Picture Perfect Posing: Practicing the Art of Posing for Photographers and Models (Voices That Matter) 1st Edition

"Picture Perfect Posing" is the most practically useful photography book I have ever read. So many books of this type are so non-specific, speaking in generalities so that very little actionable information is given to the reader. This book is very, very specific, pointing out posing problems and presenting the reader with a defined system for fixing them.The author uses his own photos as both good and bad examples of posing, which is very encouraging since it shows the reader that it is possible to get significantly better at posing subjects through practice. While reading about the bad examples, I could directly relate to the author and how he dealt with posing when he started out, which was trying to memorize thousands of poses, then forgetting all of them during a shoot and just shouting out random posing commands, hoping for something that works. I have been there.If you come to photography from an engineering background or you just have a logical mind, Picture Perfect Posing will be a very helpful tool because it is a specific system that addresses common posing problems you will likely encounter, with specific solutions for fixing them. This is so helpful because it can be very difficult to look at a pose and figure out exactly why it doesn't work without this sort of information. For example, the author covers finger positioning, where and how hands should be placed, how noses should be pointed... all very helpful to give photographers a base to work from instead of just trying to create awesomeness from nothing.The author even touches on facial expression, although that isn't the primary focus of the book. I found this interesting because the method suggested to get good performances is similar to a famous actor direction technique: Give the person a task to concentrate on, like counting fenceposts or trying to spot exactly when the camera's shutter closes behind the lens, etc. This can make it easier for the subject to produce an engaged expression that takes the photo to the next level of professionalism, I would love to see a whole book about direction for still photography.One nitpick for future editions: On page 168 the text refers to a blue line indicating the "overlap point" of two bodies in a couple's pose. It looks like the publisher changed the blue line to a red circle without updating the text, since I do not see a blue line in the example photos.I highly recommend "Picture Perfect Posing" to photographers who need a strong base to build poses from, especially for wedding and engagement photography.

I really enjoyed Roberto’s care describing the the skill of posing. His instructions are comprehensive yet succinct. The book will be like my guidebook that I will reference well into the future. There are a ton of tips I never thought of that I can immediately employ.If I were to make a couple criticisms:1) His creation and use of abbreviations (e.g., “P3S”). It seems a bit forced and it doesn’t make the lessons easier to remember. I think using plain English in this case would have been a better option. That said, I think, like posing, his abbreviations can be learned and remembered if the book is to be used as a reference guide.2) At the end of each chapter, he provides sample images without any captions for the reader to review on his/her own. While I understood the rationale behind this (to test the reader’s knowledge), some of the examples were a little hard to figure out exactly what was happening. He proves in the book that posing is about the details and without him explaining some of the nuanced details, it left me wondering more than understanding. I think giving an explanation of what’s happening in the each of the “test” photos would have been more helpful.Besides those small nits, this book is easily one of the best photography books I’ve read. I plan to read his other books. He really speaks to you in a genuine and passionate manner, never condescending or reminding the reader he is superior. In fact, he uses his past mistakes as one of the backbones of the book, which I really appreciated. He’s honest and inspiring.

Well, I have read this book cover to cover and I am not done with it yet. It is so detailed that as I read it I highlighted certain things (amounting to about half or two thirds of the total text).It is so informative that I will say that if you are serious about model photography you certainly need to purchase this. Other than the passage of time , I can not imagine the author needs to write another book on modeling techniques or that the buyer needs to buy another one.This to me was a difficult study. No - I do not mean that it's hard to understand the book. What I mean is that it's so detailed that to fully appreciate it and get the most out of it you should study every detail he describes of a specific pose (for "every pose" illustrated in the book - one by one). If you take the time to do this and apply everything he suggest before shooting your next model - your will look very professional.There are few authors who cover so many things as this author has. I can't imagine how anyone can read this book cover to cover in a few days and expect to remember even a small fraction of it.This author has written the "Crown Jewel" of books on how to pose models. His descriptions go way beyond "standard cliches".Buy it, read slowly, highlite the descriptions of the poses you are interested in (for me that was just about everything), then go back later and formulate your next shoot - based on all the knowledge you have gained from the book - and don't worry if you have made so many notes that you can not possibly trade it in for a discount on your next purchase - because if you have taken the time to study these poses in detail you surely won't have any desire to trade it in.Finally - for your information - studying this book is not about ( what so many critics think is) imitation. It's about learning techniques and avoiding common (and and not so common) mistakes - then using this knowledge to formulate your own ideas. - Robert Pear