The Portrait: Understanding Portrait Photography

by Glenn Rand, Tim Meyer

Glenn Rand, longtime photographic educator and Program Director for Graduate Programs at Brooks Institute, and Tim Meyer, Portrait Division Chair at Brooks Institute, have collaborated to create a thorough and balanced textbook on the modern techniques and practice of portrait photography. They have avoided the single-style viewpoint common to so many books on portraiture and have crafted a definitive resource for professionals, as well as students and avid amateurs, wishing to advance their skills in this discipline.

Topics

Quality of light and the portraitAmbient, continuous, and strobe light sourcesUnderstanding light modifiers and enhancersMastering lighting ratiosImportance and selection of backgroundsExtensive coverage of lighting setupsUnderstanding light meters and metering in portraitureLighting patterns on the human faceFacial analysisComposition in portraitureEliciting the appropriate expressionThe fine art portraitPortraiture for the masses

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction

187 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2009

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an interesting book, although it was way more in-depth than what I needed. It is, after all, a textbook, so I didn't take that into account when assigning a rating. I found the chapter on light dynamics and discussion of specular versus diffuse light in particular to be very enlightening, and I think the book was worth a read for that alone. However, the biggest flaw of the book was that, with a few exceptions, the majority of the featured images do not have captions explaining how they demonstrate the concept described. Perhaps this is because the book was intended to be used in a classroom where an instructor could point that out, but even if I were reading this for a class I would find that limiting.

Overall it was an ok book and I don't think it was a waste of my time, but I also don't think I'll be recommending it to anyone.