Lighting For Digital Photography: From Snapshots To Great Shots (Using Flash And Natural Light For Portrait, Still Life, Action, And Product Photography) Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
Now that you’ve had your DSLR for a while, are you ready to take a much closer look at what creating a great image is all about? It’s all about light! The ability to see, influence, modify, control, and create light will take your images from snapshots to great shots! In Lighting for Digital Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots, photographer and bestselling author Syl Arena begins with a primer on light itself—how to see its direction, intensity, color, contrast, and hardness—and quickly moves on to discussions of shooting both indoors and outdoors in the many different conditions of natural or man-made light. Then the book digs in to begin creating light with photographic lights, whether that’s small flash or big strobe, the pop-up flash on your DSLR or continuous lights. Follow along with Syl and you will: Learn the basics (and beyond) of light modifiers that make light bigger and softer, such as umbrellas, softboxes, beauty dishes, and diffusion panels Understand how to control and shape the light itself with flags, grids, snoots, and the zoom function on your flash Appreciate the color temperature of light (whether that’s the sun, a light bulb, or a flash), and how to influence it with white balance settings on your camera and colored gels on your flash Learn how to take great pictures across many different genres, from product and still life images, to simple (and not so simple) portraits and group shots With Lighting for Digital Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots, you’ll learn not only how light behaves—you’ll learn all you need to know to get started on the journey of creating and controlling light in order to make great shots. And once you’ve got the shot, show it off! Join the book’s Flickr group, share your photos, and discuss how you get great shots at flickr.com/groups/lightingfromsnapshotstogreatshots.
Series: From Snapshots to Great Shots
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Peachpit Press; 1st edition (October 17, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0321832752
ISBN-13: 978-0321832757
Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 0.8 x 9.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (114 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #172,023 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #10 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography & Video > Equipment, Techniques & Reference > Flash Photography #33 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography & Video > Equipment, Techniques & Reference > Lighting #110 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography & Video > Equipment, Techniques & Reference > Digital Editing
There are countless books written on the subject of photographic lighting providing varying degrees of useful and practical advice. What makes this book stand out is that it is a true tutorial, by which I mean it provides a complete learning journey from foundational concepts to detailed step by step instruction and explanations of how each image was accomplished. It is apparent that the author has a mastery of the subject matter (which many others possess as well).What differentiates Syl is his ability to transfer that knowledge to his readers. He goes to great length and in great detail to provide specific examples and explanations on each topic that he covers in this book in a manner that will be clear to any reader regardless of their skill/knowledge level at the time of reading. Those readers who are newer to lighting will appreciate that Syl leaves no detail unexplained. If he is talking about using specific lighting modifiers or accessories, he takes the time to explain the use and often includes photos and even alternatives.In addition to being a great tutorial, it also serves the function of being a great reference resource for photographers as they progress along the learning curve with their lighting skills. If you purchase the paperback, I have no doubt that it become dog eared over time as it is one of those books that you will come back to time and again. If you buy the Kindle edition, you will have a large number of notations and bookmarks.If you are looking to learn lighting or to build on your existing skills, this is a book that you will never regret owning.
I'm a big fan of Syl Arena and his teaching style, his first book has helped to teach me almost every basic there is to know about shooting with off camera flash and lighting in general.For the price that has this book for you really can't go wrong - however if you're a fan and you've read Speedliter's Handbook: Learning to Craft Light with Canon Speedlites then you're probably going to be disappointed since a lot of the information is repeated. It's GOOD information that bears repeating - but still, it falls short in teaching the existing fans new things.The book shares all the good traits of Handbook however - down to earth teaching style, very specific call outs to equipment and settings that make it so much easier to get context.Overall - an excellent addition to your learning arsenal - but consider it a refresher with slight tweaks. If you're new to the lighting game - then by all means grab this and enjoy.
This is another great book on flash photography from Syl Arena. It covers using Speedlites/Speedlights and studio flash in a variety of useful situations. The book starts with good intro chapters on light, cameras, and how to shoot using natural light. Jumping into flash photography, there's an excellent chapter on tabletop and macro photography and using inanimate objects to build up your lighting chops. The final two chapters go from simple to complex lighting for portraits. The approach throughout is not to just give cookbook solutions, but to establish principles and workflows that can be applied in a wide variety of situations. I found the sections on macro setups and using flash in sunlight particularly useful. There is lots of attention paid to taking great shots using the equipment you already have, whether that is zero, one, two, or more flash units. Syl also does a great job showing why you need to get your flash off the camera, and discusses all the technical approaches for doing that. The book uses Canon equipment for most of the examples, but also deals with how Nikon differs and lots of other brands of flash accessories.I'm a semi-professional photographer who had read quite a few lighting books. This is the one I'll keep around to refer to.
You won't find shots in this book that wow you. You won't find amusing anecdotes. What you will find is a well thought out and explained introduction to the subject of lighting. First it covers available light, then the use of reflectors. Then we get to using flash. Technical subjects are explained well and usually accompanied by instructive diagrams. Each chapter ends with suggested exercises. If this sounds a bit like a text book, well... Lighting for Digital Photography would make a fine text for a beginning lighting class. The writing is straightforward and neither boring nor dull.This is a beginning lighting book. If you've been working with flashes for a while and want to know how to duplicate that shot by the celebrity photographer, look elsewhere. The photos are ordinary, the kinds we might take ourselves. The models are ordinary, too. They look like they might be family or neighbors. At first this put me off a bit, but once I got into the book I appreciated Arena's approach. The truth is that our first attempts at lighting won't be incredible. We're looking for competence. First master the basics, and by working through the material in this book and practicing the exercises you will get a firm grounding in the basics of lighting.Syl Arena shoots Canon, so the most of the examples come from his 5D3 and he uses Speedlite as a generic term for portable flashes. No problem, there's no preaching and if you have a different system, you'll find that the techniques are generic enough to work with any cameras or flashes.Most of the focus is on TTL flash, though manual shooting does get some love. Arena offers specific suggestions for equipment, which are usually budget oriented. I appreciate that. Good stuff.
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