Portrait photo books --- Best books for beginners

[mitch_busker]

<p>Anyone have any suggestions for portrait photography books especially for digital SLR's? This is an area that I would really like to learn.<br>

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!</p>

<p>Mitch</p>

[david_lew1]

<p>Books will only teach you so much, you can find most of the info online. It's best to learn by practicing with models and if you can, take some classes or find models to do TFCD. You'll develop your own style after some time of shooting.</p>

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[nathan_stiles]

<p>*pffft* Combine books w/ practice. Just practicing w/ models means you'll be self discovering techniques that have been refined for hundreds of years by painters, artists, sculptors, and photographers. The 'net provides gems hear and there, but I've seen no source that equates to a book.</p>

<p>Get a portrait book by Amherst media. They have several good ones, you only need one as after that they will repeat about 75% of the stuff you've learned from the first one. While reading it, each new concept you learn-- put the book down until you can apply it to a practical shoot. This may be only 3 pages, maybe a whole chapter. Practice after each new thing learned.</p>

[sofie_dittmann]

<p>Try "Lighting for Portrait Photography" by Steve Bavister. I've also found it helpful to study the early pioneers, as they were much more experimental in their approach than a lot of stuff you see nowadays.</p>

<p>I myself prefer natural light - among others b/c to-date I've not been able to afford a professional lighting set. And other than that, just start taking pictures and learn from screw-ups.</p>

[bill_from_new_york_city]

<p>I think a good "idea" book for shooting portraits of people is Bryan Peterson's book, Beyond Portraiture: Creative People Photography. This book does not go into light much, but does give the photographer differnet ideas how to photograph people. His other books I find are excellent too.<br>

Bill<br>

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Portraiture-Creative-People-Photography/dp/0817453911/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233242096&sr=8-1">http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Portraiture-Creative-People-Photography/dp/0817453911/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233242096&sr=8-1</a></p>

[christopher hartt dallas]

<p>"Portraiture" is the application of general photo knowledge in a specialized way. As a self-described "beginner," you might best spend your time learning the "basics" of exposure, composition, lighting, post process. The application of these principles to "Portraiture" (or other photography specialties) would rightly come after you learn the basics.<br /><br />As naive as it sounds, spend a LOT of time studying your camera Owner's Manual. There's a huge amount of information in there and, I'm assuming, you already own it.</p>

[andrew_horodysky1]

<p>Mitch,<br /> In addition to all the great advice given above, peruse individual monographs by historical and contemporary photographers and artists: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, Nadar, Julia Margaret Cameron, Edward Steichen, Horst, Vander Zee, Karsh, Avedon, Brandt, Penn, Leibowitz, Arbus, Hofer, Groover, Mapplethorpe, Golden, Greenfield-Sanders, Tennyson, among others. You'll find an array of styles in just as many visions and formats. Education is also about looking at the work of others.<br /> Enjoy.<br /> Andrew</p>

[bob_bill]

<p>My approach to learning a subject, for example music, is to learn the basics, the notes, chords etc before improvising. Among the basics in portraiture are the 5 traditional setups, butterfly, loop, rembrandt, split and profile. Hurters Photographic lighting addresses those pretty well. Then look for lighting you like in photos, reverse engineer them ( the nose shadow and the eye catchlights reveal the hardness, direction an possibly the shape of the light) , try them in your style with the gear you have. When doing a shoot, keep that right brain involved, experiment, keep building and rebuilding the lighting to find something YOU like. Kinda like a musician, you will develop your style, sometimes from equipment limitations, but thats ok, it doesnt have to and you probably dont want it to look like someone elses work. I do the strobist, traveling light-pun intended- thing walking about. Take a look at their site for getting into this on the cheap. But I wonder if buying a single stand, studio strobe, say alien bee 800 and a 5 way reflector will give you a faster learning curve. With a modeling lamp, you can move the stand and easily see the changes immediately, AB's modeling lights are wysiwyg, what you see is what you get. It can be then used as your key light which sets the overall lighting effect and use your camera strobes with umbrella, through the reflector's diffuser if it comes with one( 5 ways come with diffuser, and 3or 4 reflectors in white, silver, gold or gold and silver stripe) or bounced for fill( dont forget a white reflector on floor). The other book I would highly recommend is Lowell's Matter of Light and Depth. Knowing the basic setups is a good start, but to understand when to use light, he discusses motivating the light and lighting planes. Which plane of the face, eg the front, side, nose, cheekbones, do you want emphasized/demphasized? Which part of a room? Eg, you can make our presidents ears disappear or make them look like a couple of open car doors depending on your intent. Then establish highlight shadow accordingly. It teaches you WHY to light and hopefully when to stop. I promise you will never look at a movie again. That one light/reflector setup will be seen as having a lot of possiblities. And, again, just my opinion, but manipulating lights/reflectors gives you a sensitivity to light and will help you learn how to be in position outdoors at the right time for found light's angle, color, softness so you can match the light to your message. You will be better prepared to manipulate it there with the more limited controls available. I know many will recommend Science and Light, but I found it like reading a text book. Turned me off from lighting for years. But be sure to read it eventually. </p>

[bill_from_new_york_city]

<p>I would not discount taking a class besides reading books and I have done both. Last year I took a five day Portrait Class and it help me get to the next level with my photography skills.</p>

<p>If you live in New York City, I can recommend this Advanced Portrait Master Class, which was hands on class. I was shooting each day with live models and using differnet studio lighting. The class was small so the instructor Enrico Sacchetti had plenty of time to give one-on-one help with each student. </p>

<p>The instructor Enrico Sacchetti, was fun, informative and very good mentor to learn from.</p>

<p><a href="http://guest.cvent.com/EVENTS/info/summary.aspx?e=7863cdf4-542a-41e2-94bc-c17afcb27f03">http://guest.cvent.com/EVENTS/info/summary.aspx?e=7863cdf4-542a-41e2-94bc-c17afcb27f03</a></p>

<p>Bill</p>

<p> </p>

[terry thomas photos]

<p>I'm curious why you think a book on portraits needs to be "new for the digital era". Posing and lighting techniques that are hundreds of years old are just as valid as something thought up yesterday.<br /><br />Go to your local library. I'll bet they have at least one book of the Hollywood master photographers from the 1920s and 1930s. You will learn a lot from that book.<br /><br />A book I like is "Skin" by Lee Varis. $50 or so.<br /><a href="http://www.photoshopsupport.com/photoshop-blog/07/04/skin-photoshop-photo-retouching-book.html">http://www.photoshopsupport.com/photoshop-blog/07/04/skin-photoshop-photo-retouching-book.html</a><br>

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