World Famous Comics: Portrait Photographer's Handbook
Portrait Photographer's Handbook
By: Bill Hurter Publisher: Amherst Media, Inc. Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Amherst Media, Inc. Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 128 Publication Date: August 01, 2007
Combining time-tested practices with contemporary methods, this guidebook details the fine art of capturing formal and casual posed images. With advice and guidance from the finest and most decorated portrait and wedding photographers in the country, this instructional discusses subjects such as lighting in the studio and on location, improving improvisational shooting techniques, and how to retouch images in the post-production process to create truly flawless looks. A chapter addressing the common problems in taking portraitures—from working with subjects with glasses to subjects that vary in size, facial features, and skin tone—is also included.
Excellent book This is an excellent book including both technical and creative information. What most impresses me about this book is that it is not "dumbed down". I also think it is geared toward the more intermediate level audience. Itt is not a beginner or primer book. You should already be doing some portraiture work to get the most out of this book. Lots of beautiful sample photos and their camera settings included.
Good book, but a tad over-priced for what you get. This book had a few good tips in it for portrait work. I feel though it is over-priced for what you get. It is not really a book that I would read more than once, so to me, this should just be borrowed or checked-out at the library instead.
Disappointed I saw the high ratings for this book and thought it would be great to add to my collection. While the pictures are vivid, the book is a disappointment. The focus seems to be primarily on digital photography. If you're using digital then this book might be good for you. I was hoping to have a book that offered insight into both. My focus is film. It always has been and always will be, as I love working in the darkroom. I enjoy to learn primarily from film based books because I have a chance to see what can be done without relying on viewing the image in the digital viewing area. I also get to see what work is done in the darkroom as opposed to PhotoShop. This book deals too much with both digital and PS editing techniques. As such, it's not a book that will go great on my shelf and I'll probably end up selling it in a garage sale someday. A waste of money as I am sure I won't get as much as I paid for it.
If digital is your medium then this book might work for you. If you're looking for great film techniques you may want to look into another book. Or at least look at an older edition of this book.
Dissapointment for me Well, I bought this book based on glowing reviews. I should have checked it in the local bookstore first.
Cons: The book is loaded with so many soft focused images and pretentious poses as if there are no other technique. There is no life in those images. Some of images clearly overprocessed in Photoshop with oversharpened eyes and blurred faces. So, if you are into soap opera looks and poses this is certainly a book for you.
Pros: On the other side the author (and his contributors) does know his trade . Lighting, composition,color etc look very professional. It is just so boring
A valuable resource "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.
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