The Photographers Guide to Using Light

Rating:
Summary: Some useful information, but there are better references
Review: I was looking for a book on portrait lighting, and a poster on a photographer web site suggested this book.

The book begins with a so-so discussion of metering and light color and then proceeds with examples of ambient light photography. There really didn't seem much to gain from the ambient light discussion, and I quickly got the feeling that I was not getting my money's worth. It appeared as though I was going to read the whole $20 book in 20 minutes. But then you get into the section on artificial lighting, and the information becomes more valuable and substantial. The diagrams showing the light placement was actually rather good, and some other books I've seen could benefit from such good figures.

However, there still wasn't a good discussion of what to look for in precise light placement for portrait photography. (E.g., move the light forward until the nose shadow hits the edge of the eye.)

In summary, I'd give the ambient light section 2 stars and the artificial light section, 4 stars, but there are better books on artificial lighting, for example, Jenni Bidner's THE LIGHTING COOKBOOK. So I average and give the book 3.