Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsSha-bang'ing isn't for everyone.
Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2015
If you have even a casual interest in headshot photography, you've no doubt come across the work of Peter Hurley. Hurley's signature style is instantly recognizable and he's done a number of videos ("it's all about the jaw", "the squinch", "hold your sub") that describe some of the techniques he uses in his images.
This book was somewhat of a surprise in that it is quite a bit longer, and much more text heavy than you would expect from a typical photography book (and it still has plenty of images throughout the book). However, despite the length, the instructional value is somewhat limited because of the somewhat repetitive and meandering conversational style of the text, making the density of information rather low. Some parts felt a bit drawn out, although there's always a meaningful point that Hurley tries to draw out in every section (even if the point at the end could have been stated in far fewer words, and more concise examples).
"The Headshot" starts out describing how Hurley got started, which is fairly interesting. You get a sense for the hustle he put into trying to establish himself, and how he stayed true to the vision he had for headshots. The second chapter talks about some technical details about lighting. Hurley will talk about the lighting positions he likes to use, as well as his equipment, although this isn't the kind of book that talks about F-stops, light meters, etc. When camera settings are shared, it's not terribly interesting (although I suppose some people crave that kind of data). One noticeable thing is that he seems to mention his specific line of lighting equipment a lot, almost to the point of being an ad.
The rest of the book describes things Hurley looks for (and he has a very keen eye for detail). Of course, he talks about the same tips he has in his youtube videos that you've probably already seen, but don't expect a lot of other tips along that lines. You should also not expect a lot of technical details, or post-processing. None of that exists in this book. I'd also note that there are a lot of images in this book, but many times there are images without any specific reference to what he's trying to tell you with that image. Many times they just seem like random pieces of eye candy rather than images that had a specific purpose in trying to illustrate some concept. This isn't always the case, but it is noticeable and somewhat distracting (since it's a pretty text heavy book).
Instead, Hurley talks a lot about assessing your subject, not just to find their good and bad features, but also to get a sense for their personality. A lot of anecdotes are given to try to nail home the importance of establishing a rapport with your subject, and how he uses various techniques to get subjects to relax and give genuine expressions. This is where Hurley's work really shines, and despite so much time spent discussing this, the long and short of it is that the techniques Hurley uses work for him in large part because of his personality, and what works for him probably won't work for a lot of people.
If you've ever had a chance to view Hurley's fstopper's tutorial, you'll also notice that most of the value of that tutorial is just seeing the interaction and reactions of his subjects. It's hard to quantify exactly what you've learned at the end of this, because in the end, it's a very general approach and not a specific concrete technique that makes it work. You can even walk away from watching the video (or reading this book), feeling like you've learned (concretely) very little.
So while this certainly isn't exactly a primer, and the density of information is relatively low, I'd still say that this is worth a read for anyone interest in taking headshots. The book has a lot of tips (some that might be for you, some might not), and gives you plenty to think about if you step back and look at the big picture of what he's trying to say rather than look at the (somewhat drawn out) specifics.
