Environmental
What do we see in an Environmental Portrait?
In
an environmental portrait we see the location and natural surroundings for
example a workplace, home and basically anywhere that illuminates the subject’s
life. For example you may see a shot like this one of a tattoo artist in a
tattoo shop below which is an environmental shot as it shows the subject which
is the man in his “habitat”/Surroundings which is the tattoo parlour.
What are we trying to show through an environmental shot?
We are going to show a portrait of a person and include in
the portrait the person’s surroundings. We may take a wide shot photo of a girl
stood next to a tree for example as this shows a person in some sort of an
environment.
Do we need a particular type of environment?
No you don’t need a particular type of environment, it can
be from the outside of a wall to the inside of a room, and it can be anything
but an environmental portrait must include the surroundings.
Lighting.
What do we see in a lighting portrait?
In a lighting portrait we would see a photo of a person with
different types of lighting used to be shown on them. For example on the photo
below we can see the lighting and camera has been set up a particular way to
project lighting in a certain way and produce a shadow over parts of her face.
What
are we trying to show through a lighting shot?
We are trying to show different ways we can use lighting
that can affect a certain photo. For example if you place lighting to the side
of somebodies face you will see that the rest of the face has shadow over it.
This is done on purpose by the photographer.
Do we need a particular type of light?
We don’t necessarily need a particular type of light there
are many ways that we can use lighting for example natural lighting can produce
a good image as well as studio lighting and positioning it in different ways.
Composition
What do we see in a composition portrait?
In a composition portrait we will see the frame that is full. We
will see every element composed
together so that it suits the idea of your shot. We will see an image of a person that includes
elements around them being constructed in a particular way.
What are
we trying to show?
We are trying
to show the person with a particular background that is flattering, similar to environmental
but more focus on the person.
Do we need
a particular type of composition?
No we don’t
as there are many different types of composition that work well. For example if
you decided to show a person with a dark background that may convey a particular
message in contrast to if you took a photo of a person with a bright
background, you’d be conveying two completely different messages.
