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

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.

TEXTURE MOODBOARD

Texture as a photographic concept is defined as the quality of an object, referring to the variances in tone, depth, colour and shape.

James Welling is a photographer who did a selection of photos of crumpled paper. The images have a strange heavenly effect to them because the highlights are glowing and slightly blown out. The paper looks simultaneously flat and textured – a contrast. They also have a high amount of contrast which creates more texture in the paper. The photos almost look like they could be a birds eye view of an alien landscape.

---

Photoshoot 2

INSPIRATION

Gabriele Basilico is an Italian photographer who explores texture and repetition of texture in urban landscapes – ruined and perfect. I find his photos very beautiful as he captures things honestly. Some of his photos explore the effect of war in urban landscapes and show the destruction. He shows texture in the different layers and strange ways in which the architecture often contrasts the sky. I am going to try to capture similar things when I visit the Barbican in London over the weekend. I want to capture how the repetitive, brutalistic architecture contrasts not just each other but also the sky and other surrounding things. Other photographers I looked at for inspiration were Lewis Baltz and Minor White.

ANALYSIS – This is clearly a fil photograph and I can tell this because of the grain and way nothing is as sharp as it would’ve been digital. The mise-en-scene of this image is a large, semi-circular warehouse stood against a grey, grainy sky. The windows are repetitive yet have some anomalies – smashed and white that show character and tell us that the building is old and run down. The use of line in this image is very clever, there is a clear deliberate contrast between the grid pattern of the windows and the circular line of the warehouse. There is lots of texture in this image, from the brick walls to the grainy sky, to the different coloured windows. The lighting is very flat and the tone is greyscale. It captures a repetitive and brutalistic piece of architecture, and knowing the context around the image, is a nice message about war. The photo uses the rule of thirds clearly and obviously, more so vertically than horizontally though, The top third is sky, the middle third is the warehouse and the bottom third is the wall – this intentionally splits the image up and makes it more visually pleasing and easy for the eye to process. I believe the ISO is higher – maybe between 400 and 800, I can tell this because of the grain and the way the light doesn’t seem to be bright daylight. The shutterspeed is probably medium as there is no sign of motion blur but its not particularly sharp. The aperture is likely higher and I can tell this because of the wide depth of field – everything is in focus.

My photos.

I edited these photos by turning up the contrast quite high, and turning down the black point to make the blacks very contrasting to the white. I used a lightroom preset called Silvertone which added a sort of black and white film effect to my photos.

To finalise and showcase the images I took of the Barbican I created a virtual gallery. The virtual gallery gives the audience an immersive experience and allows them to decide at what pace to view my images. IT gives them an insight into my photographic intent and is generally a cool showcase of modern technology contrasted against the 90s brutalism showed in the images. To improve I could’ve made sure the white balance matched exactly in each of the images to make them a better selection.

Shutter speed refers to how long the shutter is open for which exposes the sensor to light for more or less time depending of the shutter speed. 1/250 or higher is ideal for shooting action shots when you want the motion to be captured still. The lens can also be opened for seconds at a time – on a standard camera up to 30 seconds. This is ideal for very low light situations where you have a tripod at hand. In the diagram below it is demonstrated how the different shutter speed affects how movement looks in cameras. Sometimes you will want to capture very fast motion as a blur in order to show the speed – to do this you will have to use a lower shutter speed and try to keep the camera still so that only the motion is blurred.

---

Examples of high shutter speed

These photos are brilliant examples of a very high shutter speed = the way I can tell the shutterspeed is high (probably 1/1000 or higher is because part of the world that is normally moving is now completely stull – a snapshot of reality.

Examples of low shutter speed

On the left is a beautiful example of a very low shutterspeed – they likel had to use a tripod to keep the camera still for an extended period of time – overnight for example. Keeping the camera open and using the B setting allows you to keep the shutter open for as long as you want – exposing the sensor to light for a very long period of time – causing these star trails. On the right is another example of a low shutter speed – the camera was probably open for a quarter of a second (1/4) while the person stood up. This created a blurred motion effect.

A photographer who uses shutter speed to her artistic advantage

Francesca Woodman uses shutter speed to create nostalgic, ghostly self portraits, often using strange positions and a large amount of motion blur, in weird, dirty looking rooms. Her photos have an eerie, sad message, and her photos sadly seem to tell of her fading away before she eventually ended her own life at 23

---

My Attempt #1

To achieve this effect of the ball floating in the middle of the tree,, I used a fairly high shutter speed – 1/500 this means the sensor was only exposed to light for one five hundredth of a second – freezing the ball. I edited it in post in LrC and cropped the ball so it is on the top left rule of thirds cross point – I also turned down the highlights and added grain and haziness to create a film effect

My Attempt #2

To achieve this effect the camera was moving at the same rate as the subject, so the subject is the only thing in focus while the background has motion blur. In lightroom classic I changed it to black and white, and changed the contrast up a lot, also adding grain. This all together gave the photo a very candid effect.

This is the contact sheet of all the photos we took. Most of the photos of people dodging the camera turned out really unflattering, and the sky wasn’t blue enough for the ball photos to look at all visually pleasing. But out of all of them I got a few I like which are above.

---

Photoshoot 2 – Studio

During the process of learning Lightroom classic I learnt how to flag images as picks and rejects using SHIFT + P/X to select my favourite images from the bunch. Below are the photos that I flagged as picks.

The aperture controls the amount of light hitting the sensor. It is measured in f-stop and typically ranges from f/1.8 to f/22 (f/1.8 being a very large aperture and f/22 being a very small aperture – imagine a large hole like a bottle top for f/1.8 versus a pinprick for f/22). The depth of field is much higher when more light is let in, so f/1.8 has the shallowest depth of field and therefore more background/foreground blur (depending on focus point). The opposite being a great depth of field at f/16 – f/22 has generally everything in focus. Depth of field and aperture link in directly with each other – aperture is the number you control based on the scene and the effect you want – and the depth of field is what is produced based on that number (also the level of exposure in the image.)

Above is the canon camera simulator this is a low aperture photo I have taken – to use the large aperture which lets lots of light in I had to use a higher shutter speed – (1/250 or higher is typically good for action photography) and a lower ISO. This large aperture creates a narrow depth of field and only the plane and a few marbles are in sharp focus – in my opinion this creates a higher quality effect.

This has a medium aperture which means the image still has a narrow depth of field but the image is not as blurred.

This is a very high aperture photo which means it has a very large depth of field and the whole image is in focus.

(FOCAL LENGTH AND FOCUSING)

Focal length is the length is the distance between the pole of the mirror and the focal point of the mirror. A higher focal length leads to a ‘flatter’ image. 50mm focal length is ideal for portraiture photography because it replicates the human eye and is therefore the most flattering – but a lower photo length leads to a wider image. The focussing ring allows you to change what is in focus in the image. You adjust it until either the whole image is blurred (Uta Barth) or the section you want in focus is sharp. There is also autofocus which is another setting where the camera focus’ on what it in the centre when you half press the shutter button.

PHOTOGRAPHERS WHO USE INTERESTING APERTURE AND MANUAL FOCUS

Uta Barth is a photographer that has a very unique style and generally takes photos of out of focus scenes. It is very abstract. She clearly uses the focus ring to force the camera out of focus which creates a cool effect. She is a contemporary German-American photographer who explores optical illusions, visual perception and non-place. She emerged in the late 1980s and brought light to the viewers visual attention within the photography frame. She takes photos of surreal landscapes and roads, in a deliberately blurred, dreamy way. Her works are exhibited internationally for their unique style and aesthetic look.

Ralph Eugene Meatyard is a photographer that has a similar style of work to Uta Barth but this set of images called “Zen Twigs” he made sure to keep one twig in focus in the foreground. This creates a sense that the branch is the most important thing in the image and creates a cool effect.

Saul Leiter was a photographer who was formerly an artist and then discovered photography. He uses lots of unusual framing devices in his images like windows and signs to draw our eyes to a large section of blur and draw our eyes to a splash of colour.

MY PHOTOSHOOT

Overall, aperture is a very important part of making a photo look good – and knowing how to use it is key to the photographic process.

ISO is the number that refers to the sensitivity of the sensor – the higher the number, the more sensitive the sensor, but, along with a higher sensitivity, there is also a reduce in quality, or an increase in grain. Grain is the sandy effect over an image that is synonymous with film photography – it can be used artistically though, it creates a vintage effect and paired with some good editing can add a certain emotion to an image. ISO ranges from a very low 50, to a standard (highest quality) 100, all the way to the most sensitive (on the majority of cameras) being around 6400. With the invention of digital photography, ISO is now something you can change on the camera – it used to be that the roll of film you chose had a set ISO (this is because the film is the equivalent of the modern the sensor.)

As you can see, the first image is 100 ISO, the second image is 800, and the final image is 6400 – and with each bump in ISO the amount of grain increases, indirectly proportional to the quality. The amount of light doesn’t change in these because I adjusted the shutter speed for each ISO change.

Camera Obscura.

The main concept behind ‘Camera Obscura’ (latin for dark chamber) is a device used (first conceptualised in the 5^th Century (BCE). The camera obscura projects an inverted image of the outside scene onto the (pitch black) rooms surface through a pinprick hole (or lens). After the discovery of this, scientists were intrigued and attempted to find ways to ‘Fix the Shadows’ (create a permanent fixture of the image. In the 16^th century artists like Leonardo Da Vinci used this camera – for purposes like studying light and perspective – and versions of the camera obscura were engineered to become portable. – creating the first ‘camera’

Nicephore Niepce.

Nicephore Niepce created the worlds first permanent photograph using the camera obscura, and a pewter plate coated in bitumen of Judea – Bitumen hardened when it was exposed to light and the unexposed areas were washed away.

Louis Daguerre

Louis Daguerre invented the daguerreotype – the first public photographic process. The daguerreotype produces very detailed images on a polished, silver plated copper sheet. He created this by collaborating with Niepce, a pioneer, but after he died, Daguerre continued to refine their ideas – leading to the Daguerrotype. The daguerreotype could not be reproduced but its quality and details were unmatched. The daguerreotype process involved exposing a coated copper plate to iodine vapor to make it light sensitive, the developing it with mercury vapor – then fixing the shadows with a salt solution. This became widely popular for portraits due to its detail and short exposure times – the daguerreotype dominated the photography market until new breakthroughs were discovered.

Henry Fox Talbot

Talbot had a scientific background in chemistry which directly influenced his experiments. Talbot played a crucial role in the development of early photography. (working around the same time as Louis Daguerre). Invented the calotype process, which is one of the first photographic processes to create negatives. This allows for multiple prints from one negative – a MAJOR development. Some would say this fixed, and multiplied the shadows. The calotype process involves paper painted with silver chloride. His first book ‘The Pencil of Nature’ was made with photo prints inside it – demonstrating the practical uses for photography – this probably played a key role in the development of photography because it showed entrepreneurs the business potential – putting money into the industry.

Richard Maddox

Maddox was a scientist and amateur photographer who invented the gelatine dry plate because he was worried about the different chemicals used in other methods of photography. The gelatine dry plate replaced the wet collodion process which allowed for greater flexibility because it eliminated the need to do all the work from coating and developing on site. Instead the dry plates could be stored and used later which greatly reduced the amount of equipment required on the scene. The dry plate used gelatine to suspend silver bromide on a glass plate. Maddox’s invention made photography a lot more accessible to amateurs which gave incentive to make more dry plates. The dry plate was a decent step towards the development of film.

George Eastman + Kodak Brownie.

George Eastman was the founder of Kodak – the company that revolutionised and commercialised early photography. Taking a photo was now a product you can buy. By simplifying the product with the use of his newly invented roll film  -George Eastman managed to create the Kodak Brownie – the camera with the slogan “You press the button, we do the rest”. This was a revolutionary step in the right direction for photography – the roll film was able to be produced because it was on flexible plastic instead of glass – making it miles more compact. The Brownie cost only $1 and really popularizes photography among the masses. Eastman also was a key player in the industrialisation of film because he saw the business potential. Kodak was also a key player of the invention of colour photography while under Eastman’s ownership – this was due to their invention of Kodachrome film which is not the standard for colour film photography. Overall Eastman was the start of consumer photography – it was no longer a hobby for the rich or the ones with loads of time – it was cheap, easy and not very time consuming.

Digital Photography

In the modern age – digital is king, it has completely taken over. Film photography is seen as a hobby in and of itself and is increasingly more expensive due to factories closing down and sales reducing. The digital camera was invented by Steven Sasson at Kodak in 1975. The technology used was a CCD which was essentially a sensor that converts light into digital signals. In the 80s the digital camera improved continually because sensors were becoming more and more sensitive and sophisticated however most cameras actually weren’t fully digital and used analog video technology. In the 90s digital cameras were becoming more commercial because the camera companies were releasing cameras that used memory cards which was much more practical.. The invention of the DSLR in the late 90s further boosted the industry because of being able to change the lenses and a much larger image quality. Following this, point and shoot cameras became more popular because they allowed regular consumers to make memories without having to learn manual settings and having a large cameras all the time.

This is the general timeline of photography – from super basic methods of recording real life scenes, to the highly advanced and refined DSLR cameras we live with daily now.

Aaron Siskind was born on December 3rd 1904, he was an editor, American teacher and photographer who is mostly known for his beautiful innovations in abstract photography. He received his first camera as a wedding gift in 1929. He used film. He takes super graphic photos of hyper-textured walls, peeling paint, rusty things, elements of writing on old machinery and signs and more. His photos are hyper detailed and have a very high contrast. I love his abstract photos and aspire to take photos like him. I love how they all have a matching style and have a strange, nostalgic feeling attached to them.