Customer Reviews

Matters of Light & Depth

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First of all, let me say that I think this is the best book on lighting that I've read. Of course it's from the lighting man himself Ross Lowell. This is the guy that is responsible for the Lowel Light company. In the Lowel catelog, you'll find the most useful lighting equiptment you could ever ask for. This is also the guy who invented gaffer's tape.

Anyway, Ross Lowell is a camera man/lighting director who's been around for a while and I really like his approach to the subject. He treats lighting as a craft that's independent of the medium that you choose. This book teaches lighting for film, video, and stills by showing you basic principals that apply to all mediums. The book is full of Ross Lowell (and other photographers) excellent photos illustrating various types of lighting.

This book isn't a real easy read... at least not as easy as I thought it would be. If you really want to understand lighting, here's my recommendation. Buy this book, request a Lowel catelog via the web, read Lighting for Digital Video (can be found here at amazon.com), and request a lighting catelog from B&H. Study both catelogs and read both books. You should also try to pick up the different kinds of basic lights from Ebay so you can expiriment and do some of the excercises found in this book.

This book also contains an awesome glossary that contains all the lighting terms you could ever want defined. Albeit, some of the definitions are rather useless (see Lighthand). Another great thing is that the author doesn't use this book as an excuse to plug his lighting supplies like he could have.

One last thing. If you are a still photographer that only plans on using strobes for your lighting and have little or no interest in video, film, or continuous lighting... you may not like this book or find it very useful. However, if you're like me and shoot video and take pictures you'll love it.

I admire Ross Lowell's inventions enormously. His lights, while not as robust as others and so not so well suited to rental houses, are a great tool for the beginning owner-operator. I began with his Lowel Lights and moved up to his D-heads. I remember them all fondly, even though I no longer use them.

After many years as a director of photography, I've begun to teach lighting and have been looking at book options for my students. So far the best book I've found on this topic is Blain Brown's "Motion Picture and Video Lighting". While the layout of Lowell's book is stunning, as are many of the images, Lowell approaches each section with long lists which to my mind do nothing to inspire the thinking eye. With great respect for Lowell, I regretfully report that for me his book is for the encyclopediast, not for the emerging eye.

With lots of pictures, clear text, and a detailed hands-on exercise section, this book quickly brings you up to fine quality photo, movie, or video production. Highly recommended for those of us who would like to create professional-looking photos and movies

This is a great starter book to get if you have never done any lighting before - whether for video, cinema, or still photography. Lots of great tips and tricks that typically are missing from other lighting books. Lowell takes the concepts and precepts of lighting and presents them in abstract form so that you can adapt them to whatever lighting situation you may have. This book may not work for you if you are the kind of person who needs step by step how-to in order to get things done - in fact it is debatable that ANY book could do so effectively because every shoot is unique. But if you are good at thinking intuitively and abstractly then his presentation of the material is great because it teaches principals (with some examples) and not technique.
My one complaint is the typsetting of the book. The use of a modern typeface makes reading difficult (looks like a bodoni variant). The publishers should really re-publish the book to make it more legible.

I've read a lot of books about lighting. Most are very good at teaching the practical uses of lights under normal circunstances. There are books on the practicalities of Film lighting, Still lighting and Video lighting. Lowell's book goes beyond being a cookbook for lighting solutions, and is the first book that gives a comprehensive overview of lighting relative to all media and resources. Film teachers would find it an effective text, over and above its value as manual.

This is an art book, not just some book on specs, and lighting selection. It's simple, yet to the point... Perfect book if you want to shoot your own movie, and need to learn the basics (and there's also many advanced topics) to start shooting with decent lighting. The author is very down to earth, and offers great advice. The illustrations and format of the book are amazing. Just buy it!

Rather than lighting formulas which are a great way to see the tried and true setups, Lowell discusses the "whys" to light in particular way, opening up your creativity. It discusses selecting the planes of the subject that are desired to be emphasized/de-emphasized and lighting accordingly, eg good cheek bones vs. large ears. To consider having your lighting be consistent with visible light source in the scene. A great companion to Light: science and magic that considers how particular surface types should be lit. It will change the way you see light, consequently the way you photograph or watch movies.

For those of us who seem mystified by why their videos look so...well, bad, Matters of Light and Depth offers valuable insights into the subtle and not so subtle qualities of light. Some of the material presented looks at still photography, and some takes advantage of classic artists whose tools were oil paint and canvas. All in all, while Matters of Light and Depth does not offer a "by the numbers" approach to lighting scenes, it does provide strong aesthetic considerations, as well as pithy quotations from people who "do lighting." It's worth looking at. And the glossary is entertaining, as well. Basically, you just can't beat something from Ross Lowell.

It is wonderful book on lighting with lot of practical advice. I very much liked the descripion of geting started with lighting - by standing where you plan to place the light and imagine what a hard light would do and a soft light would do from that position and place light based on that visualization. Also, the chapter on 'Method lighting' is very interesting.

The author, Ross Lowell, it the creator of Lowell lights. These lights are an industry standard and are well trusted. Not only is does he make great lights but also has produced some amazing work as well. In this book he covers all the basics of lighting and covers many advanced techniques to help out every level of videographer.