The Photo Trends in 2016 You Definitely Don’t Want to Miss Out On
I wrote recently that photography is about how it makes you feel. I talked about creative, unfiltered photography — photography, essentially, at it’s core.
This time, however, I wanted to turn the tables a little, and talk about what trends, I think, will be demanded by the clients for their advertising and campaigns throughout 2016.
At 500px, photographers can license their work at the most favourable conditions anywhere in the industry, and so the team constantly pushes out stories, and tutorials to help our members make more money and take their photography to the next level.
Here’s are the hottest trends in photography in 2016:
Aerials
We’ve seen drone sales soar to the new heights and better, smarter, and cheaper drones started to appear on the radar (two puns in one sentence, get it?). More photographers take aerial shots, be it from helicopters, airplanes, or with help of these new drones. But more importantly, buyers are also looking for breathtaking aerial views for their campaigns.
Roof tops (but please be safe)
This category was consistently picking up in interest since this photo literally blew up the internet, and we haven’t yet seen the peak of roof top craze. Buyers are looking for roof top photos, but generally tend to be on a safer side — so working your way towards safer and legal roof access might be a requisite to selling a shot. Just be safe.
Sun-filled negative space
This is something that counterintuitive to traditional photography but works perfect for both social media, allowing for a very airy look, and also very popular with buyers who get a lot of copy space to work with. This trend haven’t made it onto 500px in it’s fullest but definitely picked up a lot on Instagram.
Simple colours & muted colours
You probably noticed a new look on a lot of photos if you follow urban photographers — cold, muted, desaturated colours are a hit and picked up dramatically in popularity this year. Another trend is more simple colours — solid backgrounds, bright colours. All this makes the colour space of 2016 very stylish!
Low angles & unusual angles
Some new angles have emerged in urban photo community — low angles. Taking photos through reflections in puddles of rainwater, through the glass, and creating “fake” reflections is similar to a trend I observed 10 years ago — people taking photos through the reflection of their shiny metal iPods. In any case, these provides fresh perspective to a lot of traditional spots.
Epic camping & hiking locations
This will never grow old. But in 2015 we’ve seen the stakes at travel adventure photography hit a new high; photographers were experimenting with unusual boldness — unusual places, unique nature conditions, well placed people… I’m excited to see what 2016 brings here. It’s going to be tough!
Living through iPhones, and photos with iPhone
When the subject might be a little boring, I’ve noticed that it’s very easy to spicy up the scene and take a photo with the camera while iPhone’s camera is pointed at a scene, in a sense creating picture-in-picture. Some also use crystal balls, and, in general, I’d expect to see a lot more experimentation with different materials in 2016.
Top-down tables, food, coffees, parties
The feast is on! There has been a lot of great food photos in 2015, and this year we’ll see new aesthetic — better, more intricate lighting, more use of negative space, different degrees of preparedness (from ingredients to final dishes), and more interesting interactions — we’ve seen hands, but maybe we’ll see something new (cats, perhaps?).
A mix of techniques, as creators are looking to establish new ways to tell the story
And finally, it’s almost like a “catch all” category — I expect to see a lot of mixing and matching of styles, techniques, colouring and so on in creating new works. Mixing traditional views from one type of photography and applying it to another (long-exposure drone photography, or low angle food photography, anyone?)
Did I miss anything? Let me know in comments, email me evgeny@500px.com or message me on Twitter. And if you enjoyed the post, please click on the heart to recommend it to others.
