Environmental portraiture are pictures taken of the subject in their usual environment, for example a person whose skill and job is baking would have a picture taken of them at the bakery or a person who does boxing for a hobby would have a picture taken of them doing boxing at their training session. These images without explaining anything can help us determine the life’s that these people live and can reveal the type of person they are by what they do in their life. This makes Environmental portraits interesting as it gives the image a meaning and a story behind it which makes these images standout compared to other styles of images.

Why do people use environmental portraits?

People use environmental portraits as it tells a story, by viewing an image of a subject and their environment, which would be easily identifiable as its usually something we see day to day or have heard of, it allows for viewers to give their insights on the subjects personality, their life style, their hobby/job. In some cases it can even make enhance the viewers understanding of the photo as some environmental portraits have a deep and fascinating meaning like the image Alfred Krupp taken by photographer Arnold Newman.

How do I take environmental portraits?

To take a good environmental portrait image you want to make sure you have a subject and their environment (or a background/object which will make the image easy to identify of what the subjects usual environment is) and you also want to make sure that you have a plan in place of what you want to capture. Once you have everything in order you want to position your camera and ensure you have the settings you want to use to capture the image like how much light is being let in or the depth of field you want to achieve. Once that’s all done you can get your subject to look at the camera and pose however you would like and then you can capture the image.