The Headshot: The Secrets to Creating Amazing Headshot Portraits by Peter Hurley
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Hurley is a photographer of head-shots that actors submit while searching for work. (Other folks, like executives use Hurley too, but thespians seem to be his main customers.) At the beginning of the book he explains how he sets up his lighting to get his signature style. I felt like he was teaching the reader how to make pictures that looked like they were taken by Peter Hurley. But, where most portrait books ended, Hurley was just starting, PEOPLE!
He followed up by an explanation of his posing techniques, like establishing a strong jaw line and having the subjects “squinch”. (The squinch is a technique of having the subject raise lower eyelids just a bit, which the author says makes them look confident, but I felt made them look doubting.) The last part of the book explained how the author made people feel comfortable in front of the camera and distracted them, essentially by acting silly. PEOPLE, I had never seen such a detailed explanation of getting people to look good in front of the camera. Of course, other photographers may not feel as comfortable as Hurley in being silly to relax subjects, but having seen Hurley’s techniques, more restrained photographers may develop their own techniques for relaxing people and, SHA-BANG!
At first I was put off by Hurley’s presentation style, sounding like a TV pitchman selling soap or knives. Then I began to see it as Hurley’s tool for holding the reader’s attention while he drilled his method into our head, and then, SHA-BANG, I began to appreciate it.
I wouldn’t call this a book for advanced portraitists, but you certainly will have to understand how to use your camera. Hurley will then tell you how to work your subject, PEOPLE.