Becoming a Better Photographer: Get a Personal Mentor, In an E-Book!

I was at B&H Photo the other day and as usual the place was packed with customers buying all sorts of goodies to add to their gear. There’s supposed to be a recession going on, I thought to myself. But we photographers will seem to invest enormous amounts of money into anything that we feel will improve our work. Some of us will spend several thousand dollars a year on equipment, workshops, or private mentoring sessions. It’s understandable. You want to invest in the things you love.

On the subject of private mentoring sessions, what if you could hook-up with a very experienced professional over coffee? Someone who would tell you the ins-and-outs of what he’s learned over the years, give you some great tips that could save you lots of money, time and frustration, and leave you with several new tools to make you a better photographer? How much would that be worth to you? Some private sessions like this go for at least a couple hundred bucks and only cover a few short topics. But there are other ways to get valuable insight direct from a qualified source, such as Ashley Karyl.

Let’s start with a clarification: Ashley Karyl’s e-book, “How To Photograph Nudes Like A Professional,” is really about how to become a better photographer no matter what your subject is wearing, or not wearing. The tips and advice throughout Karyl’s book can be invaluable to any photographer, aspiring or professional. And to be clear, I highly recommend his book as an addition to your learning library.

First off, this isn’t a “nudie” book full of gratuitous images of naked women. I have to be honest. I wasn’t sure what to expect based on a couple of the images featured in the promotional material. But, you won’t find any graphic, erotic, or offensive material here. The photos (some topless, some figure studies) presented are definitely in good taste with a few illustrating a modern commercial pin-up style. I can’t really imagine anyone, male or female, feeling at all uncomfortable with the content. The material is presented in a very professional, useful manner.

You Should Get This Book

I recommend Karyl’s book to anyone interested in creating better work with female subjects. Even if you never intend to do professional or hobby work in the nude/figure study genre, the principles laid out in this book will help you in the areas of glamour, boudoir, and female portraiture in general.

“Instead of just covering one area of nudes,” Karyl writes in his introduction, “I shall give examples of working with beauty, glamour, and fine art nudes.” He explains that, “reading this book should save you a great deal of time in the long run and ensure that you start producing those beautiful images much more quickly with fewer problems along the way. It should save you a small fortune in expenses,” noting that the wrong solutions will only hold back your progress and can also negatively affect your pocket book.

I believe Karyl makes good on his goals. Any single section or topic covered is well worth the price of the book. At over 300 pages in length, Karyl covers a great deal of topics most photographers will appreciate and find useful. Really, too much to go over in this review. But here are a few areas he discusses in detail throughout the book:

EQUIPMENT: Karyl offers a huge amount of real-world advice about gear. He discusses the pros and cons of specific lenses, cameras, and lighting products. It’s actually great advice about what to buy from someone who knows what they’re talking about. He also provides a useful example of a standard equipment list (things to have in your bag for a given shoot). He notes that a large number of lenses isn’t necessary, just two or three basic lenses will do.

CASE STUDIES: Several examples with descriptions about what went into creating the shots. These provide some useful insight from the photographer’s perspective, including things like some of the logistics, lighting, or post-processing involved. The case studies are a good example of Karyl’s intended mentoring “over coffee” approach.

THINK LIKE A PRO: A collection of blunt, valuable advice about working with any model, nude, glamour, or otherwise. This section is an example of how you might find just a little piece of advice that makes all the difference in your photography from this point on. There’s the potential to get that one thing that does this, that elevates your level of understanding. I’ve been shooting for years, but some of these tips even gave ME that, “Ah, ha!” reaction.

MODELS: Karyl gives solid, experienced advice on how to find the right model for a given style or genre of photography. Here, again, he doesn’t hold back. The advice is straight-forward and honest and might save you some time and help you avoid lots of frustration. He also discusses the specifics of working with models from start to finish. The advice here is really invaluable.

Ashley Karyl also offers plenty of thoughts and insight on how to develop your skill as a photographer, issues of working with commercial clients, and advice on various avenues for surviving as a professional, or semi-professional photographer. Plus, there is a large section on his working methods of basic image enhancement, and output (printing) advice.

After spending a month reading and digesting what this book has to offer, I’m still impressed with it. There’s a lot of bang for your buck here. Click HERE to order it >>

From Mr. Karyl’s Page:

• This is the first book of its kind that really shows how to photograph nudes like a professional.
• Written in an easy conversational manner, this PDF eBook has the kind of detailed information that can only be taught by a working professional like Ashley Karyl who has many years of experience photographing top glamour and nude models around the world.
• Learn the right way to find models, work on a budget, organize a team, choose equipment and so much more; helping you to improve the quality of your images, while avoiding all those expensive and time consuming errors that happen so often in photography.

So, order and download the book now, at Ashley Karyl’s page about the book. Part of the proceeds of your purchase go to supporting this site.