This is a very good forum, I'm impressed. And getting more interested in portraiture because of it!

Could someone suggest a good portaiture technique book for budget portraiture? I don't have a huge studio with mega-lights, I just wnat to get the most I can out of free light (the sun) and my Sunpak 288.

Thanks

-- Eric Peltier (ericpeltier@yahoo.com), February 25, 2000

Answers

I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. I have a number of books on photography. They helped a lot in giving me the confidence to try out techniques for myself. But I found that it's not until you actually experiment for yourself that you find out how things actually look and work.

In your case, you should buy or build gold, silver, white, and black reflectors (as well as a diffuser) and a stand to attach them to. Then set up different scenarios and experiment with different subject placement in respect to the natural light and your reflectors. Then add some manual fill flash to see how that changes the look (don't use TTL except to learn more about how your camera reacts). It's not necessary, but an incident meter with flash capability would be extremely helpful in learning how to repeat these kinds of setups.

-- John Kantor (jkantor@mindspring.com), February 25, 2000.

William Mortensen: Pictorial Lighting. It is a fun and easy read, concentrates on lighting and composition, no fancy tech. gizmos (mostly hot lights), great diagrams, etc. It may be old and difficult to find, but well worth it.

-- max (maxel@quik.com), February 26, 2000.