DO YOU KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A HEADSHOT PORTRAIT, AN ENVIRONMENTAL PORTRAIT, A PERSONAL BRANDING PORTRAIT AND AN EDITORIAL PORTRAIT?

GRESHAM HOUSE

ALL THREE CORPORATE PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY GENRES IN ONE TWO HOUR SESSION

So here we start with the obvious one that everyone knows - a headshot. In this case, on the client’s request, a little looser framing than a traditional headshot in order to give the option to either crop in or leave more room for text and for… erm… editorial use . Easy to see how one might be confused about the genres. Here I have used a white backdrop, although a headshot can have any kind of backdrop. Including whatever the environment is. So when would it then be an environmental portrait? Well we will come to that in a moment.

Sure, but these would be used for Editorial, right? I hear you ask.

Correct, they would for the most part be used in brochures and magazines. So what, then , I hear you ask, is editorial portraiture?

Well, strictly speaking Editorial is more like this shot; something really styled and flattering that suggests the role and the importance of the subject. It’s not really different to Environmental Portrait really.

But for the purposes of what you might need and what I often deliver, I am calling Editorial, what we might otherwise call Documentary portraiture Either side of these two portrait sessions, the team had a meeting which i was also asked to document. And here we can see the natural moments and the dynamic cut and thrust of a boardroom meeting, seeing the subject “in action” and often using negative space for text placement.

Environmental portraits highlight the subject within their natural surroundings, using the environment to tell a story about their life or work. Editorial portraits, on the other hand, are primarily used to accompany a story in a publication, often focusing on capturing the subject's personality and essence to visually represent the narrative.

As for Personal Branding, this is a bit of both with the emphasis on the relaxed and natural character of the subject

So there you have it. The three big corporate photography portrait styles, and all accomplished in UNDER TWO HOURS!!

So environmental portrait allows for an even looser frame that illustrates, wait for it, the ENVIRONMENT in which the subject is to be found, In some cases an environmental portrait can be set somewhere with no explicit link whatsoever to work or business.

For example to soften the image impact, one might take your subject/client to somewhere green, or somewhere ambient and relaxed, perhaps by the river, or in a coffee house. Personal branding portraits can work well like this.

Okay so here we have the guys in the office environment. What makes it an environmental portrait isn’t that it is in a field or surrounded by ocean or lush tropical plants, although I have done those, and it is naturally a real pleasure. It is that you can see a significant amount of the environment in which the subject has been placed. So for example if the portrait had been taken with a long portrait lens and close up so that the environment was blurred out and barely distinguishable then it is not an environmental portrait, it is still a headshot.

As we can see the office, the Gherkin and the city skyline behind the subject, this is clearly and environmental portrait.