My portrait of William H. Macy photographed for the Be-A-Star Anti-Bullying Campaign in partnership with WWE and The Creative Coalition gets props from the Santa Fe Workshops Portraits Contest.

Heaven’s Disco must be cranking this week as Robin Gibb joins Donna Summer on the dance floor behind the pearly velvet rope…

I shot this portrait of the Bee Gees for Entertainment Weekly back in 1997 when they were making their comeback tour and as you can see from this photo, the lads were a lot of fun. The background is a set we built in the studio after imagining they should each have a room filled with gold records. When I told them the concept, the brothers laughed and said “you know we’ll have to look into that…”

Just imagine how great that would look under a disco ball in Heaven’s Studio 54…

Big thanks for my friends at PhotoShelter for these kind words about my new book on celebrity portrait photography ‘Secrets of Great Portrait Photography: Photographs of the Famous and Infamous‘ coming this fall from New Riders Press.

“The result is Secrets of Great Portrait Photography, filled with all of Brian’s tips and tricks to make every person who comes in front of your camera feel like a celebrity. It’s a sexy, inspiring book that’s a must-have for any portrait photographer or fan of Brian Smith.” — Lauren Margolis/PhotoShelter

Thanks for the love, Lauren. It’s mutual! I’ve depend on PhotoShelter to house my online photo archives and they’ve never let me down. They’ve saved my bacon many times over when I’ve been on the road an an editor needs a photo two minutes ago…

I learned a lesson a few years back, when the IT department a a major magazine routinely cleared off their FTP servers before my editor could download the HiRes final selects from a shoot. After that I started posting all my shoots to private password-protected archive galleries on PhotoShelter – ensuring they are always there. Then once the shoot is published I can make the gallery visible with one click.

Click here to save with a PhotoShelter discount code.

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A Book 30 Years in the Making – May 6, 2012

Oliver Platt by Brian Smith chosen for American Photography 28 Awards. Platt was photographed for Art & Soul which features Brian Smith’s portrait photography of celebrities from the entertainment industry including film, television, music and stage paired with their personal testimonials expressing the importance of the arts in our culture and the positive impact it has on our lives. The notes – in each artist’s own handwriting – range from whimsical to weighty, but all offer insight into the individual’s background and how their lives were shaped by art. The project was shot in partnership with The Creative Coalition and Sony.

Thanks to this year’s distinguished jury Bill Black of Reader’s Digest; Scott Hall of Newsweek/Daily Beast; Nathalie Kirsheh of Details; Whitney Lawson of Travel + Leisure; Joanna Milter of The New York Times Magazine; Paul Moakley of TIME; and Zana Woods of Wired; with Kathy Ryan and Fred Woodward serving again as co-Chair Emeriti. Thanks guys…the check is in the mail…

For the past six months I’ve been hard at work on my second book ‘Secrets of Great Portrait Photography: Photographs of the Famous and Infamous‘  Coming this fall from Peachpit Publishing’s New Riders, the book that’s actually 30+ years in the making. Drawing upon the best lessons I’ve learned over the last three decades photographing portraits of the rich and famous, this book blends lavish celebrity portraits of a coffee table book with technical how-to insights with a side dish of behind-the-scenes celebrity stories.

My wonderful…and patient…editor Nikki McDonald has been after me to write this book since attending my talk on the subject at PhotoPlus Expo 2010. My thanks to Nikki for having the patience to wait a year until Art & Soul was finished. The extra year gave me time to deliver a much better book.

I enjoy teach and speaking about photography and Secrets of Great Portrait Photography is the favorite of talk that I do because it goes through the entire process of a portrait shoot, but it’s a challenge to get all the information into a two hour talk. Packed thick with 264 pages loaded with details about my last three decades of portrait photography, this book finally gives me the space to share all the details.

The cover features a portrait from one of my favorite portrait assignments ever -  a portrait shoot of Richard Branson on Necker Island in the Caribbean for a Time Magazine story on Virgin Galactic space flights. Secrets of Great Portrait Photography, the book tells the story behind how the shoot came together from planning to production to post.

Secrets of Great Portrait Photography is available for discounted pre-order on Amazon. We’re hoping for a big launch, so please tell your friends and pre-order your copy today! http://amzn.to/greatportraits

Here are the sexy details from my publisher:

Title: Secrets of Great Portrait Photography: Photographs of the Famous and Infamous
Author: Brian Smith
Slated Release Date: 9/28/12
Publisher: New Riders, an imprint of Peachpit

Description:
In this sexy, bold, beautiful book, photographer Brian Smith tells the stories behind the photos and lessons learned in 30 years of photographing celebrities and people in all walks of life. A Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, Smith is the luckiest guy on the planet. He’s told Bill Gates exactly what to do for an entire hour, had an exhibit at the Library of Congress, dined with the President and 3,000 of his closest friends, had cupcakes with Anne Hathaway, and gotten drunk with George Clooney . . . all in the service of getting the perfect portrait.

In this juicy guide to shooting professional portraits, Smith shares his insider tips on connecting with people, finding the perfect location, telling a great story through portraiture, getting just the right pose, capturing emotion and gestures, arranging unique group shots, and getting just the right light. Throughout, you’ll stay inspired by the breathtaking images included of the famous and infamous–Venus and Serena Williams, Gene Hackman, Cindy Crawford, Donald Trump, Bill Gates, The Bee Gees, Antonio Banderas, Shaquille O’Neal, John Turturro, Anne Hathaway, Ben Stiller, Sylvester Stallone, and others.

You might not be shooting the rich and famous yourself, but after reading Smith’s tell-all guide, you’ll know how to make every person who makes their way in front of your camera look and feel like a celebrity.

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PhotoShelter Showcases ‘Secrets of Great Portrait Photography’ – May 12, 2012

Like most of sports nation I was shocked and saddened to hear of Junior Seau’s death. I photographed Junior for Ocean Drive back in his days with the Miami Dolphins. Junior called everyone he met “buddy” and he did it in such a way with such warmth that you felt he meant it.

Buddy, you will be missed…

Portrait photographer Brian Smith shares his thoughts as a Loweprofessional on location shooting, approaching public figures, and the art of getting comfortable with the subject in our exclusive Lowepro video profile on Vimeo.

On the newsstand this week is my portrait shoot of Über-DJ David Guetta photographed for the London Observer Magazine shot when Guetta was headlining the Ultra Music Festival in Miami last month.

Day 1 began with a portrait shoot of the DJ+Producer made famous when his Black Eyed Peas hit song “I Gotta Feeling” blew up on the charts. We had the rooftop of a Miami Beach penthouse suite to ourselves. Like a lot celebrity shoots it was a case of ‘hurry up and wait’ – we set up your shot and then sat back and waited to Guetta, I mean get, our star. Yet you never complain when that gives you the best light of the day. Then he arrived on the windy rooftop, Guetta was concerned about the wind on the roof deck. We did everything we good to block it before deciding the best course was to just go with it. He’s lit with one Octabank from left weighted down with the pack + 2 assistants holding it in place so the wind doesn’t send it out to sea and shot it with my favorite camera set-up for portraits a Sony a900 with a CZ 24-70/2.8 lens. Our portrait shows Guetta doing his best DiCaprio from Titanic.

Day 2 took me back-stage at the Ultra Music Festival where  I was told they would allow me onstage with Guetta as long as I stayed out of the spotlight.  Wearing all-black, I did my Ninja best to hide out of sight, I held my NEX-5N camera above the speakers or sound board and composed off the LCD which was tilted down toward me capturing Guetta with the massive crowd behind him. I gotta admit it was a blast to go to my photojournalism roots and shoot a bit of reportage again – all the while in the back-stage company of Lil Jon and Paris Hilton.

My thanks the London Observer’s wonderful photo editor Kit Burnett for the gig, to writer Luke Bainbridge, to SONY EMI’s Paul Guimaraes for the access, and to David Guetta for making our shoot Titanic!

Get Inspired showcases ART & SOUL photographed in partnership with The Creative Coalition and Sony which pairs Brian Smith’s portraits of celebrities with their hand-written testimonials supporting the arts including two of my favorite celebrity portraits of BFF’s Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce. Thanks for the love Get Inspired! You can get more information about the book ART & SOUL here.

There are many online photo communities and I’ve recently enjoyed interacting with the 500px online photo-sharing community. This weekend I added  a portrait of Evan ‘Charlie Runkle’ Handler from the ART & SOUL project to a group of black & white celebrity portraits I call Film Noir. An alert 500px member noticed that if you go on 500px without logging this photo is marked “NUDE CONTENT”

So either the 500px webmasters are fans of  ‘Californication’ or the Nude Content bots have mistaken Evan’s head for something else…

Evan is such a sweet guy! Those 500pxbots gotta show him some love!