Pete Thompson – photo from 93 ‘Til book that I own

Environmental photography is a subgenre of portraiture photography that generally tends to feature the subject in their ‘natural’ environment, eg skateboarders in the skatepark or in the streets, workers at work, labourers at a building site, and that general stuff. Differently to traditional portraiture, environmental portraiture tries to capture the subject in their natural environment, using props lighting and accessories to create more context to the image and create a deeper story which might add layers of meaning to the image.

ANALYSIS – This is an example of environmental portraiture. This photo is clearly taken on a digital format. The mise-en-scene presents an old woman with a sombre, bored expression sat in her old, 70s style house playing solitaire. The lighting is natural lighting, through the window, perhaps with an element of warm, artificial indoor lighting. The lighting is mainly coming from her right and I can tell this because the right side of her face is much lighter that the left side. The ISO is probably low-medium because the lighting is good and there isn’t the stereotypical grain typically seen when a high ISO is used. \the aperture is probably medium as well maybe f/5.6 – I can tell this because most if the photo is in focus but the table has a little bit of blur – the depth of field is fairly medium. The shutter speed is probably also medium to keep these settings balanced. The framing of the image is three quarter length, and she is sat down. She is making eye contact (the opposite of averted gaze) and she is clearly engaging with the camera. The white balance of this image is quite on the yellow side, giving it a warm homely feeling as you would feel inside a dimly lit old persons house.

AUGUST SANDER

August Sander was a german portrait photographer who focused on capturing a wide range of people in society, from farmers and workers to artists and city dwellers, in an honest and realistic way. His famous project, “People of the 20th Century,” grouped portraits by social roles, creating a visual study of Germany in that era. Sander’s style was very straightforward, with natural poses that showed each person as they are, which set a foundation for documentary photography and influenced later photographers like Diane Arbus (according to wikipedia). During the war, his photos faced challenges from the Nazis, as his realistic portrayals didn’t fit what they wanted, which then led to censorship and he lost some photos. Despite this, sander’s work was preserved by his son and continues to be valued for its deep insight into society and human personality. He learnt about photography when he was working in the coal mines and assisting a photographer.

MISE EN SCENE – This is a black and white film photo by August Sander. The mise-en-scene presents a sculpture artist contemplating his work. Surrounding him are tools to sculpt along with different, finished sculptures and this room is clearly an artists studio – his natural environment. The man wears a long white robe fit for an sculptist who is avoiding getting messy. He has an averted gaze, looking towards the light source which hits him dead in the face and comes from the left side of the frame. This mans is comes the the working social class – clearly spending his days labouring away creating sculptures probably to sell to the state of the higher classes above him. This photo tells this story magnificently and clearly has lots of backstory.

PROCESS – When I imagine how this photo was taken, I imagine the photographer had to spend hours with this man, having a cup of tea before, eventually building up a rapport to be able to ask him to take his photo. The photo captures the essence of the scene perfectly – August sanders did a breath taking job about capturing the man in his natural environment, and his natural, contemplative state because of this.

LIGHTING -The lighting is soft, capturing a mysterious, dusty aura around this man and his workshop, however, there is a start contrast between light and shadows created by the darkness of the room and the single natural light source – probably a window overlooking the town.

FRAME – The photo is a full length body photo – capturing his worn out shoes all the way to the emotions on his face. The approach to the photo is informal, natural and unposed, and the man has a fairly neutral expression.

SETTINGS – The camera settings probably have quite a high ISO because of the clearly dark setting and the tell tale grain on the photo. The shutter speed is probably quite slow because the photo isn’t amazingly sharp and there is a clear amount of darkness in the image. The aperture is probably quite low because the statues are blurred and the depth of field is very narrow. The white balance is more on the warm side however in black and white it is hard to tell.

SOME MORE EXAMPLES OF AUGUST SANDERS WORK

TYPOLOGIES

August Sander specifically used the theory of typology to capture portraits from varied social groups.

Typology is a way of grouping things that share lots of similar features. Sander specifically organised people based on tings like their professions and social status to show the diversity of society. There is a few different key points in typology like objective portraits which focus on peoples social roles instead of their personalities, social categories which group people to reveal social structure and the big picture which helps viewers see patterns in society.

Typology is unique because of its systematic approach, which involves capturing a series of images which will soon be a collection, using a consistent method (like similar lighting and background or similar composition). The focus on patterns is another reason why typology is unique – this involves highlighting what is common among the subjects of the images – whether that would be shapes of buildings, facial expressions or everyday objects – in this case however it would be the peoples professions or hobbies since I’m studying environmental portraiture.

PHOTOSHOOT PLAN

1. Overview

Project Title: Environmental portraiture
Date & Time: Monday 11/11/24 – 4:30 PM (GOLDEN HOUR)
Location: Les Quennevais Skatepark
Subject: I am going to capture skateboarders in their natural environment which is the skatepark – hopefully somehow has a retro video camera which will add to the scene and of course I will ensure their skateboards are in frame.
Goal/Purpose: I am going to try to capture the essence of skateboarding by attempting to be comfortable with the subject, and hopefully I can make the photos look more street oriented and cultured by making sure there is some graffiti in the background. To capture authentic photos – I need to build some rapport and spend some time talking to the skateboarders. Building rapport can create a more comfortable environment which might let me take more candid photos that don’t feel as rigid. (this will be easy as I am already friends with a lot of the skateboarders.)

2. Concept & Mood

Mood/Style: I hope the mood is natural, but if I’m lucky the light will line up and there will be a sunset glow to the image.
Scene/Background: Scene will be the different ramps at the skatepark, the graffiti wall, the 3 blocks everyone sits on which is usually packed with stuff
Lighting Plan: I won’t be using a soft box or anything, just natural light and potentially the flash on my camera if needed.
Props/Accessories: Skateboards, vintage camcorders, fashion (baggy clothes)

3. Equipment Checklist

Camera: Canon Camera 7D MK1
Lenses: Wide angle (will crop in for more of a 50mm portraiture effect.
Lighting: natural, camera flash.
Tripod: n/a
Extra Batteries & Memory Cards: yes

4. Notes & Reminders

Pose Ideas: Sitting down – looking away (averted gaze) – looking towards the camera (eye contact). Standing up, about to go for a trick. Watching someone else doing something as well could work.
Backup Plan: skate video editor (indoors)

PHOTOSHOOT

This is all the photos I took in a contact sheet

These are edited with virtual copies to make extra black and white images – and flagged to get all the good photos. I then went through and individually adjusted all my flagged images

These are the edited black and white images. This can be an example of typologies because they are all black and white and have similar subjects and aims. The same can be said for the photos below

These are the edited colour images. I used a vintage colour filter to add a film-like haze to the images which adds a nostalgic effect and in my eyes makes them more visually pleasing due to the vibrant colours yet low tonal range.

This is my favourite image out of the bunch. It really captures the essence of skateboarding as fun and creative. To get the image I asked the subject to put his 90’s camcorder next to him, and I carefully arranged our belongings to create the organised mess that skateboarders are – clothes everywhere, cameras, skateboards. I like the fact that with no other sport do you spread your stuff around a public place and it becomes quite unlikely. The lighting was quite grey so I had to add a fair bit of contrast so the image didn’t look completely flat. The filter I put on the image looks realistically film like. The photo captures the skateboarder in his natural environment – the streets.

AI experimentation – I used the photoshop crop and expand with AI tool to create a jungle effect around the image since there was already leaves over the photo – this was just a bit of fun but I actually think it turned out really cool

Presentation

I used photoshop to create a little collage of my images. For the background I used one of the black and white images and added a gaussian blur filter which makes the main images pop out more. I used the guides tools to make sure that the gaps between the images were even and centered them. My favorite image is the biggest one and this makes it the clear place your eye is drawn to.

2026 Photography A Level Blog

Environmental Portraiture.