6 Tips for meaningful environmental portraits that honor nature as a character

Photography is often about telling a story. In literature, a character with depth and dimension is called a round character. Unlike flat characters, which have little complexity or depth, round characters help develop the main characters and generate intrigue for the audience. In photography, we can enhance the story elements of our environmental portraits by treating nature as a round character in our images.

By changing your mindset when it comes to using nature in your environmental portraits and embracing a more thoughtful approach to understanding how your subjects interact with their surroundings, you can showcase nature as a character in your images, rather than just a pretty backdrop. This approach will help you create unique and memorable portraits that tell the story of your subjects and their environment.

After relocating to the Rocky Mountains, the natural environment became a hugely important part of my photography business. After all, it’s the mountains that bring my clients to town and it’s also the mountains that make them want to have their photo taken here. So, even though I photograph people, nature plays a huge role in my photography.

But treating nature as a character is not as simple as having a huge mountain peak towering in the background. It is looking closely at natural elements, drawing on different perspectives and framing, pulling out textures and colors, and bringing people into harmony with the scenery.

Here are six tips for approaching nature more thoughtfully in your environmental portraits:

1. Select natural locations deliberately.

While you certainly can make beautiful, simple portraits on the side of the road with your subjects standing just feet away from an electrical pole or fire hydrant, you owe it to your clients to choose locations that show thought.

Taking the time to find a natural environment that inspires both you and your subjects provides not only more possibility for your creative exploration, it also helps your subjects feel more invested in the session and more connected to their surroundings.

I often take on the role of tour guide on my shoots, offering interesting facts about the area in which we are shooting. This all becomes a relevant part of my clients’ experience and one that many mention as a highlight in their post-session reviews. Even if you don’t live in a tourist destination, take some time to explore the parks, trails and other scenic areas near you. Taking the time to find special locations makes that place special to your clients and helps define their experience with you.

2. Use light to allow nature to show all its glory.

Nature comes alive at sunrise and sunset. Just as people look their best in photographs in the light at the start and end of day, so does nature. Dramatic light creates contrast among textures, the warm hues make the scene more inviting, and backlight creates more dimension.

Light the background.

If the natural elements that you are trying to highlight are far in the distance, the light should be coming from the front and lighting up that background, like in the example below.

Use light to direct the viewer.

When possible, I want the mountains to be dramatically lit, and I like to use lines of the mountains to direct the viewer’s eye. For example, in this wedding portrait (below) the angles of the mountain act like a funnel towards the couple. The focus is still on the couple, but the backdrop is clearly part of the story rather than an afterthought.

Backlight natural elements.

If you are focusing on natural elements that are closer to the camera and the subjects, use backlight. This portrait from a maternity session uses backlight to light up the textures and to bring out the warm hues of the autumn leaves and grasses. Fittingly, her dress mimics the colors of the leaves. Together with the positioning of the couple within the bends of the branches, the image effectively ties the them to their natural surroundings.

Use dramatic light.

Take advantage of moody weather. I am a bit of a storm chaser and I will never cancel a session unless there is an absolute downpour. You don’t get the rainbows without the storm, after all, and the dramatic light and skies post-storm are the most epic.

3. Embrace nature’s imperfections and unusual elements.

Some months offer more color options than others, but the time of year doesn’t matter when it comes to finding and incorporating unusual natural elements and textures into your environmental portraits. While I love when a mom shows up with a flowing, beautifully textured dress, I can’t assume that every client will choose a similar look. So, I look to nature to find interesting textures to incorporate into the portrait.

Any natural location can have texture and interesting light. A frozen river can be as captivating as a field of flowers. The dormant brush in the late fall, if the light catches it right, can bring out vibrant textures and warm fall hues. A fallen tree, with its crooked branches and cragged bark can look like a sleeping giant. Every single element of nature can be interesting if approached with an open mindset.

Nature is not perfect so don’t try to make it that way. The imperfections are what can make your portraits beautiful, interesting and believable.

4. Place your subjects within nature and not in front of it.

Use nature thoughtfully to frame your subjects and direct the viewer’s eye. Immerse your subjects in nature rather than posing them in front of it. You might use placement of your subjects within nature to create drama by positioning them on an overlook, on top of a rock, or simply at an angle that implies drama.

Consider how the placement of your subjects within nature contributes to or tells their personal story. For example, in the images below, the way the river curves around this family not only wraps them together as a single unit, it creates a sense of drama as if they are on their own island. The way the engaged couple is situated within the tall grass creates an enveloping effect.

Allow elements of nature to have character or to even be the focus. Flowers, for example, remind me of children and I like to show young families, children and high school seniors framed by or among the flowers — all growing quickly and for a seemingly brief time.

You can use trees to enhance the feeling of stability in your environmental portraits. In the image below, the woman is nestled into her husband, and both are nestled against the tree, which acts as a stabilizing force and thus creates a sense of security and safety. By having the tree on the same plane as the subjects, the viewer can also appreciate the intricate and swirling details of the trunk.

The way you interpret natures’ shapes and textures is personal, but as long as you are giving thought to your surroundings, your portraits will reflect your consideration.

5. Frame your subjects with trees.

Trees are amazing for interesting framing in your environmental portraits. Whether they are upright or fallen, you can use the trunks and branches in unique ways. For example, I like to use branches and tree canopies to create a nest like effect in maternity or motherhood photos.

In the photo below, the bride’s streamlined dress mimics the statuesque aspen trees. Rather than focus only on mountain views, I placed the couple within the aspen grove and framed them with two aspen trees in order to bring them into harmony with their surroundings. I don’t want them to blend in — after all, it’s still a portrait. The key is for the audience to feel the connection with subject and background.

Do you remember that scene in Lord of the Rings when the trees come alive? I was reminded of this personification during this apple orchard shoot. I placed the subjects on this side of the tree because it looks as if the tree is bending towards the father and girls in an effort to assist in their apple picking endeavors. All of the characters’ energy in this image is directed towards the young girl’s effort to nab the perfect apple. Thus, the attention to the angle and framing of the tree contributes to the telling of a story.

6. Use wardrobe to draw out natural elements and create harmony.

Encourage your clients to coordinate their outfits with the location. Any time you can find patterns of color matched in nature with your clients’ wardrobe, you should take advantage of it. It’s more difficult to incorporate busy patterns into natural settings, so I always encourage clients to choose solid colors or very small patterns.

Color and composition can work together to unite a subject with their environment. The bright yellow in this image starts at this woman’s dress and streaks away towards the mountains in the background. As such, the viewer’s eye starts with the couple and then follows the yellow to the well-lit and dramatic mountain backdrop.

The alpen glow on the mountains overlooking this lake appears to set the landscape on fire — perfect for this steamy engagement session where the bride-to-be is also wearing a fitted burnt orange top.

The poet Linda Hogan writes, “There is a way that nature speaks, that land speaks. Most of the time we are simply not patient enough, quiet enough, to pay attention to the story.”

Sometimes connecting your subjects with nature can be as simple as giving them a flower to hold or asking them to look up at the sky. Whatever you can do to get your subjects’ attention off of posing and into feeling more comfortable in their surroundings, the better.

As a photographer, I aim to pay attention to the story that is being told around me and the characters within it. It is my job as a photographer to both inspire my clients and tell their stories. By learning to value and celebrate the natural environment, I find new ways to honor both my clients and the magnificent natural world in my environmental portraits.

Photos by Kristen Pierce

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