The Portrait-Understanding Portrait Photography
By Glenn Rand and Tim Meyer
Rocky Nook Publishers
http://www.rockynook.com
US $34.95, CAN $41.95
ISBN: 978-1-933952-46-8
187 pages

This stellar collaboration between Glenn Rand, educator and Program Director for Graduate Programs at Brooks Institute, and Tim Meyer, Portrait Division Chair at Brooks Institute, is a blessing for all photographers interested in portraiture. More specifically, it shows us what makes a portrait great. The Portrait – Understanding Portrait Photography is a “definitive resource for professionals, as well as students and avid amateurs.”

Glenn Rand and Tim Meyer have kept this diminutive tome on task. Instead of a book listing all the technical devices available to photographers, what these devices do, how to use them, and all the accompanying technobabble that goes with it, they have stayed the course of practicality. Granted, there are many types of lights, flashes, and meters available to help photographers create their desired image. But without a grounded knowledge showing us what works and what doesn’t the devices are almost useless. There are enough references and explanations in this book about light meters, umbrellas, soft boxes, and the like to keep even the most avid technoid happy. But the soul of this book is in the practical and real-world application of what kinds of light do what, and why, and how. The many photo examples in this book will brilliantly illustrate each lesson as the authors take us through the subject matter.

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