Light and Lighting: From Snapshots to Great Shots

Syl Arena, author of the bestselling Speedliter's Handbook: Learning to Craft Light with Canon Speedlites, brings his teaching skill, great writing style, and instructive, beautiful images to this popular Peachpit Press photography series. Aimed at beginners, Light and Lighting: From Snapshots to Great Shots, begins with a primer on light itself–how to see its direction, intensity, color, contrast, and shadow line–and quickly moves on to discussions of shooting both indoors and outdoors in the many different conditions of natural or man-made light (e.g., sunny, cloudy, fluorescent, and incandescent light).

Then the book digs in to begin creating light with flash. Arena covers numerous kinds of lights–from small flash (both Canon and Nikon) to big flash, from continuous lights to the much-maligned pop-up flash on top of the camera. He also covers the basics (and beyond) of light modifiers: umbrellas, softboxes, flags, and gels. With recipes and tips on how to shoot products shots for selling online, food, glass and metal, flowers, headshots, group shots, action and sports, birthday parties and other events, Light and Lighting: From Snapshots to Great Shots gives readers all they need to know to get started on the journey of learning, creating, and controlling light in order to make great images.