Customer Reviews

The Perfect Portrait Guide: How to Photograph People

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an excellent book for all levels. Every single page of it contains at least one wonderful photograph with very useful "creative" and "technical" comments on what was the artistic intention of the author and how the picture was done technically including the type of lens, film, lighting, etc. Many of the "technical" comments also include schematic view of the scene and the sources of lighting. I have read many similar books on this subject and consider this one to be the best. Honestly, I was looking for such a book for very long time. The photos in the book are depicted with great taste and each represents a unique approach and vision in portrait photography.

This book is exactly what I was looking for when searching the shelves for a good portrait photography how-to. I am an ameteur photographer with a digital slr camera and wanted something to help me with lighting, lens and filter choices for various scenarios to help me expand on the quality of my portrait photography. The primary thing I was looking for when choosing a book was that it had to be a photographic guide (not just a bunch of text) and contain lots of beautiful and inspiring pictures.

This book definitely delivers. The book contains page after page of gorgeous, glossy full-color photos, with brief how-tos for each.

As far as the complexity of the book: I believe both beginners and amateurs can get a lot out of this book. I think it is best if one has a basic knack for composition, but even if you don't you can get some great ideas here. The books is very easy to understand, shows lots of examples in different lighting scenarios, and is beautiful just to peruse and get ideas for your own photography.

I absolutely love it and would most definitely purchase it again. In fact, I am going to give a copy as a gift to my father when he gets his digital slr next month.

I thought this book was excellent. It is very concise and to the point. The photography is superb and it tells you exactly how each shot was composed and what equipment was used. The book is smaller than most but I believe this is because it does away with the "fluff" and simply sticks to the essentials.

This is a dream book for experienced amateur portrait photographer. The book discussed almost every elements of creating great looking portraits. The examples are great. Description of behind the scene thought are provided along with illustration of lighting diagram especially if artificial lighting setup is used. You will also find useful no-nonsense tips in almost every page.

All photos in this book are shot by film SLR camera. The camera type, film and lens type is provided but no aperture / shutter speed setting. However, it does not mean that digital SLR camera users won't get advantage of the information. Film / digital photography shares the same concept anyway.

So.. It is highly recommended for aspiring portrait shooters. Solid material for experienced photographer that want to move one step closer to become expert in portrait photography.

For beginner, you might want to strengthen your basic photography knowledge first, especially about photography equipments and terms. Knowledge about lighting are very helpful as well.

note: the design and layout are very artistic :)

For more book review, please check out my blog. You can find the address from my profile. Thanks for reading.

I got this book so that I could learn to take great portraits of people. It is NOT a step by step guide and I wouldn't recommend it to beginners. I believe you have to own advanced equipment and have a lot of experience before you can understand the jargon in this book. It does have nice photographs.

All this book does and show pictures and describe what the photography was thinking when they took the photo. It gives little to no technical details (beyond what the camera settings were). All of the photos are also taken with film cameras so the "meta data", if you will, is based on film and what type was used, etc. Not for modern day pro or advanced amateur photographers. Steer clear.

This book came highly recommended, and while it does have very good photos and decent examples to guide the beginner into taking better portraits, the typography is actually quite bad. Half the time, when there is more than 1 picture on a page, the way it's designed it's hard to tell which photo is being referred to. Also, ever couple of words they change sizes to emphasize a word or two in a sentence. while this is cool for say chapter introductions, when this is done on every single page, it makes for very difficult and slow reading. I am very dissappointed.

Expected alot more. No comparison to Brian Peterson books. Photograhy just wasn't that exceptional considering the great locations. Mostly film. Gave it to my daughter before finishing it.