Customer Reviews

Master Lighting Techniques for Outdoor and Location Digital Portrait Photography

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

 

 

This book is packed with very useful and helpful info about outdoor portrait photography. One of the better photo books I have read in a while. Most books that I have read lately seem to have lots of pretty pictures but lack useful content. This book has lots of useful info, I actually marked my book up with a highlighter, I haven't done that since college.

One unique aspect of this book is that it not only shows great photographs but it also shows bad ones and the author explains what he did wrong and how he fixed the problems when reshooting. Its very helpful seeing a bad photo(like many of my shots) and a good one right next to it under the same situation.

Another thing I like about this book is that it jumps fully into digital and explains outdoor photography as it relates to digital, especially as it relates to the limited dynamic range of digital capture. I think it would be very helpful for someone just coming into digital or someone who is having a tough transition from film.

Master Lighting Techniques
Stephen A. Dantzig

Stephen Dantzig wrote one of the definitive books on studio lighting, "Lighting Techniques for Fashion and Glamour Photography" back in 2005. Now he takes his considerable educational and writing talents and tackles the specific lighting needs of outdoor and location photographers.

Reading a Stephen Dantzig book on photographic lighting is a pleasure to be savored slowly. There is so much to learn and so many thought provoking views on the subject that it's a crime to rush though the book. The man knows his subject and tackles it in an unconventional and effective way.

Just as he did in his book, "Lighting Techniques for Fashion and Glamour Photography" Dantzig challenges the reader right from the beginning. There is no waste or filler in his books. He discusses different lighting needs for portrait photographers vs. beauty and fashion photographers. He explains why shooting digital is more akin to shooting chrome than film, and the implications on more precise lighting measurements.

Most photographic authors show portfolio grade images exclusively. However in this book Dantzig shows successful as well as lighting failure examples... then he dissects the failures. The reader often learns more from the `failure' examples than from the typical successful images. This is a very effective technique that more photographic authors should use.

As is typical with Danzig's books are the excellent image diagrams they help the user to visualize the shooting conditions. Not just the placement of strobe lights, but the location and condition of the sun. Another thing I like about Danzig's book is the way that he masterfully blends camera / lighting techniques with Photoshop techniques, helping the reader all along the way, not an easy thing to do.

With "Master Lighting Techniques" Danzig delivers the best photographic book of 2006, just as he did last year with "Lighting Techniques for Fashion and Glamour Photography".

Put it this way, if I were to teach a college level class on photographic lighting, Danzig's two books would be the required texts.

They're that good.

I'm not sure if I was reading the same book as the other reviewers because I can't understand how they could give it five stars. I couldn't get past the fact that all of the pictures were boring, poorly composed, amateurish in quality, and all set in the same environment. I usually don't return books, but I returned this one right away. Do yourself a favor and check out Bryan Peterson's "Photographing People - Beyond Portraiture" if you are looking for a first class book that is leagues beyond this offering. If you are looking for a book that contains the same kind of diagrams as this book does, then check out "Master Lighting Guide for Portrait Photographers" by Christopher Grey. Yes, it's specific to studio portraits, but the concepts of lighting are the same. Indoors or outdoors, all photographers are ultimately trying to shape and model light. Some tools are better suited to the studio and others outdoors, but the concept of direction, tone, composition, and modifiers are essentially the same.

I must admit I'm more interested in practical advice and techniques I can use right away than theoretical background, and this book has both. I was surprised to discover that the nuts-and-bolts of lighting did help me do a better job of shooting portraits outdoors and on location. Because portrait photography is so much about the lighting, this is a good general portrait photography book, too. Recommended.

The written information in this book is helpful, but the photos that accompany it do no inspire or suggest that this photographer is someone to revere.
I wish there were better photos to illustrate his points.

Stephen Dantzig's Softbox Lighting Techniques will make a valuable addition to any working pro's technical library. Of key interest are the sections on how varying surfaces and size, as well as reflectivity of the individual softboxes or their components can drastically affect the quality and volume of the light. Dantzig has done his research and used excellent photographs to illustrate his points.
--Bill Hurter, Editor, Rangefinder

So many books on Photography keep flooding the market, that there are few if any "new" ways of moving the process along. What counts, is HOW the methods are presented, the quality of the Images and the usefulness of the referencing to the diagrams presented etc. In these areas, I believe this book falls a little short.

This is not a good choice if you want to use only natural light, like I do. The autor uses strobes to modify the lighting. I didn't like his work either.