Customer Reviews

100 Ways to Take Better Portrait Photographs

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have a simple criteria for selecting photographic 'how to' books. If the images in the book don't appeal to me, I pass on the book. Admittedly, that's sometimes a problem shopping here. Anyway, this book has a variety of portrait images, and I find them quite appealing. They range from travel shots to glamour fashion shots, and include a good collection of images of kids.

There is also a lot of practical information, but the book assumes you know your way around photographic equipment. The equipment section is only two pages! None of that 1/3 of the book telling you what a camera or a studio flash unit is for these authors. Bravo! I hope more photographic books follow their lead.

The book doesn't attempt to give you step by step instructions to creating a specific image. It's more of 'Here's a shot you might try and here's some things to be aware of.'

I consider myself an advanced amateur photographer. I take pictures because I enjoy it. I shoot mostly portrait and fashion type images. That's just so you'll know where I am coming from.

The book will definitely serve you well as inspiration. It's a great browsing and 'Gee, I oughta try that' book. I like it a lot, and I think you will too. It's also reasonably priced. Buy two and give one to a friend who is a photographer, but don't lend your copy to him. You won't get it back!

this book really gives you ideas to expand. you can look at one of the photos and expand your vision with it. one of the things i liked about this book was that if you were an amature or just a beginner with photography. you can understand the book. it doesn't use a lot of big photographic words that can go right over your head. and the sidenotes about the photo on the page really helps give you an idea of how to creat a photo with that style or theme

Photographers are always looking for inspiration. This book fits the bill; quick reads (1 page per example), decent explanations, and lenses used make this a good reference. The printing is great too so sample pictures look very pleasing.

If you are looking for something to teach more of the mechanics of posing, facial analysis, or lighting you probably should look at another book though. I don't think it was the authors' intention to deal with these subjects.

I received this book today and have only glanced through it and read a few of the pages. But it's enough for me to already form my opinion. This book is very aesthetically beautiful. The photos are beautiful and you keep turning pages just to look at them all. The photos are very inspiring and you do want to grab your camera and start shooting.

The problem I have with this book is that each of the photos are enhanced/edited. But the book does not tell you that, nor does it tell you how to achieve the same look in your photograph. 98% of the models in the book are beautiful (men, women, and children). I don't want to know how to take pictures of beautiful people... I want to know how to take beautiful pictures of people. Anyone can shoot a beautiful person and the portrait turn out the way you want it. But not everyone can shoot an average person and the photo turn out beautiful.

Overall, I'm disappointed in the book. While it does give me some great ideas, I wish it didn't show such beautifully enhanced photos of beautiful people (or at least explain what they've used to treat the photos). I truly want to take better portraits, if I wanted aesthetics, I would've gotten National Geographic.

this book on portraiture is fine. every page shows one whole photograph which is good. it presents different styles of taking portrait photography. some pictures are awesome, some are ordinary. you choose which one you like and probably serve them as your model. though the good photos are swell, little description is told on how they were made except mentioning the aperture setting, the shutter speed, iso setting, lens used. it lacked the description on how the lighting was done if the photo was done in a studio, on what time of day or situation was the photo taken if it was taken out in the field or was there manipulation done or was there overriding done during the shooting or during the editing. although it is not that detailed, this book will help anyway.

I have all books (I could find in the U.S.) from the "100 Ways" series - landscape, wildlife, portraits, b&w, general for one reason, and one reason only: while other books on the given subject could be funnier, use the same equipment that I use (for some reason every author in this series uses Canon equipment - could you imagine how much better the results could've been if they would've used Nikon?! Just kidding!!), easier to put in a pocket, etc. etc. - "100 Ways" is the series I learned from the most. Period.

Just imagine - for $17 you get 100 ultra-high quality photographs on a single subject with detailed settings used information, how-tos, whys and story behind the photo, tips and tricks, and, simply, new ideas for your own new creations.

Wow, what an amazing value!

This book offers 100 tips on improving your portrait photography. To an amateur (hobby) photographer, many of them are only applicable as food for thought, as not every photographer has a studio equipped with light boxes, umbrellas and flash kits.

Some of basics such as focusing on the eyes and watching the hands are useful reminders to anyone aspiring to portrait photography, and the author also covers alternative views and angles to make your work stand out. Tips cover glamour shots, kids, street photography, event, nudes, reportage, travel and even underwater portraits, and also include lighting techniques and post-processing advice in Photoshop.

Filled with examples and information on the settings used, the photographs included will inspire you to improve your skills. However, the pictures are lost in Kindle format (if you have the original Kindle) so unless you're using an app or the Kindle Fire, and you can't view them in color; don't go for the Kindle format.

Amanda Richards, January 10, 2012

This book has some great ideas to try. It is an excellent overview of portraits with some great thoughts. Very easy to read and good reference material.

I found this book had about 10 tips that I didn't know already, but if you're a beginner, or looking at how to take photos of friends and family from snapshot to photograph this would be an excellent resource. However I found all of the photos in the book interesting, which is oftentimes rare in such how to books.

This is a very nice book that gives you creative ideas and tells you about the process. It is good at both and for the price a nice addition to your photography library.