FACES, Photography and the Art of Portraiture [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Although there are many different books on portrait photography, most of them are organized in a similar format. For example, explanations of lighting ratios are immediately preceded by descriptions of the roles of main lights, fill lights, hair lights and so forth. "Faces: Photography and the Art of Portraiture" takes a different approach.

The book opens with a short portfolio of modern-day portrait photographers, including Joyce Tenneson and Dan Winters, and is followed by a portfolio of historic portraits. The main part of the book consists of a number of two-page spreads each of which includes a portrait, a lighting diagram for most, and a narrative that points out something about the technique and content of each image. The images vary from those taken with elaborate indoor lighting set-ups to quick-catch street pictures, and use cameras from large format to point-and-shoot, and even "toy" cameras. The book ends with short essays on street shooting; preparation; modifying light; the art and craft of portraiture; and an appendix that talks about compositing a group picture, color versus black and white, histograms and lighting ratios. Many of the images have a grittiness to them that might please other viewers, but might not be to the subject's liking.

One might expect that as one proceeded through the images, simpler concepts would be first introduced, with subsequent images building on these concepts, but the authors' ideas seemed scattered about. I prefer a more organized approach to instruction so I was discomforted by this round-about presentation. It made it harder for the lessons to stick in my mind. On the other hand, many of the portraits were extraordinary and narratives often contained useful information.

I also found that although the authors may have thought they covered all the key concepts, they missed at least a few. For example, Biver shows portraits that use ambient light at a low level, combined with flash, and shot at a very slow shutter speed with a hand held camera. Experienced photographers should be able to figure out how to calculate all the settings. On the other hand, less experienced photographers, to whom much of the book seems to be addressed, would probably have a hard time figuring out how to duplicate the effect.

Placing the light modifiers section well after the images section means that, unless one has a very good memory, inexperienced users will have to reread the images section to benefit from the author's pictures.

Occasionally I felt that some of the examples, although perhaps pleasantly quirky, were less successful as portraits. For example, there is a description of a complex group photograph that was so obviously a composite that it seemed to me that the description of the photographer's efforts to make it look like it wasn't a composite showed that he failed in his goal.

From a design point of view, I found it very difficult to read the captions on many of the illustrative photos because they were printed in yellow on a white page.

Portrait photography that is above the ordinary is difficult, and one way to learn to make extraordinary images is by looking at the work, and listening to the ideas, of a number of photographers. A photographer willing to spend the time may gain from this unorthodox presentation. However, I certainly would not recommend this volume as an aspiring portrait photographer's introduction to the art.

I recently took a photography class and had to do a portrait assignment. My instructor only showed us how to do a split, butterfly, and rembrandt lighting; just flipped through some portraits, mostly nude, on a projector. He had really high expectations, but basically, I was pretty lost on what to do, nor too excited about doing the assignment. I REALLY could have used this book for inspiration!

First of all, the cover is pretty brilliant with smooth and rough textures creating greater dimension (subject #20 Mark on pg. 56). This book is an easy read with the text explained in casual writing (not like reading a dull college thesis or something), and is accompanied by full color pictures and drawing lighting diagrams. 33 out of the 48 subjects, that the author shot, include a lighting setup diagram; the rest were just available light, so it was left out. Although, I'm not sure why there were some portraits that just used available light still included a diagram.

I found the lighting diagrams to be really beneficial. I also really love the "Portraits from the Past" section showcasing 36 portraits from the past with its background description. What makes this book also interesting to read is the variety of people the author shares of his work and explains the personality he wanted to capture.

To be honest, I felt some examples seemed more like a "fill-in" just to show the author's work or promote the type of camera. On some of the descriptions, the yellow font on a white background is REALLY difficult to read! I think that was a really bad choice.

It would definitely help to know the basics of camera such as ISO, shutter speed, aperture, etc. prior to taking in some of things written in this book because the author does mention what settings he used in SOME of his photographs. I understand the author does stress he does not want this book to be a "formula" type of learning, a direct-"just follow these settings and just reproduce", but giving you ideas to expand on. However, since he mentioned the settings for certain photos, it made me curious on what he used for the rest. He used various cameras from professional to simple point-and-shoot cameras; to studio set-ups to on-the-spot streets.

I like that the book included pictures of the types of tools for lighting. There is an appendix covering some very basic example of overexposure/underexposure, soft/hard light, or color-to-black and white. Comparison is always good to learn from. I know this book isn't about photography editing, but I would have liked to have seen how the original photo looked like, for some of the 48 portraits -- with raw lighting -- before all the post production manipulations with color correction and everything (just like how the author included the original picture for the abstract portrait of Harry "37" (pg. 90) Personally, the post editing effect seems kind of gimmicky because the original photo wasn't anything special. Well, art is all subjective.)

OTHER THOUGHTS:

The Flemmings family. The author wrote he made the family dress in dark-toned clothing, but one girl is dressed in bright red that really stands out in the family; I wonder if that was intentional? (pg. 71)

I thought it was a typo when it said "he" for Youngeshwar #16 (pg. 48). Youngeshwar really looks like a girl, especially with the circular "glamor" catch light ring on the eyes.

It was hard for me to put it down, so I definitely recommend it. I give it a 4 stars being really harsh. It's definitely inspiring to read. If this book doesn't want to make you want to go out there and start shooting some portrait pictures, or at least give you some sort of excitement about photography, then you should definitely change hobbies/career!

This is certainly an interesting book, with its pointers on how to achieve various looks with portrait photography. The book is divided unequally into several sections. The first (and briefest) is devoted to photo portraits from famous photographers, such as Nadav Kander, George Holz, and Dan Winters.

Though there are only 12 photos in this section, half of them are of movie stars and entertainers (Sophia Loren, Leonardo Di Caprio, Madonna, Jack Nicholson, Christina Ricci, Helen Mirren). The authors don't explain why these 12 photos are included and say insted they hope the reader "will find this collection of portraits inspiring."

The second section is titled "Portraits From the Past" and is a mixed bag of photographs from the Civil War era through the 1970's and illustrate a number of styles of portraiture from the rigid studies of the 1800's to informal pictures of average folks taken in natural environments. Each photo in this section is accompanied by a paragraph about the photographer, date the picture was taken, and some other brief historical notes.

The third section is the most interesting. Titled "Making Portraits," it consists of 48 photos of a variety of subjects in an assortment of styles. This portfolio makes clear how important lighting and color are in creating not only a photo's look, but its feel as well. On each facing page of a nearly full-page photo is a diagram showing the equipment used to capture the image and an explanation of how and why specific camera and other equipment was used. The pictures in this section are both in color and in black & white.

The fourth section is "Street Shooting." In this part of the book, the authors go into considerable detail about how to shoot in non-studio settings with real folks as subjects. One warning: Try to avoid paying subjects. "To do so can be a very big mistake," they note. "Once money hits the street, everybody wants some." They do add, however, that in certain cases, some form of payment is OK if the photo can't be obtained without it.

Other sections discuss pre-production and ways of modifying light. "Faces" is handsomely put together and written in easy-to-follow language. It appears geared to those who have or are willing to invest in lots of expensive equipment rather than the average guy who wants to improve his picture-taking skills. Some of the basic pointers are good ones to follow, but be aware that many of the great portraits depicted required considerable care and planning to achieve, not to mention a fully-equipped photography studio.