Masterclass: Professional Studio Photography (Masterclass (Rocky Nook)) [Hardcover]

First impressions of Masterclass: Professional Studio Photography are that it is a rather lovely product with thick glossy pages, a nice hefty hardback cover and huge high quality images. Content wise it has a general introduction to studio photography followed by eight sections on different studio sub-disciplines; product, still life, industrial, cosmetics, jewellery, drinks, food and portraits photography.

The introductory section covers lighting, cameras, lenses, a little bit about digital enhancement and a rather nice few pages covering running a studio and business. As this is about studio photography the cameras under discussion are large and medium format rather than the more common SLR. This is in keeping with the rest of the book - it is aimed at the professional photographer so the equipment is very much high price and high end. The information is concise and well presented though in places feels more like an overview than an in depth coverage of topics; though that is really to be expected it does sometimes just make you want more.

The main body of the book is a series of what are effectively worked examples of how to produce a studio shot. These examples are grouped into the eight sub disciplines listed above and each sub discipline has its own short introduction covering the pertinent general information.

Each worked example follows the format of the finished image as a full page shot, a description of the inspiration and process of taking the photograph and a diagram showing the layout of the studio. Many, though not all, examples also have additional information such as the digital manipulation used to produce the final image and additional tips such as polishing bottles with turtle wax to produce long lasting beads of condensation. Each example is very well laid out, explained and lavishly illustrated.

If your used to a simple camera and single light source setup then some of the worked examples can be a bit mind boggling with multiple light sources from different angles and via multiple reflectors and diffusers. One thing that was a surprise to me was the amount of post processing and image merging. I naively thought that given the controlled environment of the studio it would be comparatively easy to produce a perfect image with perhaps only a couple of Photoshop tweaks but that appears to be very much not the case. When working with such high resolution and high quality images perfection is very difficult to achieve.

All in all Masterclass: Professional Studio Photography is a lovely and an excellent addition to a professional or serious amateur photographer's bookshelf though is probably best reserved for those who have had at least a little exposure to studio photography as complete neophytes may find it a little intimidating.

Product Description

Dennis Savini is a professional photographer based in Zurich, Switzerland. He strongly believes that the future success of the photography profession is up to those who participate in the field, and he enjoys contributing his expertise through teaching. Dennis has been training apprentices since 1980 and teaches workshops for professionals in Switzerland and abroad. His experience teaching these workshops led him to realize how little importance is given to vocational training in many countries-a realization that inspired him to write this book. Since 2005, Dennis has been a partner and course instructor at cap-fotoschule, a photography school in Zurich, where he trains future professional photographers.

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