Minimalist Lighting: Professional Techniques for Location Photography

by Kirk Tuck

Book Overview

Packed with incredible images and step-by-step techniques, this book is a must have for commercial, wedding, and portrait photographers working on location who want to maximize their time behind the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1584282304
• ISBN13: 9781584282303
• Release Date: May 2008
• Publisher: Amherst Media
• Length: 125 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 8.6" x 10.9"

Customer Reviews

Minimalist Lighting: Excellent introduction to strobists.

This book is an excellent introduction into off-camera lighting. Specially for those with a camera flash. A lot of the information for equipment needed and similar lighting tutorials are available from Strobist.com however this book helps in consolidating all of this information into a paperback. I find it to be a valuable source for lighting and excellent companion to the Strobist website.

Absolute gold, made me a better photographer

I am a hobbyist photographer who started out using a darkroom in high school shooting black and white film. I have never felt comfortable using strobes. Over the years I have convinced myself that I am a "natural light" shooter who didn't need a flash. I actually used to push 3200 film a couple stops to avoid using a flash at night! Unfortunately my D200 just doesn't cut it in low light, so I bought an SB600 and reluctantly started using it for indoor shots. My pictures have been awful... I simply did not know what I was doing. Recently, during a family wedding, I took another stab at using the flash and the results were complete crap. I decided to buy this book on a lark before throwing in the towel. I am glad I did! This book is concise, full of information, and it all makes sense. The pace and progression of information is right on. Everything you need to know about using a modern flash is here. It is technical without being boring or patronizing. I want to thank the author for producing such an intelligent and usable guide to using my camera as it was meant to be used. I now have the confidence to set up a small studio to help out with a local fashion business. Instead of fearing my flash, I am now empowered to really embrace artificial light.

The New Wave Of Location Lighting

The best way to learn how to become an accomplished photographer is to get hired as an assistant to a pro. The second best way is to read the best photo books and practice, practice. Here's the best photo book I've come across in a very long time. Kirk Tuck is a pro who has been there and done that, and he not only shows why location photography needs to change, but, more importantly, how to change it. This clearly written book tells you what equipment you need, how to use it, and gives numerous case histories of how actual assignments were shot. If you are new to portrait photography, or serious flash photography, or if you want to dip your feet into the pro world, you need to read this book. This is the breakthrough book, the one that is starting a lighting revolution. Others are under way (Bill Hurter's book, "Simple Lighting Techniques" just released, and Joe McNally's book due late this year). You also need to check Kirk's website. Kirk's next book will focus on minimalist studio lighting.

A Great Introduction to the Minimalist Lighting Philosophy

I've been using the minimalist style of lighting, in one form or another, since the late 1980s, and I learned much of what I know through the painful process of trial-and-error. Austin, Texas-based photographer Kirk Tuck has taken all that basic knowledge and wrapped it up into a neat 128-page introductory handbook. Minimalist Lighting covers both the "why" and "how" of location photographic lighting using small strobes off-camera. The first half of the book takes you through the basic gear choices you'll need to make and the fundamental techniques of off-camera small-strobe lighting. In the second part of the book, Kirk takes apart 14 of his own shoots, showing how he approached lighting them, the decisions he made, and the final results. If you're already comfortable using small strobes off-camera, the first half of the book will be largely review material, and you'll likely skim over to the case studies, from which I gleaned several techniques I'm already putting to good use. If you're a newcomer to the world of minimalist lighting, you'll probably read the whole thing several times, learning new things on each pass through. Either way, if you want to learn to light better with less cost, less money and less weight, this book definitely belongs on your bookshelf.

Great book to have

If you ever consider shooting on location, with smallest possible gear - this is a book to have and read. Seriously. While its pushing for Nikon stuff (but not as much as "Moment it Clicks", which is another cool book on strobist shelf), it useful to anyone. It does require some brain power to understand, so its not just cookbook full of ready recipies, but its a really good read. This takes place on my shelf and wont leave it for a while, as it will be re-read many times. Very rarely i would give photography books thumbs up, but this is occasion were i do. It covers some really interesting bits, that you wouldnt ever find anywhere else, even in online resources, on how to place lights and WHY you may want to do that.