Posing for Portrait Photography: A Head-to-Toe Guide
Photographers learn how to gauge the needs of their clients before placing them into a stale, pre-conceived pose that hardly fits the clients personality or preferences.

Provided with a two-pronged approach to fail-safe posing, photographers learn first to determine what the mood of the portrait should be and how to use an appropriate posing genre -- traditional, casual, glamour, or journalistic.

Photographers are then shown how that genre can be used as a basis to produce a pose that best suits the clients -- allowing them to create dynamic yet natural-looking pose that the subject"and the intended recipient"will love.

Connected Photographer's evaluation
We liked this book a lot. It's a little different from the other guides in that it both helps you create a specific mood and then posing to reflect the mood. This is probably something someone going "pro" is likely to want to invest in. It's a little pricey for the run-of-the-mill amateur. But, hey, there's nothing run of the mill about you Connected Photographer readers, now is there?

Posing for Portrait Photography: A Head-to-Toe Guide by Jeff Smith, published by Amherst Media, is 128 pages and has a retail price of $34.95. We give Posing for Portrait Photography: A Head-to-Toe Guide a rating of 4 out of 5.

OUR RATING: 4 of 5

Maintaining that good posing is 80 percent mental and only 20 percent technical, this guide stresses the importance of communication between photographer and subject to creating a portrait that not only captures the subject's personality but also makes the subject comfortable fostering repeat business.

Connected Photographer's evaluation
As we've worked through this product review shootout, we've gone from books that might interest photo enthusiasts to books that are specific to those who want to make money taking pictures. Without a doubt, people pictures are where you'll make the most money as a pro -- and your bread and butter will be wedding pictures and school photos. This book shows you how to take these classic picture types, and also, in effect, outlines a program for the sort of photo products you'll eventually sell to clients.

Master Posing Guide for Portrait Photographers by J. D. Wacker, published by Amherst Media, is 128 pages and has a retail price of $34.95. We give Master Posing Guide for Portrait Photographers a rating of 4 out of 5.

OUR RATING: 4 of 5

James Booth is Editor-at-Large at ZATZ Publishing. In addition to writing for Computing Unplugged and Connected Photographer, he's the author of Do-It-Yourself Wedding Photography. A self-taught photographer, James also dabbles in digital graphics and has learned to be a PC and handheld specialist through personal trial and error. James can be reached at jbooth@zatz.com.