Customer Reviews

Studio Photography: Essential Skills, Second Edition

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

 

 

I had to purchase this book for a university studio photography course...unfortunately, the instructor never even flipped through it. It is by far the WORST photography book, really the worst book I have ever purchased! There are typo's, the "example photos" and instruction sometime are not the same. The projects are lame and really teach nothing. I would not recommend this book under any circumstances...AVOID AT ALL COST!!! [...]

This book really is an insult. It's "lesson" and "assignments" are HORRIBLE. They ask you to research in magazines different lighting effects that you think were used in his book. In a field where doing is truly the best learning experience this book is not worth the paper it was printed on. Check it out from a library if you must but you will shortly find it is an insulting read.

since their are not many digital photography books for instructors,

they pick what they think will fit the bill-it's irritating when they don't even look at the book before requiring it. the book is o.k., but

should not be used for a textbook! it's insulting. to anyone interested in

photography keep this in mind-photography books, especially

the old and true, and info. on the internet will teach you the basics. because photography is mainly digital, it is very well suited for self-study. don't waste your time buying required marginal books and paying for photography classes. your money will be better spend on good glass(lenses) and a tripod, and of course learn photoshop--just my opinion

on a friday night.

A key fact that separates this book from others is the fact that it requires you to *think* (gasp!!). If you're looking for quick-fix lighting solutions, for the kettle you want to sell on eBay, with some lighting diagrams and sketchy descriptions, this book may not be ideal for you.

On the other hand, if you're looking for insights into how to problem solve in a lighting situation (whether for product shots or portraits) and skills you can carry with you, this is the book you've been searching for.

John breaks down complex lighting problems into a set of tractable challenges, then proceeds to share the core skills that go into creating the mind-blowing imagery we see in product campaigns.

This book is the required text in the BA Commercial Photography program at RMIT University (Melbourne, Australia). The students from this course have gone on to be some of Australia's (and the World's) best commercial photographers. And guess what? They've all been learning from this book. All the "show-case" images used throughout the book (including the cover) are created by students studying this course and following this book.

John is an award winning photographer and advertising film maker. His approach to teaching is simple yet engaging and encourages the reader to think.

In summary, there are no quick-fix-ready-mix approaches to lighting. This book equips the intrepid photographer with the skills to set their creativity free. It builds on skills step-by-step to help the photographer develop a repertoire of skills that will prove invaluable in any shoot-situation.

I am a final year student of this program and have learnt everything I know about lighting from this book. My work can be viewed at: [..]

I found this book to be basic. I recommend a book a fantastic chicago studio photographer lent me Christopher Grey's Studio Lighting Techniques for Photography: Tricks of the Trade for Professional Digital Photographers rivchin

There are a host of better written & more useful reference books out there. Was a required purchase for a studio class - money down the drain.

What a horrid book. Full of ugly example images, it fails to cover what is really needed in a studio book. The practice quiz after each chapter are a joke, with no answer key given. Some of the questions are over things that the author did not even discuss. Don't waste your time and money.

Studio Photography, John Child, Focal Press, the textbook for my Light and Lighting class, is the single worst book I have ever read on the subject of photography. It is poorly written, poorly researched, and poorly executed. Most photography books fall into or contain elements from three categories: technical information, personal experience, and creative inspiration. This book fails to deliver in any meaningful way in any of those categories.

The use of technical language is sloppy and at times misleading.

The lessons presented are meant to be followed precisely, but the example photographs are imprecise creative interpretations - giving no technical, accurate means to compare one's work to what is expected.

The content of the book is artificially padded by frequent repetition of definitions and descriptions used in previous chapters.

The suggested exercises tend to resemble busy work and leave the task of actually interpreting concepts and results to the student with little guidance or reference.

The text claims to be presenting general concepts which the student photographer can use to apply to a variety of equipment and situations. What it actually does is describe the specific use of specific equipment in specific ways to reproduce an example scenario.

This book, which claims to be a textbook for studio lighting, fails to ever define, describe, mention the importance of, or even provide practical information for the handling of the following CRITICAL principles of studio photography:

The distinction between direct, diffused, and specular highlights.

The principle of the family of angles of reflectance.

The principle of how surface material and color impact the nature of reflection.

The principle of how reflector material impacts its efficiency, color, and the nature of its reflected light.

Grids. Seriously. Grids are never mentioned even once in this book. Neither are snoots. No means of increasing directionality of a light is covered in this book other than casual mention of barn doors (and presumption that the student has access to the use of barn doors) and the use of a spotlight with an adjustable lens.

Spill.

Feathering.

The nature of metal, glass, and plastic. There is one practical example of managing specular reflection in metal but it is never explained - the student is simply directed to follow particular steps and is never told why. Managing the process of photographing glass is never covered in any meaningful way, despite it being a hugely popular subject.

Bloom. The student is frequently encouraged to "overexpose" surfaces to achieve the color white, but the subject of bloom and flare are never mentioned as a concern in this technique.

Gobos/Flags. A few assignments describe the use of these tools as part of following the specific instructions for that lesson, but throughout the book the student is simply told to "check for flare" or "move the light".

Negative fill is never mentioned and never utilized.

These are all just the things I found missing from the book off the top of my head. An exhaustive, critical analysis of what is wrong with this book would have to be nearly as long as the book itself. There is something either incorrect, misleading, poorly executed, or missing on nearly every page. The small section devoted to the concept of high key portraiture may as well have suggested the student shine a flashlight into the camera just to get more overexposed regions.

The actual, useful technical information in this book - the actual impact this book would have on improving a student photographer's grasp of light or studio techniques - would probably be equivalent to tearing five pages at random out of the book Light, Science & Magic, and telling the student photographer to just figure the rest out through practice.

Required textbook for my college Studio Photography class. If I had purchased the book alone, I would not have got much out of it, but using it along with the class it was a little helpful. It touches on the basics of lighting and studio equipment that you will need to be familiar with to do studio photography. Was it a fantastic book, no-but was it helpful, yes. Since this was my first Studio Photography class I am not sure what other textbooks are available so this worked just fine for me as a beginner. It is very easy reading and helpful to understand the use of the light meter, filters, different lens,different sources of light, reflections etc. I am sure there are better books and I will find them and read them also- because more information is always good. The dude that said don't waste your time on books and classes, just buy expensive equipment and shoot. Maybe that worked for him-but not good advise for everyone. I did that and I ended up wasting two years that I could have had much better photographs had I taken classes instead of doing the trial and error thing on my own.

This book is ideal for those who want a self guided view to learning for their own self interest. These Photography, Essential skills type books by the authors all follow an easy to follow guides. This is why I chose these series of books. You can always expect value for money.