Beautifully illustrated, Portrait Photography in Africa offers new interpretations of the cultural and historical roles of photography in Africa. Twelve leading scholars look at early photographs, important photographers' studios, the uses of portraiture in the 19th century, and the current passion for portraits in Africa. They review a variety of topics, including what defines a common culture of photography, the social and political implications of changing technologies for portraiture, and the lasting effects of culture on the idea of the person depicted in the photographic image.

The ability to create an effective portrait is probably the single most important skill any aspiring photographer must master. Few professional photographers, whatever their area of specialization, can hope to have a successful career without ever being called upon to create a likeness of another person. The Portrait Photography Course is designed to build a student photographer's experience and get him or her started on a rewarding career. Detailed tutorials cover every aspect of studio and location work, from composition and psychology to complex lighting schemes, equipment options, and digital retouching. Portfolios of exemplary images showcase individual photographers' work and demonstrate techniques explored in the tutorials, while interviews with top portrait photographers shed insight into their methodologies and philosophies. Presented and written by a leading portrait photographer, this book is an indispensable guide to taking professional pictures.¿

The essays in this book investigate the early history and culture of the photography studio in China and Japan with particular attention to the genre of the studio portrait, and the ability of those portraits to devise modern, gendered, nationalistic, and public identities for its subjects.

Infuse your images with glowing, luminous light From high-profile wedding and portrait photographer Elizabeth Messina comes this beautiful guide to shooting lush, romantic portraits exclusively in natural light. Whether you’re photographing children, weddings, maternity and boudoir, or portraits of any kind, The Luminous Portrait will inspire you with Elizabeth’s personal approach and award-wining images, sharing the art to making flattering portraits that appear “lit from within.”

In this book, Michael Mowbray shows readers how to set up a completely speedlight-based portrait photography studio. He goes in depth regarding gear and techniques, providing photographers with scores of example portraits and lighting diagrams to make it easy to follow along and replicate the portrait lighting effects that he shows. Readers will learn about selecting speedlights (Mowbray covers Canon, Nikon, and third-party units), learning standard operations, and working with the units on the camera’s hot shoe (a connectivity device on top of the camera) or in the periphery for more flexible, controllable results. Readers will learn why modifying the light from speedlights will produce a lot more bang for their buck and will also discover a host of tools—commercial and DIY—that can be used to change the direction, color, and quality of light for the ultimate artistic control.

Scott Kelby, author of the top-selling digital photography book of all time, is back with an entirely new book in his popular series that picks up right where part 4 left off. It’s more of that “Ah ha—so that’s how they do it,” straight-to-the-point, skip-the-technojargon stuff you can really use today that made part 1 so successful. In parts 1 through 4 of this series, the most popular chapter in the book has always been the last chapter: “Photo Recipes to Help You Get ‘The Shot’.” In each of those chapters, Scott shows a final image and then describes how to get that type of shot. Here, in part 5, he gives you what you’ve been waiting for: an entire book of nothing but those amazing photo recipes. But, he took it up a big notch by adding a behind-the-scenes photo for every single recipe. Now you can see exactly how it was done, so you can get that exact same look every time. In these extra pages, each spread allows you to dig in a little deeper and really unlock the power of these recipes. Scott breaks each spread into four segments: (1) he explains exactly what you’re seeing behind the scenes, (2) he lists all of his camera settings, and lens and lighting info—it’s all there, (3) he gives you his thought process, so you learn exactly why he does it this way, and (4) he shares all the post-processing in Lightroom or Photoshop that goes on after the shoot (this is something other books leave out). Plus, the whole book is packed with tips and insights you won’t find anywhere else. This isn’t a book of theory, full of confusing jargon and detailed concepts. This is a book on which button to push, which settings to use, and exactly how and when to use them. With around 100 of the most popular photographic “tricks of the trade,” the entire book is designed to get you shooting like a pro starting today. You’re gonna love it.