I'm still editing and proofing the book but its ten chapters and 115 pages of natural-light, portrait-shooting goodness is, as far as I'm concerned and except for some very minor tweaks, done, complete, finito! Next step, and it begins tomorrow, putting together the web page for it.
My first ebook, "Guerrilla Glamour," was R-rated. My next two books, "Guerrilla Headshots" and "Zen and the art of Portrait Photography" were, as far as I'm concerned, both G-rated. Perhaps the "Zen" book would get a PG rating for a bit of language. I don't know. I'm not the MPAA of ebooks. As you can probably surmise from the cover on the left, my newest ebook is G-rated.
Flash-Free Portrait Photography covers the subject with many tips, suggestions, and more. It has chapters on exposure and camera settings, natural light shooting gear and their uses, composition, where you'll find the best quality light and how to "see the light," working with your portrait subjects and more. The book is aimed at beginning/novice through intermediate level photographers.
I also think more advanced photographers may also benefit from the book, especially if they haven't shot too much natural light portraiture. If nothing else, I've invested the time and energy in compiling a book on natural light portraiture from soup to nuts. Sure, everything on the subject isn't included. But who knows everything about it? Certainly not me. Not anyone, for that matter. By the way, for the purposes of the book, natural light portraiture refers to portraits where daylight/sunlight alone is utilized as the sole source for capturing the images. That doesn't exclude lighting tools like reflectors, scrims, and flags, but it does exclude all artificial lighting instruments no matter how seamlessly the light they produce is integrated into the photos.
Anyway, I'm getting closer all the time. Days away, in fact. I'm excited! I'm also starting my next ebook immediately. This one will be a little different as it doesn't focus on still photography. Instead, it focuses on video for photographers who are making the transition to video (thanks to video-capable dSLRs) especially those who are including video amongst the services they offer or have decided to become newly-minted film-makers. In addition to being a photographer, I've been shooting pro video since the 80s. Just saying. I mean just establishing some credibility as its author.
The young lady on the cover of my new ebook is a relative of mine. She's my nephew's daughter. Does that make her my grand-niece? Regardless, she'll be a junior in high school next year. She is quite the natural model with that engaging smile and bright, friendly eyes! I wish more models were as easy to work with as my grand-niece was.
I snapped the pic on an overcast day at a local park. I used my 4x6 Westcott Scrim Jim with silver-side-out fabric attached to light her up beyond the ambient. Even though it was overcast and late in the day (with the light quickly fading) the Scrim Jim still bounced appreciable amounts of soft light onto my subject. I was shooting in Aperture Priority mode set at f/4.5 with my ISO at 200 and my WB set to "Shade." My camera, a Canon 5D Mk1, automatically set the shutter speed to 1/160th. I was using my Canon 70-200mm f/4 L for glass. It was zoomed in about 3/4s of the way for this shot. Hence, between the open aperture and long-ish focal length, some nice bokeh resulted.
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