An environmental portrait is to use both the surrounding environment and the subject/model in harmony and the surroundings should say as much about the person as they do themselves.
Environmental portraits often show people working like this one
Taken from: http://digital-photography-school.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/environmental-portrait.jpg
I decided to look this up on Wikepedia, this is a link to the page
According to Wikepedia it is a photograph taken in the subjects natural and usual surroundings such as a work place or home.
I think that Environmental Portraits also often cross over into being Corporate Portraits as they are often used to promote or advertise a business in some way.
Here is an image that i took as a corporate portrait for use on the companies website- although this is a typical corporate shot i think it is also an Environmental portrait not only because it is the subject's work place but also because it is a fairly good reflection of his personality, as i know him i can see that he is very professional and work is very important to him and he values his professional image- this is reflected in his surroundings being the office rather than home or somewhere else.
I went to Poland recently and took the below image which may or may not be considered Environmental as it doesn't necessarily show the subjects in their familiar surroundings, but given that the man is wheeling crates of beer past a shop i think in some ways it does fit this part of the brief. It almost appears to be staged though despite the fact that it was a candid shot taken from the hip.
F4, 1/160 Sec, ISO 800
Environmental portraits can also cross over as being considered fine art in some cases, here is another example:
Photo By: Rineke Dijkstra
Taken from: http://www.imagearts.ryerson.ca/imagesandideas/pages/database/images/Dijkstra_Rineke_w01.jpg
This could be seen as fine art because the image isnt just about the subject and the environment but there is a deeper concept behind it, related to the child coming of age and turning from a child to a woman added with the symbolism of the surroundings and the fact that it appears to be heavily influenced by botticellis painting.
Last week Andy gave us a group task where we could chose one of three portraits to complete:
Corporate- Using Shadows and Contre-Jour lighting
Editorial- Using creative use of shutter and aperture technique
Environmental- Using on location studio lighitng
We chose to do the Environmental Portrait as this was the more challenging option, i was glad we agreed on this as i wanted to learn more about the lighting involved.
Our task was to Use studio lighting and on location lighting to produce a portrait of a staff member or tradesperson.
The requirement: The portrait should show creative use of studio-flash units balanced with existing/ambient light. Try to underexpose the ambient light in relation to the flash.
When i read this although i understood the words it didnt make a great deal of sense and it was something i struggled to understand why we were doing.
We recieved a lot of help from Mr F and i leant that it was more complicated than i first imagined!
We set up the lights in the Atruim and asked a lady from the Canteen if we could use her for a model and if she could bring a tray or something with her.
I used the camera to meter the brightest part of the sky in the backround, then we metered the light using a flash meter and changed the power of the flash until the meter reading matched our cameras settings. My camera and the meter were both set to 1/125 Sec and ISO 100 and it was the aperture that was changed to match.
We all took some test shots using myself and Emma as models to get the lighting right before we used the real subject.
F6.3, 1/125 Sec, ISO 100
F9, 1/125 Sec, ISO 100
F18, 1/125 Sec, ISO 100
The exposure here is just right but the flash has reflected in the window so when Photographing the Canteen lady i needed to do it from an angle where the flash reflection was behind her.
This is the best image from the 4 i took:
F18, 1/125 Sec, ISO 100
13th March Location Shoot
I decided after the recent workshop to try out some location portraits using the studio lights.
I had learnt so much from the help we had from Mr F that i wanted to see if i could go out and create this lighting setup on my own.
My model was my best friend who kindly volunteered at such late notice, she was freezing cold as it was about 2 degrees and very windy and also quite uncomfortable in front of the camera.
The wind was blowing the lights over so i had my arm wrapped around the light stand whilst photographing, after doing this i realised it would have been much easier with more people and even better if it was warmer and less windy! But that was the situation i had to work with so tried to produce a set of images that would at least serve as practise shots.
I originally wanted to go to a resevoir to do some portraits near trees with the resevoir in the background but the studio lights were too heavy to carry there with just two people.
We drove around looking for a suitable place then saw this field surrounded by hills, as it was next to the road we didnt have to carry the lighting equipment very far, although it raised a few eyebrows from passers by who were shouting over and pipping at us!
,
F11, 1/125 Sec, ISO 100
F9, 1/125 Sec, ISO 100
F9, 1/125 Sec, ISO 100
Here is another example of an environmental portrait, the model was sat in the window of a department store, i like this image as i think the environment really seems to suit the model and her clothing. The lighting used was the available light combined with the artificial lighting in the store.
F5.6, 1/160 Sec, ISO 250
No comments:
Post a Comment