Christopher Grey's Studio Lighting Techniques for Photography: Tricks of the Trade for Professional Digital Photographers [Paperback]

Christopher Grey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2009

Taking the guesswork out of lighting, this invaluable examination provides tools and techniques from an accomplished expert. The most essential principles for photo shoots are presented through lengthy image sequences, considering different finishes for reflective surfaces, types of light sources, light modifiers, and even light placements. From creating fundamental looks to the effect of fine-tuning placement and setting, this detailed guidebook enables photographers to maximize productivity on any shoot. Concluding with the most effective solutions for solving lighting problems, this study is an excellent resource for both active professionals as well as intermediate to advanced students of photography.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Each chapter is almost like a tip in a tip book, except that rather then tell you what to do without providing understanding, the author explores each subject in great detail."  —Nikonians.org

About the Author

Christopher Grey is a noted photographer, author, speaker and instructor who has written numerous books on photography, lighting and camera systems. He’s the recipient of national and international awards for his work, and considers each day another opportunity to ask his favorite professional question, "What if…?"

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Amherst Media, Inc. (October 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584282711
• ISBN-13: 978-1584282716
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #70,947 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #40 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography > Lighting

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Much better than the first book, but why not just revise the first book?, December 19, 2009

By 

Abdulrahman Aljabri (Jeddah) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Christopher Grey's Studio Lighting Techniques for Photography: Tricks of the Trade for Professional Digital Photographers (Paperback)

NOTE: I wrote this review from the perspective of someone who read the first book and then bought this book to learn new things. If you have never read the first book you might find this book more useful than I did. Depending on your level of expertise, however, you might want to buy the first book over this one. Complete beginners will find the first book easier to follow. That being said I find the quality of content and presentation in this book to exceed the first. Therefore, if you are more comfortable with lighting and or would like to take a deep plunge into lighting go with this one. Now for the review


This book is much better than the first book by the same author titled Master Lighting Guide. It offers a more in depth higher quality presentation of studio lighting. Hence, the author attempts to provide the reader with a solid understanding of studio lighting principles. The first section focuses on explaining, with plenty of pictures, the relationship between light physical size and relative size, distance, spread depth, and feathering.

The second section consists of 20 topics or so that put the principles stated above into practice. Some are very unique and new like the inverse relation between specularity and size of softbox or the nature of umbrellas and how they differ from softboxes. That last topic is a full departure from the previous book in which the author leaves the impression that both modifiers -softboxes and umbrellas- are very similar when in reality they are not. Another great topic is about how to position a light meter for proper reading. That topic can eliminate much frustration with aiming light meters.

There are other section that seem to have been pretty much lifted from the previous book like the simulated sunlight topic which offers nothing more than one new but minor technique. A couple other topics don't add much like the topic about Why Strip Lights are so Cool which sounds very cool until you read it and realize that it pretty much adds nothing more than few extra pages to the book.

I think the book is very good, but very short and in a sense comes across as an incomplete work. I can't say the same about the first book which I felt was the opposite, complete in the range of topics but poor in quality of material. I still bought the first book anyway because it was the only available reference at the time. Given this book is short and covers many similar topics, but in a better way, I wonder why the author did not consider adding the new content of this book to the first book in a revised and expanded edition instead of a new book. That would have created a complete and excellent quality book that has no match on the market today.

I recommend the book to advanced amateurs and new professionals but I also recommended checking it in a bookstore first because some might not find it very valuable. It's just not one of those books that you can give full 5 stars and a blind buy it right away recommendation.


One last note: the author refers to softboxes sizes as 4x6 large, 3x4 medium, and 2x3 small. This designation might be confusing for people when they go to buy softboxes based on his recommendation. Many major softboxes manufacturers including Creative Light and Photoflex label 4x6 extra large, 3x4 large, and 2x3 medium. Chimera on the other hand goes by the same designations the author is using.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Niche, October 6, 2009

By 

Conrad J. Obregon (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Christopher Grey's Studio Lighting Techniques for Photography: Tricks of the Trade for Professional Digital Photographers (Paperback)

Here's an excellent book aimed at a very narrow segment of the photography market. It should be of interest primarily to studio portrait photographers who use strobes, although there may be other applications for which it might be useful.

Grey covers a number of lighting techniques that are beyond the basics, like shaping the background light, or using an incident light meter, or feathering a light, or using a beam splitter. These techniques will be of interest to people already comfortable with photographing with studio lights, but will be of little help to novices. Each chapter is almost like a tip in a tip book, except that rather then tell you what to do without providing understanding, the author explores each subject in great detail. For example, in discussing the use of a hair light he presents several different sources, like large and small softboxes and strip softboxes, illustrates the application and effect of each, and even shows the difference in effect with slight changes in the direction in which the model faces. There are plenty of subtly varying images and every technique is supported by lighting diagrams.

Because this is such a fine-tuned book, I feel compelled to tell you the things it does not cover. There is no explanation of the basic lighting set-up of main, fill, hair and background light (in fact Grey doesn't even use traditional fill lights); no discussion of equipment, either cameras or lights, other than some light modifiers which the author has constructed; and no discussion of exposure, except to the extent that modifying exposures when using some of his techniques will change the effect. The lighting is limited to strobes, so if you use speedlights or hot lights, you will have to convert the author's advice. On the other hand people interested in product photography that has an artier twist, or even fine art still life images, can probably get something from this book.

Given all of that, if you fit into the niche, this will be an excellent book for you. Grey emphasis that the photography business is very competitive and that, in order to be successful, the portrait photographer has to come up with a look that is different. The differences he creates are often subtle but they may open new doors for the appropriate reader.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Grey's Master Lighting and Studio Lighting, January 23, 2010

By 

G. Riegel (Central PA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Christopher Grey's Studio Lighting Techniques for Photography: Tricks of the Trade for Professional Digital Photographers (Paperback)

As a classroom instructor of photography for twenty years, I appreciate the basic info that Chris Grey has compiled in his two lighting guides. This studio guide was a natural addition to my classroom required reading and reference book collection. Customers should consider his first book "Master Lighting Guide for Portrait Photographers" as "part 1" of this collection.