Customer Reviews

Creative Photoshop Lighting Techniques (A Lark Photography Book)

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

 

 

I will explain in simple terms the benefits and the single greatest shortcoming of Barry Huggins' book.

The Pros:

This book explains in detail the concepts of the varying sources and types of light.

It contains many thought-provoking tutorials, each of which explains how to render a specific lighting effect using Adobe Photoshop.

Each tutorial features a plethora of illustrative diagrams that show the original digital photograph, the final transformed photograph, and the various states of the photograph in between the two states. It frequently provides diagrams of how to edit Photostop's layer blending options and filters.

It is written in an easy-to-read, easy-to-follow format.

The Con:

The book is not accompanied by a CD-ROM that contains the digital photography that is employed in the book's tutorials. While this is an annoying inconvenience, all of the digital photography can be downloaded at no cost from the Ilex Press website (http://www.web-linked.com/PhotoLightingTech/uk/index.html). It is unfortunate that so many readers do not realize that these images are available online.

It is also important to note that this book was written for the users of Photoshop CS. While it is possible to complete many of the book's tutorials with older versions of the software, a number of layer blending modes (and their options) and a few filters that are described in the book are only available in the latest release of Photoshop.

This is not a bad book, but the downloaded images are of very low quality. It is difficult to see the before-and-after effect with such as low quality images.

I like the section on Creating Reflection and Converting Overcast Days and Sunny Days, but the chapters on Light Sources and Using the Lighting Effect Filter is not very completed. You might be disappointed if you were a photographer like myself looking for a book on improving outdoor/studio lighting on the photos. The book caters more to a digital artist who like to create rather dramatic lighting effects. The techniques such as adding fire, thunderbolt, refraction, and neon colors might make photos look "fake" to photographers who are interested in making a more subtle lighting improvement to their photos.

All in all, it is a pretty good book for someone who is interested in learning special lighting effect. I will not hesistate to give the book a better rating if the downloaded images are of higher quality.

First off, if you are a seasoned PS user who understands light and color theory and color correction then you are probably not going to get much out of this book. If however, you are new to PS or still in the long learning process than you most likely will benefit from this book. It covers a wide range of lighting techniques that can be used to create just about any effect you need to.

There are two cons to this book however. The first being that a few of the effects could have been done better. For example; In one image the smoke and steam look like they were in fact painted into the image instead of being very light and wispy. But overall the effects are very well done and clearly explained. This leads us to con number two...the explanations. Yes I said they are clear. But read on.

The explanations, though clearly written, are sans digital file. I would have gladly paid another $5-$10 for the book if they had included a CD with all the images used in the examples. On the one hand the files are available at http://www.web-linked.com/PhotoLightingTech/uk/index.html but they do not even mention this in the book. But then the problem there is not all of the files are available for download. Most of them are but not all of them. To make matters worse they are low res images with a copyright mark in the middle of the image. So I find the publishers process very confusing.

At any rate this is still a good book for any PS user looking to push their skills further.

You'll find this title an excellent and focused resource regarding digital lighting. Each tutorial takes on a different type of lighting style and details the various steps necessary to achieve the look including cold, sunny, night etc. Despite the overall good writing style and content, however, there is one major problem with this product. Although written like a step-by-step tutorial with instructions relating to very specific types of images, the downloadable tutorial files are small, low-resolution images with HUGE watermarks advertising a stock photography website running across them. This makes it difficult and *not* very fun to follow along with the book. A more well-thought out execution of this book would have included a CD-ROM with better copies of the tutorial images *or* a better website that included more information and support for the book. I would not review this book so harshly if the written tutorials were not so closely linked to the type of images you are meant to work on and if I did not already own several other photoshop tutorial books that were more generous with the tutorial and example files included on CD-ROM or on the publisher Website. You'll feel like you bought half a product with this particular title.

Looking at the images in this book is akin to watching a bad magician at work: the secret "moves" are anything but. Some of the effects like fire and smoke are obviously fake. Others, like casting shadows from blinds and plants are less so, but still "feel" wrong in the way the shadows often have the wrong density and falloff, or fail to follow the curves and shapes of foreground objects.

If you're serious about your photography, I'd advise getting a good book on lighting by someone like Barrister, and learn to light for real. Many of the "effects" presented in the book can be done in seconds with some rudimentary equipment and a little practice.... or you can spend hours in PS "perfecting" an image that, like the magician's tricks, fools no one but himself.

This is a book I could not wait to get in my collection. It provides you with pure "D" tutorials. The tutorials are so clear that even a true novice can learn and benefit. Get this book if you want some great lighting techninques and if you would like to know the science behind creating great lighting effects in your images. You won't regret it.

Like many reviewers I find the lack of website support and the absence of a CD with a good resolution of photos to practice on absolutely frustrating. With basic knowledge of photoshop navigation, I was able to follow the tutorials and make a couple of lighting effects on my own pictures. So that is a plus. I wrote an email asking for better resolution pictures from the book to be posted on the web site, and I got no answer. I wrote one more time, and there was no answer to my second email either. We customers, must start demanding a CD, or a better resolution photos that are downloadable from the website.

I love this book, both for its content and its presentation. The tutorials are explained clearly and step by step. There is not a lot of technical jargon to confuse you therefore this being one of the easiest Photoshop books to grasp.

The only thing that brings this down a star is that there is no source files included. Generally, either a CD or a website is provided with the source images, but here, that is not the case. So, instead of getting right to work, first you need to track down your own images that will hopefully come pretty close in recreating the lesson. I can't believe not including the files was even an idea in somebody's head when they dreamed up this book. It wouldn't even cost anything to just throw them up on a web site.

I was really hoping this book would be good. Unfortunately the lighing effects in the book are down right cheesy looking. Fake neon, etc. If you are looking for obvious fake looking lighting effects, then you might like this book. I'm a photographer and was hoping to get some insight on how I can convincingly apply lighing effects to my own pictures of people and places taken in natural lighting. Definately check it out at the bookstore before you buy.

I found that the tutorials Barry creates are excellently documented, and those photoshop users (whether novice, intermediate or advanced) will all equally find ideas and theory explained well. Given that the subject matter is quite specific, I am delighted that this book serves to target such a diverse audience.
It is certainly a book well worth adding to one's Digital Photographic Library.