The Photographer's Guide to Light [Paperback]

Nigel Hicks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2005

Understanding lighting, natural and artificial, indoors and out, is key to the photographer's art. This comprehensive guide is full of techniques, information and guidance on making use of the light in all situations.

Lighting can often be the making or breaking of a photograph--many photographers struggle to capture color and tone as they would like. This essential guide provides practical techniques that will help the photographer understand how to make the best lighting choices in a wide range of situations. Topics covered include landscape, nature, macro, urban, portraiture (both inside and out), interior and studio photography.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Nigel Hicks is an experienced photographer and writer specializing in travel, landscape, nature and the environment. He lives in Telgnmouth, Devon. Bjorn Thomassen is one of the UK's leading portrait photographers. He regularly contributes to leading photographic magazines and runs courses on portraiture and lighting. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: David & Charles (June 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0715319493
• ISBN-13: 978-0715319499
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #878,638 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too general and the word "Beginner" needs to be added to the title, July 7, 2006

By 

Abdulrahman Aljabri (Jeddah) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Photographer's Guide to Light (Paperback)

This book is a welcomed addition to the many books available about photography and lighting. It certainly increases the selection of books available to us as photographers. The book is broken down to three sections: introduction, outside lighting, and inside lighting. The first main section includes landscape, nature, urban, and outdoor portraits. The second includes portraits, architecture, and still life.

Don't be fooled by the introduction which is very well written and pretty informative. The book falls short from there in delivering on the high expectation brought by the introduction. The landscape and nature sections were interesting, but not the best. Outdoor and indoor portraits were hardly informative.

After putting back this book, I thought what's new? If you are an amateur photographer this book will probably introduce very little new information, mind you anything that you can use. That being said if you're new to photography you may like this book over other books that try to cover the same topic at a basic level. In fact, the author himself acknowledges in the introduction that the subject of lighting is so broad that it would require volumes of books to cover. Therefore, one must ask why didn't the author focus on one or two areas of his interest, landscape and nature for example, instead of trying to cover a massive topic in one short book? If you are looking for one great book about lighting check out Light Science and Magic which focuses on still and portraits photography.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, very general, May 7, 2009

By 

Carl Rj Klitzke (Appleton, WI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Photographer's Guide to Light (Paperback)

If you are an experienced photographer, this book may be of little use to you as it covers a lot of things which are covered in other books and you may already just know from experience.

However, I found it to be very helpful when I was starting out. At the very least helped me to articulate issues with lighting. So if you are trying to get past 'beginner' and have a grasp on composition but are still having trouble, give this book a read.

5.0 out of 5 stars Photographers Guide to Light, April 6, 2009

By 

V. THOMAS "Macchick" (Texas) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Photographer's Guide to Light (Paperback)

Very well written and quite easy to follow. I was pleased with the book and gained a lot from it in relation to lighting technique.