To Master - Inspiration
I started by looking for a tutorial on environmental portraits. I found this really helpful tutorial by Karl Taylor. Karl gives a few key tips to planning an environmental portrait:
1 - Research the location
I of course already know the location quite well as I will be shooting in my girlfriend's house. I plan to draw out each room in order to visualise the best ways to capture it. I will also consider what objects I want in the frame of the image and where these could be placed.
2 - Know the subject's profession
Karl's second tip is to know the subject's profession. For my images their profession is the main subject and their uniform will represent this.
3 - Pre discuss options for outfit choice
The outfit is of course an important consideration for my images. I currently plan to have the subjects in their uniform for all of the images. They have 2 forms of uniform, a dress or trousers and a tunic so I could include a combination of these. I could also experiment with having them in normal clothing.
4 - Have an assistant
Karl also recommends having an assistant in order to speed up the process. I won't be able to have a dedicated assistant but as I know the subjects personally the shoots can be quite informal meaning I can get them to help if necessary and their won't be much of a time pressure. I think I will try to setup the frame and shoot tests before bringing the subject in though.
5 - Get there early
This tip doesn't apply as much to my shoot as I'm shooting in an environment that I can access quite freely. Hopefully this will give me a good amount of time to setup each shot and allow me to reshoot when necessary.
6 - Don't be afraid to rearrange the set
How the set is arranged will be very important for my images, especially because I will be relying on natural lighting or tungsten lights. I hope to plan as much of the arrangements as I can ahead of time in order to keep the shoots moving fluidly.
7 - Think about the mood
I plan to give a tired/stressed mood to the images by using quite dark lighting. However, I will also need to be sure that the subject is lit so that they don't just blend into the background. As I don't have access to flash lighting I plan to mainly use natural light to do this. I may almost be able to use tungsten lights such as lamps to do this and then correct the white balance in post.
8 - Consider the lighting
Karl also suggested to consider the existing lighting in the area. I of course will be doing this, as I said above, as I will be relying on this lighting. I plan to consider what light is available in my layout plans of the rooms.
9 - Subject communication
I hope this will be one of the stronger aspects of my shoots as I know the subjects personally. I also hope that the subjects will be quite comfortable as they are in a familiar environment despite not having much experience in front of a camera.
10 - Check your final images
Karl's final tip is to check the final images. He suggests to do this by zooming in on the camera screen. However, I will have access to my laptop during the shoots so I will also be able to double check them on there, to be completely sure before dismantling the set.
Next I started looking for some reference images. I came across some really nice environmental portraits from the 2018 documentary family awards. This image was my favourite of the selection, shot by photographer Linsey Davis.
This image is shot in a home environment, similar to what I will be doing. I really like the framing of the image with the subject being clear and the objects around helping to frame the subject. Each object in the frame also tells the viewer something about the subject and their interests. I also like the lighting as its simple and looks natural making you feel like you're there.
I also found this image by Holly Gilson from the Documentary Family Awards 2018. This is another good example of what I have in mind for my images. My interpretation of this image is that it shows a mother exhausted by her child/children. There is laundry and a laundry basket around the bed showing how much laundry the mother has to do. By having the child awake and touching the mother's face it suggests that the mother can't get any rest as her children need constant attention and it also looks as though the mother is breastfeeding which shows another way she has to provide for her child. I also like the high angle that the image is shot from and the lighting that looks like natural light from a window above the made.
I'd like to replicate this image with a midwife asleep and objects placed around her. These objects could be a book, a half finished tea on the bed-side table, a phone with missed calls. I think this would show that these student midwives have to jungle so much whilst constantly being tired.
This is an image by Barbara Peacock from one of her series called American Bedroom. I like this image as it gives a sense of the subject longing to go outside. This gave me the idea to shoot an image of one of my subjects looking out of a window as they're often longing to spend time outside as they don't get a chance either side of a 12 hour shift.
