Notice – titles and author names on this page are reserved by their companies.
In the earlier survey of books for basic photography, each book had quite a bit to say about taking portraits. But that instruction was geared mostly toward candid photos. Many of us do attempt a more formal portrait, at least once in a while. And those general books were inadequate for that. So, now I have checked into 13 books for the portrait game alone. My typing fingers are lazy, for the survey I will abbreviate the titles of the books. The name shown at the bottom of each description in quote marks is my abbreviation. –
| The Complete Portrait Manual | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| by Popular Photography | Weldon Owen | 2015 | 208 pages | |
| “PortraitManual” | ||||
| Digital Portrait Photography and Lighting | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| by Catherine Jamieson and Sean McCormick | Wiley | 2006 | 347 pages | |
| “DigitalPortrait” | ||||
| The Enthusiast’s Guide to Portraiture | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| by Jerod Foster | Rocky Nook | 2016 | 219 pages | |
| “Enthusiasts” | ||||
| Focus On Digital Portrait Photography | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| by Jenni Bidner | Pixiq | 2011 | 141 pages | |
| “FocusOnDigital” | ||||
| Foundation Course Portrait Photography the Essential Beginner’s Guide | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| by Sarah Plater & Hannah MacGregor | Ammonite Press | 2014 | 175 pages | |
| “Foundation” | ||||
| The Luminous Portrait | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| by Elizabeth Messina | Amphoto | 2012 | 176 pages | |
| “Luminous” | ||||
| Mastering Portrait Photography | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| by Paul Wilkinson and Sarah Plater | Ammonite Press | 2015 | 175 pages | |
| “Mastering” | ||||
| The Portrait | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| by Glenn Rand and Tim Meyer | Brooks Institute | 2010 | 187 pages | |
| “ThePortrait” | ||||
| Portrait and Candid Photography Photo Workshop | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| by Erin Manning | Wiley | 2012 | 284 pages | |
| “PhotoWorkshop” | ||||
| Portrait Photography – Art and Technique | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| by Saraya Cortaville | Crowood | 2013 | 144 pages | |
| “ArtTechnique” | ||||
| The Portrait Photography Course | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| by Mark Jenkinson | Peachpit Press | 2012 | 217 pages | |
| “PhotographyCourse” | ||||
| Portrait Photography From Snapshots to Great Shots | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| by Erik Valind | Peachpit Press | 2014 | 249 pages | |
| “GreatShots” | ||||
| Posing, Composition, and Cropping | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| by Christopher Grey | Amherst Media | 2013 | 153 pages | |
| “PosingComposition” | ||||
As with the basic books survey, I will not be reviewing each book one-by-one, instead show short lists of my recommendations for each topic in portraiture. The order within each list is arbitrary, matches the order of the descriptions. The first section is general topics. Followed by a section braking down portraiture by subject area.
| Cameras and lenses | ||
|---|---|---|
| Most of the books skip talking about cameras, these three do get into cameras. So they could substitute for a general beginner’s book. If you are interested only in photographing people. | ||
| Foundation – PhotoWorkshop – PhotographyCourse | ||
| Portrait lenses in particular | ||
|---|---|---|
| I thought it a little odd that only one book tackled this by name, PhotographyCourse. The other books listed at least go into the selection of a portrait lens to a degree. | ||
| PortraitManual – DigitalPortrait – Enthusiasts – PhotographyCourse – GreatShots | ||
| Flash units and studio gear | ||
|---|---|---|
| The gear itself, not how to apply it. | ||
| DigitalPortrait – ThePortrait – PhotoWorkshop – ArtTechnique – PhotographyCourse – GreatShots | ||
| Metering light and setting exposure | ||
|---|---|---|
| Another topic that overlaps material you would expect in a general beginner’s book. | ||
| PortraitManual – DigitalPortrait – Foundation – Mastering – ThePortrait – PhotoWorkshop – PhotographyCourse – GreatShots | ||
| Light – Direction and shadows | ||
|---|---|---|
| Each book touches on this in a scattershot manner, these were more focused. | ||
| DigitalPortrait – Enthusiasts – ThePortrait – PhotoWorkshop – PhotographyCourse – GreatShots | ||
| Light – Understanding Sunlight | ||
|---|---|---|
| Another one of those general beginner’s topics. | ||
| PortraitManual – DigitalPortrait – Enthusiasts – Foundation – Mastering – PhotoWorkshop – ArtTechnique – PosingComposition | ||
| Light – Backlighting and silhouettes | ||
|---|---|---|
| Each book had a few examples of this. These had the most discussion. | ||
| PortraitManual – DigitalPortrait – Enthusiasts – FocusOnDigital – ArtTechnique | ||
| Light – Fill for Sunlight | ||
|---|---|---|
| Using flash or reflectors outdoors. Each of the books had an example shot (or more) for this technique. These expanded the most on the topic. | ||
| DigitalPortrait – Enthusiasts – PhotoWorkshop – ArtTechnique – PhotographyCourse – GreatShots | ||
| Light – Working with open shade | ||
|---|---|---|
| The obvious refuge from a harsh sun. | ||
| DigitalPortrait – FocusOnDigital – Luminous – Mastering – PhotoWorkshop – GreatShots | ||
| Light – Color management | ||
|---|---|---|
| Everybody talks about basic White Balance. Two books tried to dig a little deeper. | ||
| Enthusiasts – PhotographyCourse | ||
| Location shoots – Background choices | ||
|---|---|---|
| The book ThePortrait has a great deal to say about studio backgrounds, plus a little more about location backgrounds. | ||
| DigitalPortrait – Enthusiasts – FocusOnDigital – Foundation – Mastering – ThePortrait – PhotoWorkshop | ||
| Location shoots – Scouting for a location | ||
|---|---|---|
| Only four books bothered to mention that you may need to arrange permission for a location. (sigh) | ||
| PortraitManual – DigitalPortrait – PhotographyCourse – GreatShots | ||
| Concept, Planning, and Visualization | ||
|---|---|---|
| Some folks need a lot of preparation, some want to wing it. This is for the planners. Sometimes tucked away under “storytelling”. | ||
| DigitalPortrait – Enthusiasts – Foundation – PhotoWorkshop – ArtTechnique – GreatShots – PosingComposition | ||
| Candid shots | ||
|---|---|---|
| The simplest portraits. Some pundits do not consider candids to be portraits at all. Taken very seriously, the candid game morphs into photojournalism. | ||
| PortraitManual – DigitalPortrait – FocusOnDigital – PhotoWorkshop | ||
| Directing / Managing a session | ||
|---|---|---|
| Keeping everybody on track. | ||
| PortraitManual – DigitalPortrait – Foundation – PhotoWorkshop – PhotographyCourse – GreatShots | ||
| Rapport with the subject(s) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Most of the books state the importance of making the subject comfortable. These just dug a little deeper. | ||
| PortraitManual – Enthusiasts – Luminous – Mastering – ThePortrait – PhotoWorkshop – GreatShots | ||
| Posing – Expression | ||
|---|---|---|
| “Say cheese” may not be all there is to this. Only a few books get into detailed examples. | ||
| DigitalPortrait – Mastering – ThePortrait – PosingComposition | ||
| Posing – Body balance and shape. | ||
|---|---|---|
| With zero education in portraiture, I thought posing “templates” by the subject’s situation would be natural. Of course I got that all wrong. Except for group shots, most of the books just did not take this approach. The book PortraitManual did provide examples. While ArtTechnique went into a discussion on body dynamics. The next topic better reflects how posing is broken down today. | ||
| PortraitManual – ArtTechnique | ||
| Posing – Body area tips – lite | ||
|---|---|---|
| The prevailing approach for posing is to break it down by body area. Hands, head tilt, shoulders, etc. First up will be the books with a lite treatment for this topic. | ||
| FocusOnDigital – Foundation – Luminous – PhotoWorkshop – PhotographyCourse – GreatShots | ||
| Posing – Body area tips – expansive | ||
|---|---|---|
| Following up with the more thorough treatments. The DigitalPortrait and ThePortrait books had a great deal of text on posing, I wish they had more illustrations. | ||
| DigitalPortrait – Enthusiasts – Mastering – ThePortrait | ||
| Posing – Encyclopedic | ||
|---|---|---|
| So “Posing, Composition, and Cropping” has “posing” right there in the title. And it delivers, goes into the posing topic much more than the other books, with many more examples. For anybody really only interested in candids and the lifestyle stuff, this is overkill. For those wanting to make a career out of formal studio portraits, this or some other book just on posing is a must-have. | ||
| PosingComposition | ||
| Composition – Horizontal or vertical | ||
|---|---|---|
| Cameras are designed to be held horizontal, smartphones vertical (portrait orientation). With either device, the photographer needs to consider the alternative framing. Most of the books seemed to regard this topic as too rudimentary to even mention! | ||
| FocusOnDigital – Foundation – Mastering – GreatShots | ||
| Composition – Fill the frame | ||
|---|---|---|
| “Fill the frame” is frequent composition advice for beginners. Some books use the term “cropping” instead. Just four books dug into this. | ||
| PortraitManual – Enthusiasts – FocusOnDigital – Foundation | ||
| Composition – Off center | ||
|---|---|---|
| There will be plenty of times when “fill the frame” is not optimum. One such case is placing the subject off a ways from the center of the frame. Which automatically means an expanded frame. Often discussed as “The Rule Of Thirds”. “PortraitManual” does have this, just in a rather abbreviated manner. Both “Enthusiasts” and “ThePortrait” get into this, but in terms of visual balance instead of the simpler geometric patterns. | ||
| DigitalPortrait – Enthusiasts – FocusOnDigital – Foundation – Mastering – ThePortrait – PhotoWorkshop – ArtTechnique – PhotographyCourse – GreatShots – PosingComposition | ||
| Composition – Including layers, shapes, and textures | ||
|---|---|---|
| Another time when an expanded frame is in order is to embellish a portrait with a more elaborate setting than a simple backdrop. This occurs most often when shooting on location, but you can also put together an artistic set in a studio. Sometimes called “cinematic” portraits. | ||
| DigitalPortrait – Enthusiasts – ThePortrait – PhotoWorkshop – ArtTechnique – PhotographyCourse – GreatShots | ||
This section will be tips for more specific situations.
| Selfies | ||
|---|---|---|
| Or as they are more politely known, self-portraits | ||
| PortraitManual – DigitalPortrait – PhotoWorkshop – PhotographyCourse | ||
| Portraits of Couples | ||
|---|---|---|
| Each of the books had many nice examples of shots of couples. These tried to explain tips better. | ||
| PortraitManual – DigitalPortrait – Enthusiasts – Foundation – Luminous – GreatShots – PosingComposition | ||
| Shooting Groups | ||
|---|---|---|
| Each of the books had something to say about groups, these had nice examples. | ||
| Enthusiasts – Luminous – Mastering – PhotoWorkshop – GreatShots | ||
| Pets too? | ||
|---|---|---|
| Just three books included pets. Equestrian photography can be a good niche for photographers in wealthy areas with proud horse owners. Alas all of the books ignored that. | ||
| PortraitManual – DigitalPortrait – FocusOnDigital | ||
| Family Groups | ||
|---|---|---|
| Obviously a subset of group photography. But take into account big height differences and the theme for these can go in a fun direction. | ||
| FocusOnDigital – Foundation – Luminous – PhotoWorkshop – GreatShots | ||
| Babies | ||
|---|---|---|
| The books by female authors were easily the most thorough for this specialty. (Oh duh) | ||
| Foundation – Luminous – Mastering – PhotoWorkshop – ArtTechnique | ||
| Children | ||
|---|---|---|
| In some cases this gets lumped under “candid” photography. Foundation and ArtTechnique are predominately about children. | ||
| PortraitManual – DigitalPortrait – FocusOnDigital – Foundation – Luminous – Mastering – PhotoWorkshop – ArtTechnique | ||
| Sports | ||
|---|---|---|
| The book GreatShots gets into setting up those formal, tightly posed, team shots. The other two cover shooting people practicing their sport. | ||
| PortraitManual – PhotoWorkshop – GreatShots | ||
| Brides and Weddings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Wedding photography can be very complex. These books just scratch the surface. | ||
| PortraitManual – Luminous – PhotographyCourse | ||
| Using Diffusers and Reflectors | ||
|---|---|---|
| Also called “silks”. These are the least expensive and easiest to use of all light modifiers. It can be handy to have an assistant to help with these. | ||
| Enthusiasts – Mastering – PhotoWorkshop – PhotographyCourse – GreatShots | ||
| Using Hotshoe Flash | ||
|---|---|---|
| Most of the books wanted to talk about off-camera studio style flash. Hotshoe flash can be very useful for events, so I was a little disappointed that only five books took this seriously. | ||
| DigitalPortrait – FocusOnDigital – Foundation – Mastering – GreatShots | ||
| Using Multiple Lights | ||
|---|---|---|
| In other words, studio lighting. Although hard workers can bring lights along for location shoots too. | ||
| PortraitManual – DigitalPortrait – Foundation – ThePortrait – ArtTechnique – PhotographyCourse – GreatShots | ||
| Lighting for Mood and Style – Classic painterly. | ||
|---|---|---|
| Lighting setup is key to style. The traditional syle, like a Rembrandt painting, dominated the 20th Century and is still prevalent for business head shots. | ||
| DigitalPortrait – Enthusiasts – FocusOnDigital – Mastering – ThePortrait – ArtTechnique – PhotographyCourse | ||
| Lighting for Atmosphere and Mood – That dreamy look. | ||
|---|---|---|
| The very soft lighting look has been around from the start, but is now taking off as a mainstream style. Popularity for family and lifestyle portraits seems to be soaring. | ||
| Luminous | ||
| Finessing Lighting for All Styles. | ||
|---|---|---|
| These books are more even handed with examples of various styles for creative lighting. | ||
| PortraitManual – Foundation – PhotoWorkshop – GreatShots | ||
| Post Processing – Lite | ||
|---|---|---|
| Just the basics for post processing for beginners. Becoming a zen master at PP is a good thing, but not an essential thing. Really disappointed that GreatShots had nothing to say about PP (except cropping). | ||
| Enthusiasts – Foundation – PhotoWorkshop – ArtTechnique | ||
| Post Processing – Advanced | ||
|---|---|---|
| These books gave lots of good info on the classic Adobe editors, Elements, Lightroom and Photoshop. While these programs still dominate the professional field, there are now several nice competing programs for enthusiasts to consider. Programs that do not require a Cloud subscription. | ||
| DigitalPortrait – Mastering – PhotographyCourse | ||
| Creating a Portfolio | ||
|---|---|---|
| Of course this topic is mainly for aspiring pros, not hobby folk. | ||
| DigitalPortrait – Luminous – PhotographyCourse | ||
| Advertising, Catalog, and Fashion Photography | ||
|---|---|---|
| Bidner’s book didn’t really venture into commercial work at all. The others had lots of scattered tips for fashion shoots that are very good, but only “PortraitManual” made this accessible with a section devoted to Fashion. Curiously, the GreatShots book has little to say about fashion, and yet many of its examples for lighting a model look like fashion shoots. Also, some of the examples for full length shots of women in Mastering and PosingComposition have a fashion vibe to them. | ||
| PortraitManual | ||
| Boudoir and Glamour | ||
|---|---|---|
| Includes some nude studies. “Luminous” has a whole section on this. | ||
| PortraitManual – Luminous – PosingComposition | ||
| Business Head Shots | ||
|---|---|---|
| There is fairly reliable need for this, I was surprised most of the books did not deal with it better. | ||
| DigitalPortrait – GreatShots – PosingComposition | ||
| Editorial and Location Portraits | ||
|---|---|---|
| Sometimes known as environmental portraits. “Luminous” showed many gorgeous examples, did not treat this as a subject, but those examples were too good to leave out. “PhotographyCourse” took this a whole lot more seriously than the others. “DigitalPortrait” touches on the various nuts-and-bolts, but is weak on the composition challenges. | ||
| Enthusiasts – Luminous – ThePortrait – PhotographyCourse – GreatShots | ||
Book styles.
| My preferences | ||
|---|---|---|
| So these are the books that I got the most enjoyment out of, in the long run. Feel perfectly free to ignore this, as each of us sees the photography game, and book editing, differently. | ||
| PortraitManual – Mastering – PhotoWorkshop – GreatShots | ||
| Furthermore | ||
|---|---|---|
| The books “Luminous”, “ThePortrait”, and “PosingComposition” were borderline too advanced for this survey. But for those who want to dive that deep, here they are. | ||