Environmental and Lifestyle Portraits

Environmental and Lifestyle Portraits

When choosing to get a portrait, there are many different styles to choose from. Environmental is a popular choice for higher end customers. An environmental portrait is also referred to as a lifestyle portrait. These portraits differ from the classic studio portrait as they show the real person, in the real world.

For example a family who loves boating might be photographed on their boat. Or another example would be a family who love their pet so much that they decide to get a photo to remind them of their much loved family pet. This could be a picture taken from past events or something more abstract like these custom pet portraits instead. The location for the photograph is chosen as it is one that reflects the people in it. It might be as simple as sitting around a kitchen to something as unique as skydiving. The important element is the people are place in a location that others would expect to find them.

What makes the difference between these portraits and a simple snapshot is where the professional photographer’s skill comes into play. A combination of posing and lighting will be used to bring the photograph to life. The photographer will place elements in the photograph to bring it to life.

The pose may be as simple as a basic placement of the people within the environment. Then allowing them to interact as to remove the “posed” looked from the shot. Props will often be carefully placed to fill out the scene and bring the story of the photograph together.

How a spoon is rotated on a table may not seem very important, but it is these small details that bring the photograph to life and make it much more than a family snapshot. Clients often wonder why I move something just a tiny bit, the end result is where it all that attention to detail is worth the effort.

Lifestyle portraits work especially well with children, as the locations are more comfortable for them. Children in a studio often react to the studio and become stiff. Their personality becomes hidden. But place them in their comfort zone and they can easily let themselves come through, resulting in a photograph that will be treasured by the parents.

Whereas shooting on location to create these wonderful photographs is more difficult for the photographer, the end results are well worth the extra effort.

Orcatek Portrait Photography – Phoenix, Arizona


Headshots in Black and White

Kandiss Black and White Headshot
Kandiss Black and White Headshot

With almost everything being in color in photography today, the fine art of a great black and white headshot is slipping away. It seems that photographers are usually reserving it for fine art photographs. Whereas I include it in my glamour and boudoir work, black and white also has a place in portraits and headshots. Particularly when it comes to business portraits, black and white offers a sense of traditionalism and as trends come and go, a black and white headshot is sure to remain timeless without looking out of place among the most trendy business web pages. Headshots like this can bring an air of professionalism and may get you to stand out more from the crowd. Using a Booth for Professional Headshots to get you the right pictures for your portfolio, is a smart choice and will set you apart from those who take it themselves.

The tonality of a black and white image adds a special depth to the images that just can’t be done with a traditional color photograph. It is even more important that the photographer control the light with black and white to create those moods. Photographer Olga Topchii (you can see her work at olgatopchii.com), for example, understands the importance of tonality in her photography. She has black and white images that focus on composition to generate the appropriate mood. Not enough photographers focus on in this day and age. Often many photographers try to boost their colors too much.

Color has become a crutch for some photographers, so worried about the perfect red that they overlook the other key elements to photography. Black and white, with the constraints it poses, forces the use of all a photographer’s skills to get a great image.

Digital photographers have it even tougher. A portrait / headshot shot in black and white digitally does not have the same available range as film. Some of the typical techniques to work around this in landscapes such as HDR, do not work practically with a person whose expression and eyes are key and move just the slightest bit between the frames.

There are other techniques that a skilled digital photographer can use to work around this, but it is a skill that takes time to learn.

Orcatek Headshot and Portrait Photography – Phoenix, Arizona