Lighting for Photographers: An Introductory Guide to Professional…

Easy Going
The scary looking picture of the automobile driver on the cover of this book shouldn’t frighten you away. This book is quite accessible, and in fact, almost too easy.The authors begin the book by discussing what light does, indicating that it provides dimension (or what I would call depth), texture and separation. The following chapter addresses developing a concept and then adding and subtracting light to create that concept. Next the authors show that lighting is a part of composition. The authors advise experimenting. They discuss lighting equipment, cameras and metering. Finally they turn to the photographer’s professional career. The book is illustrated with pictures by the authors and other photographers, but the most dramatic seemed to be images of tools (with the exception of the images of the great Gregory Heisler). Throughout the book, there are interviews with several photographers that ask questions about their careers. Only the discussions with Heisler were out of the ordinary and one quotation was quite poignant: “I find that everything I’ve shot is a failure in one way or another—I only see what could have been better.”The discussion of equipment is generic, without too much consideration of the minor differences between tools. The lighting setups described are also quite elemental and easily duplicated with a minimum of equipment, although the authors regularly recommend not copying their techniques but rather going your own way. There are few of the complex discussions of portrait lighting techniques like the considerations of how the placing of main, fill, hair and background lights can affect the portraits.I get a little nervous when I see that a book is addressed to “professionals”. Often this is just a bit of marketing. But in this book the authors address professional subjects from product photography to corporate portraits. There is art in the illustrative images but few would call it art photography. The chapters on being a professional are not limited to, or even mainly concerned with lighting. They would apply to anyone thinking of becoming a professional photographer.As a nature photographer who spends his time with distant subjects that follow no rules and who seems to have only the slightest control over lighting, I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t more advice applicable to my particular genre.This book seemed almost as much encouragement as technique, even though it was easy going and simple. If you haven’t spent much time considering light and you are thinking about becoming a professional photographer, this is a pleasant read.Note: The publisher provided me with a review copy of this book at no charge.