Techniques of Photographic Lighting

This book is divided into two parts. The first covers theory and makes a thorough presentation of what light is, how to describe the various attributes and qualities of light, and how it interacts with. The author breaks it down into six terms and then describes the terms and how they affect a subject. The second part of the book uses the topics covered in the first part of the book to show how these concepts are used in controlling light and making photographs. I'm new to photography and have only read 8-10 books so far. This book, hands down, beats them all. The first section is a little deep and takes some re-reading to understand what's going on. But the benefit is profound. Understanding the concepts presented here gives me the ability to critically analyze photos and make some determination as to how light is working (or not working) in a photo and what actions I need to take as a photographer in order to get the results I want. The style of some photos presented is dated, but the concepts and discussion is timeless. Highly recommended!

Review of the 1979 hardback edition. Included in this book are many of the lighting concepts that photographers may find familiar, but the author does an excellent job in delineating the differences in the qualities of light and explaining where they may be most appropriate. He recommends a decision-making approach to lighting the subject based on six terms describing the qualities of light - brightness, contrast, diffuse, color, specular and direction. Part 1 is concerned with the theory of light and covers vocabluary, light and shade realtionship, light and emotion and the control of light. Part II (more than half of the book) is made up of illustrations of images with sidebar analyses of how lighting was used and why it seems to work well in the photo. Several things I like about this book. The author goes back to art to illustrate the basis for several of the concepts explained in the book. The man is not a dictator - there is no certain way to present an image, there is the way you choose to do it but now you have some tools to understand why. Without being tech heavy he includes enough about lighting equipment to make it useful. He repeats concepts often enough and in different contexts so you understand them. I have read many books on photographic lighting. If I could keep only one - this would be it. Note 1: I understand that the first edition (which I have reviewed) is the better of the two. The second was written to a larger audience. Note 2: This book was written before digital photography became so prevalent, but the concepts of lighting haven't changed - it still works.