From the course: Mobile Photography Weekly

Portrait project: Environmental portrait - iPhone Tutorial

From the course: Mobile Photography Weekly

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Portrait project: Environmental portrait

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- Hey there everybody. Welcome back to the Mobile Photography Weekly pool hall. I'm Sean Duggan and this week we're going to talk about shooting an environmental portrait. So an environmental portrait is a portrait of somebody in their natural environment, or one of their natural environments, be that where they live, where they work, where they play, relax, hang out, it's a place that is natural to that subject, where they spend a lot of time, and also maybe that reveals a little bit about that subject. So, let's dive in and take a look at some of the shots that I made. Okay, let's do the one where you're picking up the cue stick and the chalk and you're kind of holding the cue stick like, come up into this area right here, that's good. And I'm going to turn this light on here just to throw in some natural light there. Okay, let's look away again, on the count of three look back. One, two, and three. (shutter clicking) So this is the first shot here, and this is kind of more of a close up shot of the subject, but also wide enough to show some of the environment. So this is working with foreground, background, relationships, and often times the composition in such a shot is with the subject off on one side and then the environment in the background on the other side. Doing a little bit of stage business there with chalking up the pool cue to keep with the theme of the billiard table. And I went back for a slightly wider view to show more of the pool table, kind of liked that look where she was looking down. And also telling here to look up at me. This is something that I often do with subjects. To freshen up the expression, I'll have them look away and then I'll tell them to look back at the camera and that just sort of keeps the expression from getting stale 'cause if they're just looking at the camera waiting for you to take the shot, sometimes just the eyes, the face, can get a little bit stale and if you have them look away or close their eyes and open them up it freshens it up. Oh, I love it, I love it, I love it, awesome! It's also good to interact with your subject, maybe crack a few jokes. Get a kind of unguarded, spontaneous smile. Sometimes a smile where they're trying to smile can again look a little bit forced, a little bit stale. And then this is just experimenting with different expressions. This was her sassy smile that I was asking for. Okay, let's put the cue ball, the cue stick down, you can just put that on the side there. And let's do the eightball from this position and then we'll work with some other positions, you remember the pose? That sort of... And then we were continuing on with exploring the environment through some of the objects in the environment. Obviously the eightball is really symbolic for pool, as well as other things. So there's just playing around with that eightball. Little bit closer but lower down. And again, this is the same basic composition we've started out with where the subject's on one side and the pool table and the light is in the other side. And another point to draw your attention to is the position of the billiard balls on the table in the background. When I first started shooting from this vantage point, that part of the table was mostly empty, so I purposely went and positioned those balls so they would be there in the shot. So paying attention to what's going on in the background is important. Making sure that everything that is in the shot should be in the shot and things that shouldn't be are removed from the shot. So for instance, you can't see it in this shot, but on the sofa in the background there was a pillow that was really light, it was kind of distracting, so I went and I moved that out of the shot early on. And then we're getting a little bit more interactive now where the subject is not just posing in the environment, but actively interacting with the environment and doing something with it. This low-angle view is really successful because we're looking straight at her, straight at the cue ball, it's almost like if she had hit that ball it would come right at the camera. So this is an unguarded moment where I cracked a joke and really got her laughing. I love to do this because you can get these spontaneous expressions that are just pure gold and I just really love the way she looks there. So for this last shot I got back to the interactive theme and had Julia actually interacting with the pool balls and the pool cue. I put the camera on a selfie stick not to take a selfie, but just to extend the reach of the camera so I could get up higher than I could comfortably hold it and shoot down. I just wanted to explore a different angle 'cause I had gotten down low, I wanted to shoot from a higher angle and look down on the table and have her looking up at me. So when you're shooting an environmental portrait, keep in mind that it's not just about making the subject look good, but also having the environment look good in a way that tells a story, that tells us a little bit more about the subject, that reveals something about the subject. Where they live, where they work, where they relax, et cetera. And keep in mind that you want to choose your compositions in such a way that you're making the most of that environment, minimizing distractions, and framing your shots so that the environment is an active participant in the photograph, helping to tell the story and reveal a little bit more about your subject.

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