What is an environmental portrait and what it is not

An environmental portrait is not something that has to be setup and formal. Here I captured Philip Newberry who had lost both legs and arms to spinal meningitis.  Little Philip just jumped up on the merry-go-round and was having fun and smiling at his parents. I just composed and I had a great "environmental portrait." of Philip.

This also could be used as an "environmental portrait" and may work better since here I know a little more about Philip's loss of feet and hands. It helps tell the story. Again this is not a "Posed Portrait."

Sometimes you may have to set up a portrait, as I did here in the man's kitchen. I added a light to help see his face better.

Think of setting up the photo without the man and then having the man sit down into the photo. This is what i did here.

This is often the mistake made by new photographers when they have been asked to make an environmental portrait. Too often young new photographers think portrait is the orientation.

They must think of their computer and when they go to setup their page or print it they remember there is a "Portrait" choice and a "Landscape" choice. These are referring to vertical and horizontal and not a style of photography. You can have a vertical environmental portrait, but it would not be this photo. Here I have eliminated most of the environment so that the surroundings tells us very little about the subject.

By composing the image so tightly around the subject you have "eliminated" the environment.

Environmental Portrait Tips

1. Think first of composing for the environment first. Find the angle that best captures the space for which the subject either: works, plays or lives for example. 
2. The environment should be enough to communicate something about the subject.
3. Let the subject move in the environment as naturally as they normally will do if you are not there. Just sit and wait and take photos until you have a selection of different places where the subject has moved in the frame. 
4. Look for the "moment" and not just the location of the subject in the frame. This is more subtle. They may turn their head ever so slightly to the light that the light just makes their face glow or their is an expression that best captures their personality. 
5. Just remember people have many traits to their character and the more you shoot the better the chances you will have more options to choose from to capture the very best of the person.
6. Use off camera flash, or turn on a desk lamp or do something to help be sure you have the best light to help communicate more effectively. You don't want a silhouette of the subject for an environmental portrait.

Here I believe the "expression" of the young boy is the strength of the photo. The environment tells a little and I would have preferred more surrounding than I have.

Here I have a father with his children and wife in the background of his kitchen. This tells a little about the man that had I cropped in tight would have been left out.

I had very little time at this home and so hanging out in the room with this teenage until I could find a natural moment was just not going to happen. However, I have traveled from Atlanta to Chiapas Mexico and so I had to get what I could. 

As you can see the window behind the teenager would have made him a silhouette and therefore I am using an off camera flash to the far left pointed to his face.

Here I had him stand and I moved the off camera flash on a light stand to the right of me, his left, and then took more photos to show what a typical teenager's room would look like in Mexico.

This is a new pastor who is starting work in the medical center area of Houston, TX. Most all the photos I had of him were inside a hotel meeting room. Nothing in the room said "Houston." I wanted to be sure I had something of him showing that he is working in Houston. 

This was my intro shot of Ben telling his story in in Houston in a slideshow. Here you can see how I used the photo as a way to introduce Ben Hays in a package.

Often in print the space is so scarce that the environmental portrait is the only photo they will use. So you need to capture as much as you can in one photo to help tell a little about the person's story and introduce them to the audience.

Here is a photo of Philip and Matt Moulthrop who learned how to turn bowls from Philip's dad Ed. I wanted to capture photos of them with their bowls in addition to photos of them making them.

This is how they used my photos in the article. As you can see sometimes they just need to introduce the person to the audience. Here the bowls were as just as important, but this was an Alumni magazine package, so the people were the hook for the story.

Sometimes they do use your photo as a vertical shot as they did here for a magazine cover. Notice how this too is an environmental portrait.

Here are just a few more examples for you and see where I used artificial light sometimes to help the photo.

While this appears to be natural light is is actually not. Here is the lighting setup for the man at the desk:

My last suggestion is the think of using layers in the photograph when possible. Have things in front and behind the subject to create depth.

Student's work from the YWAM School of Photography 1 2014

Photo by Clara Kwon

These are examples of the students work from this past week on lighting that I taught in the School of Photography 1 which is part of Youth With A Mission's University of the Nations campus in Kona, Hawaii.

This was the first time for most everyone in the class to use studio strobes.

Without flash -- Photo by Andrea Klaussner

With flash -- Photo by Andrea Klaussner

They learned how to use off camera flash on location. The assignment required them to hand in one photo without a flash and one with it. Some of the students photos looked better without a flash and sometimes there are times you don't need a flash they found out.

 Without flash -- Photo by Lizz Busby

With flash -- Photo by Lizz Busby

The bread and butter assignment for a photographer is the environmental portrait. Being able to take a poor lighting situation and improving it was the purpose of the assignment as well as to know how to make it.

The students took a baseline photo without a flash and below the sync speed for their camera. Then they made a flash reading setting the strobe to be one stop greater than the aperture reading without the flash. They then only changed the aperture to the one stop great aperture that the flash is set. They were also encouraged to see if more power from the flash was better for the photo.

1:3 Lighting Ratio Assignment

You can see the assignment the students were given here in an earlier blog post. Basically they needed to have the main light [key] at 45º from the camera, with the model looking straight into the camera. We did this to help them see the shadow across the nose. They then had a fill light one stop less than the main light.

They could use different backgrounds from White, Gray or color.

Photo by Debbie Smit

Photo by Erik Wuesthoff

Photo by Keziah Khoo

Photo by Lizz Busby

Photo by Oo Shinoda

Photo by Melissa Kelsey

I think the students all did a great job and in less than a week each person had a potential of a couple of photos to add to their portfolios.

Environmental portrait needs to explore possibilities

When you get hired to shoot an environmental portrait the client will enjoy seeing choices. This is even more important with designers.

Some of the variations you give to the client are only you moving to the left or right to compose the photo from a slightly different angle.

For this environmental portrait I am wanting to show the subject works at Chick-fil-A corporate headquarters in Atlanta, GA. So I am using this logo as the way to help establish his employer.

When using a wide-angle lens like the Nikon 14-24mm ƒ/2.8 lens you can do portraits with the lens, but you want to keep the face closer to the center than to the edges. Here you can see the hands a slightly distorted when they are on the edges of the photo.

What I like the most about the wide-angle lens is it brings the audience into the scene and gives you a more intimate look.

Now this is shot with the Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.4 lens.  In this photo I am shooting at ƒ/1.4 aperture. Now while it pops the subject out from the background I am starting to loose the logo which helps to establish the workplace.

I liked the effect of popping the subject out from the background, but I didn't like the logo being so blurred. I then chose to close the aperture down just slightly to ƒ/2.8.  I like this the best of these two options.

Before you shoot--TEST

Your subject will most likely not have the time for you to take all day running around trying different locations. The best thing to do is have an assistant or ask for a volunteer to stand in for your test shots. Work out your lighting with them. Find all the locations before the subject shows up.

I had an assistant stand in for the subject and together we worked on locations. I would shoot and show the assistant and ask for his feedback. Sometimes you miss something and just having another set of eyes will help you catch any distractions.

Here are some of the test shots that I did about an hour before the subject was to meet me.

Shooting a photo package on a person

Take a moment and see some of the photos I turned into the editor in the slide show above.

Shooting a package

This is the bread and butter assignment for the editorial/photojournalist. You get a call from an editor and they have have a story on a person and want some photos to go along with the story.

While it would be great to just hangout with a person for a week and then pick the best images, the budget is just not there for those type of coverages. What is typical is to talk with a subject about all that they are doing and to stay focused on what the story is all about.

A health clubs national office contacted me and wanted me to show how their health club was helping people in the community live healthier lives since becoming involved with the club.

The environmental portrait

I photographed this engineering professor at Georgia Tech. We wanted to show that their clients have great leadership positions in the community. I knew I needed something that read Georgia Tech quickly. Having the sign behind the professor seemed to be just the thing to work.

I also photographed him at one of the icons for the campus, a steam engine, located in the center of campus.

I wanted to also show you that I shot some available light like this vertical shot here. I also wanted you to see why it is so important to use off camera flash as I did in the first two photos. The off camera flash really separates my work from so many GWCs [Guy With Camera].

At Work

I made several photos of the subject at work. Here he is in a team meeting with some colleagues. If you look at the slide show you can see some others as well.

At the Gym

I photographed the subject working out. I turned in photos from each thing he does at the gym. Now mind you I shot literally hundreds of photos and then had to go through those and eliminate all the ones where face expressions were just not good, or something may have blocked a good view of his face.

By the way to be sure these images were the best color I used strobes in the gym to help with color, but also freeze him and get the sharpest images I could of him working out. Notice the detail in the clothing of the instructor wearing all black. That is the clue this was not available light.

Click on this to see larger

I turned into the client 391 images in two folders: 1) Edits & 2) All the photos. They will probably only use three images; 1) portrait, 2) At work shot, and 3) workout photo.  By shooting as many photos and narrowing down to capture the best expressions and best moments I am able to give the art director choices and they feel like they can then have some variety to show in the end to their audience.

In the contact sheet above you just see a very small number of photos that I turned in. I wanted you to see this is after I have already eliminated all the blinks and funny expressions. Hopefully this will let you know how important it is to shoot enough photos to be able to have a selection that shows off the subject in the best way possible.

The environmental portrait

Tom Butler, coffee farmer on the Big Island of Hawaii. Tom sells the incredible 100% Kona coffee.

Nikon D4, 28-300mm (300), ISO 2000, ƒ/10, 1/200 - Off camera fill-flash using the Nikon SB-900 pointed at the coffee farmer.  The Flash is on the Pocketwizard TT5 and being triggered by the Mini TT1 on the Camera with the AC3 to control the output of the flash. Flash is 0 EV and the camera is 0 EV. A second Flash is setup the same way but on different channel at -3 EV pointed at the coffee on the branch.

Before I start this blog I want to thank Tom Butler for letting me photograph him. If you want some great 100% Kona coffee you can go to his website http://paradisefoundhawaii.com.

The environmental portrait is the bread and butter of the working photojournalist.  I wanted to show you three options I did for a portrait of a coffee grower in Hawaii.

I had to really look for the cherry looking coffee berries on the trees. It wasn't the time for harvesting, that had already been done earlier. This is the season for pruning.

This first choice you see here I tried to tie the coffee plant in with the coffee farmer.

The second choice has the coffee farmer in front of the plant rather than behind it as in the first photo.

The last choice I asked him to pick some of the coffee and present it to me for the photo.

You most likely like one of the three better than the other. However, the professional photographer will give options to the photo editor. The editor knows then that I worked the situation and tried to give them some options.

Which one is your favorite and why?

Vacation Photos: Compose the setting first

To get this photo of my wife and daughter I took the photo below first.  It is then easier to have the people stand and fill in a part of the frame close to the camera. Nikon P7000 ISO 400, f/3.2, 1/40 fill flash to auto balance the background.

Nikon P7000 ISO 1600, f/3.2, 1/220

When you travel for vacations, be sure you do a good job of taking photos that show where you visited.  Don't get so close on your family photos that the photos could have been taken anywhere.

Also don't have the people so close to the background they are too small to see their faces.  Have the people as close to the camera without completely covering up your background.

Also, even tho you are outside on a sunny day try the photo with a flash and without.  Many times the flash helps improve the photo.

While this will work for your vacation photos, it will work for anyone you need to show in their environment.  Try this same technique for a person you might have a story about.

While I liked the picture of the Horwarts Train I really wanted to show our family visiting.  So after getting the camera angle I then had my family stand in and get a better photo for us.  Nikon P7000 ISO 100, f/4, 1/380

Adding my wife and daughter is easy once I have where they are composed.  Nikon P7000 ISO 100, f/4, 1/230

Nikon P7000 ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/400

Added my daughter to the photo above.  Again, by having a good background I am not only taking a photo of my daughter, but you can tell we went to Harry Potter Wizarding World Theme Park in Orlando, Florida.  Nikon P7000 ISO 139, f/5.6, 1/550 and fill flash used.