Not much meat and potatoes in this chapter. It goes over what this book intends to cover & how they intend to do it. While there isn’t and “gold” in this chapter. If you’re just starting out, it is definitely something you should read.

“The three principals of lighting:”
This is by far the most important section in this chapter. This goes over how light will behave in certain scenarios. There is nothing magic al or mystical about lighting. Light HAS TO follow these three rules. So what are these rules?
1. “The effective size of the light source is the single most important decision in lighting a photograph.” It shows you how hard or soft the light will be and depending on the setup, may affect the way light reflects.
2. Three types of reflection are possible with any surface. “They determine why any surface looks the way it does.”
3. “Some of the reflections will only occur if light strikes the surface from within a limited family of angles.”

All three of these principals will be reviewed in greater detail. Almost every aspect of this book will in some way touch at least one of these rules.

The rest of this chapter goes over some scenario questions that I’ll quote and answer in my own words so you’ll know what I intend to give in this review.

“SO DO I NEED TO DO THESE EXERCISES?”
The book says it depends. I say you should do every exercise in this book unless you have actually done it. Having a good understanding doesn’t count. DO THE EXERCISES! There is a huge difference between comprehension and applied knowledge. I will go over each example and show you how I did each one. I urge you to take these shots yourself. I think you’ll be surprised how many times you’ll think you set up a shot identically to mine and have different results.

“WHAT KIND OF CAMERA GEAR DO I NEED?”
You will always have a reason to own new gear and not be able to take a shot do to some reason. There is no reason you can’t take most of these shots w/ a entry level DSLR or even a point & shoot if you think out your shot. I’ll always be happy to assist in the comments section if you have any problems w/ your existing rig.

“DO I SHOOT FILM OR DIGITAL?”
I will only cover digital in this review. It will provide immediate feedback so you can know if your light setup was set up correctly. I continue to have more and more respect for film shooters that had to KNOW if the shot was properly exposed or lit.

“WHAT LIGHTING EQUIPMENT DO I NEED?”
I recommend at least a simple strobe setup that you can fire off camera including an umbrella. While I won’t say you need to buy anything to take these shots. I will say that you may not be able to take “pro level” shots w/o some gear. Regardless, you can still see the physics of light and how it works w/ a standard desk style lamp and a little bit of creativity. This way when you do get that gear, you’ll know how to use it better than most that have had it for years (at least in regards to lighting) If you have any problems mimicking a light setup. I’ll be happy to post my ideas on how you can rig a light setup w/ your existing gear to see results.

“WHAT ELSE TO I NEED TO KNOW TO USE THIS BOOK?”
The only pre-requisites will be that you have a strong concept of exposure, Depth of Field (DOF) and can essentially operate your camera in the dark. The last one is not required. But it really helps if you understand your gear so you can focus on lighting. After this review is complete, I will be going over Depth of Field, exposure and all kinds of other things. So feel free to study up on your own or read my posts then come back to this. I’ll always make it easy to find content on my blog.

So that being said. We’ll start on the second chapter, “LIGHT: THE RAW MATERIAL OF PHOTOGAPHY” on Wednesday. This chapter is a bit dry and some will choose to skip this completely. I promise that you’ll jump back to this chapter at least once if you do these exercises. After all, this is the foundation for everything your about to learn about lighting.

-Jon

NOTE:
All content and quotes are taken from the book, “Light Science & Magic (third edition) written by Fil Hunter, Steven Biver & Paul Fuqua. I strongly recommend buying this book. These guys literally have summarized countless hours of photography work into this well written book.