Customer Reviews

Studio and Location Lighting Secrets for Digital Photographers

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

 

 

I have been buying and reading a lot of photography-related books lately, and this book is by far the most uninspiring one I have read. Here are my reasons.

1. The author can not stick with the title of the book, which is LIGHTING, but instead, the information offered is from everywhere, from photoshop add-ons, to photography schools. So the suggestion here is to rename the book Photography 101.

2. I appreciate the author offering the brands of the equipments for reference, but it becomes a cheap form of advertising when the details come to the point of "entering whatever code, or telling whoever referred you".

3. As a photographer, I am a very visual person, so if you can not catch my eyes with the images, most unlikely you can catch my attention to the text on how you created those images. There are very few images in the book can be regarded as eye-catching.

4. The last, there are very few "secrets" offered by the book, probably one or two I can remember. Have you ever had experience that you get pissed off after finishing a book because you felt it was a waste of time? If not, this book is your chance!

I like Rick Sammon's work and his style of teaching but this book falls flat. "Secrets" is a misnomer for the information provided in this book. I get the impression that someone else prodded him to write this book, it doesn't seem an endeavor of his own. While its intent is to instruct, it fails to inspire, so its really quite hard for a reader to get excited about trying any of these techniques. If you have a friend that has this book, it would be a good item to borrow, I wouldn't spend my money on it again.

Totally loved the book. Very helpful and inspirational. I'm a fan of the author and have many of Rick Sammon's books. His books always give you more than what you are hoping for.

Overall, this is a great book. Being I hadn't don't studio lighting in a little while, I was looking at this as a refresher...something I could skim though. The book was very good, the pictures were great quality, and the DVD included had a presenter very knowledgeable of his equipment/use of light. You could tell he loved being a photographer, so that made him even better. I recommend the book for anyone's bookshelf reference.

This is a great book if you want to learn the basics of photography lighting. The techniques are really easy to follow and the text is really reader friendly. It has lots of pictures taken by a great studio photographer called Vered Koshlano. Not only the book covers lighting but it also covers the importance of using make up and props on your shots. It comes with a DVD that teaches different easy setups.

This book covers introductory information for the beginning photographer (i.e. which lens to choose). If you are looking for a platform to build knowledge from this would be a good place to start.

Rick continues to be one of the most prolific authors of photography books that are practical, easy to understand, very well illustrated and most importatntly written in a manner that enables the reader to say, "oh, that is simple to do!". Rick teams up with other professional phtotographers to provide other insights and suggestions as to how to get great results very quickly.

Rick's writing style mirrors his lectures and teaching style, whereby he provides concise and clear, "how to" steps to get the results that make your pictures -POP!

Rick, another winnner, I'sm sure!

Keith

Rick Sammon keeps writing books that make photography understandable instead of making them so technical that they are too hard to follow.