Rating: 
Summary: The best book I've ever read including swank and hustler
Review: This book is amazing, I couldn't stop reading it, it was the most useful book on any subject I've ever read. I am already anticipating his next book, which I will buy even if its on the mating habits of Brazilian Yak, if you are reading this review then buy the book. Its not software specific, which I love because I use Softimage and 3Dmax, the book got me excited to come home and do 3d even after a long annoying day of doing it at work, its as if this book was written directly to me, it answered every question I ever had about lighting and rendering, it was inspiring, I have bought 6 computer books this summer so far ranging from Flash to Maya, and all were a let down except this one, its a must have
Rating: 
Summary: Good, basic concepts
Review: This is a good book for someone who wants to understand the basic vocabulary of rendering. It goes into how software works, not how one product works; it is not specific to any one application.
There are one or two chapters that are not very clear (the one on light temperature was not very clear). You really should have some familiarity with some kind of software before you jump into this book. Without some familiarity with 3d, you could easily get lost. The book does have a lot of pretty pictures all in color. In the bookstore it is hard not to put it down.
Every student in my school owns a copy for the imaging and textures class. It is a requirement.
Rating:
Summary: One of the BEST books ever
Review: This is a must have for all cg artists wherever they may be. It deals mainly with lighting but also it touches upon color theory, cinematography, 3 light setups and much more such as staging and texturing and... and...
This book has everything. Mr. Jeremey Birn writes mith a very easy to read language which encapsulates all the information you'll need to upgrade your images and animations.
Not intended to be software specific the book manages to cover all bases and create a certain bar to accomplish. In the end you'll know much more about the world around u...
Did I say that it is a must have?
Rating:
Summary: Excellent information, beautifully presented
Review: This is a terrific book. The author takes on digital image-making as a combination of computer technique and traditional, professional art, photography, and film. This is an enlightened viewpoint, and allows the author to talk about many important technical details while keeping in mind their service to the aesthetics of the result.The book considers traditional topics like cinematography, lighting, and composition simultaneously with computer graphics topics like motion blur, negative lights, and multi-pass rendering. The result is a synthetic, unified presentation. The material is all solid and reliable, from the traditions of lighting to the mechanics of rendering. The book is beautifully executed. The writing is superb, the flow of information is clean, and the figures are frequent and terrific. Everyone who creates images with a computer should know this information, and this book is an ideal way to get it. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Things you never thought of!
Review: This is an excellent comprehensive books that will, if you follow it's advice, give your work more depth, atmosphere, beleivability. I found Lighting and Rendering easy to read and it is written in plain english, with all the technical data spelled out, so there was no guessing. It is a must have for any illustrator or 3D animator.
Rating:
Summary: The best book on computer rendering yet!!!
Review: This is the best...computer graphics book I've ever read! Not only informative, but inspiring! I see lots of books on lots of graphic and animation topics, and this just hits it out of the park. It's difficult to write a 'good' book on software, but if you try and make it 'software-non-specific' the task is huge! Just an excellent book...
Rating: 
Summary: Too basic
Review: Too much information in this book can be found in countless books on 3d, image manipulation and cinematography. Anyone who is serious about 3d will already know what a specularity map or find that information elsewhere (just read the manual that came with the software) - and do we really need another book explaining the difference between a medium shot and a close up. There's not enough truly indepth and 3d specific stuff that cant befound anywhere else. For example, Birn spends about two pages explaining how to fake global illumination through setting up extra lights that simulate the effect of lights bounced off surfaces. That alone should have been a whole chapter. How come all books on 3d are either really basic stuff that most people with some professional experiense will already know, or very indepth technical stuff for programmers only. I have yet to find one truly useful book on 3d that I can actually learn a significant amount of new stuff from.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent for Both Art and Commercial Work
Review: What an incredible book. This book is for both the pure artist and anyone working with clients in a business situation. When I won this book at a 3D users group meeting I wasn't sure how much I would get out of it, but it has proven to be one of the best written books I have read. It includes everything from techniques for improving the artistry of your work to tips for dealing with clients. The software independence of the book makes it especially useful for me as a user of multiple 3D programs. This is a great addition to the [digital] series and my 3D reference library.
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