I have a young relative that has been interested in photography. I gave him a Rebel XTi a while back. Recently he helped out at a gym shoot I did for Gold's Gym and saw strobes for the first time in person. He has expressed an interest in learning about lighting techniques.
Does anyone have recommendations for an easy to read book on lighting techniques?
Keep in mind he is a teenager, pretty bright but I think something that is very abstract would go over his head.
Ross Lowell's "Matters of Light and Depth" teaches you how to light anything ... stills, video and film. http://www.lowel.com/book.html Good practical info laid out in a simple to understand manner.
Maybe also a book showing really good lighting in practice and let him try to figure out how it was done by looking at it.
If he s interested in people/portait photography, you can't go wrong with anything by Penn, Avedon, Liebovitz, Karsh, A. Newman
"Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait: The Art of Celebrity and Editorial Photography by Michael Grecco" is a really nice book too.
The Grecco book is a good suggestion. You might also look at Steve Bavister's books - there's a range of them, depending on the kind of work he's most interested in, and they all are good at pairing sample images with setup diagrams and simple, if brief, explanations of the process and reasoning behind each.
I like Light Science and Magic and the Grecco book for completely opposite reasons. LS&M is like a 'Geeks guide to lighting' while Grecco focuses on style and creativity. It's nice to have both on the bookshelf.
These are all excellent suggestions I like the idea of setup diagrams...I took a look at Grecco and Bavister. I hate to load him up with too many books but the Grecco book recommended does seem like a great companion book.
Thanks!
Light, Science, Magic was utterly brilliant when I was doing lots of product photography, especially on super-shiny black plastics.
For people work something more creative might be better. I have Steve Bavister's portrait book.
Still, once you know about the common types of lighting available the best learning comes from looking at the kind of pictures you're hoping to make. Fashion? Look at the best of the fashion press? Editorial portraits? Look as the serious current affairs magazines and Sunday papers? Some things stump you but usually you can say, 'There's a big softbox camera right, possibly a reflector adding fiill, a backlight, a rim light about a stop over key...' etc.
Light: Science and Magic just came in (Amazon is just fantastic) and I have to say the book is great.
I went ahead and ordered Bavisters portrait book too (one for me and one for him).
