Customer Reviews

Professional Model Portfolios: A Step-by-Step Guide for Photographers

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is not a bad book and I'm not going to trash it. It is, however, like many of the Amherst Media books, a little disappointing for anyone pretty far along in the business. I would consider it a complete beginner's guide to modeling and model photography. In that light, it's a useful and interesting book. I found the photos to be less than stellar and a bit dated, but this is totally subjective. (You can see a lot better by browsing the showcased photos on OneModelPlace.com.)The entire book left me wishing for more. With all this stated, I did learn some things from this book, which probably compensated for the cover price. In short, don't expect miracles from this book.

Very nice book covering essentials of photographers wanting to learn about creating modeling portfolios for model-wannabees. Includes lighting, posing, comp cards, zed cards, releases, makeup, what the modeling bag should include, types of models and height requirements, etc.

I think this book focuses over a wide range of problems you could find in your photographic sessions. It's not only about posing and lighting, but also about your goals and your models' ones. It explains, in a very concise and clear way, how to take the photos that your models need to use.

As a professional photographer, I think the quality of my works improved, and my approach changed a lot after reading this book from cover to cover.

The difference between this book and Billy's last is that he wrote this one without the help of a ghostwriter. It is clear, concise and with beautiful examples. For the beginning model, it has everything from how to stand to what to put in your model's bag. My daughter has modeled with Billy since she was a toddler and is featured in this book as a young adult. He taught my daughter the techniques that took her all the way to Asia to model - he is top drawer all the way - BUY THE BOOK- YOU WONT BE SORRY!

Model portfolio photography tends to be a seductive pursuit that attracts photographers who either lack the necessary experience, or shouldn't be doing it in the first place. Portfolios are properly shot by working fashion or product illustration photographers who understand the challenges.

Even so, it's difficult to resist the allure of photographing an attractive subject, and everyone has to start somewhere. I recommend starting with this book. It truly is a step-by-step guide that leads you through everything you need to know to help a model create his or her book.

If you're a veteran pro, you might find some ideas here, but will hardly need the education. Beginners can do themselves -- and their subjects -- a service by reading this book thoroughly before attempting their first portfolio.

I'm very disappointed by the lack of content in this book. After breezing through it in one night I felt like there was so much more that can be covered. Most of the book were pictures the author has taken for portfolios he's build. The quality of pictures are ok at best. It would have been more useful if he used portraits from photographers to contrast to his own style. The reader had to take the authors word on what looks right and wrong. 1 or 2 more view points would have made a huge difference.

Specific information on important aspect of shooting the shots were also left out. The author should have gave more insight on picking locations, using the right lighting, instructing the models, and how to conceptualize the pictures. If the focus of this book was not on the technicalities of portfolio photography but rather on working with models there is still be a huge gap in information. More insight and techniques for instructing the model during the shoot or details on the financial aspect of this type of photography would have been very useful.

Reading through the book, I feel like the author thew it together based on a few notes and added pictures from his own portfolio. As it stands, most the book can be summarized in only 10-15 pages. The content fails only to pierce the most basic of details on portfolio shooting. I would recommend readers to seek out other literature on the subject as this entire book would only cover what would be a chapter in most comprehensive books on model photography.

Pegram does an eminently readable job in covering the modeling portfolio process ~ I own several books on the subject, and this volume has superseded them all to become my "go-to" reference.

This book is not what I thought it was. This book is more of a wookbook for models starting out. They can work through the workbook and write notes to questions. How to select and build their portfolio. This book is not geared towards photograpers, but helpful to models first starting out.

This was a fantastic book. So much information. Every model and photographer should read this.

This really helps with up and coming models who need a bit of direction.
I share this book with every new model I use.
Brings ideas to both of us.
It helps the models understand thier side of the business also.