 2008-11-18 - Word of caution
I consider myself an advanced amateur. Over many years I've progressed to the Nikon D300 with a nice assortment of gear. I bought this book after reading Scott Kelby's "Digital Photography Book-Volume 2," great book and very useful to amateur photographers. At the end of the book, Kelby strongly recommends "your next book" should be "The Moment It Clicks." So I ordered it. It is a fine book of pictures, with descriptions of how the majority of the photos were taken. However, you need to know this guy has more gear than imaginable (it's all pictured at the end of the book), and an assistant. Probably 98% of all the photos are taken with the aid of light boxes, movie lights, what have you. I guess my point is, unless you are an advanced professional, this is a nice book of pictures.
 2008-11-13 - High level book
Keep it close to you and read it over and over. Your photos can be better after this.
2008-11-12 - great book
this book was awesome to read. Author was funny, photos were great. Great tips on how to get the images.
2008-10-20 - Not what I expected
As photography books, especially instructional ones, go this is definitely an interesting one. The layout is really good and the images nothing short of stunning. Mr. McNally's thoughts and advice are written in an easily understandable and very approachable manner. All very well, then.
Well, not entirely. Many reviewers before me have mentioned that there are few real pieces of advice as how to go out and produce shots similiar to those presented. There are plenty of hints and 'I got hold of helicopter and had my fleet of assistants doing this and that to get the proper lighting on the King of Siberia while the catering firm truck was just in the right spot for creating the right shadows', which creates the feeling, at least to me, that the author (who is a great photographer) just tells stories about why he is as good as he is (this is not boring or bad as such, mind you, just not what one is expecting). If you know all there is to know about lighting and creative photography, I guess you could look at the advice in this book and say 'oh yeah, I forgot about that. Let's do it this way', but unless you're quite good with lamps and lights, there's not enough to be had here. I have definitely learned, from most of the advice in this book, that one needs an assistant, 5 flashes, tons of reflectors, and all kinds of other stuff to get any sort of portrait in the field as well as in the studio. There are, in other words, not enough tips on shooting for amateurs in the field (in my opinion).
With danger of sounding hippocritical, I'll say that some of the advice (sold as 'nuggets of wisdom' in the foreword by S. Kelby) is a bit on the simple side ("Bring your camera"?). It's not a big problem, though (you can't have a book tailored to just your own needs, can you now? And this one does actually cover quite a bit of ground).
There is also a slight problem with the writing. Approachable and easily understandable as it is, I think that the language at times is a bit too... colloquial. "Then I was like...", "Dat's one fine lookin' photo subject", and the like makes it all a bit too... well, colloquial, for me.
There are some photographs in here, though, and hints and advice are never a waiste of time. It's just not the book it could have, or indeed should have, been.
2,5 stars
2008-10-18 - Great gift book
I bought this for a friend who is a photographer and teacher of photography, and he loved it. This book makes a great gift for anyone who is interested in making pictures or just looking at them.
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