Photographing people is seldom easy. From how many vacations have you returned with great shots of the sea, mountains, or monuments you saw but without any pictures of the local people - the street vendors, shopkeepers, and children who really made your trip memorable? Intuitively you know that, friend or foe, people are self-conscious in front of a camera, so you hesitate before shooting. This book offers Bryan Peterson's expertise on photographing all kinds of people, from unwilling subjects to smiling babies. A location photographer, he constantly searches for people to portray in an interesting way and knows how to alleviate their surprise and anxiety about being photographed. Peterson illustrates chapters on observing people, approaching your subject, creating a mood with light, composing powerful portraits, and people as symbols with an exciting portfolio of his professional work shot around the world. As in his two previous books, he demonstrates solutions to various technical problems - for example, exposure, composition, lens length, and lighting - with before and after photographs. A final section gives tips on selling your photographs as stock. Most important, you will learn what psychological hurdles you need to overcome, internal as well as external, to make great pictures of anyone, anywhere.
Book Description
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Bryan Peterson is a professional photographer, internationally known instructor, and founder of www.PPSOP.com, The Perfect PIcture School of Photography. He is also the best-selling author of Understanding Exposure, Learning to See Creatively,Understanding Shutter Speed, Understanding Close-Up Photography, Understanding Digital Photography, Beyond Portraiture, and, most recently, Bryan Peterson's Understanding Photography Field Guide. His easy-to-understand writing and teaching style breaks down the complex and often confusing aspects of photography, translating them into what his students routinely describe as "aha" moments. In addition, he has been a commercial photographer for over 30 years, shooting annual reports for many Fortune 500 companies, and his trademark use of color and strong, graphic composition have garnered him many photographic awards, including the New York Art Director's Gold Award and honors from Communication Arts and Print magazine. He currently splits his time between Chicago and France.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
75 of 77 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A comprehensive course,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: People in Focus: How to Photograph Anyone, Anywhere (Paperback)
This may be the only book you'll ever need to read on the subject of photographing people outside of the formal portrait studio. This is a blessing, because very few books, good or bad, are available on this very important subject to amateurs and professional photojournalists. Peterson covers every aspect of taking pictures of people, including selecting subjects to photograph, approaching subjects, effects of different lighting, equipment and even some of the business aspects like model releases and stock photography. And, his images are wonderful. The only negative aspect - and this is present in most of his books - is that Bryan tends to forget that most people who read his book are not as well-travelled or equipped as he is. Many of the photographs were taken in exotic places abroad and he uses an expensive 300 meter lens for many of his shots. He has a reason for the latter, but let him explain. Take it with a grain of salt, and trust that you don't have to have such extreme equipment or go to such exotic places to get the results you want from following his instructions.
28 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Go with "Understanding Exposure" instead,
By A reader (California) - See all my reviews
This review is from: People in Focus: How to Photograph Anyone, Anywhere (Paperback)
I've read all three of Bryan Peterson's books -- "Understanding Exposure," "Learning to See Creatively," and "People in Focus" -- and "Understanding Exposure" I recommend highly (5 stars). The other two drained me of my passion as I read them, which is the opposite of what Peterson intended, I'm sure. Here's why: Bryan Peterson's images look like what they are -- commercial images sold to stock houses, used to advertise products or services or businesses in one way or another. Little girls in fields of flowers. Sunsets over the beach. Two businesspeople shaking hands. Peterson does what he does well, and I gave this book 2 stars because I'm sure there are readers who are looking to take their interest in photography down this very road. For anyone who wants to develop his or her "voice," who wants to communicate with his or her images, I think this book will disappoint. I was a student in a writing program for a period of time, and one of the best tips I learned and passed on to other students was this: Before you sign up for a class with a particular professor, read at least one of his novels or several of his short stories. If you like the way he writes, sign up for the class. If you can't stand his writing, find someone else. I think the same applies here. I recognize that Peterson knows how to use a camera -- and his effective instruction of exposure in his other book proves that -- but his images make no impression on me, don't cause me to think or feel or question anything. I recommend finding the books in a bookstore or trying to look through them online before you buy -- his Web site, http://www.bryanfpeterson.com, shows some examples. If you want to take pictures like these, this book will meet your needs. Otherwise, pass it by.
17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
very helpful mainstream portrait photography guidebook,
By Tony Van Kerckhove (Kontich, Antwerpen Belgium) - See all my reviews
This review is from: People in Focus: How to Photograph Anyone, Anywhere (Paperback)
The book is loosely organised in chapters each covering one aspect of people-photography. Chapter introductions are rather mellow. It's really a large collection of example photos. Each one is elaborately discussed, including "the story behind" and technical info. Some of the photos are very good indeed. Most are mainstream pictures, however: technically perfect, but not quite inspiring. (Though I wish I could consistently obtain that level of quality myself.) Good book if you have time to read from A to Z and have a patient nature. Very valuable information can be gathered, but it's scattered throughout the book. I made a one-page summary myself.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
