environmental portraits
Depth of fi eld
Sophisticated digital cameras usually provide a ‘Portrait Mode’. When this program mode is
selected a combination of shutter speed and aperture is selected to give the correct exposure and
a visual effect deemed suitable for portrait photography by the camera manufacturers. The visual
effect aimed for is one where the background is rendered out of focus, i.e. shallow depth of fi eld.
This effect allows the subject to stand out from the background, reducing background information
to a blur. Although this effect may be pleasing for some portrait images it is not suitable for most
environmental portraits where more information is required about the physical surroundings and
environment. The photographer intending to shoot environmental portraits is recommended to use
aperture priority or manual in most situations so that maximum control is maintained.
Portrait lenses
Some lenses of a certain focal length are often referred to as ‘portrait lenses’. The ‘ideal’ portrait
lens is considered by the manufacturers to be a medium telephoto lens such as a 135mm lens (or
equivalent) for a DSLR camera. This lens provides a visual perspective that does not distort the
human face when recording head and shoulder portraits. The problem of distortion however is not
encountered with shorter focal length lenses if the photographer is not working quite so close to the
subject. To record environmental portraits with a telephoto lens would require the photographer to
move further away from the subject and possibly lose the connection with the subject that is required.
Standard and wide angle lenses are suitable for environmental portraiture.
ACTIVITY 4
Photograph the same subject varying both the depth of fi eld and focal length of lens.
Discuss the visual effects of each image.Mark Galer