Book Review: "Light: Science & Magic"

Once again, a special thanks to all of you who have purchased from Amazon via this website. As I've mentioned in earlier updates, I take my commissions in the form of gift certificates. So far, I've always used those gift certs to purchase photography books. Recently, with my Amazon earnings, I bought Light: Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting by Fil Hunter, Steven Biver, and Paul Fuqua.

I've read a couple of other reviews of "Light: Science & Magic" in which it was dubbed the bible of photographic lighting books. I don't think I'd label this extremely informative book the bible of lighting books but it certainly is a very comprehensive examination of the science that drives photographic lighting. (Note: If I were a product photographer rather than, principally, a pretty girl shooter, I probably would call this the bible of lighting books.)

These days, it seems that many serious photo hobbyists come from the ranks of engineers and/or those with engineering backgrounds and, as such, I think these same hobbyists will truly appreciate the science that is the backbone of LSM. That's not to say the book is mostly aimed at people with science and/or engineering backgrounds. It's not. It's for everyone who is serious about their photography. Just about everything you ever wanted to know about the physics of light and how those physics effect (and are implemented into) the photographic process is covered. I don't mean to infer the creative and artistic aspects of photography are neglected, they're not, but it is science, rather than magic, that dominates the authors' text.

As I read through the book, I was surprised at how much of that science I already knew... but didn't know that I knew! (If that makes sense.) Most of my scientific knowledge of light--how it works and how it effects photography--is a product of my experience rather than some formal education in the physics of light. From that point-of-view, LSM put a lot of what I already knew into perspective for me. Now, I know why I do what I do when I'm lighting something. In fact, had this book been available much earlier in my career, and assuming I had read it, it would have saved me from a lot of mistakes I've made as I grew, through trial and error, as a photographer. That's why I enthusiastically recommend this book to all photographers, regardless of their skill and experience. To call this book "An Introduction to Photographic Lighting" is, to my mind, a bit misleading. It's not Photo Lighting 101. It's quite a bit more advanced than that. I think the more a photographer already knows about light and lighting the more she or he will get out of this book.

The pretty-girl pool-hustler at the top is Devin from a year or so ago. Image has nothing to do with this update. Just some eye-candy to go along with this post.