General Portrait Knowledge

[wingflapp]

What reading would you recommend to a person who wanted to start learning about portrait photography. Basic Technical stuff. Basic Lighting, Basic equipment requirements. Anything comprehensive out there?

[NicolaB]

This site I have learnt most of what I know from posting on here and then acting on CC.

The most useful book to cement the basics would be imo Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. The Kelby books have also been invaluable in learning Photoshop and LR.

Setting targets such as 356's or 52 week projects will also accelerate you learning.

[BigFuzzy]

I agree with Nicola and would like to add the following for anything lighting related.

Light and Magic, fourth edition: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting
and
Strobist.com
and Nielvn.com

And then just spend time here and also just surfing through Flickr.. you'd be amazed at how much you can learn and/or get inspired by just looking at portraits, especially after reading the above books which will allow you to understand better how they achieved certain lighting.

[PrototypeImagery]

One book that helped me tremendously was Lee Varis's book Skin. There is now 2nd edition and gave me a great understanding of what skin should look like once photographed and some of the better ways to retouch it in Photoshop.

[wingflapp]

Originally Posted by BigFuzzy

I agree with Nicola and would like to add the following for anything lighting related.

Light and Magic, fourth edition: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting
and
Strobist.com
and Nielvn.com

And then just spend time here and also just surfing through Flickr.. you'd be amazed at how much you can learn and/or get inspired by just looking at portraits, especially after reading the above books which will allow you to understand better how they achieved certain lighting.

Thank you very much, Everyone. Fuzzy, I'm currently reading Light-Science and Magic, and it's definitely changing the way I think about taking pictures. It's very interesting to boot. Thank you for the wonderful recommendation.

I know sometimes my questions may seem like I'm asking everyone to get me the answers, but that's not really it. I'm looking for recommended reading from people in the know. Because the internet has a ton of resources that are incomplete, not exactly what I'm looking for, or have WAAAAAY more information than I need. DPS has been very helpful because the reading is very pointed, and simplified. Perfect for someone at my level.

Again, thanks for reading and answering. Greatly Appreciated.