Professional Secrets of Natural Light Portrait Photography

It is very easy to read. There are samples of good and bad shots (actually I wish there were more). The reading is simple, to the point, I especially like the tips in bold and highlighted in yellow so you can't miss it.

Different people learn in different ways. Some are "theoretical" learners -- they get a training manual or instruction book, and read it from cover to cover before ever trying out any of the information they have gleaned. In a way I envy them. However I am a "practical" learner. When I taught myself to program in the C programming language, I had my hands on the computer with the very first page, where I was taught how to make the computer display "Hello world" on its screen. Not all authors of books of instruction understand this difference, and, as a result, their texts tend to favor one style over another. We should also recognize that not every author is as expert in the field about which he or she writes, so much as a "legend in his own mind". I have been a professional portrait photographer for over 50 years. In that time I have learned a fair amount about making portraits in a variety of lighting conditions. You might wonder why I would buy a book like "NATURAL LIGHT PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY" by Doug Box. Part of the reason lies in the genes. My mother, who recently celebrated her 100th birthday has been a professional portrait painter for over 80 of those years -- and she still attends classes on painting. We are never too old, or too knowledgeable, not to be able to learn something new. So, knowing that Doug Box has earned his Master of Photgraphy and Craftsman's degrees from the Professinal Photographers of America, and that he has been a featured speaker at conventions (where I first met him), seminars, and professional photography one-week "schools", I had little fear regarding his expertise. My trust was well placed. Although I have actually succeeded in reading the entire book (118 pages of lavishly illustrated text), I have also been able to implement items from the text on an almost page by page basis. Not just a book about "seeing" or "using" the light, but a book that includes instruction about posing, selecting locations, choosing the most appropriate lens, and how to manage exposure with natural light and added flash. I have already built myself a "light finder" (pages 13-14), and made two portraits using techniques learned from the book. I speak here as a professional photographer, and give the book highest marks for the professional user. Quite simply, if you are a professional photographer and you make portraits, you need this book. However the serious amateur can also benefit from its contents. The amateur may not wish to bother with the "light finder" tool, and off camera flash triggered by a radio controlled signal may be a bit out of budget, but the underlying instructions apply to anyone with a camera who fancies pointing it at people. Buy it, you won't regret it!

As a professional wedding (PPA), and landscape photographer, I found this book to be almost as useful as a $700 seminar with the author. You save $680 plus lodging and travel. The book is an easy read, yet it does not dummy down. Well illustrated lighting diagrams for each lession, it moves directly to instruction, no fat, no sugar. The personality of the book is very friendly. I will retain and use each lession described in this book.

I have a number of photography lighting books and this is the very best natural light book I have ever read. Sometimes photography book authors will go from one extreme of only explaining the laws of physics in lighting without explaining practical application to the other extreme of showing images with very little explanation. Doug's book is easy to understand and concise, professional, and yet makes the instruction achievable. His excellent skills as a teacher and his enthusiasm as a photographer are on every page.

I highly recommend this book - I've been looking for a guide/resource like this for years. "Professional Secrets of Natural Light Portrait Photography" is well written, very comprehensive, and supports the written words with excellent photos and diagrams. I'm a serious amateur photographer - both of friends and family and for travel/vacation - and have won a number of awards for my photos. I find that more and more of my shots are of people, even when travelling. This book suggests many well thought out natural light posing and composition techniques - natural light sources, backgrounds, props, metering, even clothing. The book also covers topics such as working with kids and "difficult" situations. Many of the topics apply equally to candid or quick shots. Wish I'd had the book a few years ago.