Photography Thailand Forum

[Marc Schultz]

Someone just bought me a copy of "Light & Lighting in Digital Photography" by Michael Freeman as a gift. These days I don't read much in the way of photography books anymore, but I started to flip through it and I was impressed how he really delves into lighting in terms of how to use it rather than many lighting books that tell you how a particular shot was done or what types of light is good for what. The book basically approaches light from two directions. One is about how to create light that will make or break the shot. The other is how digital photographers must understand how to manipulate light digitally, what options are available by making the best use of the sensor's capabilities, and all the way into post production techniques to manipulate light in a photo. Things like HDRI for example, which I have been applying manually for a long time already even before Photoshop and other programs came up with ways to do it.

Anyway, I know a number of people are interested to learn about lighting and this book I believe will really give you a great comprehensive lead into it.

Seems it can be purchased in Bangkok at Asia Book and Kinokuniya for about 1,300 Baht.

[anna]

Thanks, Marc.  I just checked Amazon.com and there are two with very similar titles by the same author, Michael Freeman. 

   a. The Complete Guide to Light & Lighting in Digital Photography  $19.77

   b. Light & Lighting (Digital Photography Expert.)  $37.10

I take it the first one is what you have, right?  I just want to make sure I picked the right one.   

Thanks, Anna

[agitlits]

Hi Marc,

Thanks for recommendation. Is Asian Book near Parinayok Rd? I will be in BKK shortly and might buy it there. Where is Kinokuniya shop?

Thanks

Alex

[agitlits]

Marc, I found the book on Asia Book site, so no worries. It's in Central store. I think the name is as Anna said.

Thanks

Alex

[Marc Schultz]

The one for $19.97 on Amazon that Anna pointed out is the right one. The 10 digit ISBN number is 1579908853

If you go to Paragon shopping center it has the biggest Kinokuniya and Asia book store branches in Thailand.

[agitlits]

Thanks Marc.

Alex

[Marc Schultz]

Your welcome. I started reading it a bit more last night. Definitely very comprehensive and to the point as well as fairly easy to understand. There is a very good overview of how light works with digital and film and the differences. All very interesting.

There is an interesting comment about how people's memories of how images on film should look are starting to fade from collective memory, meaning people are becoming more accustomed to looking at pixels and the higher quality output of digital cameras. The comment is very true, but it made me think that, not only that, but all the things people were willing to accept at a commercial level 5 years ago in terms what film produced are hardly acceptable today. Nowadays people don't really want to see grain anymore, which does not exist in digital. There is noise which at times can appear like grain, but it is something we try to avoid at all costs. People also expect perfect images now with any minor issues within the scene or subject to be retouched out. Before, people accepted what the film had captured because that was all you get. They also expect everything to be perfectly color balanced and controlled with no color casts and exposures to be evenly balanced yet with good contrast throughout. They are not asking for much, are they? 

[Gary Dublanko]

You're right Marc, but they also know how much easier it is with digital to achieve all those things which in the darkroom took a lot more effort. White balance, contrast, noise reduction, etc. can now all be achieved with a few clicks in less than 5 minutes. I suppose if I was the buyer, I would be just as demeanding.

[Marc Schultz]

Unfortunately, it is not all that simple. Basic global adjustments (global meaning adjustments that effect the entire image) to color balance, saturation, contrast, and levels can be done in 10-15 minutes as you said, but when you are needing to apply adjustments to only certain areas of a photo then you are talking about masking out the areas to isolate just those areas you want to effect. This part can take a lot more time.

In addition, retouching out unwanted objects in the foreground or background can take a fair amount of time as well if you want the retouching work to look good.

And then you if you want a well balanced exposure where you have varying degrees of light with more than 2 stops difference within various parts of the image it could involve layering and masking multiple exposures or even just the one RAW file developed at various exposure levels to balance the areas with vastly different levels of light. Either way, that will involve more masking and layer blending.

Given the above, I could easily see spending 2-3 hours on an image and I do so on a regular basis. So unfortunately it is not as simple as 1,2,3. I really wish it was so I could spend more time taking pictures and less time in post production.

The point I was really making though is that how quickly people have forgotten what they were willing to accept a few years ago before the technology reached the level it has today.

So not only have they forgotten what film was like, but they also forgot how much less the quality of images were in general that they got from film not too long ago.

[Gary Dublanko]

Yes, you're right Marc. A lot depends on your market, your proficiency in Photoshop and your tolerance for spending hours on a single  image. Having seen some of your excellent work in exhibitions, it would be great to know how much work went into the post processing  :).

[agitlits]

The one for $19.97 on Amazon that Anna pointed out is the right one. The 10 digit ISBN number is 1579908853

If you go to Paragon shopping center it has the biggest Kinokuniya and Asia book store branches in Thailand.

Thanks for the recommendations, Marc. I got the book from Paragon.

Cheers
Alex