I am going to take 100-200 of various different backgrounds. I am going to be photographing my friends and family. I am trying to reflect their background’s and their life’s within these images, such as..

1. Home
2. Favourite place to eat
3. Work
4. Social place

I think these places will show a lot about the person and what they are like. Environmental portraits reveals a lot about you as a person and opens up many doors showing you how they live and what they do, therefore I chose these locations.

I made them stand in the centre, some smiling an some not. Some close to the camera and some far away. Some of the photograph will be them doing the action/ favourite thing and enjoying themselves. I love the way that these portraits portray peoples homes and how they live which shows an important message. I like how in my image’s people are smiling and showing how they love their activity and are full of happiness doing it too. Here are some examples from goggle of what i am looking to do.

This is a similar sort of idea of the portraits I would to reactive or achieve, such as..

To conclude

The goal of action panning photography is to create an image in which a subject in motion looks relatively sharp and clear while the background appears streaky and blurry. The key to a successful action panning image is having something acceptably sharp in the frame which is what I am going to produce within these images.

There is many different variants of light and how it can be shown, such as

• intensity of the light
• direction of the light
• temperature of the light (and white balance on the camera)
• making use of “the golden hour”
• Using reflectors (silver / gold)

As the names imply, hard light is harsh and creates strong shadows, while soft light is more diffused and creates softer shadows. Hard light has more contrast and is usually brighter than soft light, while soft light is usually more even.

There are three types of styles; Rembrandt lighting, butterfly lighting, chiarascuro 

What is Rembrandt lighting style?

Rembrandt lighting is a technique using one light and one reflector or two separate lights. It’s a popular technique because it creates images that look both dramatic yet natural. It’s characterized by a lit-up triangle underneath the subject’s eye on the less illuminated area of the face

Rembrandt lighting is characterized by an illuminated triangle (also called “Rembrandt patch”) under the eye of the subject on the less illuminated side of the face. 

i.e.

What is the butterfly lighting?

Butterfly lighting is a portrait lighting pattern where the key light is placed above and directly centerd with a subject’s face. This creates a shadow under the nose that resembles a butterfly.

Butterfly lighting is a type of lighting pattern for studio portraiture. It is used for taking flattering, glamorous portrait photos. The lighting is soft on the face. It forms a butterfly-shaped shadow under the subject’s nose, which is the source of the name

Lighting: 

Butterfly lighting requires a key light that can be a flash unit or continuous. If continuos, it can be artificial or natural. In other words, you can use strobes, speedlights, LEDs or even the sun.

A butterfly lighting effect refers to the setup and not to the quality of light – it can be soft or hard light depending on the effect you want.

i.e.

Lastly..

Chiaroscuro, in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achieve a sense of volume in modelling three-dimensional objects and figures.

Chiaroscuro is the treatment of light and shade in drawing and painting- it literally translates to light-dark.

i.e.

That is the set up.

You can use different kinds of lighting with flash..

flash “bouncing”
fill-in flash
TTL / Speedlight flash
remote / infra-red flash (studio lighting)
fast + slow synch flash
light painting c/w slow shutter speeds

August Sander (1876 – 1964)

August Sander, born in Germany- died April 20, 1964, A German photographer who attempted to produce a comprehensive photographic document of the German people. His portraits were usually stark, photographed straight on in natural light, with facts of the sitters’ class and profession allude to through clothing, gesture, and backdrop.

The environmental factor of Sander’s portrait meant that the subjects in his photos would always be surrounded by the environmental they work in, in the background of the full-body shot, so their occupation was clear to the viewers. Here are some of them.

He used Zeiss lenses, an orthochromatic plate with corresponding light filter and clear fine grained glossy paper. He made his photos on 13 x 18 cm plates, enlarging them to 18 x 24 cm.” Which is about like a 5×7 large format camera.

The son of a mining carpenter, Sander apprenticed as a miner in 1889. Acquiring his first camera in 1892, he took up photography as a hobby and, after military service, pursued it professionally, working in a series of photographic firms and studios in Germany.

One of the first photographic typological studies was by the German photographer August Sandler.

Sanders approach to photographing the world has had an enormous influence on later photographers, such as Bernd and Hila Becher. 

Sander sought to create a record of social types, classes and the relationships between them, and recognised that the display of his portraits as a collection revealed so much more than the individual images would alone by themselves and he showed so much within his work . it was so powerful that it was a record.

The term ‘Typology’ was first used to describe a style of photography when Berend and Hila Becher began documenting dilapidated German industrial architecture in 1959. The couple described their subjects as ‘buildings where anonymity is accepted to be the style’. Each photograph was taken from the same angle, at approximately the same distance from the buildings. Their aim was to capture a record of a landscape they saw changing and disappearing before their eyes so once again, Typologies not only recorded a moment in time, they prompted the viewer to consider the subject’s place in the world.

A photographic typology is a single photograph or more commonly a body of photographic work, that shares a high level of consistency. This consistency is usually found within the subjects, environment, photographic process, and presentation or direction of the subject.

Here are some useful links related to this piece of work.

 Dusseldorf School of Photography

 August Sander’s 

 Bernd and Hilla Becher

He used movement that sought to depart from abstraction and artifice and return to realism, Sander wanted his photographs to expose truths. “Pure photography allows us to create portraits which render their subjects with absolute truth,” he said.

Another fascinating artist who took these style of photographs’ and structured them this way is..

Arnold Newman.

Arnold Abner Newman was an American photographer, noted for his “environmental portraits” of artists and politicians. He was also known for his carefully composed abstract still life images.

Born in Manhattan to a Jewish family, Newman grew up in Atlantic City, New Jersey and later moved to Miami Beach, Florida. In 1936, he studied painting and drawing at the University of Miami. Unable to afford to continue after two years, he moved to Philadelphia to work for a studio, making 49-cent portraits in 1938.

Arnold Newman used many different techniques

and also favoured prime lenses, and clarity in his images. Newman was also known to use a range of lighting techniques to create the desired mood and atmosphere in his portraits. His skilful use of natural light, as well as studio lighting setups, helped him achieve a balance between the subject and their environment.

He frequently used medium format cameras, such as the Rolle flex and the Hasselblad, which allowed for greater detail and higher image quality. He also favoured prime lenses, and clarity in his images. Newman was also known to use a range of lighting techniques to create the desired mood and atmosphere in his portraits.

Here is some of his work.

Arnold Abner Newman was an American photographer, noted for his “environmental portraits” of artists and politicians. He was also known for his carefully composed abstract still life images.

To conclude
I think that this is very interesting and useful for peoples live, to show what they love to do and shows them happy doing what their doing which is nice to see, Portrait photography, also referred to as portraiture, is a type of photography in which the subject is one or more people and the aim is to convey something about the subject’s identity, personality, or story.

An environmental portrait is a photographed portrait that captures subjects in their natural surroundings instead of in a studio or other artificial setup.

Good environmental portraits will tell strong stories of their subjects. Their immediate surroundings will give the viewer insight into where these people are, what they do, and who they are. Locations that help to tell a person’s story could be places where they relax, and or work.

There are many different types of portrait styles you could take, and it gives you an insight on their life , especially if they have lived a long life, such as this mood board.

This.

An environmental portrait is a portrait executed in the subject’s usual environment, such as in their home or workplace, and typically illuminates the subject’s life and surroundings. The term is most frequently used of a genre of photography.

It can show many things such as backgrounds, ethnicity, culture, religion, past and future, work, job, family and friends.

Environmental art is art that addresses social and political issues relating to the natural and urban environment.

The main aims of environmental art are to: Raise awareness of the dangers facing the planet and promote its conservation. Encourage communication and citizen participation to protect nature. Incentivise political commitment to fight global warming and its impact so that we can help each other and not single each other out.

Here’s an old image of this selective type of photo vs a today photo…

These types of photos are good for showing ethnic background’s and how people live the way they do and their lives revolving around jut one image. One photograph can show so much about someone and their life, past, future and present. It tells a story.

Environmental photography is a powerful conservation tool. There are many ways you can raise awareness about the importance of protecting our environment, but the most popular strategy is often through showcasing natural beauty, as in the case of Ansel Adams. Another tactic: demonstrating a visible problem.

A good photographer for this style of photos is..

Here’s a mind map of the main elements’ of environmental photography.

Why should you shoot environmental portraits?

When going for a more “real” depiction of a person in their workplace, an environmental portrait will deliver a better result. This is a way to describe the subject’s life in their everyday job from an authentic and spontaneous perspective.

Nature photography can also play a direct role in environmental work. Photography can be used to document and record the state of the landscape and how it has been shaped by human activities.

To conclude

I think that I am going to well on this project and am going to take loads of photos with different people and backgrounds, hopefully distributing a hidden and deeper meaning within the photos.

I like all of these images because they are very simple and classic. The lighting is focusing on the objects in the photograph. There is good exposure with these images and they are in focus. they seem to look clear and the shutter speed is a good temp for the mood and tone of these photos.

Some of these images are edited in Lightroom, with higher contrast and iso.

They are all set up with objects that could potentially outline you as a person.

To conclude –

Photographing inanimate still life subjects is a great creative and technical exercise. It allows you to take your time and carefully control your image, from the staging to the lighting, the shooting, and colorimetric management

This image has a good level of exposure and low aperture. I slowed down the shutter speed so therefore it would be harder to see the wings moving on the airplane.

This image has good exposure and it very clear, however the aperture is low which is making the objects in the back blur.

However, this image has way to much exposure, you cant even see the picture due to to much light being let in.

This image is underexposed because barley any light is being let in.

This image is by far the best, it has good exposure, low aperture which makes the wings clear and not blurry as well as the back round objects’ because of the fats shutter speed and ISO.

Shutter sped- controls the amount of blur or sharpness added to your photographs.

ISO- ISO is your camera’s sensitivity to light as it pertains to either film or a digital sensor. A lower ISO value means less sensitivity to light, while a higher ISO means more sensitivity.

Aperture-Aperture refers to the opening of a lens’s diaphragm through which light passes. 

A painting or drawing of an arrangement of objects, typically including fruit and flowers and objects contrasting with these in texture, such as bowls and glassware.

Such as..

An artist who does this is…

Vincent- Van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade he created approximately 2100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life. 

Here as some of his images.

Van Gogh is today one of the most popular of the Post-Impressionist painters, although he was not widely appreciated during his lifetime. He is now famed for the great vitality of his works which are characterised by expressive and emotive use of brilliant colour and energetic application of impastoed paint.

Here is some of my Still life posts.

I really like this image because I used random objects and placed them in a way to make it look nostalgic , as if it were taken many theres back. I like it because it has a cool and clear tone and texture as well as a little clarity in this photo. The tone is quiet dark , however you can still see the photo well.

Here is another Still- Life artist.

Henry Hargreaves.

Former fashion model turned photographer, Henry Hargreaves , has a reputation for playing with his food. Born 1979 Henry is a Brooklyn -based artist and food photographer who spent his formative years growing up in New Zealand. He began working in fashion in early 2000, relocating to New York City.

Here are some of his images…

This image is very simple and plain. You could say that it could relate back to the past and what/ how they would eat back in the 1990s. I like Henrys work because it shows a lot of colour and contrast.

Still life, as a particular genre, began with Netherlandish painting in the 16th and 17th centuries, and the English term still life derives from the Dutch word stilleven. Early still-life paintings, particularly before 1700, often contained religious and allegorical symbolism relating to the objects depicted

To conclude,

this shows the history of a persons life and what they like to do. Still life is a genre that spans art history. It is found everywhere from ancient Egyptian tombs—decorated with paintings of objects from daily life—to works of modern art where it provided opportunities to experiment with new techniques, forms, and styles.

This photograph is before I edited it and made any changed to it.

However, this is after.

Here’s another one of my photos that I really like and think has a better texture and clarity after I used photo shop for it.

This is before…

After…

It brings out the refection’s and tones and textures. It gives the image almost like a drawing type texture which I really like.

Here is the how I edited it, I prefer these photos a lot more rather than the original ones without photoshop.

What is an object photography?

In object photography, everything revolves around photographing three-dimensional objects and arrangements. The most common type of object photography is the so-called table top photography, in which smaller objects are draped on a table or shelf.

To conclude

I think that I edited these photographs’ quiet well and really brought out the colour it needed.

Here are my photos that have changed and evolved , they have also been edited and flagged by the ones that I like the most and the ones that I don’t like as much.

Using art steps, I used the still life photo that I took and placed it on this virtual gallery exhibition. I really like this because its plain and simple and the photo pops out on the black back round.

Here is photo number two from different angles..

Here is another image, two photos side by side.

To wrap up and conclude

I would say that these photoshoots are very interesting and calming. There is many different photos an load’s of edits too, but I think I could’ve taken more and edited them a bit more too.