- Paperback: 192 pages
- Publisher: Focal Press (18 Sep 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 024051520X
- ISBN-13: 978-0240515205
- Product Dimensions: 24.5 x 18.8 x 1.1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,301,146 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"This title would be a great help to students on photographic courses or anyone who aims to make a living out of any of these three branches of photography." AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER.
Product Description
Editorial, press and PR photographers need to be able to take a range of interesting and informative photographs - from celebrity portraits to magazine covers, news events, promotional pictures and fashion assignments. Success in these areas requires not just individual flair and skill, but an ability to market those talents in order to win space in publications. Based on the author's own experience of undertaking assignments for national and local newpapers, trade magazines, PR clients and book publishers - this book is a practical guide to the art of 'being professional'. The book is packed with hints, tips and first-hand advice on the day-to-day running of a business, the equipment you need and how to organise your finances - all the things that professionals might wish they had known when they first started out. Advice on the best way to present your portfolio and how to deal with clients and work to a brief is also given. Sections on practical technique show the best way to approach a variety of assignments, with suggestions for good composition, what equipment to use and how to get the best results. The examples range from location work, to press assignments, pack-shots, cover pictures, portraits, events and picture stories. The reader is then taken into the studio and shown the principles of lighting and how to control exposure with greater precision than is normally possible in the field.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
Press, editorial and PR photography is an exceptionally difficult area of activity to define. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Press, editorial and PR photography is an exceptionally difficult area of activity to define. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The current edition of this book, is brilliant - however the one shown here is published in 1998 and THEREFORE HAS NO VALUE AT ALL to press/editorial etc photographers now.
Whether this is an error on Amazon's part; not distinguishing between the two editions or simply what the sellers are offering, I don't know, but BUYER BEWARE!
Whether this is an error on Amazon's part; not distinguishing between the two editions or simply what the sellers are offering, I don't know, but BUYER BEWARE!
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Press, editorial and PR photography was revolutionised for ever by the advent of the Nikon D1, which kick started the digital SLR revolution. This book was published a year before that, and many of the images it uses were already quite elderly by the date of publication. This makes this book more or less useless for insights into modern photojournalism, PR and editorial photography.
From a historical point of view, this is an interesting read, because it shows just how much the standards of photojournalism have changed. In the old days, the motto 'F8, and be there' was enough to remind the press photographer what their job was. A reasonable shot of hot news was enough to get you the front page back in 1998, when photographers were restricted to a maximum of 36 frames before changing film and even the most insane motordrives only kicked out five frames a second. Most of the images in this book actually predate autofocus.
In that sense, the meaning of this book has changed. When published, it was a professional guide for pros intending to raise their game, or perhaps move from one professional discipline into another. Today, it is a celebration of a bygone era, when photographers had to work under testing conditions to get the shot, get the canister back to the lab, and get it to the picture desk before the news was old. Of course, getting the picture to the desk in good time is still the name of the game, but these days you can be an unsupported freelancer taking pictures for charity in the wilds of the former Soviet Union, and still have your pictures appear in a UK newspaper the next day, and get time for lunch.
The other things which has changed dramatically since the late '90s is that, now, even local newspapers have a high proportion of colour printed pages, and the colour is now of remarkably high quality. These days we take this for granted, but most of the pictures for this book were taken when only magazines ran to colour.
I bought this book hoping to use it as a resource for training PR photographers. There's a paucity of those kinds of books. Regrettably, although we spend some enjoyable minutes poring over 'old style' PR photography, there was very little for us which went beyond basics of composition for print. All of the hot pro tips -- worth their weight in gold back in the day -- are sadly outmoded.
From a historical point of view, this is an interesting read, because it shows just how much the standards of photojournalism have changed. In the old days, the motto 'F8, and be there' was enough to remind the press photographer what their job was. A reasonable shot of hot news was enough to get you the front page back in 1998, when photographers were restricted to a maximum of 36 frames before changing film and even the most insane motordrives only kicked out five frames a second. Most of the images in this book actually predate autofocus.
In that sense, the meaning of this book has changed. When published, it was a professional guide for pros intending to raise their game, or perhaps move from one professional discipline into another. Today, it is a celebration of a bygone era, when photographers had to work under testing conditions to get the shot, get the canister back to the lab, and get it to the picture desk before the news was old. Of course, getting the picture to the desk in good time is still the name of the game, but these days you can be an unsupported freelancer taking pictures for charity in the wilds of the former Soviet Union, and still have your pictures appear in a UK newspaper the next day, and get time for lunch.
The other things which has changed dramatically since the late '90s is that, now, even local newspapers have a high proportion of colour printed pages, and the colour is now of remarkably high quality. These days we take this for granted, but most of the pictures for this book were taken when only magazines ran to colour.
I bought this book hoping to use it as a resource for training PR photographers. There's a paucity of those kinds of books. Regrettably, although we spend some enjoyable minutes poring over 'old style' PR photography, there was very little for us which went beyond basics of composition for print. All of the hot pro tips -- worth their weight in gold back in the day -- are sadly outmoded.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Read this before you start (I mean it!)
5 Jan 2001
Format:Paperback
This book should be required reading for anyone considering making a living in press, editorial, and PR photography in the United Kingdom or elsewhere. It sould be required reading for anybody considering to consider this profession, and any aspiring photographer could do worse than reading this book.
It is, essentially, an unsentimental guide to becoing a profesional photographer. It is unsentimental in the best sense of the word: it tells it like it is. "A staff position ... is no longer a job for life". So there: You'll need a variety of skills to make ends meet. He laments students who wants to take Tom Stoddart-esque picture stories but are only prepared to give photography a year or two, to see how it goes. In his realistic and unsetimental way he points out that you need commitment: "Tom Stoddart didn't start out covering ... life in Albania but, rather, was one of the pack who snapped Lady Diana Spencer..." True, even if many would rather hear differently.
This is above all a practical book with tips on everything from how to get a job to how to invoice your clients. It is lavishly illustrated with Tarrant's images from real assignments.
The final section describes the careers of a handful of famous photographers (Rod Ashford, Roger Bamber, Chris Bennet, Ken Lennox, Jim Marks, Paul Stewart, and Tom Stoddart): how did they start? how did they develop their careers? This section alone is worth the purchase price -- a true gem!
Was this review helpful?
Let us know
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
