The Portrait Photographer's Guide to Posing [Paperback]

Bill Hurter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2004

Providing a concise look at the foundations of posing, this guide illustrates the ways in which key posing strategies flatter the lines of the body, creating definition, dynamic lines, and a camera-friendly posture. Photographers learn how to analyze the facial features of their subjects to ensure the most flattering positioning, how to finesse fingers for delicate or strong hand positions, and how to adapt a pose for a man, woman, or child. Strategies for artfully posing couples, large groups, under- and overweight clients, the elderly, and everyone in between are detailed. With techniques and images from nearly 50 of the industry's most notable artists, this valuable sourcebook offers something for every film and digital photographer.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Hurter . . . explains basics of posing and working with subjects, with an emphasis on naturalistic portraits, and presents tips and shots from about 30 professional photographers." —www.BookNews.com (December 2011)

About the Author

Bill Hurter is the editor of Rangefinder magazine and the author of The Best of Children's Portrait Photography, The Best of Portrait Photography, The Best of Wedding Photography, Group Portrait Photography Handbook, and Portrait Photographer's Handbook. He lives in West Covina, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Amherst Media, Inc. (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158428126X
• ISBN-13: 978-1584281269
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #640,407 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bill Hurter has been involved in the photographic industry for the past 30 years. He is the former editor of Petersen's PhotoGraphic magazine and currently the editor of both AfterCapture and Rangefinder magazines. He has authored over 30 books on photography and hundreds of articles on photography and photographic technique. He is a graduate of American University and Brooks Institute of Photography, from which he holds a BFA and Honorary Masters of Science and Masters of Fine Art degrees. He is currently a member of the Brooks Board of Governors. Early in his career he covered Capital Hill during the Watergate Hearings and worked for three seasons as a stringer for the L.A. Dodgers. He is married and lives in West Covina, CA.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

104 of 112 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars not enjoyable, July 11, 2005

By 

Edgard Berendsen Mercado "Denoise" (Santiago de Chile) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Portrait Photographer's Guide to Posing (Paperback)

I used to think should never judge a book for the cover. But this time I was wrong.
The book is plenty of average wedding photos. It's a sort of frustrating to try to be inspired by a book where the pictures are so standard, conservative and uncreative.
But the worst of all is that there is almost no direct relation between most of the pictures and the text. They are no real examples of what the text describes and there are only a few schemas for covering the topics explained.

I wanted a posing book but only a few chapters cover this area. For me 70% was un-useful information. Sometimes the author tries to teach you about depth of field or how to use a ladder and the possible complications you can having using it.
If I wanted to read about lighting, well then I would buy a lighting book written by a master of lighting. For example, this guy don't know the existence of the big and expensive studio/fashion ring flashes and he adjudge the circular catch lights in fashion portraits to powerless macro ring flashes.

This book should be named: "The Wedding Portrait Photographer, a basic guide to photography".

I don't give this book one star because, yes!, there is still very useful posing information on it.

162 of 187 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A bunch of photos with a slap-dash attempt at essay, December 3, 2004

By 

Jerry Saperstein (Evanston, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Portrait Photographer's Guide to Posing (Paperback)

I received this book today from Amazon and will be returning it tomorrow.

The author has assembled some stunning pertraits and surrounded them with a trite attempt at an essay explaining pow to pose people for portraits.

Mr. Hurter doesn't carry it off. The portraits are often beautiful, but there is no explanation of how they were acheived. The captions are often ridiculous and read like a museum curator's strained attempt at reading meaning into a canvas of paint drippings.

The narrative is ofen just plain silly as when Hurter speaks of image stablization lenses that have very limited application to portraiture. Statements such as "Most photographers agree that a pleasant, happy expression is considered more desirable than a big smile" aren't worth paying money for.

In sum, the serious student of photographic portraiture will find nothing of value in this book.

Jerry

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Don't look at picture samples, December 30, 2005

By 

IvanP (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Portrait Photographer's Guide to Posing (Paperback)

If you have a (digital) camera, you're not a pro or advanced amateur and you're shooting your family or friends, read this or a similar book. However, the picture samples don't support the text. That's the big problem of this book to me. Mr. Hurter has put together a decent text that explains the rules of posing but there are no pictures with these rules clearly applied. Even worse, some of the pictures are the exceptions that **break the rules**. It doesn't seem to be the efficient way to teach somebody the basics.
So, I decided to read the book by not paying attention to the pictures and then to go back and try to get any value from the samples I paid for too.