With chapters that offer practice exercises to strengthen your photographic abilities, break it down, you’ll learn how to approach a scene, and see your way to a great photograph. The location section features chapters that cover symmetry, textures, color elements, balance, framing, and much more. With busy, how can you take control and get a great shot no matter the situation? In Picture Perfect Practice, poses, cluttered backgrounds and subjects who don’t know how to pose, photographer Roberto Valenzuela breaks down the craft of photography into three key elements–locations, and execution–that you can use to unlock the photographic opportunities lying beneath every challenging situation.
. Foreword by skip cohen translating the chaos of the real world into a breathtakingly simple, beautiful photograph can often seem like an impossible task. If you’ve been frustrated and overwhelmed by the challenges of real-world locations, posing your subjects, under any lighting condition, or executing a great image–or if you simply want to become a better shooter but don’t know where to start–Picture Perfect Practice gives you the tools and information you need to finally become the kind of photographer you’ve always wanted to be: the kind who can confidently walk into any location, with any subject, and know that you can create astonishing photographs that have a timeless impact.
Valenzuela stresses the need for photographers to actively practice their craft every day–just like you would practice a musical instrument–in order to master the art of making great images. The posing section includes the five key posing Techniques that Valenzuela uses every time he’s shooting people, as well as a complete list of poses and how to achieve, customize, and perfect them.
Picture Perfect Lighting: An Innovative Lighting System for Photographing People
That is the job of light. It is with the lighting benchmark test that you will determine if and when you need to use “helper light, ” the light that is needed or manipulated in order to “help” the circumstantial light so that your vision comes to life. With it, roberto empowers photographers to embrace lighting as a source of creativity and expression in service of their vision for the image.
But how will you know if the circumstantial light is enough? The final piece of the Picture Perfect Lighting system is Roberto’s “lighting benchmark test, ” a brilliant method for determining the quality of the light in any given situation. With that mastery, you will finally have the ability to create that true “wow” factor in camera—and in your photographs.
Helper light is created with diffusers, reflectors, strobes, flashes, and light modifiers. In picture perfect lighting, Roberto has created a truly original system for understanding and controlling light in photography. After discussing the universal nature of light, Roberto introduces the five key behaviors of light, which are essential to understand in order to improve your knowledge of light.
With those behaviors established, roberto introduces his concept of “circumstantial light, ” an ingenious way of examining and breaking down the light around you in any given situation.
Picture Perfect Posing: Practicing the Art of Posing for Photographers and Models Voices That Matter
Instead of just showing page after page of poses–like most posing books on the market–Roberto actually breaks down the concept of posing by examining the anatomy, starting with the core foundation: the spinal chord and neck. Photographer, author, and educator Roberto Valenzuela has a proven track record for teaching and explaining difficult concepts to photographers of all skill levels.
. How should the model hold her hands? bend her elbows? position her fingers? Should the model look toward or away from the camera, and Roberto discusses the entire process, and why? It all depends on what the photographer wants for the shot, from the intent of the photographer through the execution of the pose.
His remarkable ability to break down complicated ideas into understandable, Picture Perfect Practice, approachable elements that photographers can truly grasp–and then use their newfound knowledge to improve their photography–made his first book, a breakout success. Building from there, Roberto discusses every component of what makes poses work, as well as fail.
For many photographers, elegant, after learning to compose an image and even light it properly, a portrait can still easily be a failure if the pose is not natural, and serving the needs of both the subject and the photographer.
Wedding Storyteller, Volume 1: Elevating the Approach to Photographing Wedding Stories
Most importantly, meaningful, Roberto stresses the crucial role that storytelling plays in creating compelling, and unique photographs for your clients. In this book, roberto has created a unique approach that anyone can learn to implement. Roberto teaches you how to work with light, depth, clutter, walls, context, and other compositional elements such as frames and reflections.
Foundation Components: People Techniques. Roberto discusses the five approaches he uses to build a “wedding story” for his clients. With wedding storyteller, you finally have a book that teaches you the skills you need to learn in order to create amazing images and craft masterful stories filled with beauty, Volume 1, by your side, emotion, and meaning.
Roberto discusses the crucial people skills you need to know and also teaches his unique approach to “situational posing” and group posing. Storyteller Approach Components. As the photographer, you are both the director and the documentarian of that story.
The Photographer's Guide to Posing: Techniques to Flatter Everyone
Posing is truly a crucial skill that photographers need to have in order to create great photographs. Lindsay then covers the five most important things that ruin a pose—such as placement of the hands, and your subject’s expression and posture. In each chapter, lindsay addresses that subject matter’s specific challenges, provides five “go-to poses” you can always use, and covers how to train the eye to determine the best pose for your subjects.
If you can look out for and avoid these five things, your skills and your images will quickly improve. She also discusses posing the face—with specific sections dedicated to the chin, eyes, jaw, and forehead—as well as posing hands. In the second half of the book, men, families and small groups, couples, Lindsay dedicates entire chapters to posing specific subject matter: women, curvy women, and large groups.
Next, ” outlining her approach to start with a “base pose, Lindsay dives into “posing essentials, ” then build on that to create endless posing opportunities. If you’re looking to improve your ability to pose your subjects—whether they’re men, women, couples, or groups—best-selling author and photographer Lindsay Adler’s The Photographer’s Guide to Posing: Techniques to Flatter Everyone is the perfect resource for you.
In the first half of the photographer’s guide to Posing, lens choice, and thus how camera angle, Lindsay discusses how the camera sees, and perspective all affect the appearance of your subject.
Wedding Storyteller, Volume 2: Wedding Case Studies and Workflow
Copiously illustrated with nearly 700 photographs and illustrations, and how to photograph “elevated” family portraits in each of them • and much morealso included is roberto’s invaluable advice concerning such topics as equipment preparation, wedding psychology, the book covers:• The five key elements of assessing the getting-ready rooms• The four types of wedding party group photos• Roberto’s system for ceremony coverage, TARPP The Action/Reaction Position Plan, lens selection and usage, which details the 10 crucial positions for the photographer to use to create the best and most cinematic story of the ceremony• The “situational approach” to bride and groom portraits• The three main locations for family portraits, and the importance of including imperfect but “fun” photos in your wedding photography your clients will love it!.
In wedding storyteller, volume 1, you learned the Wedding Storyteller Skill Components system, which provides the foundation for your wedding photography. Drawing from his highly successful career, roberto shares multiple case studies from numerous real-world weddings, covering the entire wedding timeline, from the beginning of the day when the couple is getting ready until the last portion of the reception.
Roberto goes into deep technical detail regarding how to apply the Wedding Storyteller Skill Components system to help you excel at photographing weddings for your own clients. In wedding storyteller, volume 2: wedding case studies and Workflow, photographer and bestselling author Roberto Valenzuela uses wedding case studies extensively to teach you in great detail the entire Wedding Storyteller Skill Components system that he introduced in Volume 1.
Light Science & Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting
This new edition includes:all new chapter titled "setting up your new studio"a re-vamped and expanded chapter 8 now titled "Making Portraits"New appendix of reliable photo gear sourcesOver 100 new photographs and informational sidebarsUpdated information about advances in flash equipment, LED panels and fluorescent lightsStyles of lighting continue to change, but the nature of light will always remain the same.
Photographic lighting is a topic that will never go out of style, no matter how sophisticated cameras and other technology get. Featuring photographs, diagrams, and step-by-step instructions, this book speaks to photographers of varying levels. It provides invaluable information on how to light the most difficult subjects, glass, metal, extremes black-on-black and white-on-white, such as surfaces, liquids, and portraits.
This key skill has the power to dramatically and quickly improve photographs.
The Dramatic Portrait: The Art of Crafting Light and Shadow
It is through deft, competent headshots into the realm of creating dramatic portraiture that can so powerfully convey a subject’s inner essence, nuanced use of both light and shadow that you can move beyond shooting simply ordinary, communicate a personal narrative, and express your photographic vision.
In the dramatic portrait: the art of crafting Light and Shadow, Chris Knight addresses portraiture with a unique approach to both light and shadow that allows you to improve and elevate your own portraiture. As almost every photographer knows, together, the word “photograph” has its roots in two Greek words that, mean “drawing with light.
But what is less commonly acknowledged and understood is the role that shadow plays in creating striking, expressive imagery, especially in portraiture. He begins with the history of portraiture, Rembrandt, from the early work of Egyptians and Greeks to the sublime treatment of light and subject by artists such as Caravaggio, and Vermeer.
Without light, there is no photograph.
Monte Zucker's Portrait Photography Handbook
. Providing instructions on how to conduct a well-crafted client consultation, where to place the camera, how to pose the body, readers will learn which angles of the face to photograph, and the proper positioning of lighting equipment in order to cultivate an emotional connection with clients to produce an ideal image.
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Color Harmony Compendium: A Complete Color Reference for Designers of All Types, 25th Anniversary Edition
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Doug Box's Guide to Posing for Portrait Photographers
Conveniently designed in two-page spreads—a striking portrait on one side, male or female clients, standing, a comprehensive how-to of the strategies used on the other—this reference includes countless techniques for studio sessions as well as outdoor and location shoots, with individuals or groups, and in sitting, or lying poses.
Often overshadowed by complicated lighting techniques or advanced postproduction tips, this resource seeks to remind the professional photographer of the fundamental importance of a subject's pose.