Decent Lighting books

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anybody got any practical good lighting books that they would recommend, i've got a couple but they all seem to have lots on glamour photography - im looking for one with good set up ideas and has to be fool proof. mostly for portraits.
thanking you!
 
light, science and magic. Can be tricky to track down due to it's popularity but it is a very good book covering all diferent sorts of lighting from portraits to photographing paintings behind glass.
 
thanks for replys - ideally I would like one that shows pictures of differnt lighting set ups - maybe very basic I know but I just need to see it to get my head around it all!
not sure if there has ever been such a book written yet!
I have Mark Cleghorns lighting and portrait book and wedding photography book which is also very good but sometimes skips on some very basics that assumes you already know.
 
Right,

I've been through all this only over the last 6 months. I too wanted a book, or books, that told me what to do because I wanted to get straight in there and play. STOP NOW

Get "Light. Science & Magic" 3rd Edition 2007 ISBN 13: 978-0-240-80819-2 by Fil Hunter, Steven Biver, Paul Fuqua. and READ IT. DO NOT assume that because the initial pages have simple diagrams explaining how light works (and you, like like me know this already, don't we?) we acutally understand how light works for photography.

I started out, like with so many technical books whose value I question, just dipping in to see if they had anything new to say. In actual fact, probably for the first time in years I went back and started from the first Introduction and read the whole book page by page, cover to cover. There were things I knew, things I thought I knew (but not quite) and new things.

If I have a failing, it's to buy books on subjects that interest me; most of which I skim. This book makes you really think about LIGHT and how it works.

Look, if you really want to understand lighting and photography (rather than be given other people's setups) buy it, READ IT and don't just dip in, but start with the introduction (these guys aren't wasting words) and go through it page by page. OK
 
Vix said:
thanks for replys - ideally I would like one that shows pictures of differnt lighting set ups - maybe very basic I know but I just need to see it to get my head around it all!
not sure if there has ever been such a book written yet!
I have Mark Cleghorns lighting and portrait book and wedding photography book which is also very good but sometimes skips on some very basics that assumes you already know.
Click to expand...

If you want a good book on the basics of how to set up simple lighting then I'd recommend "Master lighting guide" by Christopher Grey ISBN 13: 978-1-58428-125-2 or perhaps "Advanced studio lighting techniques for digital portrait photographers" by Norman Phillips ISBN 1-58428-186-3

Most of the basic books are 'how to' books. You'll use their setups, modify them a bit, experiment by trial and error, but you won't learn the fundamental science of light or lighting.
 
thank you - exactly the kind of advice I needed.
 
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