Customer Reviews

Basics Photography: Lighting

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Lighting by David Prakel is simply the best of the approximately 20 books I have on this subject. I do a lot of table top shooting in the form of product shots that I use for magazine articles I write and this includes a lot of PC boards that I design. I was never pleased with the lighting as I am a perfectionist, but with this book it solved many unresolved problems.

As an example, many books cover filters but this book does so in an absolute minimum number of words allowing superb illustrations and photos to clearly demonstrate these otherwise abstract even obtuse principles. The drawings are so detail and allow you to clearly understand and clearly see the effects of various placements of lighting, and how variations will affect the subject.

I never really understood what the KR numbers meant on certain filters, such as those made by B&W, but now I know, plus the section on filters shows their equivalents and how the light source and filter combined will yield a certain color temperature.

The section on color theory is also just so clear and the manner in which it is illustrated and presented is simply nothing short of the best imaginable. Many books try to skimp on printing costs and it the end it shows, but this is not the case here, the book publisher obviously worked closely in concert with the author and did not tell him "sorry, that would be too expensive to preset in that manner."

If you buy this lesser known that that popular book by sheer number of volumes sold, you will not be disappointed. Incidentally, I also bought Prakel's book on Composition and it is equally as good as this book. If you see David Prakel's name on any book, you might give it a look as his thorough style and ease with words makes difficult things seems simple. As an electrical engineer and technical writer I strive to do the same, and the jury is still out on my results, but they have already returned a most favorable critique on this book.

I don't know how many people are like me: I've got a reasonable DSLR that provides enough technical controls and delivers good image quality; I've learnt about stuff like aperture priority/shutter priority and different kinds of metering modes and have done exercises as a hobbyist. At some point, I felt the quality of my photos stagnate, they look like every other image on cheap postcards. After reading this book, I realized that lacking of good sense for natural lighting and lacking of knowledge of how to control artificial lighting was the problem.

This book is an excellent guide to understanding of the essentials of lighting: Which factors affects the lighting for landscape and architecture; What properties do "available lights" (for example street lights) have and how to make most of them; How are lights in studios set up for different categories of shootings (portrait, product packing, arty still life, etc). Some really exquisite lightings such as Rembrandt lighting and film lighting are also shortly explained with illustrations. Typical studio lights (the hardware) and their typical usage are also introduced with photos.

Text in the book is concise and focused without unnecessary smalltalks (personally I just do not like the writing style of the bestseller book "The Digital Photography Book".), accompanied with a lot of example images. _Many_ technical sketches illustrating how the lighting was setup are just next to the example images. To me the examples and sketches are invaluable.

A book like this cannot give answers too all lighting setups you will need. But it explains the essentials really well. The quantity of examples and sketches in the book is just enough for studying closely and making sensible adjustment under particular situation. If one can internalize the content in this book and make a lot of exercises, she would definitely see improvement in her ever stagnated images.

This book talked almost nothing about retouching, but the knowledge I learnt from this book helped me in one way or another even when I was trying to retouch my photos.

If you are already an imaging professional, maybe you don't need this book. For hobbyists or learners like me, I cannot recommend this book more. Even for absolute starters who knows nothing about focal length or DOF, this book helps.

-Ellen

PS: The version I read was this book's German translation (published by Addision-Wesley)"Licht und Beleuchtung". I suppose normally the translators wouldn't alter the writing style of the original text.

David Prakel is excellent at explaining the more theoretical side of photography, something that appealed to me, since every book nowadays simply goes into which button to press and the bells and whistles of you camera, and not actually photography.
This book won't help you understand your camera better; it'll help you become a better photographer.
I personally recommend getting Basics Photography: Composition first and seeing if that is your thing, since that's much more applicable to everyone than complex dramatic lighting. If you like this kind of stuff already, get them both.

The book is an excellent source book on how to understand the mechanics of light. The writer considers the point of view of someone who has little knowledge in the subject. Yet, the book is a good reference for the those who are more informed in the subject matter. As a former teacher, I highly recommend this easy to understand book by David Parkel.

if you are studying photography or practicing photography at any level then this book is absolutely essential. Its clear and concise approach to the one property that controls all aspects of photography is invaluable. Many photographers focus on camera control, technical aspects or are led to believe that camera control and mastery of composition are the holy grails... but without understanding the impact of light, its quality, quantity and how it shapes and describes what we see through the lens, at best its guesswork. David's book is an essential primer and constant source of information on this essential aspect. I had the good fortune to work with David some years ago at University and his dedication to the subject and incredible knowledge shines through this book.

"Basics Photography: Lighting" textbook offers a good introduction to many of the basic topics in photographic lighting. Much of this has been covered in some detail in other reviews. One thing I liked are some simple images of how to convey 3D form with light for solid shapes, which many other lighting books seem to overlook this basic concept. I also liked the portrait lighting images that breakdown separately each individual light (key, fill, rim) to show how each contributes to the overall image.
A weakness in the book is the lack of an index in the back. Also, some example lighting diagrams showing how the lights are set up would be useful to explain how some images were lit.
Another issue, not just limited to this lighting text, is defining three-quarter (3/4)lighting. It seems to be contradictorily defined among different authors. This author seems to imply that it is similar to quarter (1/4) lighting which is a combination of front & side lighting. Other books distinguish 3/4 lighting to be a combination of front, side and TOP lighting which is the bases of creating 3D form in lighting in many cases. This text didn't have a directional term for front + side + top.
Again, I reiterate that overall, I think this is a good introductory book, but has some areas that could be improved, so I rated it 4-star instead of 5-star.