Book

[kalibre]

Any ideas of a great reference book for lighting? I went ahead and bought:

"Lighting for Portrait Photography (Revised Edition) by Steve Bavister"

But I must admit despite everyone raving about it I was dissapointed. If someone is going to go to the trouble of providing 3D scene representations of certain shoots, then they should at least be accurate. There are a few text references in this book that mention key distances or reflectors, or even extra lights that clearly aren't in the diagrams. Made me a bit dubious to be honest.

That coupled with the massive concentration on medium-format and lack of in depth engaging info about each shot made me a bit annoyed. Obviously the pictures were great though!

So any others that people recommend? Not just for portraits but lighting in general? I'm an IT techie so make it as geeky as you wish. Can't believe there isn't a 'lighting bible' that everyone must confess to own......

Cheers.

 

[blazzar]

For more technical try this:
- Light Science and Magic

 

[Garry Edwards]

I was going to recommend 'Light, Science & Magic' but blazzar beat me to it

Seriously though, this is THE book on lighting. Unlike other books, it explains the nature of light, and nobody who uses light can do so unless they really do understand its nature.

ALL of the other books I've seen just give example setups which, quite frankly, is a bad approach because it's easy to get the mistaken idea that there are protocols and setups that actually work.:bang:

If you don't want to spend the money on Light, Science & Magic then I also recommend my own tutorials (I would wouldn't I?) but they are more of a practical explanation of how to apply the theory set out in LS&M

 

[kalibre]

I was going to recommend 'Light, Science & Magic' but blazzar beat me to it

Seriously though, this is THE book on lighting. Unlike other books, it explains the nature of light, and nobody who uses light can do so unless they really do understand its nature.

ALL of the other books I've seen just give example setups which, quite frankly, is a bad approach because it's easy to get the mistaken idea that there are protocols and setups that actually work.:bang:

If you don't want to spend the money on Light, Science & Magic then I also recommend my own tutorials (I would wouldn't I?) but they are more of a practical explanation of how to apply the theory set out in LS&M

Thanks guys, i'll check it out.