Customer Reviews

Photographing People

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

 

 

This is a very well illustrated and logically organized book about the art of portraiture and good snapshots by a master photographer-educator. I have read several books lately on photographing people, and this is the best. Others start out with an introduction and then take one to far-off places for a portfolio composed primarily of peasants and rustics of foreign lands. Many of these portraits are quite interesting and, if you travel a lot, very exciting. Hedgecoe doesn't do this. He sticks close to home for pictures of people whom we can relate to, albeit they're English. Can't have everything, I suppose. What's really missing and would be very worthwhile is how he goes about gaining access to his subjects, which are really quite varied - from English peasants to Queen Elizabeth II. Past immediate family members and a few friends, I find it difficult to find subjects, not having the credentials to gain access to celebrities and the rich and famous.I would like to read more on the human aspects of this.

I found the main text of this book to be rather repetitive and lacking in scope and depth. Most of the real meat is in the photo captions. The photos themselves -- which have a good balance between color and black-and-white -- show a staggering range of ideas for creative portraiture. The back cover blurb brags about the book being "packed with technical information [on] choosing cameras and lenses", but you'll be hard pressed to find anything on these topics. On balance, I enjoyed this book and learned a lot. Just make sure you study the examples closely and read the captions.

this book is not too good of a book. it has mostly black and white images and it does not have much of the basics. i highly recommend (if you like this author) john hedgecoe's new book of photography, and john hedgecoe's photography basics. if you want to try and read something different from him then you should read john hedgecoe's camcorder basics.