Customer Reviews

Wedding Photography: Creative Techniques for Lighting and Posing, Second Edition

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

 

 

This book shows alot of great poses and shares many good ideas. Expecially nice are Rick's lighting diagrams and the way he shows how he meters to combine flash with ambient lighting. Also helpful are his ideas posing with diagrams showing how lighting should fall in relation to stances and poses. His hand poses as well as high and low key shots were nicely done also.

I am surprised that Amhearst Media, Inc., did not print this book in color!

I write as an intermediate amateur photographer (with no intention of turning professional) who is about to photograph my first wedding. The strength of this book is the outstanding collection of photos. Although only 6 of 79 photos are in color, 50 are 3/4 to a full page in size (allowing me to appreciate the details), and virtually all were beautiful (except one on p.62 in which the bride looks too washed-out for my taste). I found the lighting diagrams helpful (I counted only 24 of them, although the back cover says "over 50 lighting diagrams"). There's a good index in the back. On the other hand, some of Ferro's advice seems overly prescriptive (e.g., "...when shooting a ceremony... never [shoot] with flash," "we try to discourage couples from having a receiving line"). The advice in Wedding Photographer's Handbook by Hurth and Hurth (e.g., "talk with the official" about flash etc., "photographically speaking, the receiving line is not... useful") is more appropriate.

Rick ferro has written a wonderful textbook that clearly illustrates excellence in wedding photography. His use of images with their accompanying diagrams makes the book easy to follow and very helpful to both beginners and experienced shooters. Great examples of Bridal posing throughout.

A great book for the beginner to the advanced enthusiast. The diagrams are easy to understand and I'm sure they will help me greatly in my upcoming weddings.

I found the book to be very informative, especially the explanations of lighting techniques and meter readings. But it could have been better organized. It mixes buisness advice with photographic techniques. Maybe a seperate chapter should be dedicated to the advice. Overall a very good book and well worth reading.

Many of the photgraphs in this book are good, with several that are great!! by studying these photos it is easy to devolop a style that is all your own, using the photograps as a guide. The text read well, and the diagrams are really clear. I would recomend this book to anyone who wants to get a start in wedding photograpy. The only mistake I found in the book is on page 36 where the groom looks like a bunny rabbit! I loved the book completly, and thought it was a nice suppliment to my text books from school.

Ferro has written good books on the subject of wedding photography. This isn't one of them. The main subject of the book is studio lighting. If you want to learn ONLY about bridal portrait photography this would be an OK book.

The posing in the book looks horribly contorted. I would be embarrased to show these photos to my clients.

I wonder how I could sell this bomb back to Amazon?

Mike

This book is GREAT START for those who are beginning to learn lighting and only lighting....several good pictures and mostly great diagrams on lighting setup are in the book.

HOWEVER if you are seeking to be inspired by the book for great ideas and poses then you are better off looking for something else.....such glaring mistake with pose like page36 with very odd looking groom position / disjointed look and shadows cast by the groom on the bridal gown would simply be considered as NG for most photographers( but it made it to the book )

also the very odd hand poses of the bride , making her look contoured

OVERALL, still a very good start for lighting but dont stop here,
get other books to complement this

A great book for the beginner to the advanced enthusiast. The diagrams are easy to understand and I'm sure they will help me greatly in my upcoming weddings.

Good book. However, it can be a lot better.


Pros: Good recommendation on posing and lighting. He also talks about things you have to look for when shooting a wedding. He provides you a list of all the important shoots you must take for a wedding.

Cons: Today you may find this book out of date. He talks about film photography and shooting Polaroid's to make sure the image is in correct exposure.

There are some pictures that are great samples and other ones that are terrible and embarrassing to show it on a photo book. there are some recommendations that I don't I agree with. For example he recommends using 1000 ISO. if so, pictures will look grainy in film and high color noise in digital. He recommends no to shoot with flash at churches even if they let you use a flash. NO WAY!!. His sample pictures looks grainy and terrible because he didn't use a flash.

The bottom line is:
Intermediate and professionals may want to avoid this one.
Beginners good to have it for posing recommendations, lighting, and a shooting list.