good lighting books

[jc101]

Hi I am wanting to start doing using flash and studio lighting etc. Does any know of any good books to get me started. Mainly want to try portraiture etc. Cheers,

 

[Marvin d martian]

Light, Science & Magic. You can get it on Amazon

Mart

 

[boabbruce]

Agreed. Light, Science and Magic is excellent.

 

[hangerhead]

neil van niekerks book should be coming out soon too
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467198433&pf_rd_i=468294

 

[jc101]

Thanks guys I will have a look

 

[n30_mkii]

The Joe Mcnally books are pretty good. There was also another great portrait book on amazon something by Michael Greco I think. As mentioned above Light, Science & Magic is a good book, but quite in depth. Depends what you are after.

 

[Flash In The Pan]

For the money, Joe McNally's The Hotshoe Diaries is well worth getting, although it's not really a nuts 'n' bolts sort of book. Minimalist Lighting by Kirk Tuck is another excellent book, which concentrates on commercial-type location portraiture, but as with McNally's book it is more concerned with using speedlights rather than studio ones.

 

[Garry Edwards]

I don't think there's any one answer to this.
The various books on 'location lighting' - hotshoe flashes - tend to show examples of what can be done and this can help, but of course this kind of thing doesn't help with studio lighting.

Light: Science & Magic is the bible of lighting. It's about what light is, how it works and how to use your understanding of it to get the kind of results that you won't believe possible - but of course knowledge has to be earned, it isn't about quick fixes.

And of course there are loads of books that give lighting diagrams and the like - all of which IMO are a total waste of time, as lighting isn't about painting by numbers.

And I should mention my own written tutorials and videos on studio lighting, which you'll find on my website.