Posing for Portrait Photography: A Head-To-Toe Guide for Digital Photographers

Overall, this is a great help to someone who needs a good grounding in posing for portrait photography. I think I got my money's worth out of it. I particularly appreciated his discussion about expressions. He has some good points in there.I'm not sure why the title specifies it's just for digital photographers. I think everything in it is useful to film shooters, too.It has two shortcomings as I saw it.First, it needs more supporting images to go with the verbal description. Some labelled arrows to the sample images pointing out specifically what is being addressed and how would be great! There are a few examples of "bad" posing to illustrate some of the basic points at the beginning, but as the book went on, it seemed fewer and fewer were shown.Second, there are times, especially in the leg posing section, where the author decided to use a verbal description of how to pose a foot or leg where an illustration of some kind is really necessary. The most poignant example is when he refers to the "front foot". Front with respect to WHAT? Does he mean closer to the camera? Does he mean it is further in front of the subject? Doesn't that depend on how the subject decides to place their feet before you pose them? Even a review of the sample images didn't yield much evidence. I gave up trying to figure it out. Here, a picture would truly be worth 1000 words.Overall, though, a good book of basics; and certainly enough to get one started.

Being a beginner at portrait photography this was a good book to start with, the author went into good detail about body flow and placement. I wish there were more "Do This" "Not This" photos to demonstate the value of proper posing. I was really interested in small group photography (eg. mom, dad & kids, child/children with pet) and there was only one tiny section devoted to this which was a bummer for me. Putting that aside it is written very simply and easy to understand. I would recommend this to others.

This book is a must have for anyone doing any kind of photography!!! It contains entertaining stories that explain why you must do this or not do this. It explains how to pose the individual parts of the body and why. An example of things it suggesgts is to turn the body at an angle to the camera because if you put a person perfectly facing the camera, it shows the body at it's largest. It also explains what you must not do when posing someone. He calls it the deadly sins of posing. It has great visual examples of poses for you to go by. It is mostly for senior photography, but if you cannot pose one person successfully, I don't recommend trying to pose more than one person. The only type of photography that this doesn't go into depth on is wedding photography. And I still managed to get some great shots of my brother-in-law's wedding from the tips and suggestions from this book!

I liked this book because it used everyday normal folks to teach us how to take better photographs of people. This book is great for beginning photographers and had easy to learn techniques. Lots of good visuals to help in learning to take good photos.

I liked the concepts presented and agree that you have to give your best each and every time.This book is helpful for those who are having a hard time visualizing why a pose will work.

Easy read - understand

Well written, well illustrated, a great value. A great resource for portrait photographers. Advanced amateurs can always learn from books like this one.

very well written. a lot of good ideas and some traps you might get caught in.

I am a pretty experienced portrait photographer and am just moving into fashion shoots and weddings. I bought this book as I wanted some inspiration for new poses. It is absolutely BRILLIANT. Not only does the author demonstrate lots of really good poses, he explains (really well) why certain poses work for certain ages/body types etc and why others don't. There are examples of poses that work and poses that don't so you can see what a difference a change of pose can make.I've seen books on posing before that are virtually all text, and the text hasn't been very useful, and I've seen books that are really just a collection of photos of different poses for you to try to replicate. This book has the best of both - USEFUL text with plenty of photos. Very glad I added this one to my collection!

An easy learn format for the busy individual. We watched as a group which only enhanced our interaction and discussion regarding topics presented in DVD. Unfortunately a rather male orientated stance is presented. A female co-presenter and some male models would have offered a more balanced view. The DVD is a good starting point (or review) to learn the foundations of posing for portrait photography. The content will improve your portraiture. Very recommended.

I loved this book. I am relatively new to portraiture and found it very informative. Jeff explains how to pose your subjects so as enhance the overall look of the client ie make the waist look slimmer, how to position hands and hide the not so flattering bits like the necks on more mature persons.

Some super photographs, with some user friendly tips on how to pose your model and things to look for. It may have been nice if the f numbers, details had been provided beside each photo, just to see what had been used. You will need to use other books for studio lighting set up and post processing.

I do enjoy this book as the poses are great for inspiration, but I haven't read much of it.