Portrait Photographer's Handbook
by Bill Hurter
|
List Price: Our Price: $17.00 You Save: $17.95 (51%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $16.50 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Portrait Photographer's Handbook
Book Review: Just simply a great book.
Summary: 5 Stars
All that needs to be said is this is a great book, whether you are a digital or film photographer. I took the NYIP course a few years ago and this is like a mini addition to that course in the area of portraits. There is a lot of stuff to learn from it, such as how to position different people that have a smaller eye, a fuller face, a longer face and just about anything you wouldn't have thought of. I also bought the portrait book by Monte Zucker, (his last before his death) and that covered some of this material but I think this book did a better job. Not to discourage you from getting that book also. Another thing I liked about this book is that he deals a little with how to make the subject relaxed and what you might say that would cause a person to question their looks. A good amount of lighting is covered and positioning of hands and little things that might throw off an otherwise great shot. I can't think of a book I have bought that I came to the conclusion half way through it that I had bought a great photography book, except this one. Digital photographers will like the section on Photoshop and how to fix problems. However it is not a Photoshop how to book but it does cover it better than Zucker's book by far. Don't be without it. Ric.
P.S. I just looked at the review I wrote and noticed Amazon has it with the older version of this book. The one I have does not have the blonde on the cover and is a darker cover. I don't know why they went back to the old cover but that one might not have anything about digital photography in it. Make sure you get the newer one.
Book Review: Excellent overview of portrait photography
Summary: 5 Stars
My good friend Bill Hurter has done it again. The third edition of The Portrait Photographer's Handbook is loaded with information and beautiful images from some of the best portrait artists in the world. Bill has acquired an incredible wealth of knowledge about photography over the years and gently guides the reader through what could easily be an overwhelming amount of information. He has chosen some absolutely gorgeous photographs to illustrate his points and, rather than lecturing his readers, it is as if he were sitting with you talking over each point. Bill took on a difficult task: he had to create a book that would cover essential components of posing, studio lighting, outdoor lighting, basics of exposure in the digital world, corrective techniques and some very useful Photoshop retouching techniques. The concern would be that each topic would not be handled with enough depth to make it a worthwhile read. The result is quite the contrary: beginners and advanced amateurs who are looking to venture into professional portraiture will have PLENTY to chew on here...and once they have done their homework and PRACTICED, will be ready to tackle books that take a more in-depth look at each of his topics. There were also some valuable tips for old dogs like me! One note of minor concern: there seems to have been a glitch in the introduction. The intro starts twice on two pages and there seems to be an unfinished thought in the same section. Don't let this bother you--go read, learn, shoot and learn some more.Book Review: A valuable resource
Summary: 4 Stars
"Portrait Photographer's Handbook" by Bill Hurter is a valuable resource for anyone interested in portraiture. It starts off with a pretty useless discussion of camera format/size. It then launches into lenses, film and so on. All of this is fairly elementary but useful as a review. However, when Hurter gets into metering, lights and light modifiers, things get more interesting. Chapter 3 is devoted to posing (there could be more on this). Chapter 5 discusses portrait lighting. While this might be a review for some, I found tips and tricks that I really appreciated. The lighting diagrams were well drawn and the illustrative photos were very good. (It sure does help to have beautiful people to photograph!). Chapter 7 on outdoor lighting was useful to me (I don't do that much outdoors). Chapter 9 on corrective lighting and posing techniques was well done. Chapter 10 was on PhotoShop retouching techniques - very good basic stuff. See also "Skin" by Varis. In short an excellent book, clearly written, and beautifully illustrated by some of the top portraitists (is there such a word?) of our day. I would have liked a few Karsh portraits included, but that's just me. Recommended.Book Review: Great pictures and tips in this book...
Summary: 5 Stars
I have purchased many photography books from Amazon in the past several months. Unfortunately, while the advice in most of them useful, the sample pictures are often very poorly done, lack variety or real inspiration. This book, however, is full of gorgeous portraitures that clearly demonstrate poses, lighting techniques, etc., while still being very nice to look at. The author gives shot details in the caption of each photo, and there is a very nice range of different styles and techniques that have given me a lot of ideas on what I'd like to shoot for myself. The text itself is clearly written and the inclusion of illustrated diagrams really helps visualize proper set ups for lighting.
The only caveat is that there are some glaring editing/layout problems in the introduction. The first page includes a couple paragraphs of the introduction, and the page it's supposed to continue onto starts the entire introduction over again. It took me a minute to figure out what was going on! But other than that, excellent book, wonderful and useful pictures, clearly written text, gorgeously laid out. I definitely recommend it.
Book Review: Nice for some hints on portrait photography
Summary: 3 Stars
This book has some lovely pictures and gives good hints on posing techniques and some studio work. The book is of good overall quality for a paperback.
I am not entirely impressed by the authors' writing though. He gives too little information about how results were obtained. Considering the reader, you probably need to be a real pro to understand what he is talking about (when it comes to some of the comments next to pictures), and if you are a pro, you will not need this book. He should be thinking about the more novice photographer who need to get hints on f-stop, shutterspeed, ISO settings, white balance and all those basic things that he probably take for granted. Most images in the book were taken with real pro cameras by pro's (i.e. they are good examples) but we would like to know how on earth they managed to take those great shots.
So in conclusion - if you are a pro/semi-pro or really know what you are doing when it comes to digital photography, this could be nice if you need hints on portrait techniques. If you are a novice, you can enjoy the pictures and the storyline...