How To Master Environmental Portrait Photography

I enjoy environmental portraits more than anything else because it’s something you can do anywhere, indoors or outdoors, across many genres of photography. The obvious opportunities arise with travel and street photography. So what exactly is an environmental portrait compared to a normal portrait? And where do you start?

Environmental Portrait Versus Regular Portrait

Regular Portrait

When you photograph someone, your goal is to capture their personality and light them to best show their features. A natural expression, a moment when they aren’t posing but are perfectly at ease and natural, is preferable.

Typically, the background is simple and free from distractions. The photo is all about that person.

Portrait lighting tends to be completely controlled with strobes or continuous LED.

Environmental Portrait

The goal is to photograph your subject in their surroundings to show context and help tell their story.

The subject is thoughtfully posed within a composition to help give clues to their interests, work, or personality. For example, an artist working in their studio. The elements in the frame might include the type of paints they use or the size of the canvas they like to paint on.

If you photograph someone at their home or business, you will likely have less control of the lighting, and a mixture of ambient and strobe/continuous is sometimes required. Often, it’s just ambient or natural light, such as a window, that is used.

I look at environmental portrait photography as the portrait that tells stories—not just of people and what they do and enjoy, but of cultures and countries too. I've probably shot more environmental portraits than anything else and can split this into two categories: documentary environmental portraits and commercial/promotional environmental portraits.

Things To Consider

Background

Take time to choose a good background and think about where you place the subject.

Use the usual composition theories like the rule of thirds and leading lines. Inside, consider how furniture plays a role in drawing attention to your subject with leading lines.

If you have a complicated background, consider using contrasting colors as a tool to help your subject stand out instead of depth of field (I explain why further down). For example, if the background is dark with cool tones, ensure the subject is wearing something with warmer, brighter tones. You've probably seen the clichéd outdoor photo of a hiker or kayaker in an orange jacket against a background of rich greens. That's an extreme example. A more subtle example is the main lead photo in this article—cool green/blues in the room and light beige/orange outfits and skin tones.

Avoid Distractions

Is the person the focal point of the photo, meaning there are no objects poorly placed that distract from the subject? Everything in the frame should enhance the story, not distract from it. Consider colored or bright reflective objects. It’s easy not to see them at first. So, once you have everything framed up and the subject positioned and lit, make sure you spend a moment checking the details.

Use Lighting Creatively

We often have to work with ambient light sources, which can include things like desk lamps or windows giving us natural light. The more light sources, the more effort is required to balance them and have them work for your subject instead of distracting.

Lighting tends to be the trickiest aspect of environmental portraiture, presenting a challenge. Personally, I enjoy this, as it’s very much a creative challenge, which makes the results all the more rewarding when you nail it.

I find that often, turning off all lights in a room and using just natural window light is the best way to go. Maybe introduce a fill light or reflector. On client shoots, I carry a large sheet of white foam core board, which is often put to good use.

Depth of Field

Fast lenses have become popular and cheaper, and shooting wide open at something like f/1.2 is all the rage. But not for environmental portraiture. The point is to include the surroundings with enough depth of field so you can actually see what’s going on around your subject. It’s all about context.

Sometimes you might deem it best to create some separation between your subject and the background, so consider f/4 to f/5.6. I find that for most situations, f/8 to f/11 is the better aperture to show the surrounding detail and tell the story.

I prefer using lighting as my way to separate my subject, not depth of field.

Subject and Story Authenticity

Are you capturing an authentic, candid moment of your subject working in their environment? Or are you posing them and having them look at the camera? If it’s the latter, make sure to put your subject at ease. Talk to them, ask them questions about their job or interests, and capture a natural expression and gestures. Stiff posed shots rarely look good. This, of course, is the same for a regular portrait too.

I was on a client shoot recently and ran into a few problems, so I made a quick BTS video. It gives an idea of some of the challenges!