Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11474 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781584282303
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review

About the Author

Customer Reviews

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.

Minimalist Information
A better name for this book might have been "integrating new flash systems". The main thrust of the book is how to use multi-light flash systems like Nikon's CLS (and Canon's comparable system, the author says) to replace the heavier studio lighting equipment that some photographers take on location shoots.

After brief discussions of the history of artificial photographic lights, and the nature of light, the author begins an explanation of four systems for triggering multiple speedlights: radio slave; built in wireless systems; optical slaves; and off-camera cords. He then describes a number of pieces of equipment useful to setting up multi-flash systems, including speedlights, triggers; light stands, adapters, and gels for altering white balance. He illustrates how to use this equipment, including umbrellas, reflectors and softboxes to take portraits. He finishes up with a series of examples, showing how and why he placed and controlled his lights.

All of this information is useful, and occasionally I learned a few tricks (for the Nikon CLS system, using the SU 800 rather than an SB 800 avoids the pre-flashes that occasionally make people squint). But more often then not, I wanted more information. Some of it I found elsewhere (what do you call that thing that holds a reflector on a light stand?-a reflector holder- duh!) But other unanswered questions were more difficult. What mode should one shoot in for best results? Why did the author use manual flash adjustments rather then TTL (through-the-lens)? How did he decide which flashes to put on which channels?

Another problem I found was that all of the pictures were portraits, and all of the portraits had the same look. I suppose for a professional whose job is to deliver a certain standard look for a report or magazine, this is fine, but suppose you are looking for something more artsy. An answer might be that it's up to the individual photographer to experiment, once he gets an understanding of the system, but I had hoped for more.

The author is right that modern flash systems offer photographers incredible opportunities and convenience that they never had before. Right now there seems to be a dearth of materials on how to get the most from these systems. The author added a little to the knowledge base, but there is room for a lot more information.

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.