Posing for Portrait Photography: A Head-to-Toe Guide Reviews

• Do as I say, not as I do

  
  By AL23CKOKTMA9W on 2005-09-10
  I bought this book to see if I could use it as a textbook with which to teach my students. I found it mildly informative for beginners, but the pictures often were very poor and the models looked uncomfortable with their head cocked to awkward angles.
  
  One of the greatest flaws in this book was the lack of cohesion. A lot of concepts were given, but very little application, examples, or delving into more advanced techniques (especially lighting, which goes hand in hand). One of my students read this and said she constantly didn't know what to do next.
  
  Again, the pictures, although many, were mostly poor, and there were no pictures of a typical studio setup. The book only tells you the purpose of straight line-sets and curved line-sets, but that's about it. It very vaguely tells you to consider your studio setup with the modeling.
  
  In short, I do not recommend this book for anyone because of its lack of depth and lack of good examples. It would start off a beginner on the wrong foot and bore intermediate to advanced photographers.
  
  

• One of the best books on posing!

  
  By A1VOG6AJASHFRA on 2004-10-26
  I have not had any formal training in photography, but read or watch anything I can get my hands (anything I can afford that is). I'll take notes on what ever it is I'm leaning. This is by far one of the best books on posing I've read. On just about ever page I leaned something new. Mr. Smith brings together all the small details of a good pose in a nice simple package. From expressions, deadly sins, legs, and more Mr. Smith does a great job in covering all the subjects.
  I shoot weddings, and was easily able to apply all the information.
  
  
  

• Posing for high school seniors

  
  By A2ET2TXWO1QDMV on 2006-10-13
  I bought this book to try to learn some useful poses for my subjects, and given most other people's ratings, I decided to give it a try. However, upon opening the book my first thought was, "these all look like high school yearbook photos", which is exacltly what they are. It seems that that's primarily what type of photography the author does and his book is geared almost exclusively to that market. His main concern, which he stresses throughout the book, is creating a "saleable picture", and he keeps emphasizing the importance of pleasing mom, since she's usually the one with final say over the pictures. A better title for this book would have been, "How To Take High School Senior Pictures".
  
  Even then, most of the pictures are not very good, both in their original execution and in their print quality for this book. In addition, the poses are unnatural and awkward looking, and the book is filled with typos and grammatical errors.
  
  To be fair, the author does suggest some useful basics of things to do and things not to do when posing a subject, but there is really very little useful information here.
  
  So, if you're interested in learning how to take pictures that look like a Sears portrait, this may be the book for you. However, if you really want to learn some useful techniques for posing your subjects in a more natural or more artistic manner, I'd steer clear of this book.
  
  

• Valuable insights and good fundamentals

  
  By A2233WYIV9IX17 on 2006-06-11
  This book is full of nuggets of insights. Very first chapter; 'Six things you should never do' pays for the price of the book. I am not a professional photographer but insights in this book have helped me take better portraits.
  
  I am surprised by a very negative review on this book. That reviewer must be confused about another book. There is no question posing is a difficult topic and it is wrong to expect one single book will make you master of portrait photography. Nonetheless, this book will help you avoid some basic mistakes. After reading this book, I looked at pictures I had taken before and I noticed several basic errors I made. Now I won't be making those errors anymore.
  
  This book is well illustrated with excellent photographs and is presented in very logical order. Out of several books I bought on this topic, this is the one I keep referring to again and again and it never disappoints.
  
  There are few drawbacks. There is limited information on lighting. Book focuses on mainly studio portraits and assumes you are a professional photographer with all the equipment; information on outdoor portraits is limited. Also this book focusses only on senior portraits.
  
  Author Jeff Smith has other books on lighting and outdoor portraits.
  
  Overall this is a good book on posing if you keep above limitations in mind.
  
  
  

• Clever Poses, Great Comments

  
  By A1M8PP7MLHNBQB on 2005-04-14
  There are several things I really like about this book:
  
  First, is the fact that the thinking is up to date. The traditional poses of GrandMa's pictures just won't do in today's market.
  
  Second, he points out that the only reason for taking a portrait is to produce a picture that the customer likes, that's the only way you can make any money.
  
  Third, is the understanding that there is nothing wrong with any pose if that's what the customer wants. That is, treat the customer with respect.
  
  Finally there are some very interesting hints, in taking a picture of a girl on a motorcycle, he also took a picture of just her face. The comment is made that the girl wants the picture of the bike, but the picture of just her face appeals to older people such as her parents. That's an easy way to make additional money out of the same basic setting.
  
  You may not like all the poses given her, but if the book gives you just one or two ideas for your next portrait shoot, it is well worth it's low cost and the time it takes to read it.
  
  
• Very good book on posing
  By A2BN67MBQQ23G1 on 2006-07-06
  When you're working with professional models, posing becomes very easy, because the model will assume a succession of interesting basic poses and variations that the photographer can work with. All you might need to do is offer suggestions to refine and fine tune a good pose to make it a great one.
  
  That's not the case when you're working with non-professionals, which is the case with most portrait work! Your subjects may be ill-at-ease, not know what to do, and worried that their portrait will not turn out well. This book gives the photographer the knowledge and confidence needed to create interesting and flattering poses for a variety of portrait situations. If you read this, you'll be much more adept at portraiture, and your subjects will be relaxed and more readily photographed in attractive ways. This is an essential tool for beginning portrait photographers, or veterans who want to improve their skills.
  
  
• Well written, but poses weren't that great
  By A1HC99V9B5M718 on 2005-02-23
  I found alot of the poses in this book to be quite ugly to be honest. I guess i just dont like his style of posing people. Apart from that, it was pretty well written and very easy to read, there were lots of pictures to show you what he means.
  
  
• professional poser!
  By AUA28BEY648QE on 2005-11-17
  this book is great! i am a college student and photography recently became my hobby. I know nothing of posing and this book covers it all!!! things to do, thing not to do, how to adress your subject... i thought Mr. Smith chose a very good tittle for his book "Posing... a head to toe guide" it is exactly as he saids this book will teach you everything you need to know about the human figure and how to pose it! its a great book and i cant recomend it enough, after reading this book i just feel like going out and applying everything i just learned! A++++
  
  
• Read it
  By A1QGD71PSISLWR on 2005-06-19
  A very worthwhile help for learning posing. Jeff Smith offers basic practical advice about positioning body parts which is a start but made to be broken.This book does more-- he shows how important it is to think like the client. Get the pictures your client likes, not what you want. Also, think like a model. Get a feel for doing poses and model how you want the model to behave.
  
  
• Useful guide
  By A2DC1OZAEKPPO7 on 2005-09-12
  Posing is allways a difficult aspect, and there are a few useful hints in this book. The view is quite narrow: senior portraits, and mostly female. And, only posing is the subject - f.i. lighting is quite monotonous through the book. But, worth it's price.
  
  
• Posing Demystified
  By A38H1YDSEO6X6A on 2007-02-08
  As a budding amateur photographer looking for advice on how to capture better portraits of individuals and groups, as well as get some ideas for memorable poses. I found Bill Hunter's book to be the most useful of the 2 I purchased, the other being "Posing for Portrait Photography a head-to-toe guide" by Jeff Smith. The posses/images in Mr. Hunters book had a real Art/High Fashion quality to them, they were very distinctive. While Jeff's images throughout his book felt like High School senior headshots and poses, and I worked on my award winning annual staff in high school, so I know what I speak of. Both had good tips but Mr. Hunters book provided more depth and detail on how-to achieve the desired result.
  
  
• Better Basic intro book
  By A8RHCDJKOXDOC on 2007-05-06
  This is a better intro book than Master Posing Guide by Wacker. For your money, only purchase this one. Took job with portrait company and this book covers everything in their training guide. Recommend also getting The Portrait Photographer's Guide to Posing by Bill Hurter as a worthwhile guide to expanding your creativity, if you are serious about portrait photography.
  
  
• basic book
  By A2E0GFVJSQXB9E on 2006-05-05
  good source of information to prepare lessons for starting photography students.
  
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• Excellent book
  By A3RW9HWR8LG3YN on 2005-11-02
  This is easily the best of the posing books i've read. It gives six simple rules that will help if that's all you read, and goes on to describe how to pose each part of the body. I highly recommend this book, it's invaluable.
  
  
• I don't think this is a great book
  By A25H07EBG2F5LY on 2005-02-15
  I bought this book, and I don't think this is a great book.
  
  
• Portrait Photography
  By AORSNNA7HTDVF on 2006-01-15
  This book is a must read for anyone trying to take portraits.
  
  
• Posing for the mall photographer
  By A3OY73056FGYC1 on 2007-04-20
  The basic concepts explained in this book is informative for the beginner photographer, and it stops there. The book focuses on senior portraits where the main goal is to sell as many photos to mom is possible. Therefore, the poses aim to appeal to the general audience and will seem uncreative and bland. In fact, the author advises you to eschew all of your creative tendencies and simply focus on creating a generic photo that will likely sell. If that's the kind of portraiture you're trying to learn, then this is the book for you. If you already know the basics covered in this book and if you have any artistic aspirations, I suggest you look elsewhere (recommendations welcome).
  
  
• so so book
  By AUQJWE6C0ZW5P on 2007-05-25
  The book was to generic for me i was looking for morte detailed information. Like were to postion lights and subject to get this effect and so on. It had so good do's and dont's but for the price I wish I would have just check it out at the library.
  
  
• Awesome book
  By APOWGGIAV8BK1 on 2006-08-15
  The negative review certainly must be mistaken, and about another book! This book is quite detailed when it comes to posing an individual,and even gets down to details of each part of the body...hands, hips, feet, arms, ect. I would recommend this book, and in fact am ordering another for a friend! I didn't want to sell him my copy!
  
  
• show ur subject posing better
  By A2IMZ5JR9X5X94 on 2007-06-02
  Hi,My all dear photographers freind this book is good for us to understand what type of pose given to our claint.If u wan't to use some new poses then buy this book .
  Thanking u,
  Maulik Sheth.
  (INDIA)
  
  
• Posing for Portrait Photography: A head to Toe Guide
  By ASRUTQSGNQNTZ on 2007-07-08
  As a professional photographer for a studio located in a chain store, I do a high volume of portraits. Repeat customers are a good aspect of the job, so new poses are a plus for customers, hence sales. I found this book to be easy to understand, helpful for beginners in the studio, and helpful for the experienced photographers as well. There are several pictures to back up the easy to understand text.
  
  
• good tips
  By AYLJA8C1ZURWU on 2006-08-27
  good tips for models or those being photographed. the tips are fundemental, and help you to learn the ropes, however it probably wont change your life. i would reccomend to models with no photographic experience.
  
  
• Good foundation
  By A3NO670XMU3WTP on 2008-02-16
  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.
  
  
• Save your money ..
  By A29HLLSMGPT74G on 2008-04-12
  Ugh. Where to begin.
  
  Well, for starters, I actually made it through this nearly worthless "guide". If this is your very first posing book then it has "some" usable information, stress "some". Otherwise, or if it is your first, do a yourself a favor and skip it and pickup the far superior "Portrait Photographers Handbook"-Hurter which covers posing (and more) as or more usably in a couple chapters than this whole guide. Or get "The portrait photographers guide to posing"-Hurter also (all are Amherst media so I'm not shilling here)which is an expansion of Hurter's chapters in the first book listed above on posing. They are far far better written, without ? I dunno what it is? ego? perhaps? or just a clunky writing style in this book. For example, if I read one more time how the author is so awesome and his new photographers are so unworthy and relegated to backroom or "senior" duties for 2 years doing headshots before they're worthy to move to 3/4 or full portraits, my eyes will probably get stuck in the rolling position. I got a sense the author is arrogant...and for NO REASON if his photos are any indication.
  
  Whatever it was this book is nearly useless irrespective of that issue anyway. Even the photos, something I don't normally gripe about, are very average, far from inspiring. The above listed books are so far superior in this regard it's laughable. They contain photos from the top photogs in the country and are very inspiring.
  
  I would actually rate this book 2 stars but seeing as how far the amazon 4.5* ratings are out of whack, if I could do zero I would. Highly overrated. 2 Stars
  
  
• Would be a better Posing book if combining 6 into 1 title.
  By A2TKISQ644G9TB on 2008-06-03
  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.
  
  
• Ground Rules of Portrait Photography
  By A19Q4SHUVKQKMY on 2005-09-07
  Photography, as well as other arts, is very subjective. What may be beautiful or correct for someone, could be boring to someone else. Even then, there are certain basic rules to follow in order to obtain at least acceptable results. This book by Jeff Smith is what I was looking for. He uses a plain and simple language to explain the most important aspects related to making good photos of people, whether professional models or not. He goes step by step, pointing the basic details to be looked at when taking a photo: lighting, the face, hands, arms, clothing, backgrounds, even the photographer's attitude and behavior. He sets the ground rules from which a creative person can grow. I recommend this book for non professionals interested in stepping forward to take better photos of people.
  
  
• Decent read
  By A33OFMWDHGQ9P8 on 2006-04-25
  If you're looking for a basic posing book to get you started, this will give you a step in the right direction.
  
  
• Many poses and variations.
  By AEPGL47T8UJL0 on 2006-11-03
  The book is ideal so that this started to photograph in studio and needs referencias to locate the models. Many poses and its variations. I recommend.
  
  
• Posing for Portrait Photography
  By A1BTDMKUSAZ9T2 on 2007-01-22
  I've known Jeff Smith since he started his business and he is the best. His portraits
  come alive with the feelings of the subject. This book is a must for anyone
  who takes pictures of people. And not just professionals. Those of us who
  are parents and grandparents can learn a lot about posing which will make
  our personal memories even better.
  
  Great book! And I love the wedding shots in the park. I know that couple!
  
  
• "yehha" - worth for penny
  By A2IO07FJUK6DHY on 2008-01-10
  It contains only and the details posing for teenager to adult, but not glamor "nudity" posing (as author state his philosophy about the "glamor"). Woth the "$"
  Well I need 2 more books to be feel completed that it composition and lighting techniques.
  
  4/14/2008, Since this is my first book regrading to posing. After weeks of read, and see the pictures begin look "award, weerrr" but I still don't know why. I loan book "posing... by Bill Hurter" I realized the pictures tilted the model head extremely and some time "hurt" such an unnatural look. I have to change to 3. But Amazon not let me do that.
  
  

• Master Lighting Guide for Portrait Photographers
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• Portrait Photographer's Handbook
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