Here's a book review that I wrote for Face to Face: Rick Sammon's Complete Guide to Photographing People.
A good introduction for beginners (not technical at all), September 27, 2008
After reading Peterson's books (understanding exposure, beyond portraiture, understanding shutter speed, and more) this book feels not technical enough. It misses technical information that would be very useful to people who'd like to learn, such as f-number, shutter speed, distance from object, metering mode and method etc. Though this information did appear in a few pages, it was not available throughout the book.
Still, the pictures are very appealing and the author does explain how he took them. A lot of emphasis was put on the social side of potrait photography. How to approach, how to get friendly, how to share your pictures. Also, the artistic sides are covered, how to "direct" your model, how to give attention to details (background, framing, light, shadows, etc.). Some technical aspects are indeed mentioned and a few tricks on exposure and light metering and white balance. Also the last few lessons in the book are some photoshop "how-to"s. I liked the book.
I enjoyed the pictures, I did my best to learn the messages from the lessons and liked a lot the authors attitude and explanation way.
To get a good understanding of what lessons are expected in the book take a look at the table of contents. Lessons are titled by the main tip that they deliver.
The link to the review on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2UZHFLO05X30M/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
No comments:
Post a Comment