“By ‘on location’ or ‘environmental’ portraits I mean portraits taken of people in a situation that they live in (work, rest or play) and/or a place that says something about who they are. Before I get into some ‘how to’ tips for taking environmental portraits let me chat a little about ‘why’ I like them.
Why do I prefer environmental portraits?
• they give context to the subject you’re photographing
• they give points of interest to shots (something you need to watch as you don’t want to distract from your subject too much)
• they help your subject relax
• they often give the viewer of your shots real insight into the personality and lifestyle of your subject
These shots sit somewhere between the purposely posed shots of a studio portrait (they are posed and they are unmistakably ‘portraits’) and candid shots which capture people almost incidentally as they go through their daily life” (Darren Rouse at http://digital-photography-school.com/environmental-portraits#ixzz0j7NPlPtx).
When I started this brief I didn’t have a really strong idea about what kind of images I wanted to produce and did some research to find examples. Set out below are some of the photographers and their work which I discovered along the way. These first photographs were all taken by LIFE photographers (http://www.life.com/):
Joseph R McCarthy by Hank Walker
Luisa Pierotti in a wine shop by Carlo Bavagnoli
John L McClellan by Martha Holmes
Gold Miners, South Africa 1950 by Margaret Bourke-White
Tractor Factory, 1930 by Margaret Bourke-White
The following images are by contemporary outdoor lifestyle and environmental photographer Dennis Welsh (http://www.denniswelsh.com/): and I love the saturated colour he uses:
These final examples are taken from http://www.illustratedphotography.com/photography-tips/top-tips/environmental-portrait (which has an article on top tips on environmental photography):
You might argue that the two images above are candid shots but I am putting them here as they had been classed as environmental by the website author. The selection of images above demonstrate how wide the environmental portrait genre can be and how there can be clear cross over with candid type portraits.
Having done some research I had some ideas about places I could go to and the people I could photograph to try out this genre of portrait photography. On each occasion I used a Canon EOS 50D with an 18-200mm lens.
Having done some research I had some ideas about places I could go to and the people I could photograph to try out this genre of portrait photography. On each occasion I used a Canon EOS 50D with an 18-200mm lens.
Outcomes
1) Ian in Canada
In between the candid shots I took whilst on holiday in Canada in February I also took a few shots of Ian which, because they are more posed, I feel fall into the environmental portrait category rather than candid. All the photographs were taken outside using only the ambient light. Some thumbnails are included on the contact sheet at 2) below and here are some examples. These first two are images I selected as environmental portraits. Not everyone will agree as they don't show a lot of the environment and could simply be called outdoor portraits:
120mm f/11 1/40 ISO100
The original image was too blue, so post production, I adjusted the white balance to increase the temperature and removed some black clipping from the background.
100mm f/5.6 1/400 ISO100
Post production I applied a black and white preset and, as Ian's face and jacket were in shadow, I added fill light.
The pictures below show more of the actual environment and can more readily be classed as environmental portraits.
20mm f/18 1/200 ISO100
Again the original image was too blue so post production I adjusted the white balance to increase the temperature.
20mm f/18 1/200 ISO100
Post production I adjusted the curves and brightness/contrast using adjustment layers in Photoshop.
I think it is pushing the edge of portrait photography to include the last two images as you can't really see the subject that clearly. But I can't tell you just how much Ian enjoyed this day trekking across a frozen lake to face of a glacier - the environment he is in tells you a lot about him. However, I accept I have probably broken the rules of portrait photography and allowed the environment to distract from the subject.
20mm f/18 1/200 ISO100
Post production I reduced the exposure and increased the red and blue saturation to make Ian really stand out against the background.
18mm f/3.5 1/320 ISO100
Post production I adjusted the exposure and added fill light in order to remove areas of shadow. Then I used Photoshop to convert the image to black and white. I used the brush tool to 'brush away' the black and white to leave Ian in colour.
I took my camera with me one day went I went up to the stables to see my horse Billy. Some of the girls on the yard had agreed to pose for me. I found it quite difficult on the day as, although they had agreed to have their pictures taken, it was actually really hard to get them to stand still long enough. Therefore, the pictures were taken using just ambient light, without using a reflector, although I did have to use an on camera flash for the indoor shots.
Some of the images are included on this contact sheet, with a selection of them shown as larger images below:
18mm f/6.3 1/25 ISO 100
I positioned Amanda in front of this wall because I thought the colour worked well with her pink top and orange barrow and I increased the colour saturation post production.
28mm f/4.0 1/8 ISO100 plus on camera flash
I haven't done a lot of post production editing on this yet. To get to a final version I would like to tone down Carolyn's pink cheeks. The editing I have done was to adjust the white balance (the original image was too warm) and I add some fill light to bring out some of the detail of the tack.
32mm f/4.0 1/60 ISO100
Post production I reduced the exposure by 0.5 and increased the red and blue saturation.
Sue just wouldn't stand still while I took this!
70mm f/5.0 1/200 ISO 100
I was shooting into the light and the sky came out very bright so I reduced the exposure by 1.0 and then reduced the dark tones and used (perhaps a bit too much) fill light to brighten up Carolyn and Henry.
3) Firemen
These images were taken at Washington Hall International Fire Training and Development Centre in Chorley (http://www.washingtonhall.co.uk/). I thought this would be an ideal location for both my alien landscapes brief and for environmental portraits and I was able to arrange to follow a team of trainees for a day. Here are a couple of examples of people photography from the website:
On the day, as we moved around the site to different training areas, I took hundreds of photographs, some of which cross over between environmental and candid portraits. They were all taken with a Canon EOS 50D with 18-200mm lens. I chose to use this lens as I wasn't sure how close I'd be allowed to get. In the event I was able to get right in the action. Here are a couple of contact sheets with some examples:
70mm f/6.3 1/40 ISO100
No editing
200mm f/6.3 1/30 ISO100
Post production editing included some slight cropping and adjustment to the saturation.
60mm f/5.0 1/25 ISO100
Post production editing included adjustment to the exposure levels.
These last two below are an indulgence - I am not sure they quite qualify as portraits but they are my favourite shots for the day and I just wanted to show them off!
Chemical plant fire
130mm f/6.3 1/20 ISO100
No editing.
Magnesium fire - 1,200°C!
60mm f/6.3 1/800 ISO100
No editing.
I enjoyed this session at the fire brigade - it was a fascinating day and there was interesting stuff going on to photograph - it would have been difficult not to get some reasonable shots. Also, the people involved were happy to pose unselfconsciously or be photographed candidly which made it relaxed and fun. And I enjoyed working 'on the hoof' without having to worry about setting up lighting etc.
4) Big issue vendors
In discussion with Andy Farrington it appears that my interpretation of environmental portraiture (above)doesn't always hit the mark. So I decided to go ahead with another photo shoot - one I had been considering for a while but had put off as I thought I might find it too challenging. Through my previous work experience I am used to dealing with people, but I am naturally quite shy and its quite different approaching people in the street rather than dealing with people at work. Anyway the idea was to photograph street vendors in Manchester - street vendors, big issue sellers, buskers and charity collectors etc . I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the day - all the guys I spoke to were really friendly and helpful. I only got one refusal to my requests to photograph people and that was from a guy handing out the free loacl newspaper who said he wasn't allowed to be photographed with the company logo. I even got some life stories along the way. Here are some of the results on contact sheets followed by some selected images:
Tommy
"You can take as many pictures as you like if you buy me breakfast"
Jenny
Charity collector
Busker
Didn't get his name 'cos he was singing
Bob
Called me "sweetheart"
The quality of some of the images could be better - it was difficult at times to get the exposures right as it was a really bright day and some of the backgrounds have blown highlights (see Bob above) as I had to overexpose the backgrounds in order to get the subject correctly exposed, and some of the images just aren't sharp enough. But I do think the concept is right and they do capture something of the lives and personalities of the people involved.
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