Secrets of Great Portrait Photography: Photographs of the Famous and Infamous

Brian Smith

Sep 2012 · New Riders

About this ebook

In this sexy, bold book, Pulitzer-Prize winning photographer Brian Smith tells the stories behind the photos and lessons learned in 30 years of photographing celebrities and people from all walks of life. Smith’s long list of famous and infamous subjects includes pro basketball players Dwayne Wade and Shaquille O’Neal; billionaires Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and Donald Trump; tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams; actors Anne Hathaway, Antonio Banderas, Christopher Walken, Taye Diggs, Jane Krakowski, and William H. Macy; and many more.

You’ll get the inside scoop on what goes on at a celebrity photo shoot in this gorgeous guide to making professional portraits. Smith has mastered how to make a meaningful portrait on a magazine’s budget and on a celebrity’s schedule, which can sometimes be 15 minutes or less. Smith reveals his tips on connecting with people, finding the perfect location, telling a great story through portraiture, getting the ideal pose, capturing emotion and gestures, arranging unique group shots, and lighting the scene just right. You might not be photographing the rich and famous, but after reading Smith’s tell-all guide, you’ll know how to give everyone who makes their way in front of your camera the star treatment.

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About the author

For the past 30 years, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Brian Smith's bold, iconic portraits of famous celebrities, athletes, and executives have appeared in advertising and graced the covers and pages of such magazines as LIFE, Sports Illustrated, ESPN the Magazine, Time, Forbes, New York Times Magazine, and British GQ. Smith won the Pulitzer Prize for his photographs of the Los Angeles Olympics and was a Pulitzer finalist for his photographs of Haiti in turmoil. He's a Sony Artisan of Imagery, Lowepro Lowe Professional, X-Rite Coloratti, and he's president of Editorial Photographers, an organization of the top magazine photographers and newspaper photojournalists from around the world.