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I have never read a book on portrait photography that demonstrated the author had the ghost of a clue about how to light to create form or how to replicate the way the eye sees.
In order to take worthwhile photos one must understand how the variables in the photography process interrelate and how to choose wisely for your purpose. Once you have this understanding then you can set up a no brainer approach and get consistent results every single time.
Photo books show you how to take flat, soft pictures with burned out highlights and clogged up shadows.
Using a single light source (natural or artificial) and a reflector board may be generally trumpeted on the forum and can produce photos that look very good, but I find this approach to be ineffective for creating good photo reference to paint from.
Pat, in my workshop you were treated to a properly lit model, one that gave you plenty of modeling in the lights, clear highlights and shadows of a narrow value range where you could see a lot of information. You need two lights to recreate this photographically. A main light and a fill light.
Earlier this year I did an 8 hour photo workshop in Atlanta for portrait artists. It takes a long time to explain it all properly.
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