This book is one of the small handful that I intend to keep within a moment’s reach on my book shelf.  It is loaded with helpful information and – even more important – serves as a ledge from which to access other material.

Some time ago I reviewed the book Take Your Photography to the Next Level.  In general I liked the advice in the book but did not like the photographs.  When I reviewed that book, someone recommended this one and there really is no comparison between them.

Michael Freeman is an amazing photographer.  He truly is a master at taking journalist and location photos – but this is not one of those ‘why my photos are better than yours’ books.  The shots he uses throughout the book are great for illustrating the information on the same pages.  They really do a great job at pointing out what the author is attempting to say and also help illustrate what he was thinking with each shot.

Particularly helpful were several sections where he showed how he went through a particular shoot.  He gives his thought process for each shot along with his feelings about what went well and what didn’t.  This is great for learning how to take my own photographers that work well.

In particular Michael spends a great deal of time discussing lines, curves, and shapes within the photos and how they work.  The accompanying photos stress these points very well and I feel ready to try taking composition better into account in the future.  I will need, however, to continually flim through the book in order to be reminded of different ideas.

While I read the book cover to cover, it is organized in ‘mini-sections’ that take between two to four pages each.  Each of these mini-sections covers a particular topic – such as ‘Figure and Ground’, ‘Optics’, ‘Black and White’, and ‘Visual Weight’ for instance.  This makes it very convenient to go back to the book when necessary.

There is quite a bit of text in this book due to the large size and small print.  It is not something you will be able to read in a few hours – unlike most other photography books.  In a sense it is a bit like Light: Science and Magic in that you need to pay attention when reading it and sometimes read the same section a few times.  It isn’t quite as long or technical as that book, but they are both ‘thinking books’.

One other thing I love about this book is how topics of much greater depth are introduced – then resources provided for further investigation if you desire.  Bauhaus and Gestalt require more than a few pages for proper understanding, but he does a great job of giving you the most important information and provides a great wealth of future reading books in the bibliography.  I will lend this book to a friend shortly, but plan on photocopying the bibliography first so I can make a trip to the library.

As with Light: Science and Magic – which I recommend to anyone serious about lighting, I recommend this book to anyone serious about composition.  Even better, it isn’t nearly as expensive as many photography books despite the wonderful printing.

If you happen to know a National Geographic photographer and can follow him/her around the world and ask how each photograph is composed, then great for you.  For all of the rest of us, this book is almost as good.

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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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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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