When using lighting you must think of the following when creating a desired outcome:

• Intensity of the light
• Direction of the light
• Temperature of the Light (Warm or cold + white balance)
• use of ” the golden hour”
• Using reflectors (silver/gold)

Light can differentiate in many ways depending on how it is used for example…

And

White balance (WB) and colour temperature –

Inspiration –

For my Environmental Portraits my main inspiration were on the Photographers: August Sander and Alec Soth.

Comparison –

Inspired by Sanders use of full body shots I aimed for that effect in some of my photos.

Sander can also be seen to use a low F-stop on his camera, this creates a blurred back ground effect, highlighting the features of the subject. In the photos of my dad, I aimed to try and mimic that.

Seeing how Alec Soth had his subjects hold props in some photos I tried to replicate that when me and my friends played airsoft.

With the one of the key features of this project being to capture a story within a photo, I looked at some of Karen Knorr’s photographs where she had taken photos of someone in a military uniform.

Seeing how I am apart of the Air Cadets and my dad had a career In the army I had my own attempt at her genre.

Evaluation –

To improve my photos I will play around with the settings some more to create other desired outcomes in my photos. I believe I could improve on how I manage the exposure as some of my photos came out either to dark or too bright, which wasn’t what I wanted.

Overall, I think I created some good final outcomes that can be seen to fit the Genre of Environmental Portraits.

Out of all my photos these are my best edited.

These images are from my Environmental Portraits, for my Nostalgia Project.

5 – 4 star rated photos:

(These are also white flagged – meaning they consist of clearly taken photos and matched my desired outcome).

These Photos, too me, capture a similar, composition and fixed focal point of a person in an environment like how Environmental Portrait photographers: August Sander and Alec Soth took their photos.

3 – 2 star rated photos:

(These are also white flagged – meaning they consist of mostly clearly taken photos or just didn’t fit the look I was going for).

I would improve upon these images by timing up the shot better and perhaps taking them with a tripod to stabilise the long shutter-speed. These images do display some good qualities however, such as lighting and and use of aperture to create a more focused effect on the person.

2 – 1 star rated photos:

(These are black flagged meaning they do not appeal to what I was aiming for during this photoshoot).

Camera Settings:

Best Images:

I will edit these Images as my first Edits in the style of my studied Environmental Portraits.

For my Environmental Portraits, I will photograph indoor and outdoor locations of people at:

• Work (Elizabeth castle).
• Home.
• Bunkers (Noirmont).
• Horse stables.

I will be photographing my:

• Friends.
• Family.
• Work colleagues.

I will take my photos:

• Over the weekend.
• During a walk.
• Whilst on a break at work.
• Hanging out with friends.

How I will take my photos will be:

• With a Camera.
• In a place I am familiar with.

why I will take them is because:

• It captures my family in a natural environment.
• Depicts the day-to-day running’s of My Job.
• Shows the type of environment me and my friends hang out in and what we do.

what is an Environmental Portrait?

An Environmental Portrait is a photograph that captures the subject in an environment they are typically found in, or tell a story of their life and surrounding.

This can also consist of their working environment’s or places they’re associated with. For example An elderly person in a care home, or someone who’s tanned in a sunny environment.

Mood Board:

Mind map –

Environmental Portraits:

• must create a story in the viewers mind about the subject.
• Props – helps establish an identity with the subject.
• shows the subjects environment – e.g. Workplace, home, associated locations.
• Indoor and outdoor photos – creates a Identity to the picture.
• More than one person – creates a setting of tone or emotions.
• Direct eye contact or subjected gaze -.
• Emotions of the subject – helps form that portraits story.

Artist Study –

August Sander:

“It is not my intention either to criticize or to describe these people, but to create a piece of history with my pictures.” – August Sander

Intro:

August Sander, Born in Germany on November 17th 1876, grew up meeting other well known photographers in Germany such as Heinrich Schmeck. seeing his interest in photography, Sanders’ uncle helped him buy his first Camera.

Later going on to study under apprenticeships in the military and in berlin and other cities, he received further education as an observer at the Royal Academy of Art.

His photographs, taken of thousands of people around Germany, capture little to none emotion from the subjects, yet tell an enriching in depth story of their life’s. Collected in a Portfolio spanning from photos as early as 1904 all the way until his death in 1964, he named this era of art ‘people of the 20th century’. His photos can be seen to date through many time periods, documenting a society’s growth or down fall and different social classes.

A visual demonstration of this can be seen through the change in military clothing made by the changing of rulers of the country. The old era of Kaiser Wilhelm’s imperialistic uniform to Adolf Hitler’s Fascist regimes uniforms shows this.

Individual photo study –

Konditor (Pastry Chef), 1928

Like many of his photos, this one, to me clearly demonstrates the factors that make up Sander’s genre of an Environmental Portrait.

Taken on a technologically outdated large formatted camera that was made up of glass negatives and long exposure times, this allowed Sander to capture as much detail on his subjects faces, body and environment. According to a letter he sent to another photographer, Sanders photos were taken with a corresponding light filter and a clear fine grained glossy paper, These were then made on a 13 x 18cm plates and then enlarged into 18 x 24cm which is equivalent to a 5 x 7 large image format nowadays.

Usually having a fairly low aperture, this allowed the image to create a 3D effect on the subject, making them standing out yet still containing details of their environment such as in this image I’ve decided to analyse.

The subject’s bowl, flour covered floor and cooking equipment are all still visible to create and formulate his identity.

Shown in the quote I have used, Sander’s creates ‘a piece of history’ with his photographs as by taking these environmental portraits, he immortalises these people from the past.

Other examples:

As mentioned before, Sander followed a set out genre of how he took his photos, capturing the entire subject or as a close up this visually makes us focus on their whole appearance and helps us to recognise their identity of how they are dressed and their environment. Relying on natural lighting to create detail on his subjects faces this can be seen in the middle image that shows a beam of light streaking over the bricklayers face. formulating a contrast to the darkness that surrounds the darkness consumes the lower-half of his clothes it is clear Sanders intent on how me carefully may of positioned the subject for this photograph.

overall, I believe August Sander’s work is a significant demonstration of how an environmental portrait is taken and has a place in Photography as an important foundation for its use.

Inspiration and similarities with other Photographers –

Inspired in his youth by Heinrich Schmeck, Sander’s photography can be seen to take influence in some of his early work.

Being awarded at many exhibitions, Sander’s work can be seen to very influential amongst other photographers. Due to taking photos in a fixed genre of black and white. Others that do something similar can be seen to replicate that.

Alys Tomlinson –

Vanessa Whinship –

Alec Soth –

Photography Elements Analyse –

These are some of my best images from Still Life photoshoot put into a gallery.

These are some of my best Objects edits in an a gallery.

For my first topic into the theme of nostalgia, i believe my outcomes for Still Life, match similarly to the works of Darren Harvey-Regan and Walker Evans.

From this topic I have also learnt a better understanding on my camera handling skills and how to better critique and understand my work by analysis of mine and other photographers work.

Final outcomes:

I have selected these as my final outcomes as I believe they have the same visual qualities of composition and photography elements that where used to make the outcomes of Walker Evans and Darren Harvey-Regan’s Still life images.

Camera settings:

First Edits:

(Before and afters of some of my edits to show my inspiration of Walker Evans and Darren Harvey-Regan) –

Edits –

I believe these images came out well as, too me they are the most similar to Harvey-Regan’s work in terms of lack of shadow and good exposure on the tools, by having a high contrast and clarity I was able to create this effect as the edit is more focused on the object.

These images could be better in terms of lighting – With less brightness to remove the shine on the cutlery. Despite that these to me looked similar to Walker Evans work, By adding a higher clarity it makes seeing the details easier to find.

These images, in my opinion could possibly be better, as they don’t seem bright enough, however I am pleased with their outcome. I decided to make a personal attempt by using a warm brown colour by adjusting the temperature and playing around with the highlights.

I like how these images came out, I feel like these look quite similar to Walker Evans in terms of the use of a grainy background and cold colourless aesthetic that both photographer’s use.

Overall I am pleased with how these Pictures came out, In this photoshoot I decided to take influence from both Walker Evans and Darren Harvey-Regan.