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Best Portrait
Photography Book?

Do you have any great portrait books about photography to recommend? Let's help each other build our libraries. Please share your top picks with our readers, and see what others have to say.

Find out what other people have suggested.

What's your favorite portrait photography book?

My Top Picks

Photo Impressionism and the Subjective Image
Author: Freeman Patterson and André Gallant
Publisher: O'Reilly

Okay, okay! You might think this one is a bit of a cheat to put under the "Portrait Photography" section! But I love the chapter at the end by André on Photographing People. He covers the topics you might expect, like lighting and posing. He has special sections on photographing men, women, teenagers, children and babies. He also talks a little about approaching people to take their picture, which is something many of us find hard to do.

Keep in mind that there's only a small part of this book devoted to photographing people, so you wouldn't buy it just for that. But it's a great book overall, and the portrait photography section is nice addition. (The rest of the book is about ways to make "impressionistic" styles images through the use of techniques like multiple exposures and montages).

What's Your Favorite?

Now it's time to share YOUR favorite books on portrait photography. Maybe you can suggest something that's all about portraits :-).

Please include a brief summary of what the book is about, the name of the author and publisher if you know it, and then tell us why you love the book!

Your Favorite Portrait Photography Book

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Next, you may want to check out top picks for photography business books.