What is environmental portraiture?

An environmental portrait is a portrait taken of a person or people in a situation that they live in and a place that says something about who they are. It is often a place of work, rest or play. Images which are quite natural, yet  a little staged by the subject making eye contact with the camera. They are making a connection with the camera.

Mood Board:

This mood board displays the general sense of what environmental portraiture is. They all follow a general theme by being staged and the subject making eye contact with the camera. There is a sense of place with the people being in their work, there is a sense of connection by the photographer letting us into the life of the person.

Fibonacci Spiral:

While the rule of thirds is the most widely known composition rule, there’s another principal that plays a big role in composing images with that wow factor; the golden ratio. While its basis does lie in math and numbers, the golden ratio is really about what the human eye sees, and composing an image that immediately demands attention.  This photo also follows the Fibonacci spiral, it follows the composition which makes this a very effective and balanced image.

The golden ratio is actually a number. It’s found by taking a line (or sometimes another shape) and dividing it into two parts. When a line or shape is divided into two parts based on the golden ratio, it will be divided in such a way that, if you divided the length of the longest section by the length of the smallest section, it would be equal to the original length of the shape divided by the longest section.

Useful videos about environmental portraiture: