Customer Reviews

Lighting the Nude

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I like this book very much for several reasons:

1. Great photos - interesting techniques on topics ranging from classical nude to outdoor nude, accessories/props to hair/makeup.

2. Good taste - this is NOT a book filled with sleazy / low-class photos of naked women. I find all of them tending towards modern, fine art types.

3. Superb format - Minimal text with essential descriptions, simple diagrams showing the studio setup, camera settings

4. Good value - Hardcover with 400 over pages (each with clear examples), printed in in full color on glossy paper.

I use this book as a source of ideas and to experiment with different lighting setups.

Comparisions:
There are numerious books on this topic, and I've read many others. This book is similar to "Lighting for Nude Photography" (also by Rotovision) - "Lighting The Nude" is twice as thick and provides more ideas/techniques. If you like Prolighting series books - which has great illustrations and simple instructions, you will love this. But if you like long-winded, text-intensive book, telling you stories about each picture, then this is not for you. Another book I like is "Successful Glamour Photography" by John Kelly but this book is a little old now.

This is a very useful book for anyone trying to refine their lighting skills. Each section features a large number of finished shots, and on the opposite page is an easy-to-understand lighting diagram, and a few paragraphs about how the shot was done.

I wish I'd known before buying this book, however, that it includes the complete contents of three Pro Lighting series titles (i.e., Nudes, Erotica and Provocative Shots). The Pro Lighting Series books are great, but you don't need to buy those three if you buy _Lighting the Nude_.

This is one of the best books in the genre teaching the art form of nude photography. "Lighting The Nude" is created in the same spirit and meticulous fashion as all the other great instructional books from Alex Larg, only this time the vision is bigger and better. At 448 pages this is practically an encyclopedia! The format is very easy to follow: a beautiful nude photograph is featured on every other page, and the facing page contains all the information needed to duplicate the image, which is provided by the actual photographer. It covers the camera used, the film, exposure, lens, and everything else, as well as the lighting fixtures and their placements that went into creating the picture. Wow! If ever there was a fast-track to artistic success, this is it. It's amazing that so many world-class photographers were willing to share their secrets this way. That alone would make this book a worthy investment, but the nudes that are featured are absolutely breathtaking and would be a fabulous production all by themselves without all the incredible knowledge provided. So, to all photographers, get this book! Study its contents! And go forth and create your own masterpieces!

Contributing photographers include Jorgen Ahlstrom, Robert Anderson, Igor Aronov, Fernando Bergamaschi, Rod Ashford, Pascal Baetens, Peter Barry, Ben Lagunas, Alex Kuri, Rene de Carufel, Quido Paterno Castello, Patrick Coughlin, Corrado Dalco, Gary Darrar, Ricardo de Vicq de Cumpitch, Benney de Grove, Mike Dmochowski, Michael Engman, Michele Franken, Wolfgang Freithof, Juan del Gado, Peter Goodrum, Laura Hodgson, Kay Hurst, Marc Jaffe, Ron P. Jaffe, Marc Joye, Kingdome 19, John Knill, HArry Lomax, Jeff MAnzetti, Julia Martinez, Ron McMillian, Michael Millerm Art Minds, jordi Morgadas, Antony Nettle, Salvio Parisi, MAurizio polverelli, Renata Ratajczyk, Michael Riedel, Chris Rout, Gianni Russo, Terry Ryan, Gerard de Saint-Maxent, Suza Scalora, Craig Scoffone, Bob Shell, Andrew John Sherriff, Dima Smelyantsev, Clint Adam Smyth, Stephen Speller, Ray Spence, Michael Stanley, Struan, Bhoern Thomassen, Antonio Traza, Gunther Uttendorfer, Robert van de Voort, Nopphadol Viwatkamolwat, Frank P. Wartenberg, Stu Williamson, and Nick Wright.

The best book about lighting I've ever read or even heard of. Very cheap (yet strong materials, outstanding quality prints, large format and hardcover), 448 pages of pure lighting techniques with schematics and examples, very clear and complete. Inspiring.
I first bought one 3 months ago and last week I bought another two: one for a gift to a fellow photographer, the other to have as a spare when the one I'm using in the studio gets worn.
The lighting techniques described in there are not only useful for nudes, they are also useful for artistic portraits, glamour photography, etc.

This is a MUST-HAVE book if you take photography seriously. There is so much that goes into taking a photograph and getting the right lighting equipment to make a shot look the way it does. This book is amazing. It is a huge hard-back book filled with pages of classy nude photographs and implied nude shots that are taken from many different angles, backdrops, and with various types of lighting: both outdoors and indoors.

There are diagrams for the photos to show just exactly where the lighting was placed (and what type of light) to achieve the affect. Most of the male nude photos are monochrome and although it said "male nude" - there isn't a nude penis shot which I thought was kind of odd. I had kind of hoped to see more in the male category. Shooting a guy in blue jean shorts isn't exactly a male nude shot. However there was excellent light detail described on the torso with the highlights and shadows.

My only real complaint is that there are some excellent diagrams that seem great but the author neglected to show the correlating photograph that went with it. There are maybe 10-20 like this. But the rest of the diagrams have photos. So the good outweighs the bad.

One thing I love, which deserves five stars just for this: the entire book is designed so that someone WITHOUT a digital camera can achieve these effects. I LOVE digital and rely on it completely. But this book shows how you can get these amazing effects with a simple 35mm as well.

Overall, the rest of the reviews are right. The photos are classy, the quality is superior, excellent source of information. I wish there was just a tad more versatility when it came to other angles or expressions. But for the mood this book went to capture, I think the author did an amazing job.

I highly recommend it.

This is one of those books that you'll never regret to buy. If you know the basics of photography such as how cameras and lighting work, this book is a real mind-candy to read. My tip for you using this book is to follow each session by putting yoursellf into a photographer's position who took the pictures in the book, and execute your own virtual session applying your own photographic knowledge. This will surely invoke your creativity like no other. This book won't tell you any super special secret than other books. But each case study is highly practical and honest. This giant collection of real world case studies will satisfy anybody interested in nude and studio photography.

Beautiful, a lot of photograps with diagrams, is worth the money I spent.
But you need to have a basic understanding of light, light manipulation and photography to take maximum advantage of this book.

Has a great variety of lighting situations from natural light to as many as 9 lights, most commonly 2-4. Shows use of reflectors, absorbers, soft boxes, backgrounds. Talks at the beginning of each chapter about the mood associated with each type of picture and then theorizes different means of attaining that mood. Each shot has easy to read plan and isometric diagrams of the shoot setup, and the pictures are full page and first rate. I wish all photo books were like this one! Now if only they could supply me with a source of willing models....

This is without a doubt my favorite book on nude photography. Its not that it is full of whitty text, or even step by step how to. In fact, to recreate the look of some of these images will require some practice and patience. What I love about this book is how it inspries you with every page.

The pictures are top notch, and the diagrams will help you understand how the shot was performed. I've taken with me on shoots when photographing nudes and shown the model what I am trying to achieve. When I'm in the mood to just flip through a book on photography, this is the one I grab. If I have a shoot sceduled, I flip through to gleam ideas.

If you shoot nudes, want to shoot nudes, or just like looking at classy well thought out nude photography, you have got to buy this book.

Tim Skipper
Vision Photo Image
[...]

This book may not be the most tech oriented book on lighting, but it demonstrates that photography and lighting should not be interrogated to a technical degree so that the reader is left with the impression that creative photography is a science. The structure and style of the book focuses on what has been done that is outstanding in nude photography, and how such work can help inspire the photographer through imitation, generating one's own creative ideas, or both. By eschewing the obsessive attention to detail some photography books needlessly include, it suggests that creative lighting and photography is a 'bottom-up' process, i.e., you understand the basics and build on them using your own experimentation. This is definitely the way to go if you consider nude photography part art and part technique. If you are seeking a volume on pure technique with logorithms and formulas, this is not the book for you--although if that is your cup of tea, I don't think nude photography would be on the top of your 'to-do' list regarding your photographic subject matter,