Assignment #1 Environmental Portrait
Location Contacts
Due: Week #3 2/13/12
2 Final Prints
Due: Week #5 3/5/12
Environmental
photography lets you say something about your subject or, more correctly, lets
the environment say something about the person or persons in the photograph.
“Environmental” portraits can be portraits taken of people
in a situation that they live in (work, rest or play) and/or a place that says
something about who they are.
Environmental portraits:
- Give
context to the subject you’re photographing
- Give
points of interest to shots, but don’t distract from your subject too much
- Help
your subject relax
- Often
give the viewer of your shots real insight into the personality and lifestyle
of your subject
These shots sit somewhere between the purposely posed shots
of a studio portrait (they are posed and they are unmistakably ‘portraits’) and
candid shots which capture people almost incidentally as they go through their
daily life.
For your assignment (if you haven’t
guessed it by now!) you are to photograph an environmental portrait of a
friend(s), a family member(s), or even a complete stranger(s). Keep in mind that the environment they
are placed in should add to the photograph. The background and setting should only enhance the viewers
understanding, appreciation, or curiosity of the subject(s).
For week #3, please come prepared
to share digital (or traditional) contact sheets with me of a handful of
locations you have chosen for your environmental portrait. Please put a good bit of time into
researching interesting locations as they play a vital part of the
environmental portrait. Edit your
location shots down to about a dozen or so varying angles and locations and
print them out in a contact sheet format.
Please edit the selections and mark the contacts with your favorites
(maybe your top 3?) and share them with me upon entering class week #3 2/13/12.
Due for critique are two final
prints, at least 8”x10”, of your Environmental Portrait.
