Portrait Photography How To

Environmental portraits are all the rage these days in photography because they are far more revealing than a basic portrait of an individual or a simple headshot. As the name suggests, environmental portraits capture a subject within his or her typical environment such as a workplace. 

Earlier this week we showed you how to make great portraits on the cheap with three simple setups. In the video below you’ll learn how to up your portrait game even further with 6 clever hacks that you can create for virtually nothing.

One way to have fun with photography and get the creative juices flowing is to step out of your comfort zone and do things a bit differently. The quick tutorial below will help you do just that by offering a variety of fun tips and tricks for shooting portraits.

In the trifecta of portrait lenses—85mm, 105mm, and 135mm—the 85mm focal length is the gateway. It’s short enough for tight shooting spaces, while producing a real portrait look, yet versatile enough for use in other genres, including photojournalism, where a nifty 50 comes up a bit short. Enter Sigma’s 85mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art lens ($1,199) that’s fast enough for reportage and long enough for portraiture.

We usually turn to Mathieu Stern for insight on adapting bargain vintage lenses for use with modern digital cameras. But in the quick video below, Stern gives a 30-second tutorial on making eyes “pop” with Photoshop.

So while many wedding photographers react to a situation to capture the beauty they might see, Scott Robert, as he’s known in the industry, feels that as a photographer who’s charging $10,000 or more, he’s got to knock it out of the park every single time, no matter what. So he became a director of brides, grooms, and situations.

Randy Duchaine captured this visually detailed environmental portrait of Bread & Puppet Theater founder Peter Schumann in 2006 for a project on people who create unique experiences or things. “It was shot in an old dairy farm in Vermont, which is the group’s museum, and Peter showed up barefoot and gave me five minutes,” Duchaine explains.