Customer Reviews

Jeff Smith's Lighting for Outdoor & Location Portrait Photography

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was far from impressed with this book.

My biggest problem is with the sample images. There are, on average, several images per page, and every single one of them has a cheesy Photoshop soft focus effect or a diffused glow effect applied to them. The author states over and over again the importance of shadow transition zones, and then goes into photoshop to blur the transition between shadow and highlight and artificially enhance the lighting.

The second problem with this book is that the author insists that artificial lighting on location must be done with portable studio strobes. This is simply not true, and most beginners would benefit from some advice on using speedlights on location, whether singularly or in groups. On-camera flash is what most armatures have, and what most professionals use on location, and there are techniques that allow photographers to get professional results without investing thousands of dollars in studio strobes and portable battery packs. The author avoids the topic completely by saying "If you would not use an on camera flash in the studio, why use it on location?" The answer is that on location you have natural light as your main light and flash as your fill or accent. In the studio you have to create all of the light there. There is a difference.

In short, this book does not provide armatures with the information to get into outdoor portrait lighting right away, but is not nearly inventive enough to give professionals any really new ideas or techniques.

Being that flying is what it is, I find myself doing more reading and less traveling for educational meetings. The first thing I liked about this book is that it is all Jeff Smith and not a compilation of many authors saying " Well, I do it this way". Within a very few pages, I realized that this is a true gem of a book. I found Jeff Smith challenging concepts that many of us as photographers have been accepting for years. What is more important is that he is correct. In one example, he inquires if we would use on camera flash in the studio. Of course not we think and then he asks.....then why would you do that outdoors? The theme of the book is how to get PROFESSIONAL pictures in location photography be it indoors or out and I think he accomplishes that admirably. He not only explains why he does certain things but why we do it as image makers either consciously or unconsciously.
There are many facts without a lot of verbiage and although in my compulsive manner, I like to highlight as I read, I found I was highlighting practically everything. Yes, a few of the comments could have been explained better but after more reading you figure out where he is taking you. An excellent, well thought out book that will unquestionably give you pearls to walk away with and whets my appetite for more of his books and thoughts.

This is a decent book; however the author tends to use the same photos from his previous books, and the overall content doesn't change very much either.

This is one of favorite books! Being an amateur photographer without any formal training in photography, i spend a lot of time reading and testing information that i gather from authors such as Jeff. I am especially interested in lighting and this book does a superb job explaining the diferent ways in which to light subjects outdoors and on location. Shooting portraits outdoors have been really challenging to me because i have always been looking to find out how the truly profesionaly looking outdoor portraits are made. This book has unlocked that mystery for me and now I find myself constantly referring to this book for tips and reminders on what i did right or wrong with a particular shoot. Thanks Jeff for creating such a good product! I firmly believe that this book is a must for any location photographer who wants to achieve professional results!

This book is definitely not for the novice, but it is quite informative otherwise. He includes all info on how his pics were made and production shots that are quite useful to show setup.

I highly recommend this book for any photography. It has a lot of wonderful information! Definitely get this one!

I saw this book while on vacation and I knew I was having a layover, so why not buy it so I won't get bored. So, This book gives you details of several lighting situation outdoors. I have encountered several of this situations while shooting out doors and this book helped me see the solution. Now, I used most of the techniques presented and makes the shoot go way more smoothly. I do a lot of my shoots outdoor and has helped me A LOT. I would definitely recommend this book if you shoot a lot outdoors.

good book for beginnners, but there is not much info, huge color photos, and 128 pages, the space would be much better if was used for more information not photos, because photos I can see on internet for free.
Also the photos contained in the book are too soft with almost no detail.

Jeff Smith's books are very good. I wish I could afford to buy them all.

I bought this book before few months and i think is a book must buy any who likes photography.Describes all the technics about photo out from studio.