Book Review – The Photographer’s Guide to Light
Understanding of light is crucial to any photographer – from beginners to experts. Therefore, some time ago I purchased The Photographers Guide to Light
The book begins with an introduction into the kinds of light and some of the scientific aspects of it. The language is very easy to understand and is accessible to almost anyone.
He then goes into more detail on the following subjects
Landscapes - Nigel goes into some more depth about the differences in light as the day goes on. He also covers the different directions of lighting relative to the subject and the use of polarizing and neutral density filters. In essence he covers the basics of landscape photography that every landscape photographer should understand.
Nature – In this chapter he lumps quite a bit, as he covers flowers, animals, underwater, and macro photography in under twenty pages. A good deal of the chapter is dealt in flash vs. ambient light.
Architecture – This section is on exterior architectural photography, not interiors. As with landscapes he discusses the best time of day to take pictures and how to deal with different types of scenes. He also discusses how the clouds and haze effect architectural photography.
Portraits – A chapter each cover indoor and outdoor portraits. These two chapters are among the more valuable for the book as Nigel goes into detail about the positioning of the lights and the use of reflectors and natural light. He also goes into detail on the different types of lighting equipment available.
Interiors and still life – A chapter each covers each of these areas. There is some useful information here for real estate photographers, but in truth I find his interior pictures awful. The still life chapter is a bit better, as it shows the positioning of the lights.
Overall, the book isn’t bad for an absolute beginner. At the time I read this book, I was an absolute beginner so it did help. However, in general I cannot recommend this book for the following reasons.
- Most of the photographs are simply awful! The interior photographs in particular are extremely poor. I still have a lot to learn about real estate photography but I wouldn’t dare submit many of these pictures to realtors. The macro shots are also not very well done, and I did not find anything useful in that section.
- Nigel attempts to cover too much ground too quickly. It is simply not possible to cover lighting for all types of natural photography in under twenty pages.
- When he explains the lighting setups, he does not really give you an idea why these setups work. The setups are portrayed in the way – “here’s how it worked for me”, without any real background on why it worked and how it can be changed.
If you’re an absolute beginner and you find a great sale on this book, it may be worth it, but there are much better books out there on lighting. The best book, though for more intermediate photographers, is Light: Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting
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