Several years ago, I was just starting to seriously learn about the requirements and technical aspects of professional photography. Back then, I would browse glossy magazines, looking at portraits and saying to myself “how hard can it be?’. My naivety at the time, fueled by a serious lack of experience and in depth knowledge, was making me believe the age old misconception that a good photographer is all that’s needed to take good pictures. In other words, you either got it or you don’t. While it’s perfectly true that a real artist will have its way even when the odds are against him, I know now that this line of work is as much about talent as it is about knowledge, creativity, effort and the list could very well go on.

The “you and your camera” myth might apply to spontaneous photography as is the case of amateur landscape, tourist or street kinds. Yet, once you venture into portraiture ranging from fashion to artistic studio shooting or consider getting into commercial work used in advertising, regardless if your subjects are people, animals or products, the rules of the game change dramatically. That’s when you transform from a simple button pusher into a thinking machine.  Once you turn pro or have a desire to achieve pro results, you have to consider a plethora of things, which can make or break your photo shoot: location, both natural and artificial lighting, wardrobe and make-up, selecting the right equipment, keeping an eye open for minor details. Still, what will really make a difference in the quality of your shoots has to do both with technical and artistic knowledge as well as experience gained through extensive practice.

About a year ago, in between photo trips and reading reference materials, i got a wonderful book called “The Fashion Photography Course” as a birthday present. It came as a bit of a surprise, since i wasn’t really that much into taking portraits. My main interests lie with landscape and street photography as it gives me a chance to capture the environment as natural as it is. On top of that, I’ve some of the most critical views when it comes to fashion. Among other things, I find it extremely shallow, mostly of questionable taste and incredibly overpriced for the value it offers back to the customers. Yet, since it’s a business based almost entirely on quality imagery, the bar is set so high that you can proudly consider yourself an accomplished photographer once you master this type of work. That’s why a good book on fashion photography breaks the boundaries of the genre and will help you understand plenty of things from lighting, composition, management up to postprocessing and general workflow.

“The Fashion Photography Course“, written by Eliot Siegel and published by Thames and Hudson in 2008, follows the same pattern. At a little under 150 pages, you could think it’s just another good looking item in your library without a great deal of information to support the visual examples featured inside. Yet, when it comes to reference materials, size is not always a proof of quality and not even quantity for that matter (take overused white space for example). This book manages to offer a lot of concise, practical information packaged in a nice, easy to read layout where neither words nor space are wasted.

Upon browsing it, you will find a total of 9 sections: Inspiration, Tools of the Trade, The Studio, Working with Natural Light, Working with Manufactured Light, Creating Great Pictures, The Team, The Portfolio and Going Professional. Each one will get you up to speed with their respective topic, offering more than enough information to get you going in such a manner that allows to apply it right away in real life. Without being the definitive resource in fashion photography, it provides an amount of knowledge that can help you get a sense of place, if you want to (and you will) explore certain aspects even further. As an example, you can easily find illustrations of lighting setups online, but you wouldn’t really search for them if you never knew why you should.

Inspiration will pretty much walk you through the various options you have in defining your own photographic style: the various sources of inspiration, types of photography you could get involved in, various aspects of magazine and advertising photography along with the implications of specializing in one particular type of fashion. Even at this early on, you’ll get to see tiny icons next to the photos to explain different settings.

Tools of the trade is the type of chapter that’s pretty risky to include in a photography book, mainly because the photos as well as the information is subject to rapid changes and can easily appear as deprecated or obsolete. Still, they manage to get a neutral presentation by mentioning those general things which have remained current and relevant over the decades. Basically, you will read about the differences between small, medium and large format, various type of lenses available, tools used for metering, tripods, digital enhancements and more.

As far as actual photo taking is concerned, the two chapters about working with natural and manufactured light are probably the most useful of the whole book, especially for those who are just starting up. To be honest, it’s been years until I became aware of how to take advantage of the existing lighting conditions in a conscious manner. It took me even longer to realize just how much more i could achieve with proper, well placed lighting than the pathetic pop-up flash. First, you’ll get to know how to deal with direct sunlight, backlight, diffusion, shade or indoor ambience. Next, there’s one of my favorite parts of the book where you get an idea of using strobe lighting both indoors and outdoors without also forgetting about continuous lighting as well.

Creating great pictures deals with more subjective and artistic issues such as composition, content, attitude, movement, framing and managing a shot. As mentioned earlier, these are all topics which deserve more in depth attention and in fact are each covered extensively in other books. What’s great about this chapter is that it makes you think about all these issues prior to taking your shot. Besides that, it offers some valuable tips for those lacking previous artistic training, pointers which by themselves can substantially improve the quality of your work.

I’m still a bit unsure why the chapters dealing with the studio, the team and going professional are not back to back, since they are normally quite connected in real life. While you won’t have to consider these three elements until further up on the road, you might also be interested in working as an assistant, which makes them a nice introduction for such a job. Also, it helps by giving you a general idea about certain management issues to consider if you ever plan on running your own photographic studio or even choosing this as a career in the first place.

Another chapter which i found to be very useful, mainly because it’s something most hobbyists tend to overlook, is that about the portfolio. It includes information about the stages of the editing process and teaches you how to view it as a storytelling device. By picking photos which are more or less related in some way and which allow for a certain flow, will elevate your portfolio from just a collection of good looking shots to a timeline or themed showcase. It will be very much alive as it allows the viewer to have a connection with the materials.

In the end, despite being somewhat targeted to an entry and intermediate level, i found “The Fashion Photography Course” to be a valuable resource as well as an enjoyable read. Besides the things mentioned earlier, i also found the various exercises spread around the book to be very useful in stirring up my creativity and making me aware of all the little things that would normally add up and affect the end result. While it might not have the breathtaking samples you’ll see in a photo album type of book, it has a broad range of quality images suitable for illustrating the ideas presented within. This isn’t the coffee table book you flip through while relaxing. It’s a well put material meant to offer a comprehensive overview of the challenges and experiences you’ll encounter while getting involved in fashion, advertising or any other type of portrait photography. Hope you’ll enjoy it just as much as i did!