Point, shoot and … what? From amazing architecture to abandoned places, sometimes the subject is at the center of compelling and creative photography techniques and photographers – but at other times the types and approaches take the proverbial cake. These fascinating photography techniques take the art of image-making into entire new dimensions.

Some photographers seem to freeze, slow, or speed up time. Others like Will Pearson rotate our views in dizzying directions elevate our views to dazzling heights. Featuring eye-popping works from 3D, panoramic and high-speed to infrared, HDR and tilt-shift photographers, here is a visual guide to ten of the world’s most awesome ways to take a photograph.

1) Epic Panoramic and 3D Photography

Who says photography is limited to what a standard frame or even a panoramic one can see? Some photographers shoot entirely in the round, creating amazing full-circle spiralling panoramas or even fully-mobile three-dimensional shots that can only be viewed via computer.

2) Spectacular High-Speed Photography

While most images capture moments in time that any ordinary human could see some high-speed shots provide us with photographic glimpses of faster-than-sight phenomena invisible to the naked eye, from bullets piercing bottles to aesthetically splendidly water splashes.

3) Fantastic Time-Lapse Photography

At the opposite extreme from high-speed photography lies the vast world of motion-blur imagery. From a single time-lapse shot it can be possible to see many moments collapsed into one and create permanent montage artworks from ephemeral events.

4) Inspiring Infrared and HDR Photography

Employed to the extreme and they can seem like gimmicks but taken to just the right degree and color-altering approaches like infrared and HDR can take ordinary scenes and make them extraordinary, enhancing contrast and rendering some aspects of an image more real than reality.

5) Nuanced Night Photography

Night photography can bring out the best in photographers, playing on subtlties of shadow, shade and contrast not visible during the daytime. These photographers range in their approaches but universally add something new to the art of creating nighttime images.

6) Mold-Breaking Black-and-White Photography

Black and white is, of course, where photography began – but is not at all where it has ended up. However, some contemporary photographers have reclaimed this original art and applied new techniques to the old approaches begun by the original masters of photography.

7) Masterful Monochromatic Color Photography

: Monochrome and duotone photography are not, however, limited to black and white. Many photographic artist make marvelous compositions from a single color, shade or tone beyond greyscale. These works can be potently expressive despite their singular colors.

8) Mesmerizing Reflection-and-Mirror Photography

Mirrors are found in many places in nature and architecture – from smooth running streams to finely polished floors. Many photographers continue to experiment with the myriad possibilities of reflection that present themselves in our everyday experience.

9) Head-Twisting Tilt-Shift Photography

Scale are perspective are pervasive issues in the realm of photography – mastering them is one thing, but twisting them to a whole different purpose can be quite another. Tilt-shift photography tweaks our ideas of relative and real sizes and unique and creative ways.

10) Pinhole and Photogram Photography

Who says you need a camera to take pictures? Long before cameras as we know them existed, innovative artists and scientists used these techniques to create images – creative contemporary photographers have returned to them as well.

BONUS: 20 Funky Frozen-in-Time Photographs

While they stage their work very carefully – to the point of it being as much about performance as freeze-frame photography – Denis Darzacq and Liwei have made an incredible art out of perfectly timed and angled photographs.

BONUS: 14 Hilariously Twisted Monument Photos

As with Darzacq and Liwei, Michael Hughes has made a mission of somewhat less-than-serious but strangely compelling photography. He travels the world and replaces real-life monuments and wonders with his own miniatures in self-made images.

Photographers have developed a whole slew of techniques to create new and interesting ways to view ordinary images.  From panoramic photography to high-speed photography and time-lapse photography, looking at something in a slightly new way can completely change your perceptions.  Infrared and HDR photography take this concept one step further and show us things that the human eye simply can’t see on its own.

Infrared Photography of Dannie Tjahjono

(images via: Dannie Tj.)

Infrared photography photography picks up on infrared waves that are outside of the normal visible spectrum.  While far-infrared photography is used to display the heat emanating from objects, near-infrared photography creates haunting photographs with distorted colors.  The resulting images are familiar, but eerie because of their unusually rearranged colors.  The incredible infrared photographs of Dannie Tjahjono take ordinary landscape and still-life images and transform them into magical visions of otherwordly colors and unexpected shapes.  Landscape pictures in the full summer sun suddenly look like winter vistas covered in snow.  Cacti and garden statues look like the remnants from a post-apocalyptic society.

Infrared Photography of Christian Gufler

(images via: Christian Gufler)

Infrared photography has a long history as a method of more accurately depicting landscape from an aerial perspective.  Though most aerial IR photographs are far-infrared (thermal imaging) pictures, some photographers use the near-infrared part of the light spectrum for stunning aerial photos.  The photography of Italian artist Christian Gufler combines two perspective-bending methods – IR and aerial – to create soft and tranquil images of European countryside and buildings.

Infrared Photography of Naomi Frost

(images via: Naomi Frost)

Australian photographer Naomi Frost is among the most talented artistic infrared photographers working today.  Her keen eye for composition carries over into the invisible parts of the light spectrum, resulting in images that are simultaneously reminiscent of bizarre nightmares, cherished memories, and fascinating unexplored worlds.

HDR Photography of Matthew Sullivan

(images via: shoebappa)

HDR (high dynamic range) imaging is a relatively recent arrival on the digital photography scene.  Though the HDR technique was first developed in the 1930s, it has only recently been made possible for nearly any dedicated photographer.  With improved software and readily available instructions, HDR photography has been wildly gaining popularity.  Matthew Sullivan was introduced to HDR on the internet through another photographer’s work and has been experimenting with beautifully dynamic images ever since.

HDR Photography of Kevin Crafts

(images via: Kevin Crafts)

Although there are a number of ways to produce HDR images, the goal of each is to create a photograph with a greater range of tones than a single-exposure photo.  Depending on the process used by the photographer and the setting of the image, this can result in an amazingly bright photograph or a broodingly dark one.  The HDR photographs of Kevin Crafts tend more toward the dark side, but they are fantastically detailed and always stunning.  This talented photographer uses the HDR process to draw out the details and beauty in each subject.

HDR Photography of Pierpol

(images via: Pierpol)

Though he doesn’t consider himself an artist, French photographer Pierpol creates some of the most breathtaking HDR photographs.  His compositions go far beyond the simple aesthetic and strive to delve deeper into the meaning behind our everyday lives.  His passion is apparent in his photographs, which combine gorgeous subject matter, masterful composition, and a keen skill in HDR processing.

HDR and Infrared Photography of Brokentaco

(images via: brokentaco)

Infrared photography and HDR photography both yield amazing and unique results.  Some photographers are taking it a step further and combining these two methods.  Brokentaco is just one Flickr artist using infrared and HDR to create images that are visually stunning and incredibly detailed.

Something about the vibrant colors, stark contrasts and vivid depths of an HDR approach lends abandonments to HDR photography like few other subjects. Beautiful HDR pictures bring dead places and long disused spaces powerfully to back to life. Beyond this gallery, check out our collection of 100+ Abandoned Buildings, Places and Property.

Photographers like Julie Berlin (whose work is shown above) and many others (shown below) have opened the door on a new art form: that of HDR photographing dead spaces and deserted places in colorful ways and from carefully chosen perspectives. Click the thumbnails to learn more about the subjects and the sources to learn more about those that created these bright, unique and animated HDR images.

(Check out our complete collection of Urban Exploration Tips, Tricks and Guides.)

There is something about photographs of deserted places and abandoned buildings that is mysterious and intriguing to those of us who crave a combination of mystery and history, danger and thrill. If you are one such person, chances are there is a Flickr group that will make you drool – or a number of them. Organized into helpful and easy-to-navigate categories including types of abandoned buildings, objects and vehicles as well as disallowed locations, here is your one-stop guide to exploring awesome abandonments on Flickr.

(Images via: Roberto, Guil, Carl and Pixelicus)

Building Types: A number of collections of abandoned buildings are organized by general categories of deserted structures or highly specific building types, including: theaters, asylums, cottages, gas stations, bridges and tunnels, shops and stores, malls and retail, dams and spillways, factories and other industrial abandonments, churches and other religious structures, farms and other farm buildings.

(Images via: Darkframe, Evanleavitt and MsDeKay)

Building Objects: If you thought that forming an entire photo group around a single type or group of abandoned buildings or places was specific, a dedicated few take things to another level by breaking things down into types of abandoned objects, from abandoned furniture in general to chairs at abandonments and peeling wall paint more specifically – as well as doors, windows, stairs, art and other urban fragments.

(Images via: Madrid Miner, James Bell, Hendrikus and Avenzink)

General Categories: There are also a number of non-specific photography collections of urban abandonments that self-organize based on tastes and approaches or broad categories more than by building types or objects, including: urban decay and rural decay, abandoned places and things, and places that are generally damaged, decayed, dilapidated, demolished, forsaken, forgotten, condemned or overgrown.

(Images via: Ben Holt, Tic Toc, Robgo and Willy)

Illegal or Disallowed: Plenty of photography groups are dedicated to traditionally explored historical places or ghosts towns or simply to urban exploration in general, but a select few are specifically for people with an interest in places they aren’t supposed to be, among them are locations that are: secret, forbidden, no trespassing, restricted access, secret, normally inaccessible or where photography is disallowed.

Related WebUrbanist Resources: Still haven’t seen enough? There are plenty of abandoned places and deserted buildings links to be found right here on WebUrbanist. The site has featured abandoned places from around the world as well as from specific countries including the United States, Europe and Russia. Abandoned buildings featured in the site also include deserted missile silos and abandonments used in films.

Previously: 30 Awesome Urbex Websites