Lifestyle photography is a style of taking photographs that attempts to capture portraits of people in real-life situations in an artistic manner and emphasizes the everyday as subject matter.

Lifestyle photography falls somewhere between documentary photography and classic portraiture. A documentary photographer attempts to capture moments in life as they happen without trying to stage the events in any way. They attempt to tell a story without artificially placing the subjects in specific poses.

Lifestyle photography, on the other hand, can include some staged elements in order to better show the theme or story of a photography. Photographers may try to create a set of opportunities for the people in the photographs to behave in the way the photo shoot requires while still maintaining an air of authenticity. It is a fine line but most photographers will limit themselves to situations that could have happened naturally.