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 enlarge | Author: Michael Grecco
Publisher: Amphoto Books
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $16.85
You Save: $13.10 (44%)
New (33) Used (14) from $13.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  26 reviews
Sales Rank: 7892
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 244
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 10.4 x 9.6 x 0.6
ISBN: 0817442278
Dewey Decimal Number: 778.92
EAN: 9780817442279
ASIN: 0817442278
Publication Date: September 29, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Absolutely Brand New & In Stock. 100% 30-Day Money Back. Direct from our warehouse. Ships by USPS. 1+ million customers served-In business since 1986. Happy Customers is Our #1 Goal. Toll Free Support
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| Customer Reviews:
 wonderful January 3, 2007
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
The book is more like a portfolio of Michaels work with a running monolouge from the photographer about each image. It is almost like you are sitting with him reviewing his portfolio as he tells you the background behind each image.
The book was oddly arranged and you had to flip back and forth between text & images, but it was well written and the images were awesome
 For experts only... December 24, 2006
19 out of 31 found this review helpful
Upfront, I'll admit I don't like his "over the top" concepts, and "over the top" lighting. It's sort of Annie Liebowitz on speed, only Grecco is infinitely more skillful with lighting, sets, and styling. Most of the shots were far more about Grecco's skill and eye, than about the subjects.
The book is mainly useful for experts, rather than beginners, because of the extreme sophistication and sometimes extreme complexity of Grecco's lighting, and to some degree, set-design/construction. My colleagues consider me skilled at lighting, but I wouldn't even attempt some of the set-ups Grecco uses, and succeeds with, without faltering.
BTW, by far the nicest shot in the book is the nude shot in - I kid you not - the New Mexico gas chamber.
The book is also marred by bad book design. [...]
I'm sorry to give such a mixed review, because I like Grecco. I'm impressed by him in person, and really impressed by his ability to [...] get striking photos.
Lighting And The Dramatic Portrait: FANTASTIC December 21, 2006
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Michael is one of the best celebrity photographers in the business. His background in photojournalism combined with the lighting he perfected during his years in advertising provide him with a unique perspective. He is able to capture candid and real moments with beautiful created light. The book is a combination of a history of fabulous images and technical descriptions on how and why it was done. This book won't necessarily turn you into a fantastic celebrity photographer, but it will provide you with lighting schemes and solutions that anyone can use to help perfect their own skills. The images are spectacular but there is much more in this book including valuable information on lighting, producing and the business side, all of which are necessary in a very completive marketplace. Anyone can take pictures but few possess the skills needed to be truly successful. Michael helps to reveal all of those talents.
Edgy December 21, 2006
73 out of 78 found this review helpful
Make no mistake about it. Michael Grecco is a brilliant portrait photographer and the pictures presented in this book are top-notch and edgy. Yet, as I read this book, I at first felt that this was another example of how-to-itis. That's the case where a publisher feels that a book will sell better if it's an instructional manual than if it's a portfolio.
I felt this even more strongly as I read the first few pages, where I encountered pictures that documented the use of equipment and techniques that I knew nothing about. Then as I read further, I found that the discussions of general principles followed the pictures rather than preceding them. I found this a strange editorial technique that left me mystified as I looked at pictures and then had me flipping back to them after the discussion. I was also glad I knew a little bit about portrait photography so that I could understand the skeletal descriptions of the technical aspects of what Grecco was doing
Grecco has sections on cameras, illumination, the medium, creativity and conceptualization, the subject/ photographer connection and case studies. In this last section he presents pictures grouped by subject matter and then explains how he came to pose the pictures and light them. Throughout, he used this show and then tell approach. Once I got used to it, I didn't find it so off-putting.
You may wonder who the audience for this book is. For example, when he describes the army of assistants involved in a shoot, including make-up artists, prop builders, location scouts and so forth, the average photographer will feel out of his league. One of the lights that Grecco uses may cost more than all of the equipment some serious photographers may own. The author does not teach fundamental lighting techniques, and in fact says that one of his guiding principles is to always break the rules of lighting. At first it might appear that Grecco is speaking just to the other members of the clique of celebrity photographers.
Most of us will never be able to get actor Jet Li to leap four or five feet into the air in an alley filled with smoke from a fog machine in front of a setup of five strong strobe lights. On the other hand, I thought that rather then photographing that young ballerina in a graceful plie, I could have gotten a more exciting picture if I had asked her to do jetes. And I was inspired to research the rental of a fog machine which turned out to be quite inexpensive. And even though I might never be able to get Martin Landau to pose in back of an iron weave railing in Café La Boheme, I could pose Uncle George behind the wrought-iron railing in Aunt Jane's place.
So, for the portrait photographer who feels that he or she has to push out of the box of conventional lighting and posing techniques, this book may be a source of ideas. For other photographers, it may be fascinating to find out how one big-time portrait photographer does it, and admire his work, even if we never apply any of his techniques.
Film? December 15, 2006
1 out of 13 found this review helpful
Michael is a great photographer, but this is defiantly not a how to book. I'm not sure why he spends so much time talking about file and Polaroid's?
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