Customer Reviews

High Impact Portrait Photography: Creative Techniques for Dramatic, Fashion-Inspired Portraits

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I found Lori Brystan's book very useful. Not a lot of technical data within, but that's not the purpose of the book. There's plenty of those out there. There are lot's of shots within with good descriptions on set up for each picture. I appreciated the her description with the lighting. How it was positioned and where it came from. Mainly a good book to study the pictures and get some inspiration on shooting portraits that don't look like ordinary portraits.

This book is amazingly helpful. It covers many types of portrait photography from indoor to outdoor and kids, teens, adults. It adresses twilight, candlelight, highkey and maternity portraits, among others. It discusses about 30-40 different shoots. Each shoot includes a description of the concept, lighting, posing and has all of the technical data from the shoot including camera, lens, filters, film, light source(s), what the scene was metered at-and what it was actually shot at. Brilliant!

This book is an invaluable tool.

This is an attractive book with attractive shots - in a ho-hum kind of way. I saw nothing "High Imapct" in the images, however. The author simply relates how certain shots were made in the all-to-familiar style of this genre. Would much rather see someone get into the philosophy of lighting in an interesting discussion style book (Not the old mannequin heads of the past). I wish writers would actually let us get inside their thought processes - maybe shooting images for a book rather than compiling images already done into a book.

I've read hundreds of photography books written by legends and little-knowns. This is one the worst. The photography is inconsistent from occasionally very good to absolutely amatuerish snapshots and the insights into technique ramble through a rehash of often poorly described and thought out notions not based in fact from one example to the next to the next to the next, on and on and on. For instance, Ms. Brystan's obsession with supposedly "overexposing" film to acheive clean, flawless skin tones is meaningless since the photos are, in most cases, printed with the skin tones as normal (one stop lighter than middle tone for the exclusively caucasion subjects) and with "flaws" (freckles, blemishes, etc.) quite apparent. I suspect she doesn't realize her camera's meter is not calibrated correctly and has taken to "overexposing" to correct what is really an equipment issue though she's convinced she's discovered an innovative approach to her subjects. From the opening pages she revels in not being a trained photographer, but, trust me, a semester in a basic photography class at any local technical college would do her a world of good, if she can admit to herself that her ignorance is not a blessing to her craft or her readers.

I was more 'inspirational' vs technical. It basically talked about the inspiration and work it took for this young female photographer to succeed.
As for the photo's and techniques in the book, they were pedestrian at best. The finished high impact photo's were just basically tinted.
Overall the book info is dated but its a quick read and gets you to think a little outside the box.

Fantastic! The pictures are extremely high quality, and beautiful at that. I am happy that I discovered this book, and will cherish it for years to come. I have found new inspiration, and its all due to Ms. Brystan

I guess because it is the first photography book that I liked the pictures and was able to reproduce the look without to much equipment. I think the key is the c-41 b/w film.