Book Review: The Luminous Portrait

“Your inspiration comes from what is in front of you as well as what is in your heart. Inspired images come from careful preparation and knowledge of light and equipment, combined with your artistic perspective.” – Elizabeth Messina

Last year during WPPI, Elizabeth gave away a postcard with the cover picture of this book and said that we should pre-order it on Amazon. So I did it. When it came in the mail at the end of April, I flipped through the book for an hour, put it in one of our moving boxes and sent it to Toronto. Sitting down for an hour (and not packing) was definitely a luxury in the summer of 2012. In November last year, we finished unpacking the last couple boxes and I immediately assigned this book for February 2013 book review post. Looking back, I am thankful that I scheduled it before the spring of 2013 and got it covered before the season started!

I thought about reading this book and drafting the post in January but I was wrong about the things that needed to be tackled that month. So, I finally got down to it last minute in February. But this book is so worth the time and effort! As a bonus, there are gorgeous images by Messina on not only wedding but also portraitures she has worked on over the years. I love reading the descriptions of what was happening behind the scene and why she composed and documented the images in a certain way. After all, photography is story telling. And being able to read between the lines (or the images) is such a treasure! Sorry for my nerdi-ness, can’t help it!

There are a few things/suggestions from Elizabeth that I plan to take on this year:

– “I love to include a sky shot for a wedding couple so that they always know what the sky looked like on the day they exchanged vows. For any portrait, shooting the sky is a way to remember the feel of the day, or a specific moment in time.” I am in love with this idea! I have done this multiple times and love the emotion the image gives to the rest of the images but I need to do this for every wedding (and possibly outdoor sessions) from now on.

– I am used to the saying that you need to know your equipment. That your camera and you are one. One mission and one vision. What I am surprised from her suggestion here is that you need to try as many different cameras as possible. Sure, I have tried Nikon and decided to stick with Canon. But that’s not enough, there are so many other cameras out there that I need to get my hands on. I have a few different cameras on my rental list now. If you are in a photography school, take advantage of the free rental!

– “Every time I shoot a portrait, I strive to achieve an emotional response within both my subjects and my viewers.” I have to be honest that when I shoot, I strive to get my subject(s)’ genuine reactions/expressions. I then work on all of the other elements to create the beautiful image, frame and compose them around my subject(s) and document it for them. Achieving my viewer’s emotional response never really occur to me. In my perspective, it’s really important that my clients/subjects get the whole story telling documented well in my style. From now on, I will strive to consider my viewers’ emotional response on the portraiture I work on.

This book really inspires me and I hope you get to pick it up sometime soon. It’ll make a great gift for aspired people photographers too! If you enjoy this review,  there is another book that I would really recommend: here is the review I wrote last year.

Share the love,

Jenn

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