Product Description

All great portraits, whether they are taken on film or digitally, depend on the photographer's ability to use light and pose the subject. Learn the essential techniques of these two important elements and you'll produce remarkable images every time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #138250 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Customer Reviews

Excellent
This is an excellent guide to portrait photography. I've bought several books and I wish I'd seen this book first.

Only a small proportion of the book is about posing but what there is is very useful. The photos generally have a very contempory feel to them.

Most of the book is about studio lighting and is well written and illustrated.

Two very minor criticisms - the book is peppered with annoying typos that disrupt the flow and diagrams showing the lighting for each picture would have been useful. But overall the book is excellent so these don't matter very much.

All in all, highly recommended.

Not perfect, but worth 4.5 stars anyway
Had this book for a while now, I quite like this book. It is illustrated with modern images, includes posing and lighting tips on men, women and children.

It is not a hard core technical posing and lighting manual, it does not have lighting diagrams. It is probably more of an ideas and tips book than a book you would study. I find it quite enjoyable to just flick through the pages and pick up ideas from it.

One minor criticism of this book is I think some of the explanations are not completely accurate. eg "A gobo (a patterned stencil-like sheet of acetate) is attached to the front of a spot light. Because the light from the spot is focused by passing through glass elements, the pattern on the gobo is projected onto the background or subject" What?! As far as I know, gobo is just short for "go between" and is anything placed in the path of the light to modify it eg some cards, diffuser or something.

Disappointed
This is the first book I have ever read on flash/studio photography and I am a little disappointed. The coverage of equipment is quite sparten, with no real guidance on how to use flash meters.

The various lighting set-ups lacked diagrams, which I would have prefered to see (as a newbe).

If I had had a chance to look at this book in a bookshop first, before ordering it, I would not have chosen it.