FORMAL-
Environmental portraits are an example of formal portraits, because they have been pre-prepared and are posed. Environmental portraits can also be commissioned by the subject of the portrait as well, so they are even more planned out beforehand. Environmental images are of people in their work or home environment, or simply somewhere that defines them as a person.
For example, a butcher would be photographed in their shop, possibly wearing their uniform or in the process of handling the meat. Influential environmental photographers include Arnold Newman and Anthony Kurtz, both who became known for their strong portraits of people in their “natural” environments.
by Anthony Kurtz
As can be seen from above, environmental portraits do have have to be specifically in either black and white or colour, as both are just as good as each other. They are often half-body or three quarter length shots, but they environmental portraits can be simply head-shots as well, it would just be more difficult to fully show the environment. Most environmental portraits feature the person looking directly down the lens of the camera, but this is not always necessary. They all, however, feature a person or group of people in an environment that defines them, either that they work or live in.
INFORMAL-
An example of informal portrait photography would be street photography, which is mostly comprised of candid images. Candid images are taken mostly without the knowledge of the person in the picture, and this unawareness is a large part of much of street photography.
Candid photography is unplanned and not posed at all, often there is no relationship between the photographer and the person in the image whatsoever, and candid images simply show the real day-to-day life of people in whichever time period the image was taken.
Two influential street-candid photographers are Henri Cartier-Bresson and Vivian Maier. They both took many candid images in black and white, but I added some of Maier’s colour photos to show how there is no need to stay in black and white with street photography, and to reveal how she used colour very well.