Summary: Even better than first edition
Comment: I read the first edition of this book and would have given it a 5, but the second edition is even better. Most of the images in this edition are in color (most of the first edition were in black and white), so you can see better what he is trying to teach you, and there are many new images. The text also is updated with a discussion of digital. It is a book for the working professional, or one who aspires to be, but it also has many helpful information for the amateur who just wants to take better portraits outdoors. The only quibble with this book is that Smith specializes in the senior (high school) portrait market and all the pictures are of teen agers, mostly young women. One would like to see a little more variety in the people photographed.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Guide to Profitable Photography?
Comment: From the title this looks like just the book for someone who wants to shoot good portraits without setting up a studio. However, once you start reading you'll realize that this book is aimed at the professional portrait photographer who has to crank out pictures for a living, rather than for someone interested in capturing the soul of a person on film. It's not that there isn't a place for such a book but I think the publisher has an obligation to give us fair warning. Discovering more than half-way through a photography book that the main theme is "Art is Determined by the Eye of the Buyer" might leave a reader with a bad taste in his or her mouth.
The title might lead you to think that this book was a comprehensive approach to the subject, and that it would deal with lighting, posing, the relationship of foreground, subject and background, and the use of props, among other items critical to good portraiture. Well, the first half of the book does deal with lighting and from the author's presentation, with a little thought, one might be able to derive some comprehensive approach to using light. He certainly hammers home the theme that outdoor portrait photographers don't want direct lighting. Smith also advocates shooting early and late in the day and using reflectors for fill light. But then he lapses into broad generalities. He tells us make sure the background is right but never makes it really clear how one is to do that.
Unfortunately, he spends more of the book telling you that if you want to make money, you've got to work fast and be a step ahead of everyone into the next fad. Certainly chapters entitled "Maximizing Profit" and "Marketing Outdoor Photographs" have little to do with photography itself.
I'm certain there are many better books on portrait photography around. Although by no means comprehensive, the same publisher offers "Professional Secrets of Natural Light Portrait Photography" by Douglas Allen Box. The Box book covers many more aspects of the subject, offers a comprehensive approach to outdoor photography and, even though it includes the word "professional", does not dwell on portrait photography as a money-making enterprise.
Customer Rating:
Summary: AN ESSENTIAL LEARNING TOOL FOR ALL PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHERS
Comment: This book has given me the inspiration and the knowledge that I have been searching for. Jeff Smith's step by step introduction to Outdoor Portrait Photograpy has instilled me with great confidence in starting my own part-time business which will for sure lead to full time.
This book shows detailed beautiful photographs and explains with many visual illustrations how the shots were captured. Jeff Smith's artistic eye sets him apart from most of the other Portrait Photographers I have met over the last 15 years.So many important business tips are given by the author, that makes this book a must. The knowledge you gain way out weighs the small amount you need to invest to have this great Book.