Customer Reviews

Mastering Digital Flash Photography: The Complete Reference Guide (A Lark Photography Book)

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It seems strange that the best book around for a long time about flash photography was published in 1997, before the full scale invasion of digital cameras and super-smart flash units. That's the need that "Mastering Digital Flash Photography" is aimed at filling.

The first chapter deals with basic issues like the nature of the lighting systems available, and the second with the nature of light itself. The author then considers fill flash (the use of flash to supplement ambient light), low light flash and studio flash. The author finishes by discussing computer techniques that can be used to improve pictures captured with flash.

This book serves as an excellent introduction to the subject of flash photography, and will prove extremely useful to the individual with little or no experience with flash. (On the other hand, George does assume that the reader understands basic photography skills like exposure and digital post processing.) However, I sometimes felt that the author generalized a bit too much for an instruction manual and could have placed more emphasis on certain subjects. For example, he quite properly points out that a picture taken with fill flash is the combination of a picture at a slower speed with ambient light and a picture at higher speed with flash. I would have liked him to give more emphasis to the fact that this can sometimes create problems (as well as opportunities) by giving a moving subject blurred edges. I would also have liked to see more emphasis on the use of multiple portable flashes, given the facility for wireless control, like that of Nikon's CLS system, which modern flashes provide.

I also felt that drawing a sharp distinction between portable flash units and studio strobe lights was not necessary. Many of today's portable flash units can easily be used with umbrellas and softboxes specifically designed for them, in a manner similar to the larger, usually more powerful, studio lights, while many of the techniques for using multiple studio lights can also be applied to portable units, even outside of the studio. Yet these connections were not made.

When it came to digital post processing I was pleased to find the author made no attempt to deal with fundamentals. Instead he pointed out how the use of certain tools, with which an experienced Photoshop user would be familiar, could extend the capabilities of flash photography. Some beginning Photoshop users might wish that there was a little more detail on subjects like selective adjustments, but slightly experienced users will get just enough of an indication as to what is necessary.

Nature photographers also use flash, and have special problems and tools like flash extenders that were not dealt with here.

The use of flash is not something one learns from a single book. The more one uses flash, the more one thinks of other useful applications. This book will provide users with a good start. And it's not ten years old.

I'd have to disagree a bit with the previous reviewers. I borrowed this book from the local library and must say that I've learned a lot. I've been a photographer for a few years, mostly self-taught, and get along pretty well. As I try to add more tools to my skill set, I'm trying to use flash better, and this book has cleared up some confusing points for me... like high-speed sync, rear-curtain sync, and other similar concepts. If you're already a pro, then this book probably won't be as useful, as it's aimed at the intermediate photographer. It adds some interesting side-bars and technical notes too, which are good for any serious photographer to understand (like how a flash works, and how far your flash should be away from your lens depending on the distance from your subject to avoid red-eye). Yeah, the pictures aren't ground breaking, but this book is a good reference for anyone who wants a better understanding of flash photography.

This book is little more than an illustrated glossary to the terms and equipment of flash photography. I kept waiting for the author to start talking technique and for some good "how-tos." Never happened. I also have to say that the photos in the book used as examples are mediocre at best which is an odd choice. Save yourself some money and skip this one. or buy mine used.

I have been awaiting this book, as there don't seem to be too many advanced flash books, which are not about studio lighting. Unfortunately, the title is misleading, it is rather an introductory book, introducing all the main concepts in flash (and studio) photograpy, but not going into the details and not giving detailed examples either.

I should mention the photos in the book. Many of them are simply bad. They do illustrate the point being explained, but it would have been so much better to see good photos as examples, together with the details of how they were made.

It may not be a bad book for introducing (or refreshing) flash concepts, but I definitely would not have purchased if there had been an opportunity to look into it...

The title of this book really exaggerates what you'll get out of it. As a beginner, I found the information in the first chapter that describes some basics of flash photography reasonably interesting, although I found that it was lacking depth. In this chapter, and throughout the book, topics are presented in short 1-2 page segments on various topics that aren't really well connected with each other. I felt that as I finished each topic, I was left with more questions than answers. I didn't get a good sense of actually how to take advantage of the information presented in my own photographs, because of the shallow coverage for each topic.

I found this book very readable and full of useful information. However, the fixed format of two facing pages per topic is a problem. For some of the topics, such as Inverse Square Law, the author seemed to stretch to fill the alloted area (a nearly full page image on the second page was wasteful), while other technical topics could have used more space. All in all, the book is worth its price, but it left me wanting more on many topics.