Exposure and Lighting for Digital Photographers Only

by Charlotte K. Lowrie and Michael Meadhra

Even with digital cameras and automatic exposure, lighting and exposure remain the most difficult element to master in the quest for quality photography. This book, written by a professional photographer for photographers, provides real-world advice to help you achieve true creative control over lighting and exposure. Discover how to take your digital photos to the next level with the scores of lighting diagrams, techniques, and stunning full-color...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0470038691
• ISBN13: 9780470038697
• Release Date: November 2006
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Length: 345 Pages
• Weight: 1.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Excellent education on exposure and lighting

While I'd have to agree with an earlier critique that the book does not have a lot of information specific to digital photography, I picked it up because I knew I would not have to skim over extraneous information about ideas and techniques specific to film photography. I LOVE this book. I am an easily distracted reader, meaning that if it doesn't excite me and make meaningful sense to me on several levels, I won't last through the entire book. I have been reading this book COVER to COVER, because it has such useful information about exposure and lighting that makes sense to the average user. I think this book is very well laid out. It starts out with the fundamentals of light without becoming too heavily laden with technical information, and then goes on, in a common sense order to other topics. Unlike some reviews, I like the fact that it has references throughout that tell you where to find further information on the topic you're reading in other areas of the book and I did not find it overly distracting to my reading. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to gain a firm, basic knowledge of exposure, different types of light and how to adapt your photography to those conditions.

A "must have"

I have been using digital point & shoots for several years, and finally decided that it was time to invest in a digital SLR. Among other issues, I was frustrated with the shutter lag. So I made the plunge and my shutter lag problem went away. However, everything comes with some baggage. Now I had all these other capabilities and controls that I didn't really know what to do with. The camera manual was pretty basic; it told you how to control the camera functions, but not what their purpose was or why you would want to do that. So I got a supplement book (Magic Lantern) that did a pretty good job of explaining the functions, ie, what they did and had a little bit of the why you might want to do it. Nonetheless, I was still primarily using the auto functions and I didn't think I was getting anywhere close to the value that my new camera could deliver. What to do next? Looking through the photo instruction books, I saw some good reviews for this one. I didn't know if it would be particularly helpful, but it did sound interesting. It turns out that was a good, and very lucky, decision. From the first page through the end, the book was helpful instruction. More than anything, it explained the "why" of things in digital photography. The other books mainly told me about the camera; this one told me about photographs. All through it were "aha" moments when the authors pointed out problems that I experienced all the time and didn't know what to do about; then they showed how to handle it. For example, I prefer pictures in outdoor settings but peoples faces seldom come out as I want them. Simple fixes like moving into shade, changing white balance, adding a simple reflector, changing camera position or head position; no fuss kinds of stuff, made big differences in the photos. Speaking of photos, the pictures in the book are great. They do a wonderful job of demonstrating the effects of the various elements. I suppose that more experienced photographers would not get a lot out of the book. But for someone like me, it was perfect. It showed me how to really get more value out of the digital SLR capabilities. I no longer use the auto setting and my photos are much more appealing. Plus it's fun to experiment and learn how to apply the principles from the book. Highly recommend it for people that want to move past "point & shoot".

Great Book! Full of useful information, very well written.

I have read alot of photography books lately, and I would have to say that this is one of the most useful and well written. If you are just starting out in photography or are at the intermediate level of photography, this book is a must have. It covers all the bases, and explains each topic in a way that you can understand. Several other books have covered the same topics and still left me as confused as before I read them. Exposure and Lighting for Digital Photographers Only explained the topics in a very concise and easily understood way, and left me walking away from the book with the confidence and knowledge I was looking for. I highly reccomend this book for anyone looking to learn and understand photography.

Great practical book for intermediate level

This is an excellent book for developing the practical skills of exposure and lighting. It is readable, clear, well-presented, wide-ranging, succinct, and full of well-chosen example images to illustrate the techniques described in the text. Although I have read many books on photography, this book really increased my awareness of light and my skill in handling exposure. My photographs have improved, my photography is more confident and enjoyable, and I find myself looking at the world in a new way. I found this book much more helpful than books like Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera (Updated Edition) which I found too vague to be instructive. Compared with my favorite general reference on photography, The New Manual of Photography, this book naturally has much more detailed coverage of lighting and exposure, but also has more relevant information about exposure in digital photography. There are some very minor errors in technical detail. For example flash power is measured in watt-seconds, not watts per second. And surely it is not so hard to explain that f/8 means one-eighth of the focal length! These are minor quibbles in an otherwise excellent book.

Seeing the Light

The electronic age of cameras has, in many ways, made it easier on photographers. Back in the days when I first began to take pictures, I had to remember the speed of the film I was using in the camera, and then adjust the aperture and shutter speed to match the light. Eventually I got a separate exposure meter and transferred the data to the camera, then a clip-on meter where I matched a needle to an index to set the exposure, then a view of the needle in the viewfinder window that I had to set. And one day, all of that disappeared. I just had to point my camera at the subject and press the button. That was it. Or almost. With nothing to set, I sometimes got grey snow, or blurred figures. But usually I remember my earlier days, and compensate for the situation or my vision of what I want. I often run into photographers who started photography after the introduction of electronic exposure who are surprised that I know the adjustments I want before I take any picture. This book is aimed at the photographer who is interested in just one thing: getting a handle on exposure. (I know the title includes lighting, but lighting is just the reverse side of the exposure coin.) The authors start out discussing the nature of light, and then discuss the three-legged stool of exposure: aperture, shutter speed and media sensitivity. They tell how to use a meter, in camera or separate, and then how to modify what the meter tells you to capture your vision. Next the authors talk about adding light either with lighting equipment or by controlling natural light. Finally they talk about lighting and exposure for specific subjects, like portraits, action, nature, objects and architecture. I particularly loved the fact that they gave a succinct explanation of that favorite of older photographers, the zone system. They also dealt easily but fully with my sine qua non, the histogram. There's only the slightest reference to digital post processing. For that you'll need another book. The authors write in a clear, concise style and cover virtually everything one would want to know about exposure and lighting. I must admit that sometimes that bordered on the pedantic, but they move along quickly enough to hold one's interest. For this subject, this book is as good as it gets. You may think that you don't need this book. If you know the sunny 16 rule, and know whether to compensate up or down and how many stops for a snow scene, and use depth of field selectively, and understand what you can see in Zone 0, and know when you want to shoot in aperture priority and at what f/stop, then you probably don't need this book. All other photographers should read it.