Magazines - time to move on...

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Threebrows
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Matt
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Hey all :wave:
I have just thumbed my way through decembers Practical Photography. I read a maximum of 4 articles in there and have been feeling over the past few months that I have out grown it. My subscription is now up and I feel the need to move on.
My main passion is for portraiture and my principal interest in tog magazines is less for articles and more for inspiration and appreciation of others work - also one of the many reasons I love TP. :thumbs:
With that in mind can anyone here recommend a good pro portraiture magazine? - not that I am anywhere near a pro, but I would love to see how the best of the best do it! More leaning towards studio/candid/glamour rather than weddings etc.

Many thanks in advance for your replies guys and gals :)
 
I have stopped buying magazines now. Instead I spend my money on secondhand books at the Oxfam shop.


Steve.
 
Although there are books available on portraiture, I don't actually know of any monthly magazine that specialises on this topic. I'm sure there is a magazine called Professional Photographer, but more than likely that consists of various aspects of photography rather than just portraits.

I used to buy magazines myself years ago but don't tend to bother now, apart from the occasional copy of Outdoor Photography.
 
smoothedit said:
can anyone here recommend a good pro portraiture magazine?
Click to expand...
Suspect Professional Photographer would partly cover this. Though how professional it really is I question - suspect the bulk of its buyers are every tom, richard & wannabe.
 
I agree with your findings on magazines. It seems that after one-year's worth, they have pretty much covered all the issues / ideas etc. I occasionally buy one now, when I am travelling or something like that but even then am often left disappointed.
 
Totally agree with the above - especially the yearly coverage.
Mainly the reason why I was looking for more specific publications.
Thanks for the Pro Photographer - I have read a few issues and liked it - but as you say they are all broad by nature -both in content and target market.
Thanks for your responses all - they are valued and appreciated.
 
Just been checking out Pro Photographer - They are offering a years subs to their online digital edition for £15!!

Now that IS tempting! Even if it is lunchtime reading!
 
You could try Outdoor Photography. Mainly landscape based and can get a bit samey after a while. Pick up a copy and see what you think. Nice location ideas but not much on technique. You may be better off spending the money on books. Something from Joe McNally may be what you want. Check out his Blog for some indication as to his work.
 
I am also not planning on renewing my PP subscription. I have noticed there is nothing really new in there for me now.

Moreso, I'm recognising articles that seem like rewrites of ones done a couple of years back. I used to lok forward to reading a photography magazine - but I think I'm going to start buying photography books instead.
 
Totally agree Richard,
Although I do prefer magazines to books for browsing as they are cheaper per unit!
 
smoothedit said:
Hey all :wave:
I have just thumbed my way through decembers Practical Photography. I read a maximum of 4 articles in there and have been feeling over the past few months that I have out grown it. My subscription is now up and I feel the need to move on.
My main passion is for portraiture and my principal interest in tog magazines is less for articles and more for inspiration and appreciation of others work - also one of the many reasons I love TP. :thumbs:
With that in mind can anyone here recommend a good pro portraiture magazine? - not that I am anywhere near a pro, but I would love to see how the best of the best do it! More leaning towards studio/candid/glamour rather than weddings etc.

Many thanks in advance for your replies guys and gals :)
Click to expand...

Professional Photography and Photo Pro Mag are good and are the only ones I buy! I find all the others generally cover the same topics. Altough as has been pointed out not neccessarily pro's buy them eg me!! They are a good read and tend to have a fair amount to do with Portraiture and lighting ideas, Damian Lovegrove has a colomn in Pro magazine although that's normally reconstrued from his prophotnut blog (an excellent blog if you don't already read it). I also believe David Hobby is joing the Photo Pro mag from next month which could be good!
 
I had Practical Photography for a year's sub when they gave away an Arctic Butterfly but I didn't renew it. Like most mags, they constantly recycle the same old beginner-orientated articles over and over. And I also got annoyed with the huge amount of space they wasted printing pictures of people holding a camera up to their eye.

I've had Digital Photographer from its first issue. It started as a good pro style mag but even this has deteriorated towards the beginner now. I've written and told them a couple of times, and I might stop getting it soon. They once published a letter from somebody complaining about a review of a top end camera like a 1Ds III or something. He was saying what's the point of doing these sort of reviews when the majority of readers could never afford such a camera. I can't remember their reply, but more of their content is now aimed at the basics.

I don't buy so many mags these days, since the town centre car park hiked up the parking charges where I used to buy from Smiths. So it's the Tesco option now, which isn't that good.
 
I have tried all the monthly's in the last year and I find the same problem,many of the articles are leaden and pretentious and the last time i saw a shot published that had not been photoshopped for 10 hours the old king was on the throne.
I tend to have a look at AP each week and end up buying it about once a month because its way better than the monthly's
 
I subscribe to 4 magazines, photography monthly, digital camera, EOS magazine and photoplus. I wont be renewing any of them when they finish in a couple of months time but will buy the odd one if they interest me like AP.
 
How about trying some online mags, they are often free and can be of surprisingly good quality. I was checking out www.burnmagazine.org the other day and found it be pretty good.

For further inspiration try photojournale (I think .org) and the magnum photo agencty site. There are a lot of good sites out there.
 
Also, I forgot to mention www.mediastrom.org, there are some nice photoessays on there.
 
Funny enough just cancelled my subscription to Practical Photography today. I find the magazine has gone right downhill and doesn't have enough to interest me each month.
 
Cheers for all the replies guys n gals. Each and everyone is appreciated.
I signed up for the £15 online subscription as above for some lunchtime reading and will invest in more photography portfolios for inspiration.

Thanks again :thumbs:

and gooooooodbyee PP :wave: Twas a great resource for a solid grounding. Onwards and upwards.
 
All photo-magazines have a cycle and re-hash the same or similar articles every two years or so...
I gave up on all of them years back - now thanks to some very nice people on the Forum, I'm learning once again how to focus my camera, edit in RAW, use layers and layer-masks in Photoshop and use DoF to my advantage...lol

TBH looking at the images is as useful as anything else as it tends to generate new ideas...
 
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