Jeff Haley is a good man. I came out of nowhere to introduce myself to him over the phone several months back, telling him I’m the photographer for a Texas Parks and Wildlife story for which he’s already been interviewed. When I first visited his ranch in the Texas Panhandle, we rode around in a car for three hours, just scouting locations, taking a few portraits, but talking the entire time. Turns out he knows some folks I know, making the world a little smaller (this is a good thing, by the way).

This is my favorite type of portraiture. I mentioned in a post last week that I really enjoy the work of Arnold Newman, the father of environmental portraits. Ever since I began to study his work, I knew that the story that goes along with a person is powerfully conveyed in their surroundings. Combine telling the story, with a little technical get-you-there-on-the-lighting, and you have a nice looking image that stresses the land and the man, both tied to each other, one with a reverent concern for the other’s well-being (I especially like the look of Mr. Haley’s brows in the above shot, exaggerating that concern he has for his land).

In true Joe McNally fashion, I’ve included a lighting diagram below. I can’t stress the significance in drawing one of these out on paper or in your mind before the actual shoot. Nevertheless, just be ready for anything, and be creative!

Here is another from that day, and a little bit different setup (just a little). The idea here is to work with the ambient, use it as the main, as in this case, or as a kicker, like in the first portrait. The flash just does the fill work in the shot below.

I’m don’t regularly use a bare flash, but in this case, it was easy to get around with, the wind wasn’t going to blow down any umbrellas, and it saved some power. I’ve been using the Elinchrom Ranger Quadra system lately, but remote strobes definitely have their advantage (more on this later).

Lighting shouldn’t take over the story aspect of environmental portraits, but using it practically and creatively allows you to make a portrait pop, however little it needs to.

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