Posing for Portrait Photography: A Head-to-Toe Guide | Jeff Smith

Posing for Portrait Photography: A Head-to-Toe Guide | Jeff Smith | Great book!

books:

Posing for Portrai...

	Posing for Portrait Photography: A Head-to-Toe Guide Jeff Smith Amherst Media, 2004 - 128 pages average customer review:based on 32 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Photographers learn how to gauge the needs of their clients before placing them into a stale, preconceived ?women?s,? ?men?s,? or ?children?s? pose that hardly fits the client?s personality or preferences. Provided with a two-pronged approach to fail-safe posing, photographers learn first to determine what the mood of the portrait should be and how to use an appropriate posing genre?traditional, casual, glamour, or journalistic. Photographers are then shown how that genre can be used as a basis to produce a pose that best suits the client, allowing them to create dynamic yet natural-looking pose that the subject?and the intended recipient?will love.

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Excellent book

Very well explained. Very modern and very satisfied after using the hints and tips as presented in this book

Great book!

I enjoyed the tips the book gave- it was a great intro into portrait posing. I have been able to implement some of the tips and have definitely improved my shots!

Good foundation

As the title reads this book is a great foundation to build your posing knowledge on. As ther reviewers mentioned there are a lot of senior portraits, but the information is relevant to adults as well. I also purchased Professional Model Portfolios by Billy Pegram and found it to have more "meat" in my opinion. Though it doesn't focus on posing I found it to be a bit more inspiring.

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Would be a better Posing book if combining 6 into 1 title.

I dont' know whether it's Amherst Media or the author to blame for it but honestly all 6 of his Portrait books could be packed into a single 300-page Portrait textbook. It's because the content (photos and posing tips) are mostly overlapped from one book to another. For instance, when I read "Posing Techniques for Location Portrait Photography", most of posing tips could apply anywhere and there is not much information on the "location" that the book is supposed to be about.

So just for your info, here are the 6 titles of his Portrait series (I've read 3).

1. Profitable Portraits: The Photographer's Guide to Creating Portraits that Sell
2. Posing for Portrait Photography: A Head-to-Toe Guide
3. Outdoor and Location Portrait Photography Second Edition
4. Success in Portrait Photography
5. Professional Digital Portrait Photography
6. Posing Techniques for Location Portrait Photography

Don't get me wrong, his writing is excellent and straight to the point. His posting techniques from head to toe are well explained & illustrated. Even as a novice in portrait photography, I still easily convey and visualize every point he describes. Best of all, Jeff wants photographers to ask "why" rather than "how" when evaluating each photo in his book and I totally buy into his philosophy. His posing tips have no doubt been proven based on many other sources I've read and learned. For instance,
- Always pose body at an angle facing away from the light.
- The eye is the center of attention in head-and-shoulder pose and therefore catch light is a must-have.
- Arms should always be separated from the body to define the shape and tone of both.
However, I have to agree with other readers that most photos are just so-so & soft focus (maybe his style?). He could also have used more attractive models (sorry girls) for his photos. Despite so, the photos clearly illustrates what message he is trying to deliver.

To summarize, this book is very good one but you will have to buy all his portrait books if you want a complete understanding of the topic. I wish I could find a great single title on Posing technique like I could with Adobe Photoshop Restoration & Retouching.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

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