Light: Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting

Light: Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting | Fil Hunter, Steven Biver, ... | Kudos and thanks to the authors!

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Light: Science and...

	Light: Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting Fil Hunter, Steven Biver, ... Focal Press, 2007 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 95 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Must Have for Any Photographer with a Passion for Photography

This book is a real page turner and is probably the best "textbook" I've read in my life. Well at least it's in a textbook like format and is as thick as a textbook but only without the hardcover. Anyways, this book is purely dedicated to lighting. There's a clear introduction about light and how it behaves and you can understand it clearly if you have taken any physics class in school.

This books comes with a good break down of different subjects and how they are lit is very different. The transition from chapter to chapter is very nicely done. Every new chapter you start requires applies the method you've just learned in the previous chapter. As you read on, you gradually learn more and more without feeling like all the lighting information is hitting you all at once which can be overwhelming.

The book shows tons of examples from regular surfaces, to metal, to glass , etc. Surfaces or rather object that are just plain hard to take a picture of. These types of picture can almost never be achieved without proper understanding of light and how it behaves on various surfaces (both subjects and gobos/reflects/etc). However, this book breaks down and explains the setup required to take such a shot and trust me the setups are a piece of cake, anyone can do it.

Even though the examples in the book is in a contained environment like a studio, the principles you learn from this book can be applied to outdoor lighting and many other types of lighting. The author said that the setups are just basic ways of dealing with lighting issues for certain and how to solve lighting problems that seems impossible in a very clear fashion. And that is what the book does. It gives you the tool to so you can create your own masterpieces or money shots.

Basically: It's a great book, for a great price, easy to read, page turner, very informative = must have for any photographer who has a passion for photography and is always aiming to achieve beautiful pictures. (I am one of them)

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Kudos and thanks to the authors!

Not much else can be said that hasn't already been said about this superb book.
I will add this though; I am in the habit of using a yellow highlighter pen to mark what I consider to be information worth remembering in a book, important info that I want to review when I re-read the book. My thinking is why re-read the whole book when I can just re-read the most important parts of a book - the highlighted parts (usally 2-3 cumulitive paraghraphs per chapter). Well, after reading the first 80 pages of this book, I realized that I had gone thru two new highlighter pens and flipping back through those first 80 pages, I also realized that nearly 90-95 percent of each and every page was highlighted. What an enjoyable and informative read!
Yes, the book is technical, but the subject matter is explained in a very linear fashion, written so as to be very understandable and most importantly, not without relating exactly why it is essential to taking better photographs.
Bottom line, if you are serious about photography, this book will hold a prominent position in your photographic library! Kudos and thanks to the authors.

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Learn the whys and hows of lighting from the ground up

I was recently faced with my first photography project that required lighting.

At the time, I had never used lights before in my photography and, to be completely honest, I was a little scared of the prospect. I had to learn a lot in a short amount of time so I needed a solid resource. After a little research, I bought Light: Science and Magic to get things started. I'm glad I did.

Fil Hunter, Steven Biver, and Paul Fuqua ease the novice reader in with very basic lighting concepts focused on two-dimensional subjects. Each chapter builds until you have an understanding of how to light complicated objects like metal and glass. The diagrams and supporting pictures clearly illustrate the concepts, and the writing is very natural and easy to understand. When I finished the book, I had the know-how and confidence to light just about any project.

This is such a great book because the authors teach the principles of lighting instead of just showing you how to achieve certain effects or lighting styles. These principles can be applied to many situations and utilized to achieve any effect you desire. In other words, you won't find just a lighting cookbook here. Rather, read this book and you will learn how to think about lighting and understand it from the ground up. This puts you in control of how your photos will look.

If you want to get started with lighting, Light: Science and Magic is an essential read.

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Its all about Lighting and Composition

Photography is.... the manipulation of Light. What is the single most important decision in lighting a photograph.....the size of the light source. Being able to describe light is the first step in ....being able to control it. What are the 3 primary properties of light that photographers are concerned with....Brightness, color and contrast. Lighting is a relationship between....the light, the subject and the viewer. To control lighting we must understand the subject, it can ...transmit, absorb or reflect the light. These are just a few of my notecards from this fascinating book. It is easy to read and has radically changed my photography.

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The best book on lighting that I have found

I think this is the best book available on lighting. It is kind of laid out like a text book, but very readable. It is clear and where possible concise, but it does go into the science of lighting. It does not get too technical but gives you much more information than any other book I have seen. It shows how to light any subject type, such as reflective and non reflective.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, page 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

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