTOJOURNALISM – Photojournalists tend to work for media outlets like newspapers, websites or magazines like National Geographic for example.

Photos need to be candid. One of the rules that a photojournalist needs to abide by is the photographs need to be candid and as objective as possible. In other words, the photographer captures what is happening right now, with no posing, re-enacting or interference.

No manipulation allowed. The same goes for the location or background scene as well. Nothing should be changed or moved to create a more pleasing image and if for some reason the photojournalist needs to take a posed portrait he has to state that the image is not candid.

With regard to editing it’s important for photojournalists not to manipulate their images in any way, except perhaps slightly brightening or darkening a photograph or straightening a horizon, anything that does not change the content of the image or the scene is generally acceptable but a SOOC (straight out of camera) image is best.

“Photojournalism is the process of storytelling using the medium of photography as your main story telling device.” – The Icon Photography School

LIFESTYLE PHOTOGRAPHY – I found a delicious new word while doing research for this post. PLANDID. Plandid is exactly what I understand Lifestyle Photography to be. It’s a planned but candid style of photography where I capture elements of everyday life but still want the images to be pretty and visually appealing.

It’s the act of photographing with the intention to capture real life in an aesthetic way and I plan my sessions by putting my people in the best light and background possible, giving them activities to do and then photographing them doing them. It’s more an act of directing or guiding rather than static posing.

As mentioned in my post about Slice of Life sessions:

“While my aim is to capture your family as they truly are, as a Lifestyle Photographer I gravitate towards capturing the bright, beautiful and sometimes chaotic moments of real life with a teeny sprinkling of sparkle and glitter.

Yes, I allow authentic interactions to unfold but if there’s an ugly garbage can or neon coloured plastic bag in my scene I’ll remove it before I begin photographing.” – moi du toi

As far as post processing goes, where necessary I’ll edit images to improve colour, composition, and style but I don’t retouch or alter a client’s appearance except for removing minor non-permanent blemishes e.g. a zit that appeared overnight.

Why do I love Lifestyle Photography? It gives me the best of two genres by combining the authentic nature of photojournalism with the beauty of portraiture. Speaking of which, how gorgeous are the family in this Lifestyle Family Session at Myoli Beach? Can you work out which child is the firecracker and which is the quiet introspective one?

There you go, the next time someone mentions they’re a Lifestyle Photographer you’ll be a whole lot wiser.