Customer Reviews

Night and Low-Light Photography: Professional Techniques from Experts for Artistic and Commercial Success

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the fourth low light photography book I have purchased and I would rank it a distant fourth. It is the first photographic book I have felt like returning. I think the allure of a forward by Michael Kenna persuaded me to buy this. I have included a few points to explain my concerns.

There are some reasonable images in the book and even a few very good ones however the average is below par; pretentiousness creeps in at a level not expected in an beginner book such as this.

A surprising amount of space is devoted to techniques for developing film. In fact more space is devoted to "How a divided developer works" than is spent on equipment for light painting. I had to check that it was a recent publication as it started to look like something from the last decade.

One of the five star reviewers is one of the book's contributers!

The learning experience pales compared to books such as those by Lee Frost (The Complete Guide to Night and Low-Light Photography)

The very important technique of High Dynamic Range is mentioned but the book demonstrates little understanding or knowledge of the field

But the worst part of the book by far is the graphical layout. I will not repeat all the comments of Conrad J. Obregon but I agree with him; I have never seen a worse layout in any book never mind a photographic book.

This is not a pleasant reading experience.

Many photographers put away their cameras when the light grows dim or dark, thus forfeiting at least half the opportunity to take photographs. This book seems aimed at those photographers.

Jill Waterman has assembled a team of 30 top professionals to talk about low-light and night photography. The book begins with the usual mandatory discussion of equipment, although this chapter contains many tips on equipment use, such as stabilizing one's lens against glass if shooting through it. There are also some unusual pieces of equipment mentioned, like large portable spotlights for painting with light. Other chapters include discussions of color temperature; black and white photography, which emphasizes the role of the chemical darkroom in extending range; lighting techniques, which emphasizes light painting; weather, night time phenomena, like the aurora; and post production tools. There is a chapter that analyzes the styles of seven of the photographers and a final chapter that talks about the availability of workshops.

The difficult part of the project was probably wrangling the work and ideas of thirty different photographers into a coherent instructional body and it shows. The book lacks orderly development and approach to this kind of photography and often lapses into a kind of esoteric tip book. Occasionally there were interesting pieces of information that were never tied to anything else, like the distinctions between civil, nautical and astronomical twilight.

What I found strange was the feeling of having entered into a time warp with discussions of film, two-part developers and enlargers. A theme seems to be that film lends itself to a greater range of exposure values then digital, although that may require chemical processing to achieve. The advantages of digital photography's HDR processing to capture a wide range of light were mentioned but not in detail, or to show special considerations for the use of the technique in the dark.

The example photographs themselves were interesting, although many were too self-aware and arty to easily serve as teaching vehicles for most photographers, who probably would be interested in simpler, more direct night and low-light themes. Yet, for the experienced photographer, looking to expand his vision, these same pictures might provide some inspiration.

Although I didn't down-rate this book because of the layout and design, I hated it. Many pages are printed in black with white text, or include large blocks of black-backed white text and white-backed black text on the same page, or juxtapose black background pages with white background pages, all of which are quite jarring to the eye. As difficult are the tiny guest photographer portraits adjacent to tiny unreadable dark grey text on a black background.

Despite problems, there were useful hints here and there, such as changing the point of view when taking pictures to exclude illumination that would be too contrasty or using reflections to add drama to night shots.

Unfortunately, I have not found many recent books about low-light and night photography that are straight forward in teaching the less experienced how to become children of the night (oops-just a joke). For photographers determined to push on into the darkness, this is about as good as anything around.

I have gotten tired of flipping through books titled "Everything you could ever know about photography" that is only 120 pages of big fonts. THIS book does not fall into this category. It is well-written, laid out in a logical manner, and full of excellent instruction. It has examples by professional photographers on different techniques and subjects in night photography. Each example has a detailed explanation of how the shot was taken and what settings were used. I am seriously impressed with this and am beyond satisfied with my purchase. If low-light or night exposures are something you are getting into, this book is a Must-Have.

There certainly aren't enough good books on the subject of low light/night photography, so I was pleased when I had an opportunity to read Jill Waterman's book. There are a lot of things to like about this book. The overall print quality is excellent--with a lot of excellent photo samples on every page. This alone makes the book worthwhile. Not only do we get exposed to the unique and varying style of each contributing artist (and there are many), each image is accompanied by a few nuggets of background information about the shot, along with some basic Exif data, such as camera, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, etc.

But my biggest issue with this book (and it is big in my opinion), is Jill Waterman's overt lack of information and insight about digital photography equipment and methodologies. Almost the entire book is dedicated to a film-based philosophy, from darkroom techniques to reciprocity failure. Having come from the film world myself, I get it. But in 2008--with the advent of highly capable low-light/high ISO cameras like the Nikon D3, this omission is just too big to ignore. It's almost as if the book were written in 2001 and published in 2008.

Undoubtedly, many contributors in this book continue to shoot using film. And film certainly offers some advantages in dynamic range over digital (which is important when trying to capture the full range of highlights and shadows in any given scene), although this gap is starting to close as sensors become more sophisticated. But ultimately, digital shooters reading Jill Waterman's book may feel that she does not go far enough to address their unique concerns and challenges. Film is still viable and is certainly here to stay, but most of the world is shooting digital nowadays--and these will be the people buying her book.

Lastly, I would have liked Jill Waterman to expand a little more on the technical aspects of nighttime image capture--especially as it relates to aperture, shutter and ISO selection. She does touch upon this with information about how to achieve a star burst effect by stopping down. And there is some information about opening up wide while increasing ISO to make star trails more plentiful and vibrant. But I would have liked to see more information about why a photographer chooses one aperture over another (or shutter/ISO) based on the night scene presented in front of them and their shooting goals. What works technically for daytime shooters does not necessarily translate into a nighttime environment.

Would I still recommend this book--well, probably. There is great reference material throughout, and many of the images are compelling and will provide good inspiration for any photographer looking to venture into the exciting and mysterious world that happens when the sun goes down. If you're looking for a definitive "how to book" on night photography, this may not be it--especially if you shoot digital. But it does contain enough good information to make the trip worthwhile--especially given the lack of good material on the subject.

This books strength is it's full of examples of night shots on film and the settings they used to do it.

Addressing some of the lower ranked comments about the books lack of coverage on digital techniques, which there are plenty of already, I'd hope a book with "Artistic" in the title wouldn't focus on digital fads like HDR. Thats a Photoshop book you're looking for.

A forward by Kenna, images and technique from 30 different but equally talented photographers, and written by PDN's finest, Jill Waterman, how could you go wrong. A must have for night and low light photographers.

As a professional writer and photographer, I read and review dozens of books on photography each year--from technical how-tos to fine art books. I don't often run into books of this caliber. Night & Low-Light Photography is technically informative and artistically inspiring, touching on an unprecedented scope of topics related this theme while also presenting a powerhouse art portfolio experience.

What is truly impressive about Night & Low-Light is that it is equally valuable for pros, hobbyists and art-lovers alike.

Jill Waterman is passionate an accomplished night photographer, a fantastic writer and a well-respected editor on topics of photography. She also has more industry connections than you can shake a stick at. It is this combination of assets--along with her clear editorial vision--that allowed Waterman to hit a home run with Night & Low-Light Photography.

If you have any interest in night and low-light photography (including recording weather phenomena, painting with light and other low-light techniques often overlooked), you will definitely enjoy and learn from this book. The in-depth biographical data on the 30 contributors, the incredible list of resources and the detailed glossary alone are worth the purchase.

If you are on the fence, you can get a better sense of Night & Low-Light Photography by checking out Waterman's companion website: [...]. However, keep in mind that Waterman has created such an impressive and jam-packed experience that it is hard to fully appreciate the value and pleasure of this book until you actually have it in your hands.

An outstanding book for the professional and amateur photographer. This book explains in detail how to obtain the best images taken in the dark. The book covers how to achieve great results using digital and film. Color and B&W images are explained in detail.

Thirty photographers provide recommendations and advice on how and why procedures are used in order to achieve your desired results and success.

You won't be disappointed. This book will serve as a great reference and should be in your photographic library.

As soon as we decided to spend a year in Norway I knew I needed Jill Waterman's book, Night & Low-Light Photography. I wasn't thinking so much about the summer months, when it never gets dark here, but for the winter months when the sun barely crosses the horizon. The book is very satisfying and inspiring. I've already applied a couple of the book's techniques to my project, with exceptional results. I especially like the section on shooting northern lights, which I hope to do myself later this winter. I really like the format of the book and know from experience how hard it is to organize so much complex material. Not only is Jill Waterman an outstanding photographer but she knows how to translate the experiences of her colleagues into readable, easy to follow techniques. Nice work Jill!

I went through Night & Low-Light Photography quickly at first. I was awestruck by some of the photos. Going through it a second time, I saw how well it was organized, how much 'how to' information was included, and the great range of night and low-light photography that was represented. The book made we want to get out shooting - which i did the following dawn.