The Business of Portrait Photography

by Tom McDonald

Book Overview

This volume covers the art of portraiture, the management of a studio, and interview format profiles. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0817436154
• ISBN13: 9780817436155
• Release Date: July 2002
• Publisher: Amphoto Books
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 8.5" x 11.0"

Customer Reviews

Changed my way of thinking about a few things.

I usually don't review books that I'm only half way through, but I thought this book deserves it. While some of the reviews of this book are negative, I don't see where they can come to that conclusion. First, this book is about the business of portrait photography. It is not about how to pose people or what they should wear. Yes, there is a little of that but there are books out there geared towards that and those should be the ones you are looking at. I suggest books by Bill Hurter, Monty Zucker or Ellie Vayo to name a few. I'm planning on doing some portrait work as a side line and some of the plans I made have been covered in this book and made me think that they were not the best ideas. Some have said the pictures are bad in this book. Well, this type of book could have less pictures than it has. The print is fine so there is plenty to read. I think you will learn a lot from this book and it might save you some cash by preventing a mistake down the line.

Best Book on the Subject

I completely agree with the other positive 5* reviews, and completely disagree with Fribio99's review. This is the best single book I've ever seen on this subject.This book covers the practical and artistic issues of portrait photography such as equipment, lighting, posing, exposure, diffusion. It then deals with how to handle special subjects like children, pets, couples, groups, and other portrait specialities. It also includes practical chapters on how to manage and improve the business side of the operations.Finally, the book concludes with "guest appearances" in the form of two- or four-page spreads by 15 other photographers (they largely seem to be couples), so that you get a sense of different styles of portrait photography and different perspectives on how to build a portrait business. Many of these "guests" are truly spectacular artists in their own right, and it is very intersting to read and learn from what they have to say.A bonus to all this really good information is the stunning variety of really great pictures (mainly in color). Different people have different ideas how a portrait should look, but most mainstream styles are here, and they are beautifully illustrated by a wide and extremely gifted variety of photographers. If you buy this book and Kodak's "The Portrait," you'll probably never need anything else.

Excellent Insight...

The Business of Portrait Photography offers excellent insight for people considering entry into this exciting line of work. I am in the beginning stages of opening my own portrait photograhy business, and found the information in Mr.McDonald's book quite helpful and well-written. It is not easy to find photographers willing to share their experience with newcomers, and this book does exactly that. If you are curious about this field, I highly recommend this book.

To the point! Filled with information, informative

Extremely enlightening. This book offerd much information for me. I'm not a beginner, yet not quite a professional, a book like this is capable of filling in the space between the two. The author also utilize the expertise of fellow professional photographers, making it a well rounded book. I must repeat this is definately an Excellent book, easy to read and understand, yet it offered a professioal perspective that did not try to "write over your head" definately a creation of love!

an indispensable book on running a portrait business

This is easily the most helpful and practical book I have every read on operating a photography business.It doesn't just cover the "big picture", although it does that well, going into different philosophies, styles and approaches to business of different photograpers. It covers every practical aspect of the business, going into details other books don't bother mentioning. I wish I had read this book when I started my business it would have saved me a lot of time and money.