Lighting Essentials: Lighting for Texture, Contrast, and Dimension in Digital Photography

This is a good book for photographers who want to take a more methodical approach to lighting. Building upon the earlier book about subject centric lighting, it's a detailed discussion on how to lighting interacts with different subjects, leading to intentional artistic choices and image design. Each aspect of light/subject interaction is explored with discussion and example images, in some cases different variations on the same subject. The area of subjects is fairly broad, from people, to food, to still life, and environmental - showing that when one understands the theory, it works in all those areas. The book does not really go into specific lighting equipment or modifiers, but really focuses on the core parameters of light and its qualities.The book is a good refresher for experienced photographers - who may know most of this inherently, but may not have put it into a framework. It's definitely a good read for advanced amateurs interested in taking their lighting to the next level and beyond following a set formula. But it assumes a solid knowledge and experience with studio lighting equipment, and there is no discussion on how to use the lighting gear, just what the results will be (a good thing).I'm glad to see this book published. It's refreshing to see books that cover the theory in an approachable way, and as a quality read.My only gripe would be that the layout of the book is awkward at times. Because of the topic, some of the image captions are lengthy, and that disrupts the page flow.

This book gives good insight into the nature of light as it relates to photography. it is not a "how to" guide, he doesn't say "place model here, place flash here, place diffuser here" He is teaching us how to "see" the light and how to manipulate it to get the desired outcome. For those reading this review and don't know who Don Giannatti is.....google him...he know what he's talking about!

I stumbled upon Don's Lighting Essential website at the beginning of 2012 and when I saw that he was writing a new book, I was eager for my copy to arrive.There are several good lighting books available but Don's approach is not a regurgitation of the same old approach. He starts with the subject and works back to the camera. In taking this approach, it is not what will happen if I put a light here but rather what of the subject do I want to reflect back to me. This deliberate approach takes you from a haphazard approach and gets you closer to being able to visualize the end product.If you want a book that rounds out what others teach you and gives you plenty of ah hah moments, this is the one.

Don Giannatti's Lighting Essentials series should be required reading for anyone interested in photography.

It tells a lot of details and thank you..

These are excellent books for any photographer and also very special to me, because my beautiful grand daughter Briana (BRI) is in them. Love your work Don and appreciate you using and training our beautiful grand daughter.

I am through purchasing photography books from Amazon as the feedback and evaluations are confabulations and mistruths.Usually Amazon feedback is very reliable....3 bad photo books.These books are for the beginning learner, if that.It is rated so highly, I was under impression well written, photographed.I guess there must be millions of beginner photographers out there who are just gushing about everything.

After reading this books companion, Lighting Essentials: A Subject-Centric Approach for Digital Photographers, I dove into reading this one in bite size chunks.I've photographed events for over a decade and I need to consistently shoot portraits inside, outside, under florescent light, natural light, tungsten light, candle light. But guess what else? I need to go from portraits of people to capturing shiny black shoes, to brilliantly gleaming diamond rings, to an icy-beverage perspiring next to a glowing candle, to decedent deserts sculpted by artists, to beautiful details and spreads of food for vendors. You name it and I will need to shoot it all in one-12-hour-day.Before reading this book, I would shoot that list without the full understanding how to treat each of those subjects individually with light to achieve the look it deserved. Using this book as a training and resource guide, I practiced my lighting techniques to try and match the examples provided in the book. The more I practiced, the better I got at each lighting technique. The more lighting techniques I achieved, the more I grew in my skills, and the more confidently I moved on to the next step. My photographs now have desirable secular highlights and a consistent tone that my clients expect of me.Don's no-bull-sh*t approach to explaining each technique is perfect for the photographer who is a visual learner and is self motivated to read the material, practice, read some more, practice even more, until the material is absorbed and understood fully at a higher level.Get the book. Read, practice, learn, achieve!

Its an 'OK' book for beginners, but looks quite dated for a new publication. Some of the models have been over photoshoped (skin is like plastic)

Loved this author's videos on CreativeLive and bought both of his books. Couldn't put this down. Very great theory of subject-centric lighting. Also, first time I read about how the subject needs something to reflect, rather than the idea of using a reflector to add light. Loved it!

too basic