The Dramatic Portrait: The Art of Crafting Light and Shadow

Non fiction doesn't have to be boring. I feel like the author would be lots of fun after a few drinks at a party. The beginning of the book is a quick art history lesson interspersed with bits of humor and a few pop culture references. It was entertaining and informative. The latter part of the book goes into detail about the the effects of lighting changes, with images depicting the changing light, along with descriptions of how it is achieved. It would be a good book to keep handy when setting up studio lighting, as a reference. If you want a crash course in art history as it relates to portrait photography, this book is a good choice.

For fans of Chris Knight, this book is a wonderful look into his workflow and sources of inspiration that he pulls for for his own work. The book goes into lightning techniques and some post processing, but I most enjoyed the addition of a brief history of portraiture and the portrayal of the human form throughout the more significant art movements. I took an Art History class in college so the opening chapter of the book was a nice refresher. I wouldn't call the book revolutionary by any means, but Chris' approach to lighting principles, post production, and developing a 'style' is very easy to understand and can take your portrait photography to the next level. You can find video interviews and classes he's taught (BH Photo Video) while promoting this book, but having the book on hand is a nice reference. Highly recommended.

The Dramatic Portrait is the essence of Christopher Knight's style and his skill at teaching. Chris has also been regarded as a highly skilled instructor of photography and particularly lighting as he teaches at the collegiate level and at workshops. Here we finally get a chance to sit down with a well written book that is extremely easy to understand. Chris presents his material in a simple format with great photos, diagrams and references throughout. It is with high regard that I recommend this book for any photographer trying to improve their skills with lighting. Dr Greg Gulbransen

Great book for improving your dramatic photography skills.

Perfect book for understanding lighting. Just get it.

This book runs the gamut from art history of the portrait, to technique, styling, and post production. It covers a range of topics with very clear descriptions and illustrations. There is a lot of information in this book! It is also an amazing value. A lot of photography books are very expensive, even if they are of marginal value—this on the other hand is very affordable and has a ton of great info. If you are learning portraiture this book is for you.

I picked this book up because I love Chris Knight's work and I really want to take more dramatic portraits myself. He really does a great job of making the history of portraiture more fun than it sounds (as the first chapter is titled). He has a wonderful sense of humor and has amusing pop culture references sprinkled throughout the book. I love that he uses the same gentleman model in the chapter on technical lighting. It allows you to see the difference in the lighting much better than if each image was using a different model. Everything is well written and easy to understand. I love that he went into a bit of post-production as well.

It’s OK. Good writing style but lacking in concrete usable content especially if you are an experienced photographer.

This is a fantastic book. Really nicely written, with lots of wit and detail. Having purchased lots of 'how to light' type books over the years, this is far and away the best of the bunch. The pictures and diagrams are clear and concise and Chris shows you the effects of different modifiers from different distances as well as going over some slightly more advanced subjects like art history and the inverse square law. I initially thought that these subjects (that I know a fair amount about already) would be a bit boring, but the way Chris writes is very readable and easy going. It's more like he's having a chat and explaining it to you, rather than a purely academic approach with nothing but f/stops and equations. As a time-served professional photographer who wanted a bit more knowledge about the subject of lighting dramatically I've found this book invaluable. If you are a beginner then I strongly recommend you pick this up as it will teach you an awful lot about how to light a subject or scene without being too heavy going. I've included a couple of examples of the work I did the second I'd finished reading it.

Such a remarkable book! Useful; one learns a lot from reading it. If you're keen on getting into studio portrait, this a must!

El libro te explica desde los inicios de los retratos en pintura y escultura. Además te explica cómo tomar mejores retratos con la ayuda de la iluminación adecuada. Te explica cómo hacer buenas fotos con lo que tengas y puedas adquirir, te explica las opciones que hay en el mercado. Además te explica la importancia de la post producción (recomendable tener nociones de edición de imágenes en Lightroom y Photoshop para la última sección).

An excellent lighting tutorial by a great teacher. I love that it is backed up by photographic illustrations of every type of lighting set up.

The photography portion of this book is ok (which is the majority of it), but the initial History discussion is just atrocious. I'm a History teacher and I was so offended by how many wrong information this book contained in the very first 10 pages that I just decided to skip the entire first chapter. If you want to have a good introduction in history of art, go to Gombrich's work and do not read a single line of this book's first chapter.