Customer Reviews

The Complete Guide to Light & Lighting in Digital Photography (A Lark Photography Book)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a beautiful book filled with lots of good information, in an easily digestible "one topic covered on each two-page spread". This makes the book easy to pick it up, read a couple of small sections, then put it down and go on to do something else. The writing style is more intricate than most mass-market books, which is actually refreshing compared to the more simplistic language that's used in books these days. The glossary is very good, covering a lot of jargon used in the book, and in the industry in general.

The one thing that mars this book are numerous production errors. There are missing illustrations, such as a caption saying "compare these two photos", and there's only one, or one that was comparing one scene with different lighting areas highlighted, but one of the photos was a duplicate of an unrelated photo appearing elsewhere on the page, and some pages there were words run together, like a badcutandpasteerror with InDesign. I would also be happier if some of the "compare these two photos" things had indications of the specific things to notice (see how the highlights of the llama's ears contrast with the bowler's tutu), so I know whether I'm missing something obvious, or it's a production error running the same photo twice.

My copy has the same ISBN number as listed above, but has a different cover and is listed "First Edition" 2007. I'm assuming that the book ordered here is virtually identical.

I found the content quite excellent. It explains light color well, bit depth and dynamic range well. It gets a tad bit repetitious comparing different lighting sources, although does point out important differences. The book does well to bridge the gap between Photoshop tuitorial and visual results; it will not tell you how to use Photoshop, but has many Photoshop screen captures discussing the effect of adjustments. There is a good section on High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging.

The book does have an undue amount of typos. If you can look past them then you can enjoy this book. In some cases the typos are extreme: there are four consecutive pages that show different lighting positions on a still life object; 80 images in all. However, the caption key for each picture describing the setup is exactly the same for each image! Somebody forgot to change the captions, so those pages are completely useless. I did email the author about this and received a nice reply and copy from the editor; they promised an update on their website. Time has come and gone, and the update page is still empty - I imagine they are either off slapping together a new book to sell to you, or maybe someone actually did shoot the editor...

This is a great book, with lots of good ideas for how to set up lighting in differing situations. I've already improved my lighting using ideas from this book. What made this a tough slog is that the illustrations sometimes don't match up, and for a photography book, the illustrations tend to be kind of important.

I went on the publisher web site, and haven't found an errata, but will keep looking in the hopes, since cleaning up the figures (and adding the missing ones obviously referred to) would make this a great overall book.

My copy has the same ISBN, but a different cover than the one pictured.

All of the editing errors mentioned in the other reviews seem to have been fixed.

I bought this book based on web research. I have no regret; it's very good. It presents and describes techniques and equipment, as well as basic physics of light. I've learned from it just by reading, and I intend to use it as a reference, among others (one of which I've already got and read). I can't imagine anyone being other than well pleased if they bought this book.

I suppose I'll start off by saying that I had bought this book at a B&N retail store and paid MUCH more.

Some of the other reviews cover the books educational format style (bite sized chunks) so I won't be repetitive here. What I will say is that the first chapter of this book really puts the nail in the coffin for traditional film cameras. I've never seen such a well thought out analysis of all of the capabilities that Digital brings to the table. No longer will you have to field questions from digital photo skeptics.

Another interesting note is that none of the photos in this book are NOT particularly breath-taking. Don't buy this book with the expectation of seeing fabulous photos. It's true purpose is to show you how to "work" with pictures and make better use of your camera as a tool. From that perspective, this book is a real winner.

I'd suggest this book both for serious SLR beginners as well as seasoned photographers who have made the switch to digital within the last few years.

I'm a student of photography and this book really helps to highlight that you wouldn't pick up on by yourself and makes it clear. My school recommends it and I recommend it to anyone who wants a digital lighting book that will unfuzz the technicalities that can get in the way of creating a great photo.

Michael Freeman seems to be a passionate traveler and artist before being a talented professional photographer.
With " Light and Lighting", he shares with us his experience, taking us on a captivating journey from the nature of light through the technical intricacies and complexities that the serious and dedicated photographer is bound to encounter (staying clear, from the pitfalls of pedantry and tediousness) to lead us beyond the limitations of technology into the wide open space of our own limitless creativity and freedom of expression.
If you have been inspired by this book, I would also recommend its companions, "Mastering Color Digital Photography" and "Mastering Black and White Digital Photography". They are of the same caliber.

I agree strongly with the first review of this book. I bought this one and a wedding photo book. Reading this one has been a much better use of my time! It takes a more scientific and pragmatic approach to successful photography. Light is what you are capturing and the essence of photography. One should really know something about it :) I really like the series shots towards the back of the book that include a bust, a ball and a figurine with different light treatments (reflectors, angles, blah blah blah). He also does series shots of the same objects only with different exposures, different times of day and different lighting setting, which helps you get a better understanding of white balance and how to use it to your advantage. It shows progressive evening to night shots. I do wish it had more night shooting tips, but it was well worth the $30. He uses a Nikon D2X, I believe, which might make the Nikon users feel a bit more comfortable, but really this info applies to all digital SLRs out there. He also touches on photoshop and photomatrix.

This book has a little bit of everything. It's great for people just starting out in photography, or for those who just want to brush up on lighting techniques.