Portraits Books - Page 3

Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait: The Art of Celebrity and Editorial Photography

Various

List Price: $75.00 By: Amphoto Books Amazon Marketplace: 9 new & used starting at $44.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> How-to -> General
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> How-to -> General AAS
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Lighting

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Heavy on the name dropping, light on the details 2 out of 5 stars.
11 of 13 people found this review helpful.

Obviously, Michael Grecco is an accomplished photographer, his body of work speaks for itself. On the dust jacket and in the introduction, Grecco says, "...Assistants and other photographers have asked why I would want to give away my secrets in a book..." After reading this book, I would like to assure Mr. Grecco's contemporaries that his secrets still lie safe with him.

Lots of allusions to celebrity and lots of high end equipment name dropping occur. There is very little discussion about development of the theme of an image. This is definitely a book for Grecco fans not for experienced photographers seeking additional insight. The title is deceptive, the chapter on Illumination is 44 pages, that's right, 44 pages.

Don't bother.

Editorial Review:

Michael Grecco is one of the best-known celebrity photographers in the world. His beautiful, insightful work is all around us--on movie posters, in advertising, on magazine covers, everywhere, "I delight in inspiring people," he writes. "I want them to stop, think, and feel." Now Grecco shares the secrets of great portraits with photographers at every level, in Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait. Sections on cameras, illumination, film and digital, lighting set-ups with diagrams, creativity and conceptualization, connecting with the subject, and having a point of view, plus intriguing case studies that show "how I got that picture," make this book a resource photographers will use again and again through the years. Whether the subject is a star or a soccer mom, or a business executive or a politician, Grecco shows how to add artistry, drama, wit, humor, and personality to their portrait.

Monte Zucker's Portrait Photography Handbook

Monte Zucker

Amazon Price: $23.07 List Price: $34.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Amherst Media, Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 32 new & used starting at $21.92

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> How-to -> General
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> How-to -> General AAS
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Portraits

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Not as Good as You Might Expect from Monte 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Because it was written by Monte, I really wanted to love this book, but in the end it is just a so-so introduction to portrait photography.

There are a few useful tips, and many excellent example photos, all reproduced in Amherst Media's characteristically excellent quality, but there really isn't a lot of information here.

The book is 128 pages, but because of the space the example photos take up and because it is sparsely typeset in relatively large print, the actual content is about what would typically fit in a 40 page book. This would be a real rip-off at the list price, but not quite so bad at Amazon's discount price.

The photo captions are simply a rehash of a line or two from the main text (which sometimes appear to be randomly selected). There is no exposure or other EXIF data included in the photo captions, which would have aided in understanding his use of lenses and aperture. There are no formal lighting diagrams, only a few "behind the scenes"-type shots showing a wider view of how he took the corresponding shot, but these are often missing lights and other key elements of the shot which detracts from their value.

On the positive side, he does boil-down posing to two basic poses with a few minor variations, but even these explanations would have greatly benefited from a few clear diagrams and better correlation with the example photos.

Editorial Review:

Master of portraiture Monte Zucker presents page after page of essential photographic lessons to enable photographers to achieve and exceed their financial and artistic goals. Providing instructions on how to conduct a well-crafted client consultation, readers will learn which angles of the face to photograph, how to pose the body, where to place the camera, and the proper positioning of lighting equipment in order to cultivate an emotional connection with clients to produce an ideal image. Chapters with expert advice on digital imaging cleanup and finishing techniques, clothing and makeup selection, and location and studio backdrop options to reinforce portrait concepts are also included.

The Best of Family Portrait Photography: Professional Techniques and Images

Bill Hurter

Amazon Price: $23.07 List Price: $34.95 Usually ships in 1 to 4 months By: Amherst Media, Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 10 new & used starting at $23.07

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> How-to -> General
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> How-to -> General AAS
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Portraits

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Good information for beginners, photography just ok 2 out of 5 stars.
2 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This book has good info for beginners. The photography is just mediocre though. I woudl have preferred more inspirational and dynamic photographs in this book

Editorial Review:

Artwork from 30 of the industry's top photographers is used to highlight both clear-cut shooting strategies and colorful, cutting-edge approaches to family portraiture in this handbook intended for idea gathering and inspiration. Advice on focal length, perspective, and maximizing the potential of digital equipment highlights the technical aspects of family portraiture while group posing strategies demonstrate how best to flatter each subject and convey a sense of family unity. A lengthy discussion of lighting—the backbone of portraiture—and the manipulation of shadows and highlights instructs photographers on how to create mood and interest in a variety of lighting scenarios, both indoors and out. Specifics on adjusting body lines, colors, and shapes, working with young children, and creating a comfortable atmosphere ensure that the photographer captures the unique personality of each family with dynamic and attractive images.

Rolando Gomez's Posing Techniques for Glamour Photography

Rolando Gomez

Amazon Price: $23.07 List Price: $34.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Amherst Media, Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 24 new & used starting at $21.74

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Fashion
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Portraits
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Reference

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Well written and well illustrated 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

If you are a fan of Rolando Gomez you will definitely like this book. It is a fine book and a compliment to his other titles. The main focus here is with very specific posing guidelines that go beyond the basics. Every body part is covered which helps to make this a very thorough book on the subject, not to mention factors such as body type, composition, and interacting with models to help bring out their best. As usual, the photographs are top notch. Highly recommended, a five star book.

Editorial Review:

Literally working from head to toe, the images in this essential guide to glamour photography demonstrate how to flatter models’ assets and downplay any perceived flaws when there is no clothing to hide behind. Detailed instructions on recreating classic poses and a thorough discussion of the three main sections of the body—upper body, lower body, and backside—are coupled with ample photographic examples. Abundant illustrations reveal how to manipulate a model’s tresses, garner the best possible views of the face, and visually enhance the appearance of the breasts, arms, abdomen, hips, buttocks, thighs, calves, feet, and toes. Best-practice techniques for maximizing curves and minimizing bulk will make each subject look her personal best. Because of the intimate nature of nude and semi-nude photo shoots, suggestions for easing into the shoot while staying on task and ensuring a subject’s comfort are also discussed.

Found Dogs

List Price: $17.95 By: Howell Books Amazon Marketplace: 35 new & used starting at $0.46

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Portraits
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Humor -> Rural Life
Subjects -> Home & Garden -> Animal Care & Pets -> Dogs -> Breeds

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Second Chances 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

As the mama of an adopted stray dog from the ASPCA I am very interested in saved cats and dogs,(I have also taken in a stray cat). To me rescued animals are the best pets. The books that I have read are all happy books, there may be a lot of saddness in them, but for the most part they have a happy ending.
Amazon is full of books on cats and dogs, the selection can't be beat!

Found Dogs 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

As a dog lover and a current owner of 4 dogs (2 of whom were rescues) I applaud each and every pet owner in this book and I thank Elise Lufkin for putting these stories together so that they may be enjoyed by the people who rescue any animal or is thinking about rescuing. The joy and love these pets bring into a home is unbelievable.

Editorial Review:

Superb photographs and a fascinating cast of people and dogs make this book irresistible to anyone who is moved by the human-animal bond. Contributions by such celebrities as Jamie Lee Curtis and Al Gore enhance this delightful collection that captures the bond between people and the dogs they love. 45 photos.

Country Music with CD: The Masters

Marty Stuart

Amazon Price: $31.49 List Price: $49.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Sourcebooks MediaFusion Amazon Marketplace: 26 new & used starting at $25.49

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Photo Essays
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Photographers, A-Z -> General
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Photographers, A-Z -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A photographic love letter to the founders and legends of country music by musician and storyteller Marty Stuart.

When Marty Stuart first entered the Hard Rock Cafe, he was impressed to see the work of rock preservationists, yet realized that the artifacts of country music were being lost or destroyed. He set out to change that, becoming a leading curator of roots music memorabilia and photographer of roots founders.

After years of careful preservation, Stuart brings the early days of country to vibrant life again with Country Music: The Masters. In a unique pairing, completely original for a photography book of this scope, an integrated audio CD is included featuring 60 minutes of the fascinating stories behind selected photos. Stuart, a born storyteller, gives readers a glimpse into the subjects and the photograph at the moment the shutter snapped. The CD includes "Dark Bird," an unreleased song dedicated to Johnny Cash, written by Stuart after Cash's death. This new recording marks the first-ever commercial release of the song.

"A photograph can just be a piece of paper with an image on it... But when the observer with his finger on the button has the life experience it takes to understand the life he's shooting, the photograph is a story. Marty"s photographs live and breathe. If it's a person, you can hear their thoughts, feel their pain or joy, and read at least a part of their story. If it's a building or a landscape, you can feel the presence of those who have walked there or lived there through the years."
- Billy Bob Thornton

(20081103)

Misty Dawn: Portrait of a Muse

Amazon Price: $31.50 List Price: $50.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Aperture Amazon Marketplace: 42 new & used starting at $29.85

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Collections, Catalogues & Exhibitions
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Photo Essays
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Photographers, A-Z -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Over the course of his career, Jock Sturges' long-term engagement with his subjects has been a cornerstone of his work. Misty Dawn, one of his primary and most popular muses, is one such subject; he has photographed her for 25 of her 28 years. Lithe, beautiful, classically proportioned, she is the personification of Sturges' philosophy of being at home in one's body.
This volume follows her growth from a shy, tomboyish child to a gorgeous, confident young woman. Taken as a whole, this series of images presents a unique, fully realized portrait of a blossoming individual and explores a rare and beautiful relationship between photographer and subject. Misty Dawn: Portrait of a Muse presents iconic images as well as previously unpublished material, mined from Sturges' older contact sheets and newest work.
Jock Sturges, born in New York in 1947, received a B.A. in perceptual psychology and photography from Marlboro College in Vermont in 1974 and an M.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1985. He has exhibited internationally, and his photographs are in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. His previous Aperture books include Notes, The Last Day of Summer and Radiant Identities.

Richard Avedon: Portraits of Power

Renata Adler, Frank Goodyear

Amazon Price: $37.80 List Price: $60.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Steidl & Partners Amazon Marketplace: 35 new & used starting at $37.42

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Collections, Catalogues & Exhibitions
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Photo Essays
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Photographers, A-Z -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Richard Avedon, America's preeminent portraitist and fashion photographer, photographed the many faces of politics throughout his career. Portraits of Power brings together Avedon's political portraits for the first time. Juxtaposing images of elite government, media and labor officials with counter-cultural activists, writers and artists, as well as ordinary citizens caught up in national debates, it offers a five-decade taxonomy of politics and power by one of America's best-known artists. The book features several of Avedon's extended projects addressing these themes, including coverage of the civil rights debate in the early 1960s (published in 1964 in Nothing Personal); the American anti-war movement and the war in Vietnam from 1969-1971; portraits of the American power elite in 1976, produced for his groundbreaking Rolling Stone portfolio "The Family;" "Exiles: The Kennedy Court at the End of the American Century," a retrospective homage to the Camelot generation published in the New Yorker in 1993; and his final photo-essay, "Democracy," surveying the national mood during the politically fractious period prior to the 2004 presidential elections (published posthumously in the New Yorker in 2004).
Richard Avedon (1923-2004) was the most successful fashion photographer and portraitist in America throughout a six-decade career. Serving in the Merchant Marines during World War II, Avedon was assigned to the photography unit and learned his trade making identification portraits. After the war, he found work as a photographer for Harper's Bazaar and Theater Arts and began a fruitful apprenticeship with legendary editor, designer and artist Alexey Brodovitch. Avedon invigorated the staid fashion photography of the time, staging fictional tableaux and developing an unprecedented theatrical style. Moving to Vogue in 1966 and the New Yorker in 1993, Avedon continued to innovate. Extraordinarily prolific throughout his career, he produced many books, among them Nothing Personal (1964), An Autobiography (1993) and The Sixties (1999).

Horses

Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Jean-Louis Gouraud

Amazon Price: $17.13 List Price: $25.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Artisan Amazon Marketplace: 34 new & used starting at $8.59

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Nature & Wildlife
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Photo Essays
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Portraits

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

First Amazon purchase 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This was my first Amazon purchase and I was happy to find my item available. The transaction was simple, smooth and prompt confirmation. I was extremely impressed when the status of my order showed 2-3 weeks before I would receive the package and I ended up receiving it within the week. The book is a beautiful piece of art and wonderfully displayed on my counter with Remington bronze sculpture, however the outside corrugated shipping box had some small damage, hence the inside packaging tore a small piece on the book cover. I was still content with the transaction as a whole.

Editorial Review:

The most visually stunning book ever produced about horses, in a portable new format.

This sumptuous tribute to the earth's most beautiful animal has been redesigned in a new mini format that is 100 pages longer than the original. Renowned photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand—master of light and shadow, angle and exposure—etches these magnificent creatures and their human partners in photographs shot on location and around the globe, from Montana to Russia, central Asia to Argentina, Mongolia and Cameroon, and points in between. Each moment captured offers a glimpse of the breath of humanity, and man's powerful and moving relationship with the horse. Full of tribal costume, local color, and panoramic scenery—accompanied by the text of equine expert Jean-Louis Gouraud—Horses is a project of unparalleled ambition and scope.

Portrait Photographer's Handbook

Bill Hurter

Amazon Price: $23.07 List Price: $34.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Amherst Media, Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 45 new & used starting at $15.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> How-to -> General
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> How-to -> General AAS
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> Portraits

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Disappointed 2 out of 5 stars.
2 of 7 people found this review helpful.

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.

Editorial Review:

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.