Editorial Reviews:
Synopsis
THE book to own if you want to understand lighting! brbriLight Science and Magic/i more thani /ijust provides set examples for photographers to follow. This international bestseller provides photographers with a comprehensive theory of the nature and principles of light to allow individual photographers to use lighting to express their own creativity. It will show you how to light the most difficult subjects such as surfaces, metal, glass, liquids, extremes (black-on-black and white-on-white), and people.brbrWith more information specific for digital photographers, a brand new chapter on equipment, much more information on location lighting, and more on photographing people, this brand new fourth edition will make it clear why this is one of the only recommended books by Strobist.com. brbr* THE lighting book for serious photographersbr* The only book that covers theory and physics of lightbr* Full of brand new info, specific to digital photographybr* Loaded with new and inspiring full color photographs
Amazon.com Review
SPAN class=h3colorBAmazon Exclusive: A Letter from Fil Hunter, Paul Fuqua, and Steven Biver, authors of iLight--Science Magic/i, on Lighting /B/SPANbr table align="right" cellpadding="4" width="201" tbody tr align="center" tdimg border="0" src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/books/stech-ems/FilHunterSmall._V153730560_.jpg" alt="Fil Hunter"/ div class="imageCaption"smallFil Hunter/small/div /td tdimg border="0" src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/books/stech-ems/paul_fuquaSmall._V153730563_.jpg " alt="Paul Fuqua"/ div class="imageCaption"smallPaul Fuqua/small/div /td tdimg border="0" src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/books/stech-ems/steven_biverSmall._V153730560_.jpg" alt="Steven Biver"/ div class="imageCaption"smallSteven Biver/small/div /td /tr /tbody /table pWe photographers now live in a gadget-based world. If you don’t believe me, just look at the Web or any photography magazine. What do you see but item after item extolling the virtue of this or that gizmo?/p pThe lighting side of picture making is no exception. In fact it has become so intense that a huge proportion of questions I’m asked are of the “How can I work without a . . . ?” or “Will I ever be able to make good portraits without a . . . ?”/p pFortunately two sentences written for the first edition of iLight--Science Magic/i some 25 years ago by our co-author, Fil Hunter are just as relevant today as they were then, a quarter of a century ago: /p ul“No photographer has enough lighting equipment to do every assignment as well as possible." and “Most photographers have enough equipment to do almost every assignment well.”/ul pTo put those two pithy lines another way, iit’s what you do with what you’ve got that counts./i/p pSure, there most certainly are those times when the newest and niftiest piece of gear would make life a lot easier. But if you can’t afford it, don’t go out and shoot yourself. Instead, start trying to figure out a different way of getting the job done. /p pYou’ll be amazed at how many times you can./p p--Fil Hunter, Paul Fuqua, and Steven Biver/p hr noshade="noshade" size="1" class="bucketDivider"/ SPAN class=h3colorBAmazon Exclusive: An Example from Paul Fuqua, One of the Authors of iLight--Science Magic/i, on Lighting /B/SPANbr table align="right" cellpadding="4" width="201" tbody tr align="center" tdimg border="0" src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/books/stech-ems/Howard_Small._V153977852_.jpg" alt="Howard"/ /td /tr /table pFor the most part, my co-author, Steven, and I specialize in very different kinds of photography. Steven usually works using lights. I almost always work with only the ambient light I find where I’m shooting. /p pBut as different as these two ways of working are, the approaches we use to lighting our subjects are almost identical. That’s because no matter where you find it or what its sources may be, light always behaves in certain predictable ways. /p pTake this portrait of my friend Howard. To make it I moved him into the “open” shade of a nearby barn. This flooded him with the kind of softly diffused light I had pre-visualized for the picture. /p pI then positioned Howard close to the edge of the barn’s shadow. This allowed a small number of the sun’s brighter rays to fall on the camera right side of his face. /p pThe result of this slightly uneven lighting was twofold. First, Howard’s facial features were nicely modeled and second, the diffused light prevented any unattractive hard-edged shadows on it. /p pWhat’s important about the above is that I was able to use the ambient light I found on a location to make this portrait using exactly the same basic approach that Steven could use to produce identical looking lighting using studio strobes. Simply put, light is light, and iti always /ifollows the same laws of nature wherever it is and whatever produces it./p pAnd that’s iexactly/i what iLight--Science Magic/i is all about. /p p-- Paul Fuqua/p hr noshade="noshade" size="1" class="bucketDivider"/ SPAN class=h3colorBFeatured Photographs from the Authors of iLight--Science Magic/i/B/SPANbr table align="center" cellpadding="4" width="201" tbody tr align="center" tdimg border="0" src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/books/stech-ems/SmallWater._V153728319_.jpg" alt="Water "/ div class="imageCaption"smallThis glass of water was photographed with two lights--one on the background and the other in the foreground. (For more on photographing glass see Chapter 7)./small/div /td tdimg border="0" src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/books/stech-ems/SmallVance._V153728318_.jpg" alt="Vance"/ div class="imageCaption"smallThis dramatic studio portrait was created using three lights--a Fresnel for the hair light, a grid spot and, a strip light for the face. (For more on portrait lighting see Chapter 8)./small/div /td tdimg border="0" src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/books/stech-ems/SmallLamp._V153728318_.jpg" alt="Lamp"/ div class="imageCaption"smallExterior lamp on building wall shot with available light. The hard-edged shadow is a result of the bright specular light, the sun./small/div /td /tr /tbody /tablebr table align="center" cellpadding="4" width="201" tbody tr align="center" tdimg border="0" src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/books/stech-ems/SmallVeggies._V153728315_.jpg" alt="Veggies "/ div class="imageCaption"smallStill life was lit with one large soft box. This type of light modifier enables you to create as soft and often pleasing “window light” look./small/div /td td /td td /td td /td td /td tdimg border="0" src="http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/books/stech-ems/SmallGirl._V153728318_.jpg" alt="Girl "/ div class="imageCaption"smallLocation portrait photographed with dappled ambient light.brbrbr/small/div /td /tbody /table hr noshade="noshade" size="1" class="bucketDivider"/ SPAN class=h3colorBFeatured Excerpts from iLight--Science Magic/i/B/SPANbr pRead a few sample pages on how the cover was made. [PDF]/p pRead a few sample pages on how to photograph glass. [PDF]/p
