Understanding Portrait Photography: How to Shoot Great Pictures of People Anywhere

by Bryan Peterson

Capture the perfect portrait--even if it's with a selfie--in this updated edition of a trusted classic, now with all-new photography.

Great portraits go beyond a mere record of a face. They reveal one of the millions of intimate human moments that make up a life. In Understanding Portrait Photography , renowned photographer Bryan Peterson shows how to spot those "aha!" moments and capture them forever. Rather than relying on pure luck and chance to catch those moments, Peterson's approach explains what makes a photo memorable, how to spot the universal themes that everyone can identify with, and how to use lighting, setting, and exposure to reveal the wonder and joy of everyday moments.

This updated edition includes new sections on capturing the perfect selfie, how to photograph in foreign territory while being sensitive to cultures and customs, how to master portraiture on an iPhone, and the role of Photoshop in portraiture. Now with brand-new photography , Understanding Portrait Photography makes it easy to create indelible memories with light and shadow.

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

Published August 4, 2020

About the author

Bryan F. Peterson has been a full-time commercial photographer since 1981, shooting assignments all over the world for many of the Fortune 500 companies, including Kodak, UPS, and American Expiress. He is also a contract stock photographer for Corbis and Getty. He has been a contributing editor at Outdoor Photographer Magazine and is currently a contributing editor at Popular Photography and Imaging Magazine. Within the photographic community, he is most noted as the author/photographer of four best selling “how-to” photography books, Understanding Exposure, Understanding Shutter Speed, Learning to See Creatively and Beyond Portraits, with two new books due out in the spring of 2009, Understanding Close-up Photography and The Field Guide to Photography. He is also the founder and one of the instructors at the world’s number one on-line photography school, www.ppsop.net.

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite the book I was looking for. Peterson is an engaging writer and has travelled widely. His photographs are wonderful and he clearly has that enviable talent of being able to spot a great photo opportunity in spades.

I suppose I was hoping for something a bit more technical, and there’s a bit in there, but mostly Peterson concentrates on how to persuade strangers to pose for him – telling them what a wonderful subject they will make and promising to send/text them the image immediately after taking it.

The courtesy matters because most of his pictures are a kind of organised street-photography. Anyone taking their camera onto the streets will know the awkward judgement that must be made between approaching a stranger to ask them to pose or risking their ire by taking a photo without their permission.

So, this is not a book for someone planning to work in a studio or trying to create more abstract images with a camera. Any budding street photographer, however, will learn much from Peterson’s approach.

[Martin Iotchev · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the highlights of this book is the amazing photography inside. Some of the photos that Bryan shares are truly phenomenal and can serve as good inspiration if you're fed up with the run-of-the-mill photos that get regurgitated on popular social media sites.
That being said, it's not exactly an in-depth book. There are some useful tips and tricks (like Sunny 16, how to compensate when shooting subjects of different skin color and fighting the camera light meter, etc), but overall it feels like a collection of "hey, remember that composition is important", "framing is useful", etc. It's a quick read if you skim over most of the backstories for the photos (a large portion of the book is stories). I'm docking a couple of stars because I don't feel like there is a ton of learning that you get from this book. For a complete beginner, this book would not be a good learning resource. If you want a book to teach you, this isn't it. (I would recommend some of the books by Roberto Valenzuela or Lindsay Adler). If you already know your way around a camera and what you're doing, then this book is a fine quick read with some amazing photos to inspire your next photoshoots.

[Petr Škorvan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was unpleasantly surprised with this book because the ratings seemed promising but unfortunately there was very little value within. I could not help but feel that the author might be just a bit out of touch. I hoped there would be at least some guidance as to how to work with people but no. The author's golden recipe for success is to harass random people on the street into signing a contract in exchange for a photo? Nah. There was just about nothing technical, no variety, everything was taken with an underexposed Nikkor 18-300 mm lens on a crop sensor and for the most part it feels like an autobiography nobody really asked for. Not to mention the author's rabid takes about the lives of his subjects. To say that someone working a difficult physical job for 10 hours daily under a hot roof is happy is nothing short of delusional. In short: I would advise anyone expecting any sort of advice as to how to actually take portrait pictures to look for another publication.

[Amanda Ramos · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is extremely useful for both beginner and professional photographers.