Customer Reviews

Master Lighting Guide for Portrait Photographers

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm a third year commercial advertisment photography student and I have to say that I wish I had found this book in my first year. Christopher Grey really knows his stuff. He has diagrams along with his photographs to explain each type of lighting situation. I actually learned quite a bit about different lighting accessories used for various lighting like hairlights, and different ways to show separation from the background. This is definitely a great book to have around to review a few pointers before a shoot. I'm half way through the book and I just got it yesterday night. It's very easy reading. The format just flows. The techniques and suggestions are great building bases. If you've already taken portraiture classes, some of this will be review (Part I-The Principles of Portrait Lighting), but I still think this is a great book to have. Part II is Portrait Lighting in Practice. It gives one or two examples in each category. Editorial, corporate, ...etc. If you have any hesitation on your technique and possible outcomes, this is a great book. It'll reaffirm your confidence in the way you do things; moreover, you may be reminded of something that you might have forgotten.

Christopher Grey is a master of photographic lighting, and this expertise shines through in his latest book, appropriately titled, Master Lighting Guide for Portrait Photographers. Grey eases his readers into the topic with a discussion on the properties and quality of light and a review of modern lighting equipment, both store-bought and homemade. Then, after an informative chapter on lighting ratios (a frequently misused and misunderstood term) he embarks on an instructive and comprehensive journey that covers everything from classic lighting styles to the advanced lighting methods used by today's top studio photographers. Beautiful color photos and helpful diagrams complement each scenario.

Grey's writing is conversational and witty, which is a blessing when one is digesting material that, in duller texts, can quickly veer off into technical mumbo jumbo. In addition to his lighting information, he sprinkles every chapter with plenty of useful advice - things he's learned during his 30-year career - for saving money, choosing backdrops, building trust with subjects, capturing better expressions and much, much more. I'd recommend the book to anyone interested in portrait photography. The photographs alone are well worth the purchase price, but the lessons enabling readers to create similarly stunning photos make the book an extremely good value.

This is a powerful, concise, and well written book.

With his diagrams, accompanying photos, and explanations, Mr. Grey has opened my eyes to light and lighting options in ways I hadn't realized...and now makes me look far more carefully at portraits than ever before, to appreciate how the lighting and well placed shadows emphasize the client's best qualities.

I confess I hesitated before buying a "mere" 128 page book, and quickly realized he cuts out the usual fluff and shares "secrets" freely. One must savor each page's wisdom, rather than rushing through it, to greatly enhance your skills.

Learn about key light characteristics, softboxes, hair lights, different umbrella effects, lighting ratios and so on...you needn't use some or all on every session, it's there to just let you know how to use these when and if a situation arises...and you'll have the knowlege of how to use them without recreating or reshooting the wheel!

Whether you are a film or a digital photographer, this gives knowledge that benefits either medium, by encouraging you to creatively previsualize the lighting of finished product, long before you click the shutter.

While it's far easier for me to properly light a subject before shooting (I am comfortable with film and slowly learning digital/Photoshop) it gives hints that can be used creatively in "Photoshopping" an image later, in the computer, to enhance a mood, or de-emphasize a highight accordingly. (Katrin Eismann's Photoshop Restoration & Retouching, 3rd ed. is quite helpful, as is Scott Kelby's comfortably cookbook aproach in his Photoshop CS book for Digital Photographers).

This is a pearl that deserves to be read appreciatively, savoring each page at a time!

To set the stage for my comments, I'll offer that I am a mature man and a long-time engineer who has started taking classes in portrait photography.

First of all, for some photography books, a technical background like mine is a must. Not so for this book- it is full of information that is very clearly presented without techno-babble.

This book is an engaging read which is both instructive during the first read, and a great reference every time you pick it up.

I found it very valuable that there were pictures that showed the result of lighting a subject in many different ways with a particular light modifier. It was almost as if I had a studio with all that equipment and could experiment on my own. By the time I got to my studio-based class, I had a clear idea of what I wanted to do and how to do it.

A great buy because you will need many books to replace the insight that this single book provides!

I promised to do a wedding portrait for my niece and, as a long time advanced "amateur", I new nothing more than my Canon 580Ex flashes on my 5D. This book helped me set up a nice studio with some strobes, a softbox and made it straight foward with a strong foundation in a short time.

I really appreciated the discussions on proper metering, light placement and the diagrams. One gem was the combination of sequential photos as the lights were moved and adjusted - you could see the changed effects as they happened and the final shot evolved.

I had bought about 5 books on the subject and this was, by far, the most useful and realistic for the way I learn.

The portraits came out great and I now look at studio photos in a completely new light (pun intended).

When I read reviews I usually start with the negative ones because it gives me a hint as to how reasonable the person rating the book is. If someone complains about shipping, that has nothing to do with the author or the book. If someone writes about the details of the book but says it's above their level doesn't mean the book deserves a bad rating either. Now if someone states the book was full of fluff (ie all those Dummie books), or the author/publisher did not show diagrams when the should I can understand. This is especially for photography books.

Well, there wasn't any negatives about this book and I understand why!

I really enjoyed reading this book! This book is very detailed with descriptions on setups and explaining equipment and how to use the setups. I have a few other "lighting" books I've purchased and/or picked up from the library over the past couple of years, but I have to say this one has everything and more the others do not have. It is straight to the point and specific without being elementary.

I highly recommened the newbie to advance studio photographer get this book. EXCELLENT easy flowing reading.

I bought this book thinking I would be able to easily set up a studio from it.
I found this book extremely informative BUT on a medium to high-end level.
It is not really a practical guide for the beginning photographer however, I am sure I will be refereing it to in the future.
Chris Grey explains how he set up his lighting in order to get the shots he shows in this book.
My problem was that most of his sets are based on the photographer buying many many different types of reflectors, lights and flags etc.
He does not really explain the simple, beginners studio.
He does not explain for low ceilings etc.
He shows his shots and explains how he got them so if you have the same set up, the same size room etc, you too can reproduce these shots.
While it is a well written book, I found it to be on a high level.
If someone is already at this level of lighting equipment, then he already knows all the info on ratios Chris writes about.
Great reference guide and enjoyable to read.
Not for the beginner who wishes to use it as a guide to setting up his first studio.

The best part about this book are the diagrams. I liked seeing how he had the studio set up, where he positioned the lighting and where he positioned the reflectors. That was the most helpful thing for me!

I really, really like this book and have recommended it to a ton of my friends and online photo compatriots. Christopher Grey explains the reasoning behind certain types of lighting and gives fantastic visual examples of what little changes do to a shot.

My favorite parts are the diagrams and the apples-to-apples comparisons of the various light modifiers on the same setup. It's very educational!

This is perfect for the beginner as well as someone with a little more experience who wants to expand their knowledge and find their own lighting style.

I would highly recommend this book. There is a lot of variety in lighting techniques and they are explained very well. The photos are very good and there is a lighting diagram below each one. I've read a number of books and been to various seminars but I learned many new things that I had not seen elsewhere. The only problem I had with this book was that there are several errors (where the text doesn't exactly match the lighting diagram) but the errors are not that significant. I'll look forward to reading other books written by this author in the future.