I know you can find a lot online but I'm wondering if there is any sort of consensus on a good book about portrait lighting (that may also include some stuff on portrait retouching). There seems to be a lot out there but I was wondering if there is any sort of agreement on "the best one". I don't do much of this type of work but it does come up and I'd like to be better prepared even if its just for portraits of family members, etc.
I hate to belabour a point I have made elsewhere, but Skin is a BAD book. It teaches you bad habits in retouching and its lighting advice is blown away by certain other books.
I have the christopher gray book mentioned above, and while i found it helpful when i was very early in my lighting, it isn't useful if you understand the basics. I also own Light: Science and Magic and that is an amazing book to learn with, I have read it cover to cover many a time.
I also really like the Steve Bavister books, especially as a primer on different approaches to lighting and the idea of achieving different styles, as opposed to the basics. They aren't remotely as comprehensive as others, but the lighting diagrams are invaluable.
I'm not a retoucher by any stretch (I prefer to hire it out), but I found Scott Kelby's Photoshop books useful for wrapping my head around some of the basics.
I also liked Michael Grecco's book on dramatic portraits as a good counterpoint to all the other books that try to hammer 40-year-old "standards" into everyone.
