For pictures that sell, how to get started in business as a portrait photographer.

Whether you are a beginning photographer or a budding professional, you will find techniques to help in your photographic endeavors.

This cookbook-style guide to portrait lighting contains all the ingredients necessary for a successful photo shoot. With 60 two-page spreads highlighting the techniques used to create stunning portraits alongside the portraits themselves, aspiring photographers will have a clear sense of both the "how" and the "why" of good lighting. Difficult questions such as How can I downplay a double chin and dark shadows under the eyes? and How can I produce a soft, romantic feel in a woman's portrait? Are addressed and resolved in this no-nonsense guide to good lighting.

Portraiture tends to rely on standardized, established lighting techniques, but most photographers know that subscribing to traditional methods does not always flatter every subject. The techniques collected in this guide will heighten the senses of mystery and drama in a digital photographer's work by enhancing shape and contrast, keeping images fashionable and appealing with less reliance on natural light, and illuminating a subject's eyes without producing catchlights. In this manner, textbook lighting setups can act as a springboard to creating personal and artistic high-quality portraits featuring new, radically-altered lighting effects. Multiple series of before-and-after photos comprehensively illustrate how to utilize these new methods to create emotion-evoking works of art that do more than simply capture the likeness of a subject