Customer Reviews

Professional Secrets of Natural Light Portrait Photography

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an excellent book on portrait photography for the amateur and beginning photographer, but not for the reasons most people may think. The author does not delve into the the basic of photography and presupposes some working knowledge of composition, technique, and camera operation; however, most beginning photographers and amateurs are de facto natural light photographers. What beginning photographer can afford a complete studio set up or assistant to set up and carry equipment for outdoor photography?

So, instead of taking poor natural light photographers and praying for the day you can afford "real equipment", read this book and become a master at taking photographers in natural light that are truly amazing.

This is an excellent resource and a wonderful book ... much more useful and practical than other books on portrait and glamour photography I have read.

Why only 4 stars? This was such a great book I didn't want it to end and I would have liked a little more depth in the coverage of topics.

I buy a lot of books and this is the first that has ever so drastically underwhelmed me. As someone who has made a fairly good income in photography on the side, I wanted to learn more about informal outdoor portraiture (not weddings) in natural light and settings. The cover photograph is quite nice, but unfortunately is the best in the book. The rest are barely mediocre, especially for a photographer who reminds us throughout he text that he's endorsed by Hasselblad University.

In the beginning of this book, he claims it is for both the professional and for the mom who want to take better photos. It is for neither since it doesn't have enough of the basics for the uninitiated, and only talks about medium format focal lengths which the "mom" typically wouldn't be using nor understand the comparison to her 35mm lens focal lengths. (He could have added in parenthesis the equivalent length for 35mm camera), and neither does it cater to the pros desire for technical information by not publishing much data about each shot.

The nitty gritty of why this book is fluff: Photographer Douglas Allen Box continually glosses over pertinent technical information so vaguely that you wonder if you missed a paragraph or a page, while he goes on in depth about posing and clothing choices for your subject. At first thumbing through the pages, you'll see all sorts of 2 dimensional sketches next to some photos - that seems promising - until you actually try to match what is going on in the sketch to what is going on in the photo. They are often turned at odd angles to eachother - and often are actually wrong when you decipher the elements. Not helpful.

He describes a few tools and their use so inadequately he shouldn't bother mentioning them at all. Take these four examples: (1) A translucent light modifier has a page dedicated to it, yet there is no photo of one, nor is there a diagram showing how he placed it, nor a before picture to see what happens if one does not use it. (2) He complains that in one photograph he would have made a better photo with a longer lens that he did not own at the time of that portrait sitting. Well, set up a new one for this book and show us the difference - one with the shorter focal length and one longer - give us a diagram showing the difference in placement and the resultant photo. (3) His LIght Finder cube - in one passage he keeps refering to "the other two sides" but does not explain whether these are the dark sides, or light sides. A full page-and-a-half of vague description that leave one scratching one's head about a tool you really do not need in the first place. (4) He talks about blocking the overhead light when it is not naturally blocked, but never actually shows a diagram of how one might arrange such a set up, what tools and placement etc.

Lastly, when Box talks about adding flash he really ought to add a page or two for the uninitiated that explains why he's simply setting his flash at f8.5 and receiving different results. The accompanying text is exceptionally vague - yet he displays resulting photographs all extremely different from one another. I guess he leaves it up to us to buy another book that explains flash in a more satisfactory manner and then reapply it to his posing techniques of like-dressed people.

All in all, a complete flop unless you are very interested in learning how to pose and dress your subject. I'll be returning this one to Amazon quickly. Don't waste your money and time.

I would guess that every photographer has tried to take a picture of someone out-of-doors and has been disappointed with the result. Douglas Allen Box provides a good, serviceable manual that should improve the quality of the average photographer's portraits.

The author's approach is to present a portrait and then explain the photographic considerations that went into it. Usually he provides an overhead diagram showing the relationship of camera, subject and light. With each picture a short description of lighting, photography and background is usually included. Some portraits have been selected because they presented special situations or techniques. For these, besides the trio mentioned, he offers a short discussion of the problem and how he solved it. For example a portrait featuring "head tilt" discussed what Box calls the C pose and the relationship of a tilted head to lighting.

When you've finished this book you will know how to look for that soft, indirect lighting that usually makes for attractive portraits. That may not sound like much, but it is probably the most important single factor for a good portrait. You will also have encountered a number of tips that will make your portraits better looking that you might not encounter elsewhere. For example, I had never read that having people in a group portrait dress in similar clothing would create of feeling of unity. And yet putting both members of a couple in white shirts and khaki pants can achieve that goal.

I have some nits to pick with the author. Box is a medium format guy and doesn't mention auto-exposure. Since most photographers are now using 35mm cameras with auto exposure, a little tailoring could have helped, but this shortcoming is not fatal. And he preserves a few photography myths, like the suggestion that a longer focal length lens creates a shorter depth of field. Optical science is clear that for the same image size on a negative, the only way to change the depth of field around a subject is by changing aperture.

Reading this book and following the author's advice will not make you into a Karsh or Avedon. Not only did those photographers create their portraits in the studio with special lights, but they also had some of the most photogenic faces in the world to work with, as well as a degree of talent that was (and is) exceptional. This book is aimed at the majority of us who will take our cameras outdoors to photograph friends and family and who will be happy if the result is a picture that will lead others to say "Doesn't Jim (or Jane) look great in this picture.

Box is obvoiusly a talented Photograher, but if your looking for ideas on how to make great looking portraits at all times during they day, this is NOT your book. Nearly every one of the outdoor photographs in this book are taken at sunset.

He constantly talks about finding good light, and that's the big trick, but he's obviosly not even very good at it since he can only find good light at sunset. ANY half-rate photographer can find good light at sunset or dusk. If you want a book about taking outdoor shots, get Jeff Smith's "Outdoor and Location Portrait Photography." Smith makes Box looks likes he's a beginner. Nearly every shot in Smith's book is NOT at dusk.

This book is really about posing, and understanding how to make artistic outdoor portraits (at dusk of course). He talks more about group photography and dressing your subjects in like clothing where Smith's book is about individual portraiture.

The photo on the cover is probably the best image Box has ever taken, and there's 2 or 3 other high quality captures as well. Smith's book is littered with high quality shots, and amazingly most of them were taken during mid-day, and he even shows you how he accomplished the task.

Douglass Allen Box's "Natural Light Portrait Photography" is for the amateur who wants to improve their group photography skil outdoors where time is really of no concern. Where your willing to sit around for hours waiting for "perfect" light.

Different people learn in different ways. Some are "theoretical" learners -- they get a training manual or instruction book, and read it from cover to cover before ever trying out any of the information they have gleaned. In a way I envy them. However I am a "practical" learner. When I taught myself to program in the C programming language, I had my hands on the computer with the very first page, where I was taught how to make the computer display "Hello world" on its screen.

Not all authors of books of instruction understand this difference, and, as a result, their texts tend to favor one style over another. We should also recognize that not every author is as expert in the field about which he or she writes, so much as a "legend in his own mind".

I have been a professional portrait photographer for over 50 years. In that time I have learned a fair amount about making portraits in a variety of lighting conditions. You might wonder why I would buy a book like "NATURAL LIGHT PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY" by Doug Box. Part of the reason lies in the genes. My mother, who recently celebrated her 100th birthday has been a professional portrait painter for over 80 of those years -- and she still attends classes on painting. We are never too old, or too knowledgeable, not to be able to learn something new.

So, knowing that Doug Box has earned his Master of Photgraphy and Craftsman's degrees from the Professinal Photographers of America, and that he has been a featured speaker at conventions (where I first met him), seminars, and professional photography one-week "schools", I had little fear regarding his expertise. My trust was well placed.

Although I have actually succeeded in reading the entire book (118 pages of lavishly illustrated text), I have also been able to implement items from the text on an almost page by page basis. Not just a book about "seeing" or "using" the light, but a book that includes instruction about posing, selecting locations, choosing the most appropriate lens, and how to manage exposure with natural light and added flash. I have already built myself a "light finder" (pages 13-14), and made two portraits using techniques learned from the book.

I speak here as a professional photographer, and give the book highest marks for the professional user. Quite simply, if you are a professional photographer and you make portraits, you need this book. However the serious amateur can also benefit from its contents. The amateur may not wish to bother with the "light finder" tool, and off camera flash triggered by a radio controlled signal may be a bit out of budget, but the underlying instructions apply to anyone with a camera who fancies pointing it at people. Buy it, you won't regret it!

I have a number of photography lighting books and this is the very best natural light book I have ever read. Sometimes photography book authors will go from one extreme of only explaining the laws of physics in lighting without explaining practical application to the other extreme of showing images with very little explanation. Doug's book is easy to understand and concise, professional, and yet makes the instruction achievable. His excellent skills as a teacher and his enthusiasm as a photographer are on every page.

I highly recommend this book - I've been looking for a guide/resource like this for years. "Professional Secrets of Natural Light Portrait Photography" is well written, very comprehensive, and supports the written words with excellent photos and diagrams. I'm a serious amateur photographer - both of friends and family and for travel/vacation - and have won a number of awards for my photos. I find that more and more of my shots are of people, even when travelling. This book suggests many well thought out natural light posing and composition techniques - natural light sources, backgrounds, props, metering, even clothing. The book also covers topics such as working with kids and "difficult" situations. Many of the topics apply equally to candid or quick shots. Wish I'd had the book a few years ago.

I read this book in one setting. The writing is clear and direct and the author provides of course sample photograhs on every page. Most of his key suggestions could be summarized in one page. While his instuctions on shooting in available light are very much a part of the book, he also delves equally into the subjects of posing technqiues, what subjects should wear, and how various lighting conditions can affect a photo.

This book, however, does not address digital photography, since it was published back in 2001. Plus, I think the book shares the same problem that many Amherst Media books share: the author tend to center his instruction based on his own individual photos and not so much on how-to for typical shooting situations. In othe words, most of the book seems to be written based on collection of photographs the author already had, rather than him taking take various shots for instructional purposes.

A book like this would also work better as an instructional DVD. Understanding concepts of lighting is very challenging for novice photographers, and simply providing pages and pages of photographs is not enough. An audio/video presentation of how-tos would work much better.

So while I recommend this book, I hesistate to say that it will be the only one on the subject that you will need. On the other hand, if you take notes and go out and practice what the author explains in the book, you will benefit from it, especially on the subject of setting up traditional poses. And oh, this book has nothing in it about urban contempary portraits. All the photos are done in the classic mode.

As a professional wedding (PPA), and landscape photographer, I found this book to be almost as useful as a $700 seminar with the author. You save $680 plus lodging and travel. The book is an easy read, yet it does not dummy down. Well illustrated lighting diagrams for each lession, it moves directly to instruction, no fat, no sugar. The personality of the book is very friendly. I will retain and use each lession described in this book.

Portraits are almost certainly the most common type of amateur or professional photography, and natural light is the only type of light truly available to us all (unless, of course, you live in an asylum, in which case I mean no offense). Why, then, must a beginner's pictures look any worse than those of a seasoned pro? The answer: they don't have to!

Natural light is the first kind of light. All forms of artificial portrait lighting is made to approximate the sun. But shooting good pictures in natural light does not mean that the natural light is any kind of sunlight. There is good and bad light, and there are ways to turn bad light into good light. This book teaches how.

The examples are great. Some are cheesy, some tasteful. All are noticeably professional, and a reader will learn essentially how to get the same results. The book also touches on posing and backgrounds and technical details about exposure. All-in-all, the book is worth the money.