Best books on lighting and lighting setups?

ecking

ecking

Veteran
Hey can anyone recommend the best books out there on lighting and lighting setups? I want to learn more, as much as possible before I start on my feature this summer. I may not be DP but I still think it's important to learn.
 
One other thing on this subject;

One book won't do it for you. I think I had to read about 5 or so before my own opinion was set.

It's kind of like cooking. There are tons of ways to make a good pie and there are tons of bakers to do it. All good, all different, but all have gone the distance for taste.
 
Set Lighting Technician's Handbook is really good also - lots of info on lighting instruments and electrical.
 
Matthew B. Moore said:
Hell Yes! I keep a copy of that in my grip bag.
Click to expand...

Yes, but as memory serves, it has very little information on the asthetic aspect. It's great for figuring out what the tool are & what they do, though.

David Kuznicki
Production Manager, WGTE-TV30
 
david_kuznicki said:
Yes, but as memory serves, it has very little information on the asthetic aspect. It's great for figuring out what the tool are & what they do, though.

David Kuznicki
Production Manager, WGTE-TV30
Click to expand...

Yeah, but you can't light the thing with out proper knowledge of equipment, wattage, lights and how the lights perform. IMHO you shouldn't even attempt to light anything with theory with out first visiting and then knowing the basic building blocks.

You don't make a brick building with out first knowing how to mix the morter.

Theory is fluid. The tech is always absolute.
 
I just got Painting With Light by John Alton. It came highly recommended and I like it so far. It's a little outdated, but you'd be surprised how current most of the techniques still are.
-Ryan
 
All good suggestions.

I would also get a few books on studio lighting for still photography. The tools may be a bit different but the applications are the same. If you can light a scene well and take one compelling photo of it, it's not much of a leap to take an additional 23 photos a second.

When looking at books on studio lighting make sure you check out books that focus on still life or product photography as opposed to just portraiture, although both are good.

Best,

Matt
 
I actually have a lot of books on lighting and most are ok, but I'm such a visual person that other than the pictures of the actual lights and the related grip gear, I don't get as much out of them as I do from training DVDs like this simple one from dvcreators:

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/dvcreators/dvendvd.html

...it's excellent if you're just starting out as it covers all the basics: hard light, soft light, key, fill, back, and background (3 and 4 point lighting), color correcting mixed light, controlling/shaping, daylight exteriors, bouncing, cutting, cucaloris/cookies, etc:


Of the books I do have these are my favorites in order:

Placing Shadows

Lighting for Film and Digital Cinematography

Film Lighting (Malkiewicz)

Matters of Light & Depth

The Five C's of Cinematography (I'm sure some people are surprised that this is last on my list, but it's because the best part of this book covers topics like Cutting, Continuity, Coverage, which I learned much better from the [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]HOLLYWOOD CAMERA WORK DVDs *needless to say the book is a LOT less expensive than the DVDs, but the DVDs are an entire universe of information.[/FONT]
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top