Better Picture Guide to Photographing People (Better Picture Guide Series)

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, with caveats
Review: The format of the book is excellent. As in all Busselle's other books in this series, every page features a picture with paragraphs "Seeing," "Thinking," and "Acting." So one obtains a feeling of creating the picture. The emphasis on composition dominates the book, and is its greatest asset --- besides the pictures themselves.

There are, also, some valuable comments of obvious but overlooked matters, such as: "Many holiday photographs are disappointing because there is an attempt to combine recognisable portraits of people with pictures of a scene, the classic snap of someone standing awkwardly in front of a famous landmark. These are usually neither fish nor fowl, and it's generally far better to concentrate on one element or the other."

Enough said.

The main caveat is that the pictures are usuaully with highly saturated slide film --- such as Velvia --- often with warming filters to boot. The colors are then eye-popping. Most of the time this is pleasing, but often it is a bit too much and, therefore, unrealistic. The emphasis on pumped color ends up somewhat overdone, with little attention to softer, more subtle effects. Also, anyone who uses print film has to adjust the technical aspects to his/her needs. However, the general discussions of composition are excellent.