Choosing Your Environment
Lesson 5 from: Portrait Photography: Creating and Styling your EnvironmentJohn Keatley
Choosing Your Environment
Lesson 5 from: Portrait Photography: Creating and Styling your EnvironmentJohn Keatley
Lessons
Class Introduction
20:10 2Creative Photography Path
22:57 3Importance of Personal Work
15:25 4Concepts and Inspiration
12:04 5Choosing Your Environment
05:03 6Research and Mood Boards
06:58 7Finding Your Style
09:34 8Establishing a Team
10:44Jobs on Set
28:38 10Production Hurdles
13:45 11Working with an Art Director
07:01 12Pooling Resources
03:43 13Casting
17:26 14Wardrobe
11:24 15Set Design and Props: Interview with John Lavin
35:06 16Gear
09:59 17Lighting
29:10 18Technical vs. Flexible Lighting
07:56 19Creating Environment
07:59 20Gear Essentials vs. DIY Solutions
07:02 21Lighting for Your Subject
04:10 22Lighting for Your Environment
05:17 23Q&A
08:36 24Directing Your Subject
34:03 25Tips for Directing Talent
09:58 26Pre-Lighting and Test Shoots
05:08 27Shoot: Stylized Portrait - Close Up Part 1
49:55 28Shoot: Stylized Portrait - Close Up Part 2
20:19 29Shoot: Stylized Portrait - Close Up Part 3
17:19 30Set Tour and Lighting Set Up
05:41 31Shoot: Building Environment & Lighting Adjustments
33:13 32Shoot: Building Environment Part 1
18:45 33Shoot: Building Environment Part 2
18:39 34Photo Critique
26:06 35Shoot: Row Boat in Fog Set Tour
03:54 36Shoot: Row Boat in Fog Part 1
42:19 37Shoot: Row Boat in Fog Part 2
28:34 38Shoot: Row Boat in Fog Part 3
24:34 39Shoot: Row Boat in Fog Part 4
04:10 40Shoot: Scuba in the Hull Part 1
44:27 41Shoot: Scuba in the Hull Part 2
21:50 42Shoot: Scuba in the Hull Part 3
16:40 43Image Selection: Stylized Portrait
30:53 44Image Selection: Building Environment
10:52 45Image Selection: Row Boat in Fog
11:53 46Image Selection: Scuba in the Hull
06:38 47Next Steps: Create New Work
05:44 48Next Steps: Share Your Work
12:03 49Next Steps: Marketing and Branding Consistency
12:52 50Final Image Reveal - Concept and Casting
13:20 51Final Image Reveal - Retouching: Communication and Direction
14:13 52Final Image Reveal - Final Q&A
34:52Lesson Info
Choosing Your Environment
So once you have your idea, where does this idea take place? How do you decide what it's going to look like? What's the environment that you're gonna shoot in? And there's many different ways to approach this. First, you have to decide what do you want, what do you want this image to feel like. Now, you could do a nautical-themed portrait. The first thing that make come to mind is water. It doesn't mean you have to shoot it in water. You don't have to be in the ocean. It could be somewhere else. So what's the feeling that you want these images to have. And then you have to decide, is this something that I can find or is this something that I need to create. And that's gonna depend on your time, your budget, a number of things. But you have to kinda decide, and also if it's budget, you have to decide, okay, would it be cheaper to create it, should I photograph pieces and put it together in post. Or do I want to find something and shoot it in camera. Excuse me. This is an example of what...
I'm talking about. So this is another one of my family pictures. I had done a video, one of the first videos that I'd worked on that year, and I was in the video and I was kind of this like lumberjack character, and so had lumberjacks on the brain. And so we decided to do this kind of like lumberjack-themed portrait, and we thought it would be fun to do it in a tree, and having a dog and a small child and even two adults who don't particularly want to climb up in a tree, that's an obvious kind of problem to solve. Look, how do we do this? Do we actually get up in a tree, and do we find a tree that's like low enough that looks high or do we get a ladder, how do we do this? The answer for me became, okay, I think we need to do this in post. I need to find a tree, and yes I do need to find one that's low enough for me to get an angle on but it looks high, but then I think we'll shoot us in post because obvious safety reasons. So that was how we decided to go about this one. We shot the tree first as I talked about earlier in the segment. I went, you location scout, you go and look at the tree, you figure out when the sun rises and sets and how it looks at different times of the day. I knew I wanted it to feel more dramatic so in this particular case, this angle is facing west, so I knew I had to shoot it more towards the evening when the sun would be coming back through. The cool thing about this tree was this was on the side of a path by a park near our house, and the path just falls off pretty steep on the side, so the tree was growing quite a bit down, so I was able to see the tall, the high part of the tree from an accessible angle. So we shot the tree, I did have an assistant climb up in the tree just to give me perspective, so I did get one shot of him in the tree. And then I shot all of us, so you have perspective in that shot and you also see how the light's hitting him so then I'm able to kind of mimic that light in studio so that when I put us in there, hopefully as best as possible it does feel real, it doesn't feel like the sun's coming from behind them but it's like also coming from in front of them too, you know you had to think about all of that. This is another example, this is a personal image that I wanted to create. This one is called "Diver in the Desert" and this was at the beginning of my conceptual phase of very much exploring ideas and what's possible and this sort of thing. And so I knew I wanted to create something in this big epic landscape, and I wanted to have a diver in this vintage diving suit. I love things that are kind of loosely based in the 60s, and especially sometimes things that feel like the 60s, but not exactly. But this diving suit's obviously earlier than the 60s, but I do love vintage wardrobe. So, for me, I spent a ton of time just Google Image searching and trying to find epic landscapes, and then it becomes, what's your favorite and which one's most accessible. Maybe there's one you like on the east coast, if you're on the west coast, but it's too far and too expensive to get there. Maybe there's something a little closer to home. So I went down to Death Valley and spent a week there and just shot landscapes. And then I had an assistant with me who, again stood in so I can see what the light looks like. And that doesn't mean you have to match that all the time, but you want to have it as a reference. So, we came back and then I shot the diver in studio. And I could've taken someone with me, but the hard part was I couldn't get the diving, it took me forever to find the diving costume, and it was like antique and there were rules around it and I couldn't have taken it to the desert and had someone actually wear it in the dirt and stuff. So that was another reason. You kind of just have to consider what it is that you want, what are the options in terms of actually making it happen, and then just kind of go from there, like every little decision branches out and then you just make another decision and then you follow that and you make another decision.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials
Ratings and Reviews
a Creativelive Student
What an amazing show. I'm so happy that I could be a part of it. It was so great to see John at work and in his element. I learned so much from watching his process from beginning to ending. So many questions have been answered. I feel more confident, to get myself out there and create and make work that comes out from my imagination. I will definitely be keeping a journal/notebook with me at all times. I would also like to suggest that we have another course for John Cornicello, home studio. I'm curious to see what John is working on in his studio.
Doppio Studio
It's amazing to watch and understand how this great creative professional work. There's a lot to learn about with his production process. For me, that lives in Brazil, is a major opportunity to enjoy this class.
Vitamin Dee
Wow! There's just so much great information in this class. If you've ever wondered what it takes to produce an environmental portrait, this is the class for you! John did a superb job of taking us step-by-step through his process. From model casting to set building, lighting setups to culling; it's all here. He even wraps up the class with next steps and how to put it all together. He gives the knowledge so you can take it to a place you can create your own magic!
Student Work
Related Classes
Portrait Photography