Customer Reviews

Hollywood Portraits

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The photos are excellently reproduced, and the text is well written, but if you've already been digging into Hollywood glamour photography, you probably can figure out lighting setups pretty well without diagrams. The diagrams in this book are good for the most part, although the authors left out a few lighting instruments and included a few that probably should have been omitted. They do sort out some rather confusing lighting rather well, though. If you already have Mark Vieira's book "Hurrell's Hollywood Portraits," you probably don't need this book as a technical guide. However, it does have some nice examples of work by other photogs that you may not have seen.

For many of us, the artistry of Hollywood publicity photographs of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s were the spark that would ignite our passion for photography.

Who can ever forget classic images of Fred Astaire in top hat and tails, Humphrey Bogart with cigarette in hand, any of hundreds of sultry Lauren Bacall photographs?

"Hollywood Portraits" is an unusual book, in that it not only celebrates these great photographs, but dissects them and then shows the lighting setups that were probably used to create them. The book is intelligently written, technically excellent and will definitely get your creative juices flowing.

Each image not only has a lighting diagram, but is rated for difficulty in recreation. The narrative here is very useful, addressing issues as diverse as why today's health conscious models need to act comfortably around cigarettes if you are to recreate these classic images.

What I like about "Hollywood Portraits":

1) GREAT unusual subject, tackled from a photographer's point of view.

2) Written with the aim of re-creation in mind

3) Something for everybody, from simple one and two light setups to complicated recreations.

4) EVERY image is rated for difficulty in recreation.

5) Very little filler or fluff, only one page on 'lighting basics' (essentially a vocabulary) that doesn't seem out of place at all.

6) If you've been searching for a new photographic project for 2005, this one will get you thinking about Tinseltown recreations within fifty pages.

What I don't like about the book:

Nothing.

This one's definitely a keeper. Read it for fun, then recreate magic from Hollywood's golden years.

Some else worte that the book is not correct, they had never tried to recreate some of the effects. I have personaly tried recreating some of the lighting and all of the photo's came out great without much make up and no touch ups. Also most all of the photo's I took were worth blowing up to a large photo. The book explains lighting, film types, and how it has changed over time. You can reproduce the hollywood portrait look with very little expense.

I was surprised when I recieved this book that it not only had fantastic photographs, but it gave you great detail in how to reproduce the same effect for each photograph. It was rather a nice addition to the fine photography. Stars included are Vivien Leigh, Sophia Loren, James Cagney, Elizabeth Taylor, etc. Photographers included are among the best like C.S. Bull, Lazlo Willinger, George Hurrell, and some anonymous photographers who sadly did not get credit during their time. All in All, this is a nice book printed on high quality paper and bounded in soft cover.

the book was sufficient enough for me.It gave me great ideas on how to set up the lighting. I wasn't worried about the stops and speeds because that's what photography's all about...your own interpretation.from there on you must experiment;and bracket at the same time. I made use of the lighting I had available be it tungsten or strobe, I learned the setup from this book. The only thing bad was there was no conclusion...just a last page pix of elvis.Overall,it's a great reference book pro or not!

Finding any information on techniques from the golden era of Hollywood photography is difficult at best--finding this book was like finding a diamond in the rough. It contains just enough information to give most photographers an idea on how to replicate classic Hollywood portraits. The pictures shown through-out are wonderful and give you the inspiration you need, but the information contained doesn't quite go far enough in my opinion. More information on recreating the look and feel with modern day tools, including digital, would have been great.

I feel that the book is certainly worth getting if you have knowledge of photography and want to recreate this kind of look in your photos. It was worth every cent for me.

This book is a must-have if you're as enamored with the B&W glamour and sensuality of the old Hollywood as I am. The diagrams on capturing the unique and moody lighting will get any level photographer on the road to recreating these wonderful scenes. The enthusiast of vintage glamour will find the pictures and tidbits from those days fun and interesting to read as well. A book that should be on any photographer's reference shelf- as any book with Roger Hicks name as author, should be.

This book was great!! It really helped me achieve the results i wanted!!!!

Except for the beautiful reproductions of some of the finest Hollywood portraits, the book is a major disappointment. The cover of the book clearly states "classic shots and how to take them," but the authors' feeble attempt at presenting the lighting setups, at least half of which are totally erroneous, is only remotely informative. Christopher Nisperos, a portrait photographer, includes no recreations of any of the images in the book, which is suggestive in itself, and shares no technical information of any substance. There is no discussion of types of lights used by the photographers in any of the discriptions which would have been fascinating and the lighting diagrams suggest working distances for various lights that are at best misleading. All in all the book is a very superficial look at the creation of Hollywood "style" portrais and will prove of only very limited value to the aspiring portrait photographer.

This book is proving to be a good source for learning to look a photo and figure out how it was lit. Each photograh is shown accompanied by a sketch of the lighting arrangement. Of course, the lighting is derived from the finished photo since these photographers are, sad,y, long gone. The author, though, takes care, in the text, to explain the reasoning behind the sketch. If you are interested in making photographs in this style, then I recommend the three books by Kobal (also available on Amazon and very inexpensive): "Movie Star Portraits of the Forties", "Film-Star Portaits of the Fifties", and "Hollywood Glamor Portraits". With this book and the others on hand, you can pick your favorite poses and apply the lessons learned in this volume to arrive at a reasonable starting point for your own lighting setup.