Over the holidays I decided to pick up a 580EX II to use with my 7D and was just looking for some input on books to purchase to assist in the learning curve in the world of flash. I am going to order Syl Arena's "Speedliter's Handbook" but would like to get some input on other publications that may have been usefull to others or are considered some of the "go to" books for the flash newb.
The Speedliter's Handbook is number one on my recommendation list for those wanting to learn the nuts and bolts of how Speedlites work.
Number one on my recommendation list for those wanting to learn how to make beautiful images using Speedlites is On-camera Flash -- Techniques for Digital Wedding and Portrait Photography by Neil van Niekerk.
Once you have learned all that the two books above contain, you may want to explore light itself in more detail. A good textbook on that subject is Light -- Science & Magic. Want to learn how to shoot clear bottles against either black or white backgrounds? It's in there. Want to shoot reflective metallic objects without the whole room reflecting in them? It's in there. Want to get soft shadows and high contrast at the same time? It's in there. Highly recommended, but not light reading.
"Light, science & magic" is a classic on how to light motives although not specific to flashes but highly recommended to learn the basics of lightning.
Then you might be interested in one of Joe McNallys books like "The Hot shoe diaries"
joakim wrote:
"Light, science & magic" is a classic on how to light motives although not specific to flashes but highly recommended to learn the basics of lightning.
Then you might be interested in one of Joe McNallys books like "The Hot shoe diaries"
I was going to recommend both of those, but you beat me to it. Especially Light: Science & Magic is excellent and covers a huge variety of "problem" scenarios like photographing artwork.
BrianO wrote: The Speedliter's Handbook is number one on my recommendation list for those wanting to learn the nuts and bolts of how Speedlites work.
Number one on my recommendation list for those wanting to learn how to make beautiful images using Speedlites is On-camera Flash -- Techniques for Digital Wedding and Portrait Photography by Neil van Niekerk.
+1 on both books
Suggestion: Take the time to read through The Speedliter's Handbook cover to cover, you'll miss a lot of great information if you skip around. It's very well written, easy to understand, and flows nicely throughout. Love it!
Thank you all for the input. Now I'm just thinking that while I'm in the process of ordering some reading material if there are any good books to pick up to assist me with my pp skills. I have been using Aperture 3 with the complete set of Nik plugins but just can't seem to get the results that I'm looking for. Don't get me wrong I do have an understanding of the basics and have produced some stunning "to me anyways" images but would like to be able to take my images to the next level with a little more knowledge of what I should be doing to achieve certain results. I'm not sure if this question would be more suited to the "pp and printing" area but there seems to be more traffic around the canon gear forum.
Ps: go team Sweden in the gold medal game on Thursday
Thanks No_surrender I just had a quick look at Kelbytraing but to me it looks like it is more photoshop oriented and I don't have any plans to purchase photoshop (yet). I was thinking something directed towards aperture 3. I'll have a better look at kelby later tonight and probably see that I totally missed something.
