Lighting for Portrait Photography [Paperback]

Steve Bavister (Author)

Book Description

Series: Lighting | Publication Date: September 2001

Lighting for portraits requires a broad range of skills and a way with people. This title examines the work of top photographers to uncover precisely how their highly successful portraits are achieved. A broad range of styles and skills are covered, ranging from simple set-ups using one light, to more advanced approaches using multiple lighting techniques. The examples shown are of known and unknown faces, and the functions range from commercial, to editorial and personal work.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Steve Bavister is one of the most experienced photographers in the UK and now shoots mainly for stock. He contributes to many periodicals in the amateur and professional sectors.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Rotovision (September 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 2880465273
• ISBN-13: 978-2880465278
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #763,345 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent learning tool, June 1, 2005

By 

Oddly Opinionated (Fresh, Clean-Scented New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lighting for Portrait Photography (Paperback)

The book includes explanations of why the photographer went with the approach they did (including the dead-honest "I only had five minutes to set up" in a couple cases). It shows diagram layouts of what lights were used at what angles, which is excellent for learning what the basic layouts are, and giving you a leg up if you want to shoot a portrait and are thinking about how to approach it.

And best of all, it's not all HIS photographs. Most books suffer badly under the weight of a single photographer trying to demonstrate something. By definition, every photographer has a style, and in any "one photographer" book you're going to get a ton about shooting in THEIR style, but almost no diversity of approaches abd styles. That diversity is important in learning the principles that let you develop YOUR OWN style. That's great for booksellers, since you probably have to digest 10-15 books to get enough range to have a sense of what's possible. (Assuming there are 10-15 books that are good - and my bookshelf suggests there aren't.)

As to "not useful for social photography portraits" - if you're looking to shoot school portraits, or families in front of the same backdrops, that's probably true. But if you're looking to do creative portraits with some sizzle and style and snap to them, this book has many examples that you could go duplicate right away. And it'll give you the raw material ideas to come up with 20 other approaches.

The best of the 10 "lighting for..." books on my shelf - more content than all the other 9 put together.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An "I can do this " book, June 5, 2004

By 

V. Theis (San Antonio, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lighting for Portrait Photography (Paperback)

I've bought a couple of lighting books that showed rather complex multi-light setups with hairlights,gobos,booms,backgrounds,barndoors yada,yada,yada that left me thinking "hmmmm,I wonder if I can do this??"
This book displays beautifull portraits with simple ambient light, single light, easy soft box etc. setups with clear setup diagrams with the portrait shown. An example, hardly ordinary, was one shot of Tony Blair where the photographer had literaly 180 seconds to setup for the sitting. It made me feel "hey, I CAN do THAT!".
Simple well written for the contemplative novice(me I hope).

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars By far, my favorite, July 6, 2006

By 

Donamari T. D'andrea (Charlotte NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lighting for Portrait Photography (Paperback)

I am a portrait photographer and I pull this book out all the time to review lighting set ups and get inspiration. A definate must have for any photographer. I especially love that the book extensively covers one and two light set up and using foamcore bookends. You don't need a bazillion lights to create amazing images.