A Quick Guide to New Photo Trends and Using Them to Your Advantage

Staying on top of the latest photo trends is crucial for anyone looking to make an impact with their visual content. From minimalist compositions to AI-enhanced creativity, there are endless possibilities to explore and incorporate into one's work.

This article aims to explore current photography trends and provide practical tips on how to incorporate them into your photography projects. Whether you're a professional photographer or someone who just enjoys taking photos for fun, utilizing the latest trends can help elevate your work. Keep reading to learn more!

Current photography trends

1. Minimalist compositions

This trend continues year after year, proving that sometimes less is more when it comes to photography. Embracing simplicity and clear compositions, minimalism focuses on the most essential elements of a scene. Through clean lines, simple shapes, a clutter-free backdrop, and limited color palettes, it helps to convey the essence of a subject.

• How to use the trend: minimalist compositions are ideal for portrait, product, fashion, interior design, and landscape photography as they allow the subject to take center stage without distractions. Minimalist photography is also one of the stock photo trends. By checking out the following Depositphotos blog article, you can discover in-demand niche stock photo themes that align with minimalist photography, e.g., medicine, modern routine, and going green.
• Key characteristics: minimalist aesthetic, muted color palettes, uncluttered compositions, minimal editing, clean lines, empty spaces, and simple shapes.

2. Hyperrealism

Hyperrealism in photography is characterized by its extreme attention to detail, often blurring the lines between photography and painting. This style aims to create images that are so true to life that they appear almost surreal or hyperrealistic.

• How to use the trend: focus on capturing intricate details, textures, and lighting. Use advanced editing techniques to enhance the realism of your images, such as adding sharpness and adjusting color saturation.
• Key characteristics: ultra-high definition, extra detail, vibrant color palettes, otherworldly compositions, and advanced post-processing techniques.

3. Neo-vintage aesthetics

In photography, neo-vintage aesthetics manifest through grainy textures, faded colors, and film-like filters. These elements give visuals a retro feel reminiscent of old film photography. However, this trend combines nostalgia with a modern twist, offering a fresh take on classic styles.

• How to use the trend: to add character and nostalgia to your photographs, embrace imperfections. Light leaks, blur, and grain can all accentuate a neo-vintage aesthetic. Yet, for timeless and niche images, use color grading as well.
• Key characteristics: diffused lighting, retro color palettes, grain and texture, and post-processing.

4. Cinematic storytelling

Influenced by classic cinema and vintage photography, this trend aims to tell stories using dramatic lighting, compelling composition, and thoughtful color grading. By combining photography and videography techniques, photographers can create cinematic images that evoke strong emotions in the viewer.

• How to use the trend: for a trending photoshoot, use motion and stills. They will help to create a dynamic and engaging visual narrative. Experiment with different lighting setups and color grading techniques to achieve a cinematic look. 
• Key characteristics: narrative-driven photography style, depth of field and focus, color grading, compelling composition, and dramatic lighting.

5. AI-enhanced creativity

With 15 billion images created using text-to-image algorithms in 2022, AI-enhanced creativity has become an increasingly popular tool for photographers looking to push the boundaries of their art. From creating unique visual effects to generating entirely new images, this trend opens endless possibilities for photographers to explore.

• How to use the trend: utilize AI tools to experiment with different editing styles and effects. Incorporate AI-generated elements into your photos to add a creative edge to your compositions.
• Key characteristics: automatic editing, better picture quality, dynamic range optimization, and style transitions. 

6. Age diversity 

Age diversity is one of the best stock photo ideas used to build a portfolio on stock content platforms. It celebrates the authenticity of each age, showing beauty that is not subject to trends. Age diversity highlights the unique perspectives and experiences that come with each stage of life, favoring real moments over staged scenes and heavy editing.

• How to use the trend: show beauty by featuring models of all ages in your photographs. Embrace wrinkles, gray hair, and other signs of aging as symbols of wisdom and life experience.

Key characteristics: representation of different age groups, multi-generational interactions, authentic composition, minimal editing.

Travel photography trends

1. Drone photography 

In travel photography, shooting with a drone offers many creative possibilities. From diverse locations to unique perspectives, photographers of all levels explore this trend to experiment with evolving technology.

• How to use the trend: take aerial shots of landscapes, cityscapes, and architecture, as well as familiar travel scenes. Capture tourists boating, hiking mountains, or exploring ancient ruins from a bird's eye view.
• Key characteristics: aerial perspectives, unique angles, remote locations, dramatic lighting, depth and dimension, patterns and symmetry, and dynamic composition. 

2. Night photography

One of the most prominent travel photography trends of 2024—night photography—is gaining momentum. All due to intense solar storms that are expected to cause many visible Northern Lights around the world. As 2024 could bring the best auroras in 20 years, night photography is set to grow in popularity among travel photographers.

• How to use the trend: apart from dramatic landscapes and cityscapes lit up by the auroras, capture silhouettes. The striking contrast of silhouettes of people, animals, or structures against the backdrop of colorful Northern Lights can create award-winning images.
• Key characteristics: long exposure effects, creative use of light, rich colors and light, motion and blur, digital noise and grain in the image, and advanced post-processing. 

3. Digital camera aesthetic

This trend focuses on capturing everyday moments in a way that feels nostalgic and timeless. Travel photographers use filters and editing techniques to mimic the look of photography from the '00s, giving their photos a softer, grainier quality. 

• How to use the trend: prioritize natural lighting, avoid over-editing, and focus on candid moments rather than posed shots. Embrace 2000s fashion by adding vintage elements to your composition.
• Key characteristics: '00s-inspired aesthetics, film grain, creative effects, rich tonal range, post-processing. 

4. Slow travel photography 

Trending slow travel photography is based on slow tourism, which is a part of the sustainable tourism family. Photographers will strive to tell compelling stories through their images while capturing the essence of a destination and its people. 

• How to use the trend: when traveling, take the time to truly immerse yourself in the culture and surroundings of a place. Engage with locals, learn about their traditions, and capture the authenticity of everyday life.
• Key characteristics: narrative-driven photography style, natural light, authentic environments, post-processing.

Bottom line 

The dynamic and ever-evolving nature of photography provides endless opportunities for creative exploration and growth. Don’t necessarily get caught up in the idea of following a particular trend or style all the time. You can also focus on your creative vision, which can be honed by new trends.