There’s a myriad of good photography books available explaining the finer points of lighting, and I’ve reviewed a few of them here, here, here, and here. So do we really need another lighting book? The answer to that depends on what you’re looking for in the way of teaching and how you learn best. If, like me, you learn best by first studying the fundamental theory behind things before attempting to apply it, then the book Light: Science and Magic is an excellent place to start. If, on the other hand, you learn best by examples, with just an introduction to the underlying concepts, then you really didn’t have a lot of choices until now. Now you have Kevin Kubota’s book Lighting Notebook: 101 Lighting Styles and Setups for Digital Photographers fills in that gap.
Book Sections
Chapters 1-6 comprise approximately one fourth of the book and provide you with the basic knowledge you’ll need to get the most out of the examples. The Notebook section, the remainder of the book, consists of 101 two-page lighting scenarios or “recipes.”
Here are the section titles, with brief description:
Chapter 1 A Brief History of the World (of Lighting) — photographic lighting trends from the 1930s to 2000s.
Chapter 2 The Lingo of Lighting — all of the basic lighting styles, such as single-point, 2-point, 3-point, Rembrandt, butterfly, and others; also. some common lighting terminology.
Chapter 3 Essential Lighting Skills — essential rules regarding metering, quality, quantity, ratios, and color of light.
Chapter 4 An Overview of Essential Lighting Tools — overall basics of flash, continuous lighting equipment, diffusing tools, trigger tools, and more.
Chapter 5 Build Your Lighting Kit — details given for a DIY kit, a basic purchased kit, a “I can light almost anything” kit, and a studio kit.
Chapter 6 Post-Processing: Making Your Images Really Sing — the ever necessary post-processing chapter using Aperture, Lightroom, or Photoshop.
The Notebook — this section represents the majority of the book. It contains 101 different lighting scenarios presented across two pages. Each one provides a description of the setup, multiple photos of the shoot with usually one photo showing the photographer’s location, a lighting diagram, exposure information, and list of tools used. In addition to all of this, every lighting “recipe” provides general equipment cost (indicated by one to four dollar signs), the number of recommended assistants, and type of lighting used (natural, artificial, or mixed).
Pros
This book has a lot of positives going for it. Here are some of the things I liked:
- a concise introduction to lighting theory
- 101 examples of how to apply that theory
- a detailed index to lighting “recipes” for almost any situation
- the photographer’s position shown in diagram and photo
- a great variety of lighting scenarios provided
- consistent layout across all examples
- a very easy read, sprinkled with Kevin’s style of humor
Cons
The book’s only negative I can see is its heavy reliance on Kevin’s Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom actions. You can purchase his toolkit, but I’d rather have seen the post-processing done without their use. It tends to make the book look too much like a commercial for his products. Books, in my opinion, should be fairly self-contained when it comes to teaching concepts, and this one misses that mark. It’s still a good book, and no doubt you’ll get some great ideas, but just go into it with this understanding.
Conclusions
If you’re looking for a lighting idea book brimming with examples and how-to information, then this may be the book for you. It’s fun mixed with education, and that’s always a great combination.
If you like to learn by example, I can’t think of a better book on artificial lighting than this one. Just be aware that there’s a potential shortcoming of learning by example. The examples will invariably be in the photographer’s style, and the examples in this book are no different. Kevin Kubota has a unique, some may say trendy, lighting style, not that that’s bad. It just may not be the style that fits you. His approach is balanced somewhat by having other photographers contribute their lighting recipes; however, their lighting styles do not differ significantly from Kevin’s. It’s probably best to consider this book more of an idea and inspiration book than a general lighting book.
Check out the excerpt or preview below for more information and see if this book might interest you.
Preview
Click here to see an excerpt from the book or view the following video to hear Kevin tell why he decided to write Lighting Notebook.
Book Details
| Title: Lighting Notebook: 101 Lighting Styles and Setups for Digital Photographers |
| Publisher: Wiley |
| Authors: Kevin Kubota |
| ISBN-13: 978-1118035108 |
| Length: 320 pages |
| Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches |
| Publication Date: 2011-09-20; 1 edition |
| Format: Paperback |
Full Disclosure: I received this book as a review copy from the publisher. This never influences my opinion or review of a book.
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