Studio Portrait Photography in Black & White: Techniques and Images [Paperback]

David Derex (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2000

Studio portrait photography, unlike natural light or environmental portrait photography, offers photographers unparalleled opportunities to reflect the character and individuality of their subjects. This book shows how black-and-white studio photography emphasizes this ability by removing the distractions of color. Every step is explained, showing how to create sensual beauty images, cutting-edge fashion shots, powerful images of athletes, romantic wedding portraits, sweet images of children, and emotional images of couples. Discussions on proper equipment, lighting, and development procedures make it easy for photographers to replicate or adapt the ideas in their studio.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

David Derex is a professional photographer and studio owner who specializes in black-and-white portraiture. He lives in Westwood, New Jersey.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Amherst Media (July 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584280298
• ISBN-13: 978-1584280293
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,286,224 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Photographic "Magic" is Explained in Clear Terms, February 8, 2001

By 

Connie Parker (Belgrade Lakes, Maine) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Studio Portrait Photography in Black & White: Techniques and Images (Paperback)

As a 30-year veteran art director for print and web, I understand how "technical" traditional studio portraiture can become. Renowned photographer, David Derex, has give us "doable" understandable examples of lighting and "moment" capturing. Derex's subjects fill parts of his camera frame in ways which trained designers admire; the forms enhance the communication by their basic shapes. "Expressive" individuals reveal themselves "emotionally" during the exposure. Spontaneity, combined with "expert lighting" and experienced encouragement of the photographer, create images which will outlive us all. This book's wording is pithy, direct and clear in message. I felt present in the studio during the shoot at times. If you are looking for an excellent book on studio portraiture, which shows lighting configurations and tells the "technical tricks" which made the shot "work," then this is the book for you.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Bad photography, April 7, 2003

By 

Jodi L Counsil (Pine Creek, Pa United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Studio Portrait Photography in Black & White: Techniques and Images (Paperback)

I have never reviewed a book before but this one is so poor that I thought I should warn people. I bought this book to learn a little bit of black and white portrait lighting techniques and maybe some darkroom or other creative techniques however the images are awful. There are very few pictures in this book that are even in focus. I can tolerate soft focus but these are just bad. There was one image in the book that was o.k. and the photographer even said it was not planned, he just tripped the shutter as the subjects were playing around. The shots that he staged and set up are just terrible. I will stick with getting information and inspiration from "Hollywood Portraits: Classic Shots and How to Take Them" by Roger Hicks and Christopher Nisperos and also "Fine Art Children's Photography: Techniques and Images in Black & White" by Doris Carol Doyle. They both had better information and much better images.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice pictures to look at, December 31, 2002

By 

Nicholas M. Sullivan (Hermitage, Tn United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Studio Portrait Photography in Black & White: Techniques and Images (Paperback)

This is a book written for photographers who already have a good knowledge of studio lighting. There is not much instructional material here, but the work is very nice. There also is a good discussion of printing an darkroom techniques by a master printer.