The Enthusiast's Guide to Portraiture: 59 Photographic Principles You Need to Know

by Jerod Foster

If you’re a passionate photographer and you’re ready to take your work to the next level, The Enthusiast’s Guide book series was created just for you. Whether you’re diving head first into a new topic or exploring a classic theme, Enthusiast’s Guides are designed to help you quickly learn more about a topic or subject so that you can improve your photography. These handy books don’t waste your time covering all the photography basics you already know. Instead, they build on that knowledge so you can quickly advance your photography skills. The Enthusiast’s Guide to 59 Photographic Principles You Need to Know addresses what you need to know in order to create great portraits in natural light. Chapters are broken down into a series of numbered lessons, with each lesson providing all you need to improve your photography. In this book, which is divided into eight chapters that include 59 photographic lessons to help you shoot great portraits, photographer and author Jerod Foster covers equipment, setup, light, composition, posing, color, storytelling, and post-processing. Example lessons Written in a friendly and approachable manner and illustrated with examples that drive home each lesson, The Enthusiast’s Guide to Portraiture is designed to be effective and efficient, friendly and fun. Read an entire chapter at once, or read just one topic at a time. With either approach, you’ll quickly learn a lot so you can head out with your camera to capture great shots.

Genres: Photography

232 pages, Paperback

Published October 24, 2016

Reviews

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really liked the division of topics into the sections chosen because it allowed broad topics such as color to be approached from multiple perspectives--and as applicable for different stages of workflow):
The Genre; Equipment; Natural Light; Composition; Posing; Color; Storytelling; and Post-Production.

I learned some basics about lighting, notably how side- or back-light can separate a subject from the background. (Demonstrative images show both success and failure of various techniques in this book.) I appreciate the author encouraging us readers to experiment, do photography, and learn through that experience.