The science of portrait photography is certainly very important but it is the artistic point of view that uniquely sets one's work apart. This is certainly very true with Michael Grecco's photography. His portfolio in "The Art of Portrait Photography" is very unique. I've read many books on portrait photography and this book ranks as one of the very best. Very rarely have I seen such artful creativity in a photographer's body of work.

"A shot is not about light or technique but rather about the subject's engagement and emotion". A photograph is a success if it captures the essence of a subject. Not only is Grecco alert to capture such moments of truth but he in fact sets up the stage to bring out such emotions in his subjects. He dreams up ideas and brings them to reality by working with his assistants, art directors and even his subjects. Most importantly, he is not afraid of throwing these ideas out if the situation warrants it. He calls himself a "conceptual" photographer, telling the story of his subjects through allusion.

Technical details such as lighting setup diagrams are provided for almost all the images but the reader will quickly realize that the numbers matter less than his approach. Grecco's insights on each shoot are incisive and sometimes even funny. Rules are meant to be broken and this is partly responsible for the success of the "conceptual" images in this book.

Philippe Halsman is one of the famous portrait photographers from yesteryears that I'm studying. The key aspect of Halsman's style was his ability to depict the real side of his subjects and that is amply highlighted in the selection of photographs in this retrospective. He likens himself to a psychologist who uses special insight to bring out the true character of a subject to the surface. He even calls this psychological portraiture. Surrealism has influenced his style a great deal, not the least of which was his 30-odd years of collaboration with Salvador Dali. Two noteworthy results of this collaboration was the famous image, Dali Atomicus showing all the subjects suspended in mid-air and Dali's Mustache , a photographic exercise in depicting Dali's famous moustache in various ways.

Philippe's principal collaborator was his wife, Yvonne. In the book Halsman at work , Yvonne's primary role was photographing Philippe at work. There is quite a bit of discussion on how they created some of their memorable photographs such as those of Dali, seemingly suspended from a Helicopter by his moustache. It is clear that Philippe's approach of being open minded and letting his subjects be themselves were crucial in creating the memorable images. I should mention that the Halsmans sometimes employ nude models to convey the message in an image.

Halsman Sight and Insight is somewhat similar to the retrospective, although this book predates the latter by almost 30 years. In addition to memorable portraits, the book also includes notes from Philippe's journal. His description of a portrait session with Churchill was particularly engaging. It is also a useful reading material for somebody interested in improving their portrait photography skills. By studying the lighting and posing techniques employed in the photograph, one could certainly become a better photographer. For instance, Philippe shows two portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and discusses what he did to lead them to the better image.

Yousuf Karsh was one of the most acclaimed portrait photographers of the twentieth century. Those who have been "karshed" are counted among the great people of the twentieth century.

In his very first book, Faces of Destiny published in 1946, he showcases seventy five portraits, brief biographical notes and personal accounts of the adventures during the photography of those subjects. He included the text following the argument that the viewer's interest in a portrait goes well beyond just the aesthetics.

Faces of Our Time showcases forty eight memorable portraits, made in the 1960's of both the famous and not-so-famous faces. Karsh's success comes from showing an interest in his subjects and through this, he transforms a human face into a legend. A student has much to learn from his use of lights.

Karsh Portfolio is very similar in format and quite a few photographs are the accompanying text are repeated from Faces of Our Time.

I was a rank beginner in studio portrait photography when I read this book. I had access to a monolight and a reflector and I was ready to start experimenting. In my initial sessions, I mentally pictured the memorable portrait photographs I had come across so far and set out to re-create them using my family as my willing subjects. While some of the resulting images were good, I was ready to start studying about portrait photography, in order to take my experiments to the next level.

What attracted me to this book was the presentation of lighting setup diagrams right beside the final portrait made with the setup. In other words, without even reading the text, I could first mentally picture the effect of the lighting setup and then look up the portrait to confirm my guess. Obviously good imagination is key to successful portraits. Standard setups for butterfly, rembrandt, split, glamor lighting are covered in sufficient detail. The author stresses enough about the importance of the reader's parallel experimentation, starting with the ideas presented in the book. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of ideas on using a single light in conjunction with a reflector; Most of the ideas require a minimum of two lights. On the topic of exposure computation, the author describes two approaches and leaves it up to the reader to experiment with these approaches and pick one to adopt.

I should mention that during the printing process, some lighting setup diagrams have been incorrectly paired with a series of portraits. Images 22-25 do not correspond to the portraits on the same page as one would normally guess. Rather, these diagrams illustrate portraits listed on the next page.