Garage Glamour: Digital Nude and Beauty Photography Made Simple [Paperback]

Rolando Gomez (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 28, 2006

Nude and beauty photographers can find the invaluable high-impact techniques in this exhaustively illustrated manual that covers everything from compositional tips for clothing, accessories, and poses to more technical challenges such as lighting, lens selection, and exposure, demonstrating how to produce stunning, world-class images using minimal equipment without accruing a burdening investment. Beginning with the Four S's of glamour photography (sexiness, sultriness, sensuality, and seductiveness), amateurs and professionals alike are shown new ways to achieve beautiful shots, with additional tips on working with models that include methods for accentuating assets while minimizing flaws and initiating comfortable working relationships. Photographers are also shown how to turn their hobby into a successful career, or enhance the productivity and income of an existing business by honing marketing and advertising skills and mastering the art of generating business by referral. Based on the author's popular website (www.garageglamour.com), this guide offers helpful instruction to creating glamorous, sexy images like those seen in Playboy, Maxim, and other men's magazines.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Address[es] many of the issues presented to the glamour photographer, from basic composition to posing and lighting techniques."  —Amateur Photographer

About the Author

Rolando Gomez is a photojournalist and editorial photographer—whose partial credits include AOL/CompuServe, Leica World, St. Martin’s Press, PARADE, People, New York Times, and Playboy—and a contributing editor for Studio. He is a Lighting Master at Photo Plus Expo (NYC), an instructor for Samy’s Digital Photography Institute in Los Angeles and a lecturer for FotoFusion and the Palm Beach Photographic Art Centre.  He has taught over 130 consecutively sold-out glamour photography workshops in the past five years and is one of the original 30 Lexar Media Elite Photographers.  He is the creator of www.glamour1.com and lives in San Antonio, Texas.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Amherst Media, Inc. (May 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584281839
• ISBN-13: 978-1584281832
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #535,446 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rolando Gomez, with with websites www.rolandogomez.com, www.rolandogomez.net, www.lensdiaries.com, www.editorialnudes.com, www.myphototalent.com, and www.garageglamour.com, has conducted over 500 seminars in the United States, Germany, Belgium, Canada, Mexico and the Netherlands in the past twelve years. U.S. venues include Photo Plus Expo in Manhattan, Samy's Camera in Los Angeles, Julia Dean in Venice Beach, Photo Imaging & Design Expo in San Diego, The University of Texas, The University of the Virgin Islands, FotoFusion and the Palm Beach Photographic Center in Florida. You can follow him by the minute at http://www.twitter.com/rolandogomez

Gomez is an advocate for the power of photography to help build or rebuild self-esteem and offers his his fifth book, "Photographic Therapy--The Power of Photography to Help Build or Rebuild Self-Esteem" for free at http://www.freephotographybooks.com The 105-page book, in full-color, is totally free and printable.

In 1994 the Dept. of Defense selected him as one of the "Top Five" military combat photographers worldwide and was the former Chief of Multimedia Production for the Air Force News Agency where he oversaw the photography, radio and television products for the U.S. Air Force website, www.af.mil. He later transitioned to glamour and fashion photography after leaving a combined 17-years of Federal service.

Author Michelle Perkins includes and entire chapter on Gomez in each of her books, Professional Portrait Lighting: Techniques and Images from Master Photographers and Professional Portrait Posing: Techniques and Images from Master Photographers. His images and biography are also featured in Perkins', 500 Poses for Photographing Women: A Visual Sourcebook for Portrait Photographers. Gomez also wrote the forward for Jack Watson's, Beyond the Glamour Photograph: How to Get Started and Be Successful as a Boudoir, Glamour, and Swimsuit Photographer.

Over the course of his career, Gomez traveled to 39 countries to cover feature stories including the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Olympics, the 1996 Presidential Inauguration, Desert Storm, the signing of the Peace Accords in El Salvador, Uphold Democracy in Haiti, Northern Watch in Turkey and the 1994 Rwandan refugee crisis in Africa. In 1993, as a "buck sergeant," he was awarded the Department of Defense's Meritorious Service Medal for documenting the drug war in Central and South America, a 26 month assignment.

Gomez holds a Bachelors of Arts Degree in Communication, Electronic Media, summa cum laude (4.0 GPA), from the University of Texas, San Antonio 2001.

Partial credits include Parade (cover story w/Eddie Adams), People, New York Times, Playboy, Rangefinder (cover story), Maxim, Sports Illustrated, St. Martin's Press, NBA, Amherst Media, Studio Photography, Digital Imaging, Peterson's 4-Wheel Drive, Stars & Stripes, Army Times, Airman, Soldiers, San Antonio Express News, Evan Williams Bourbon, AOL/Time Warner, PMA Daily, Leica World News, Shutterbug, Photo Media, D-Pixx (cover story), Zoom NL, Photographie, PROFIFTOTO, fotoMAGAZIN, FOTO-VIDEO DIGITAAL, Camera Magazine, and many nationwide newspapers.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars No great news here, January 21, 2007

By 

GHD (Baton Rouge, LA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Garage Glamour: Digital Nude and Beauty Photography Made Simple (Paperback)

Unfortunately, there is nothing new here for photographers. No diagrams of the lighting techniques, no ideas on props; just the author showing us some examples of his work. There is one good idea of buying some shop lights from Home Depot but he doesn't even show us a picture of his setup. I was looking for a "how to" book but just got a "here's my final product" book.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rolando Scores a Slam Dunk On This Book, October 17, 2006

By 

R. Blomstrom "Swede's Photo" (Lehigh Valley, Pa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Garage Glamour: Digital Nude and Beauty Photography Made Simple (Paperback)

Simply put-this is a great book in the realm of Glamour Photography. I have been a photographer for more years than I would like to admit and I found gems of wisdom on almost every page. Whether you are a novice or experienced picture taker-you will benefit from this book.
I recently had the pleasure of attending one of Rolando's seminars and while I had read the book several times-I still learned more about lighting in the seminar.
Rolando Gomez has an extraordinary passion for his craft and this book draws on his years as a photo journalist and top glamour photographer. The book is weighted toward lighting and the ways to achieve the lighting effects so much used in the fashion/glamour industry.He shares many of the secrets that have made him famous.And he does it in a straight forward easy to follow dialog.
There is a small portion of the book that details how to make a glamour portrait set-up using common fluorescent bulbs found in any "Home Depot" type store-worth the price of the book alone for this "tidbit". I got to use this set-up in his seminar and it was truly an excellent tool.
You won't be disappointed in this book-the pictures are excellent, the instruction superb.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Instruction for the professional and serious amatuer, July 20, 2006

By 

Focused "Greg" (Iowa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Garage Glamour: Digital Nude and Beauty Photography Made Simple (Paperback)

The "nuts and bolts" of techniques for creating serious glamour works are presented in a clear, logical and readily understood form. As one would expect, there are images and explanations of the lighting and techniques for each from cover to cover. Of great help in making the techniques clear are photographs showing the entire setup for a given photograph. Where this is offered the author photographed the setup for the image as well as the image itself. This technique enables the reader to determine the location of primary and secondary lighting sources, the subject, and the camera with ease.

Of perhaps even greater importance are the clear explanations of the issues and elements that surround the entire subject. Model communications, the history and style changes glamour has experienced, releases and a host of related issues are presented along with their impact on your overall endeavor in this arena.

This is one book that you can pick up, read, and by applying even some of what you read, improve your photography within days.