Product Description

Natural light portraiture is fast becoming a popular style of photography. Photographers and clients appreciate the understated, low-maintenance shoots and the spontaneous, casual quality of the photos. Featuring images shot on location, in clients' homes, and in the studio, the author teaches how to use the unique qualities of direct sun, window light, porch light, shade, and the light at sunrise and sunset to create flattering, natural-looking portraits. Photographers will learn how to select the right setting, equipment, backdrop, and props, as well as how to control the balance of light between subject and background. Each sample portrait is accompanied by detailed technical information to help photographers achieve the same results in their own work.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #80032 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

About the Author
Douglas Allen Box is a professional photographer who specializes in photographing children, families, and weddings. He is the author of Professional Secrets for Photographing Children and Professional Secrets of Wedding Photography. He lives in Caldwell, Texas.

Customer Reviews

Great book ... but, wish there was more!
This is an excellent book on portrait photography for the amateur and beginning photographer, but not for the reasons most people may think. The author does not delve into the the basic of photography and presupposes some working knowledge of composition, technique, and camera operation; however, most beginning photographers and amateurs are de facto natural light photographers. What beginning photographer can afford a complete studio set up or assistant to set up and carry equipment for outdoor photography?

So, instead of taking poor natural light photographers and praying for the day you can afford "real equipment", read this book and become a master at taking photographers in natural light that are truly amazing.

This is an excellent resource and a wonderful book ... much more useful and practical than other books on portrait and glamour photography I have read.

Why only 4 stars? This was such a great book I didn't want it to end and I would have liked a little more depth in the coverage of topics.

Pretty cover but that's all. Content is fluff.
I buy a lot of books and this is the first that has ever so drastically underwhelmed me. As someone who has made a fairly good income in photography on the side, I wanted to learn more about informal outdoor portraiture (not weddings) in natural light and settings. The cover photograph is quite nice, but unfortunately is the best in the book. The rest are barely mediocre, especially for a photographer who reminds us throughout he text that he's endorsed by Hasselblad University.

In the beginning of this book, he claims it is for both the professional and for the mom who want to take better photos. It is for neither since it doesn't have enough of the basics for the uninitiated, and only talks about medium format focal lengths which the "mom" typically wouldn't be using nor understand the comparison to her 35mm lens focal lengths. (He could have added in parenthesis the equivalent length for 35mm camera), and neither does it cater to the pros desire for technical information by not publishing much data about each shot.

The nitty gritty of why this book is fluff: Photographer Douglas Allen Box continually glosses over pertinent technical information so vaguely that you wonder if you missed a paragraph or a page, while he goes on in depth about posing and clothing choices for your subject. At first thumbing through the pages, you'll see all sorts of 2 dimensional sketches next to some photos - that seems promising - until you actually try to match what is going on in the sketch to what is going on in the photo. They are often turned at odd angles to eachother - and often are actually wrong when you decipher the elements. Not helpful.

He describes a few tools and their use so inadequately he shouldn't bother mentioning them at all. Take these four examples: (1) A translucent light modifier has a page dedicated to it, yet there is no photo of one, nor is there a diagram showing how he placed it, nor a before picture to see what happens if one does not use it. (2) He complains that in one photograph he would have made a better photo with a longer lens that he did not own at the time of that portrait sitting. Well, set up a new one for this book and show us the difference - one with the shorter focal length and one longer - give us a diagram showing the difference in placement and the resultant photo. (3) His LIght Finder cube - in one passage he keeps refering to "the other two sides" but does not explain whether these are the dark sides, or light sides. A full page-and-a-half of vague description that leave one scratching one's head about a tool you really do not need in the first place. (4) He talks about blocking the overhead light when it is not naturally blocked, but never actually shows a diagram of how one might arrange such a set up, what tools and placement etc.

Lastly, when Box talks about adding flash he really ought to add a page or two for the uninitiated that explains why he's simply setting his flash at f8.5 and receiving different results. The accompanying text is exceptionally vague - yet he displays resulting photographs all extremely different from one another. I guess he leaves it up to us to buy another book that explains flash in a more satisfactory manner and then reapply it to his posing techniques of like-dressed people.

All in all, a complete flop unless you are very interested in learning how to pose and dress your subject. I'll be returning this one to Amazon quickly. Don't waste your money and time.

A Good Enough Book
I would guess that every photographer has tried to take a picture of someone out-of-doors and has been disappointed with the result. Douglas Allen Box provides a good, serviceable manual that should improve the quality of the average photographer's portraits.

The author's approach is to present a portrait and then explain the photographic considerations that went into it. Usually he provides an overhead diagram showing the relationship of camera, subject and light. With each picture a short description of lighting, photography and background is usually included. Some portraits have been selected because they presented special situations or techniques. For these, besides the trio mentioned, he offers a short discussion of the problem and how he solved it. For example a portrait featuring "head tilt" discussed what Box calls the C pose and the relationship of a tilted head to lighting.

When you've finished this book you will know how to look for that soft, indirect lighting that usually makes for attractive portraits. That may not sound like much, but it is probably the most important single factor for a good portrait. You will also have encountered a number of tips that will make your portraits better looking that you might not encounter elsewhere. For example, I had never read that having people in a group portrait dress in similar clothing would create of feeling of unity. And yet putting both members of a couple in white shirts and khaki pants can achieve that goal.

I have some nits to pick with the author. Box is a medium format guy and doesn't mention auto-exposure. Since most photographers are now using 35mm cameras with auto exposure, a little tailoring could have helped, but this shortcoming is not fatal. And he preserves a few photography myths, like the suggestion that a longer focal length lens creates a shorter depth of field. Optical science is clear that for the same image size on a negative, the only way to change the depth of field around a subject is by changing aperture.

Reading this book and following the author's advice will not make you into a Karsh or Avedon. Not only did those photographers create their portraits in the studio with special lights, but they also had some of the most photogenic faces in the world to work with, as well as a degree of talent that was (and is) exceptional. This book is aimed at the majority of us who will take our cameras outdoors to photograph friends and family and who will be happy if the result is a picture that will lead others to say "Doesn't Jim (or Jane) look great in this picture.