Customer Reviews

Digital Photography Expert: Light and Lighting: The Definitive Guide for Serious Digital Photographers (A Lark Photography Book)

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

 

 

This book is not for experts. It is a shallow overview of lighting for amateurs. Even for the newbie there is not enough info here to do anything. You get the same info from any intro photography book. You don't learn how to use any lighting equipment. This book is thin and a waste of money in my opinion. Please be sure to check it out at the bookstore before you buy.

If you like "scientific" explanations, "Light: science & magic" by Fil Hunter and Paul Fuqua (ISBN 0-240-80275-6) will be a better choice.
If you're lazy and want a "cookbook", rather than understanding, search for this key word -- there are plenty of books showing a scene and how (authors thinks) lights were set for each particular picture they chosen (and, boy, how often they're wrong!).

If you're ready to take a little effort to understand how lighting works, and prefer pictures and charts with short comments over any other style of explanation, this book is the best I've ever seen (and I've looked through a lot of them).

Very basic, not quite enough detail, but still an excellent introduction to lighting for beginners. You should start here, learn the basics, and then explore other resources to improve your skills.

Full of good ideas -- but if you want to really understand light and exposure on a digitil slr, go first to Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera (Updated Edition).

A very tight, concise, easy to understand yet very well established book. Lark Books have a nice series on photography and should be taken seriously.

A wonderful overview of both Studio and Natural lighting. Something of a Masterwork really.

Congratulations to Michael Freeman and Lark Photograghy!

Michael Freeman is the author of the "Digital Photography Expert" series. Previous books in this series are "The Complete Guide to Digital Photography" and "Nature and Landscape Photography." As the third book in this series, "Close-Up Photography" is, of course, geared especially to the digital photographer.
"Close-Up Photography" is both a how-to book and a reference book for photographers interested in close up images. As the principles of close-up techniques are similar regardless of the camera type, I think this book would be almost as useful to film users as to digital photographers.
Freeman goes into detail about the focus, lighting, and backgrounds of subjects in macrophotography, issues that are common to film and digital users alike. The remainder of the book is divided between still life setups and natural settings. He supplies how-to techniques for photographing several specific items, such as shiny objects, food, liquids, coins, stamps, jewelry, plants, aquaria, shells, and gems.
Freeman writes in such a way that even a novice photographer could comprehend his techniques and principles. Yet at the same time, there is information for the more advanced photographer. The author neither talks down to nor talks over the head of the reader. He explains many elementary things, so the reader is not necessarily expected to be sophisticated. In general, Freeman's writing style is very readable and understandable, even by a non-techie like me.
Freeman utilizes many photographs to illustrate his text. The substantial captions provide much useful information. In addition, there are illustrations showing photographic setups, so the reader can easily see how to duplicate the techniques.
Finally, Freeman has a useful index, which adds to the value of the book for me. I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in photographing objects closely. I would refer to it from time to time.