Customer Reviews

The Best of Photographic Lighting: Techniques and Images for Digital Photographers

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Lighting is probably the single biggest factor that separates the professional photographer from the amateur. The amateur sees what he thinks is a picture, raises the camera and shoots. He doesn't realize the differences between the actual image that the camera records and what he sees with his eye. His eye can make adjustments between light and shadow with his brain filling in the details that the camera misses.

Here in one, well illustrated, book is virtually everthing there is to know on lighting. It covers everything from the technical aspects of light (i.e. the temperature, which is a measure of the color or whiteness of the light), to reflecting the light, to light tents for photographing reflective things like jewelry or the stainless steel appliances in an upscale kitchen, and a memorable photograph showind several glasses of beer that are reverse lighted to show the color of the liquid.

Besides the discussion on lighting, there are numerous pictures with a description and often a diagram of how it was lit. The phographs and images shown in the book are from a who's who in photography. This is the way the pros do it, all summed up in a relatively small book that is clearly worth the low price.

I looked a long time for the 'best' book on lighting. I choose this text. It is 100% as promised in the promo. I knew nothing about the science of lighting when I began reading. When I closed the book, I was very well informed. I don't see how the data could have been better presented. EASY to apply! Excellent diagrams. I am using diagrams to think out my studio lighting setups. Will remain in my library as a reference.
A book BARGAIN.

Bill Hurter's The Best Of Photographic Lighting: Techniques And Images For Digital Photographers is a winner: it provides pros with techniques guaranteed to produce flawless lighting effects, helping photographers understanding the science of light, how it affects photography results, and how to make the most of both studio and location shots. The photos are truly stunning - and the explanations on options and how they were sifted to gain superior results is educational and very specific.

As an overall guide to lighting techniques, this book gets all the basics right. However, when it comes to inspiring the reader it doesn't fare so well. Some of the photographs in "The Best of Photographic Lighting" are bordering on attrocious - many of them firmly stuck in the 80's tradition of painful soft lighting ala oldschool Playboy (maybe this shouldn't surprise me, since the cover is much lit this way). Too many tacky pictures of urban saxophone players lit "creatively".

In addition, the book has some pretty nasty examples of bad photoshopping - the winner must be the portrait by Monte Zucker on page 101, complete with jarring halo and stuff missing (in the image see how the lens is detached from the body - he simply just cut that detail out!) - I am shocked that this kind of sloppy work would make it into any book.

To sum up: solid basics, nifty tricks and diagrams - almost the opposite of inspiring in terms of imagery - a complete lack of punchy, modern work (as is the case in most of these books - though there should be no excuse in this case, seeing that it came out in 2005!)

I'd love to hear if anyone can recommend something a little more exciting and contemporary.. the closest I've come is "Lighting for Portrait Photography" by Steve Bavister.

This book came highly recommended to me, and since lighting skills are so essential to great photography, I felt that I really needed to start from scratch and learn what I could. I thought that a book devoted to lighting would be a great start, but was slightly disappointed in this title. It repeated (and in a very choppy layout that made it hard to follow) much of the same information I've gotten from lighting chapters in photography books with wider subject matter. While the information could be great for someone who isn't more widely read, I found it to be a bit tedious. While some of the featured images are great, and the detailed captions leave almost nothing to be desired, many of them are repeated throughout Bill Hurter's other titles, making it hard to find new and different perspectives, and making the book's information seem even more repetitive. One of the only chapters I thought might be helpful was the equipment guide, giving guidelines for what types of equipment to purchase...but was disappointed in the writing of the chapter. The information was presented in a confusing and rather boring way, and while I was looking forward to learning that chapter, I have to say I retained almost none of the information.

All in all, you might be better off with an all-inclusive basics book than one of these mini-guides, but the choice is yours. I personally can recommend the Lighting Photo Workshop, as it gives you much of the same information as this title, but in a much more organized and informative format, with helpful assignments at the end of each chapter to help you apply what you've learned.

Wow, who knew that lighting could be so simple, and yet so critical to the success of a shot. I've only started to put to work some of the techniques that were so clearly written and illustrated, but my shots have started taking on a whole new dimension. If you buy this book, you should also buy Bill Hurter's "Portrait Photographer's Handbook". There is some duplication of content, but each only enforces the other.

The most inspiring illustrations on how andy why strict attention to detail in lighting, and how to do it for next to nothing cost wise, was the numerous photographic references to the artistry of Fuzzy and Shirley Duenkel. Many of Fuzzy's images were used in both books, and are EXACTLY the quality images I seek to provide to my growning customer base.[...].

This book covers a lot of the basic lighting techniques in an easy to understand format. Perfect for those starting out on needing to brush up on lighting.

This book is one of the few that actually has fantastic photography and tells you exactly how they were created (lighting sources and positions).

If you are like me, I don't find photo books that have amateur photos to be as inspiring, as ones that are created by true photographic artists creating brilliant artwork.

This book will not disappoint, but will surely inspire!

Grant

This book does have some above average photos. If that's what you want, then you should get it. THe layout of the book makes the book useless. Repeated most of the knowledge you already knew.

Dont waste your money like me. It's an useless book.

The book is OK, definitely not the "best" book but not bad either. There are some very straight-forward instructions on studio and some location lighting, but not terribly in depth. The lighting diagrams are helpful, but at least one diagram contradicts the text (states that a light goes in a different direction than the diagram). Nevertheless, I found this book helpful, but still I need another text so that I can learn more basics. There were two things I found distracting. The first was some rather blatant plugging of certain photographers, whose photo examples I did not find particulary noteworthy. The second is extensive side notes under each photo example. The side notes are great, and very helpful, but they are so long they distract from the actual text of the book - making the layout very choppy. Still a decent text.