Environmental portraits

Learning goal

You will be able to show a person in their own place and inside their own work in a single frame, without any of the three crushing the others. You will choose not the whole of the place, but a few objects that say something about that person, and decide consciously how much room the person will take up in the frame. Instead of freezing the person in a pose, you will catch them while they do their work, with their hands busy and their gaze on their work. You will clear the clutter in the frame with the person's permission, but not change the place so much that it looks other than it is. While working close up with a wide-angle lens you will keep the face away from the edge of the frame, read the color that saturated surfaces reflect onto skin, and make sure the face stays in its own tone.

The question

The florist's owner wants a portrait showing her shop and her flowers. The shop is narrow; buckets from floor to ceiling, pots on the shelves, ribbons on the counter, crates in front of the door. Your friend first steps back: the whole shop is in the frame, but its owner is a tiny spot among the buckets. Then they move closer: a portrait with a readable face, but behind her only a green blur; whether this woman is a florist or a teacher can't be told. To tell someone's world in a single frame, what should you let in and what should you leave out?

Context

In the taster portrait lesson you gave the name environmental portrait to the portrait that shows a person in their own surroundings, inside their work or their home (Lesson 16.1). In the lesson where you met the lens families, you saw that with a wide-angle lens, things standing close to the edge of the frame stretch outward (Lesson 12.2). In the manipulation lesson, too, you discussed where rebuilding a scene for a photo hits the limit in documentary work (Lesson 29.4).

The difficulty of the environmental portrait is that it carries three things at once: a person, a place and an occupation. When one comes forward, the others tend to disappear. A portrait that moves close to the face erases the place; a frame that shows the whole place makes the person small; a frame that stops the person by posing them kills the occupation. This lesson looks at ways of keeping all three in the same frame.

Simple explanation

How much of the place is shown?

A telling object is an object that says something about the person in an environmental portrait and is therefore knowingly taken into the frame. Not everything in a place tells something; most of it creates clutter. In the florist's shop there are hundreds of flowers, dozens of buckets and a pile of ribbons; but what tells her work is perhaps only three things: the scissors in her hand, a half-finished bouquet on the counter and the row of colorful buckets behind her. The environmental portrait chooses not the whole of the place, but these few objects, and places them around the person.

The person-to-place ratio is the ratio of the area the person takes up in the frame to the area the place takes up, and it decides who tells the frame. If the person is a very small part of the frame, the frame turns into a photo of a place; if a very large part, into an ordinary portrait. In many environmental portraits the person takes up somewhere between a third and a half of the frame; but this isn't a rule. A photographer who wants to tell the overwhelming size of a place can knowingly keep the person small; what matters is that the ratio is a choice.

To get the place into the frame you often work with a wide-angle lens, standing close to the person. This keeps the place and the person large in the same frame; but as the person's face gets closer to the edge of the frame, it stretches and distorts. That is why the face is kept close to the middle of the frame; the edges are left to the place. The aperture is stopped down enough for the telling objects to read too; melting the background away completely erases the environment of the environmental portrait.

What is the person doing when photographed?

A moment of work is the moment the person is caught inside their work, with their hands busy and their attention turned to their work. An environmental portrait often moves back and forth between a frame in which the person looks at the lens and a frame in which they are absorbed in their work; both are valuable. The frame looking at the lens builds a bond with the viewer; the frame absorbed in the work, on the other hand, shows how that person does that work. The way she holds the scissors, the way she turns a bouquet, the way she reaches toward a customer; these aren't got by posing, they are caught by waiting.

Shooting inside the occupation also helps the person relax; the person knows what to do and forgets the photographer. The photographer watches the work's repeating movements for a few minutes, learns when the most meaningful moment will come and sets the prefocus spot there.

How much is the place changed?

Decluttering the scene is removing from the frame, or moving, with the person's permission, objects that scatter the frame and say nothing about the person. A water bottle on the counter, a phone charging cable or a bag dropped on the floor often tell nothing; removing them simplifies the frame. But decluttering doesn't go so far as to show the place other than it is: an object that was never in the shop isn't brought in, the person's real work isn't swapped for another job. An environmental portrait can be an openly staged portrait; but if it is presented to the viewer as that person's real world, it must stay faithful to that world.

The place's colors also affect the face. Saturated surfaces, a wall of greenery, a red awning or an orange bucket, send the light falling on them back to the face in their own color. This reflection can tint the face green or red on dark skin, and turn it pink on light skin. Moving the person a little away from these surfaces, turning the face to a neutral light, or correcting only the face's color separately in editing lets the skin stay in its own tone.

Visual evidence

In the wide frame the whole shop is there: buckets, shelves, crates, counter, door. Its owner is in the middle, a tiny figure among the leaves; her face can't be made out. In the close frame, on the other hand, there is only her face; behind it a green blur that says nothing about her work.

Your friend watches her work for a while. Then, with the owner's permission, they remove the water bottle and the charging cable from the counter. They place her behind the counter, in front of the colorful buckets; scissors in her hand, a half-finished bouquet in front of her. They shoot a little close up with the wide-angle lens and keep her face near the middle of the frame; the owner takes up a third of the frame. They stop the aperture down enough for the buckets' colors to be made out.

While the owner turns the bouquet, your friend waits and shoots the moment the scissors cut a stem. The wall of greenery behind had cast a green reflection on her face; when they move her a step forward, her dark skin returns to its own warmth. In the frame there is a woman, a shop and a work; none of them crushes the others.

Common mistakes

Summary

Telling someone's world in a single frame is possible: the environmental portrait chooses not the whole of the place but a few objects that tell that person, builds the person-to-place ratio consciously and catches the person in a moment of work inside their occupation. The clutter in the frame is cleared with the person's permission, but the place isn't shown other than it is; with a wide angle the face is kept near the middle of the frame, and the color that saturated surfaces reflect onto the skin is checked.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will photograph someone you know at their workplace or at their hobby.

1. Observe the place for ten minutes and choose at most three objects that tell the person's work; with the person's permission, clear the objects that scatter the frame.
2. Place the person among the objects you chose, choose the person-to-place ratio consciously, and if you are shooting with a wide angle, keep the face near the middle of the frame.
3. Wait for and shoot a moment of work while the person does their work; enlarge and check whether there is a reflection coming from colorful surfaces near their face.

Check yourself

• In the frame, do the person, the place and the occupation read at the same time?
• Do the objects you chose say something about that person?
• Is the face in its own tone, or does it carry a color from its surroundings?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. What is a telling object in an environmental portrait?

• A) All the objects in the place
• B) Everything that stays blurred in the background
• C) An object that says something about the person and is knowingly taken into the frame
• D) An ornament the photographer brings along

2. What happens if the person is a very small part of the frame?

• A) The frame tends to turn into a photo of a place
• B) The frame becomes a better portrait
• C) The person looks more prominent
• D) Nothing changes

3. When shooting close up with a wide angle, why is the face kept near the middle of the frame?

• A) Because light only falls in the middle
• B) A face moving toward the edge stretches and distorts
• C) Because focus is only in the middle
• D) Because the edges are always dark

4. What is the limit of decluttering the scene?

• A) No object can be removed
• B) Any wanted object can be brought in from outside
• C) The place can be completely refurnished
• D) Objects that scatter the frame are removed with permission, but the place isn't shown other than it is

Answers

1. C — The telling object is chosen; the rest of the place often creates clutter.
2. A — The ratio decides who tells the frame; if the person gets too small, the place comes forward.
3. B — With a wide angle, edge stretching distorts the face; the middle is safer.
4. D — Decluttering simplifies; but changing the real world misleads the viewer.

Summary card

• Person + place + occupation: none should crush the others.
• Choose not the whole place, but a few telling objects.
• The person-to-place ratio is a choice; don't lose the person, don't erase the place.
• With a wide angle, the face near the middle; the aperture stopped down enough to read the objects.
• Wait for the moment of work; ask permission when decluttering, don't change the world.
• Check the color colorful surfaces reflect onto the skin.

Bridge to the next lesson

The florist's owner looks at the portrait for a long time and loves it. Then she moves closer to the screen and asks for something: an old burn scar on her hand erased, a few spots on her face removed, maybe her skin lightened a little too. Your friend doesn't know what to say: is erasing a scar a help, is lightening the skin a correction, or is it turning her into someone else? Making someone look their best without changing them: is it possible? The next lesson takes up the limit of naturalness in portrait retouching.