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Light: Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting 3rd Edition

by Fil Hunter (Author), Steven Biver (Author), Paul Fuqua (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 256 ratings
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Light ― Science & Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting
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An amazing (and some would say magical) resource on photographic lighting that has been talked about in the community and recommended for years. This highly respected guide has been thoroughly updated and revised for content and design - it is now produced in full color! It introduces a logical theory of photographic lighting so if you are starting out in photography you will learn how to predict results before setting up lights. This is not primarily a how-to book with only set examples for you to copy. Rather, Light: Science and Magic provides you with a comprehensive theory of the nature and principles of light to allow you to use lighting to express your own creativity.

Numerous photographs and illustrations provide clear examples of the theories, while sidebars highlight special lighting questions. Expanded chapters on available light in portraiture, as well as new information on digital equipment and terminology make this a must have update!
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  1. ISBN-10
    0240808193
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0240808192
  3. Edition
    3rd
  4. Publisher
    Focal Press
  5. Publication date
    March 21, 2007
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    7.5 x 0.5 x 9.75 inches
  8. Print length
    320 pages
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Steven Biver, Virginia, USA, Commercial photographer, former clients include Adobe, Mobil, Newsweek, Black and Decker
Paul Fuqua, Virginia, USA, started his own audiovisual production company in 1970. Dedicated to teaching through visuals, he has written and produced educational and training material in a variety of fields, including law, science, and nature. His photography takes him all over the world, but he makes his home in Arlington, VA.
Fil Hunter is a highly respected commercial photographer specializing in still life and special effects photographs for advertising and editorial illustration. During a career spanning over three decades, he has worked for such clients as America Online, US News, Time-Life Books, Life Magazine (27 covers), the National Science Foundation, and National Geographic. He has taught photography at the university level and has served as technical consultant on a number of photographic publications. Mr. Hunter has won the Virginia Professional Photographer's Grand Photographic Award three times. He lives in Alexandria, VA.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Focal Press; 3rd edition (March 21, 2007)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0240808193
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0240808192
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.8 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.5 x 0.5 x 9.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 256 ratings

About the authors

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  1. Fil Hunter

    Fil Hunter

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    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Fil Hunter received a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a double major in Psychology and Religion (Religion being a social science at a U.S. state-supported university). However, his chief interest was photography, which occupied most of his time during his four years at the school.

    Although Hunter had grown up in a photography tradition (his grandfather invented multi-lens printing and his father made his own camera to photograph his experiences as a U.S. Marine in WWII), his most influential mentor was Ross Scroggs, Sr., Director of Photography at UNC-CH.

    Although Scroggs was an acclaimed photographic technology teacher and also handled lighting brilliantly, lighting was the only area he had difficulty teaching. Since Scroggs had taught everything else, Hunter set out to fill that gap. The book Light – Science and Magic, written with Paul Fuqua and Stephen Biver, is the result.

    Hunter has also been the lead writer of The McGraw-Hill Photography Course and Illusion: The Art and Science of Photographic Special Effects.

    He is married to Robin Reid, a portrait specialist who has done the official portraits of several high-ranking U.S. officials. He and Robin are now working together on a new book with an expected publication date of mid-2011.

    See more on the author's page
  2. Paul Fuqua

    Paul Fuqua

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    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    My parents gave me my first camera when I was ten years old. That’s when I started taking pictures, and I haven’t stopped. During the 1960’s I worked as a police officer in the Washington, D.C.. That’s when I started street shooting -- and I still haven’t stopped.

    In the early 70s I opened a video production company. While producing shows I had the opportunity to travel to many parts of the world, and happily, to shoot street portraits while I was there. Several years ago I retired from the wonderful world of production, but not from street shooting – not from that endlessly fascinating business of recording the folks I find along the streets I walk.

    At this point in my life my fervent hope is that before they finally nail my coffin shut somebody tosses in a camera. Never can tell what pictures I may get wherever I’m destined to end up.

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  3. Steven Biver

    Steven Biver

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    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    I’m a photographer, multimedia artist and author. For the last twenty year I’ve worked for such clients as Johnson and Johnson, IBM, Dupont and Newsweek. While I always enjoy connecting with my subjects when I’m making their portraits, I’m equally fired up while creating a still life, photo illustration or video.

    In 2006 I co-authored the third edition of Light--Science and Magic and recently co-authored Faces--Photography and The Art of Portraiture. Both books were published by Focal Press. To see more of my work, please visit biverstudio.com.

    See more on the author's page
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Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
256 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Timothy Millea
5.0 out of 5 stars A book about learning and understanding light
Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2009
Verified Purchase
If you want to drastically improve your photography then I highly recommend studying light and how it interacts with your subject. Armed with this knowledge you will know how to better light your subject in a given situation and get the best image possible under the circumstances.

Light - Science & Magic will teach you how light interacts with matter and how you can modify the light to produce better images. It is on it's third edition now, and not that light has changed since creation, the book has been updated to include new technology and just as important an updated modern look.

Comprised of 10 chapters, Light - Science & Magic cover such topics as how to learn lighting, light: the raw material in photography, managing reflections and the family of angles, surfaces, shape and contour, metal, glass, portraiture, digital cameras, white on white and black on black, portable lighting and much more.

Rather than teach lighting styles, this book teaches how the light interacts with the subject matter and lets you decide (based on what equipment you have) how and what light to modify to create the result you want. The book's examples are mostly still life examples shot with hot lights or strobes. If you shoot mostly available light outdoors, don't let this sway you from considering this book. Outdoor sunlight behaves in exactly the same way, it's just easier to control in a studio environment for the book examples. There are light modifiers, natural or man made, that you can use to control the light outdoors. Once you learn the light you can then use your own creativity to modify it to create your own style indoors or out.

Light - Science & Magic is well written with clear example photographs and technical diagrams. If you have an understanding of the basic photographic terms then you will have no problem learning from this book. It teaches you using layman's terms and introduces lighting language as it progresses. By the time you are done reading the book you will know what a gobo and a grid are and what direct and diffuse mean. What's more important is even if you know what those terms are now, you will be able to manipulate them to improve your photographs. I highly recommend you experiment with the examples in the book. A couple of table lamps and a few colored backgrounds are all you need to get started. You do not need a full blown studio with high powered gear. Light is light and is very scalable.

So get the book, it's money well spent and you will, bad pun intended, walk away looking at light in a different light.
3 people found this helpful
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Bulent Celasun
5.0 out of 5 stars The most enjoyable technical book I've read!
Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2009
Verified Purchase
It must be difficult to write a book on a technical subject for a heterogeneous population of readers. One can easily become boring and/or the reader can easily loose him or herself. Filling the book with valuable information does not help. The author(s) should also guarantee that the reader can get the pills. Perhaps, making the content light and easily digestable can be considered another solution. This, however will lessen the appeal of the book, to say the least, as such information will most likely be available free!

The authors of this beautiful book (from concept, to writing to production) did a most astonishing job and made an easily readable book full of valuable information. The book reads as if it was written by a single author (a sign of good editorial work). The writing style is lucid & enthusiastic without being overly technical. The reader is never lost. The narrative is based on carefully chosen examples or problem situations. There are many repetitions but the reader feels happy to encounter a repetition as that helps to prove his/her progress! The figures are perfectly simple and exactly to the point (except, perhaps Fig.8.14, which does not seem right to me). The style can be summarized as "friendly advice"; the authors explicitly deny authority (if you believe them after reading the book!); they only claim experience.

I have learned A LOT reading this book. I've read it (contrary to the authors' advice) from cover to cover almost as a thriller. I will keep it and consult it whenever I need to. This book will worth the price you pay for it even if you end up learning only the concept of "family of angles" by reading it. Simply great work.

I do have to suggestions, however, for improvement: 1- The section on flash (strobe) photography can be given some more space (as this is probably the most widespread method of lighting for most readers). 2- The book cover should be replaced by a good one. I even think that a cover with text on blank space is better than the present one; the cover just does disservice to the book as it hides the beauty of the work presented. Do not let the cover to push you!

I finish by repeating the last sentence of the book to show you what the authors say after giving you tens of perfect examples and as many sound advice: "Help yourself".
3 people found this helpful
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Josh Levinson
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book to teach you all about lighting as it ...
Reviewed in Canada on September 26, 2016
Verified Purchase
Excellent book to teach you all about lighting as it relates to photography. It starts with the basics, and eventually gets into quite advanced territory. I would highly recommend this for any photographer, even those not into flash or portrait photography - even nature photographers, street photographers, etc. can learn a huge amount about lighting principles from this book.
2 people found this helpful
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brainleek007
5.0 out of 5 stars Gives you technical information with no fuss
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 27, 2011
Verified Purchase
This is a really good guide on how to manipulate lighting for photographers.

It covers items that are tricky to light such as glass and highly reflective objects but it goes into the technical side of things enough so that you feel, going forward, you've learnt enough to tackle pretty much any problem you may come across lighting wise. It has really helped me get to grips with certain lighting scenarios and begin to understand what's actually going on thus enabling me to create the effect I had envisioned.

At the heart of it all is a set of fairly simple principles which the book does a good job of expressing with clarity and without over complicating matters. Things like the family of angles, the inverse square law, how polarised light can be used to your advantage plus other ideas are well covered. In isolation any one of these principles is pretty easy to deal with but the book also pushes on and gives examples of how these principles interact and thus gives good insights into coming up with a technically sound lighting solution for a complex scene.

Everything is covered from small product photography, metal, glass, people (portraits) to still life.

The examples in the book are workman-like and are not focused on wowing us with creative genius but what they do do very well is illustrate the principles and give the reader / photographer a great tool box to draw upon when attempting to light scenes. The writing itself is very accessible and would suit anyone from a pretty much rank beginner level to advanced amateurs to less experienced pro photogrpahers - it is an 'introductory' book after all but it's pitched exactly right.
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Squire Man
5.0 out of 5 stars excellent !
Reviewed in France on June 21, 2010
Verified Purchase
Superbe ouvrage,

les bases de l'éclairage photographique dévoilés dans ce livre, très instructif.

C'est plutôt assez théorique mais les exemples sont très convaincants.
J'aurais aimé cependant que l'auteur donne plus d'exemples pratiques comment disposer les gobos.

ouvrage chaudement recommandé !!
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Christoph Jäger
5.0 out of 5 stars Alles was man wissen muss !!!
Reviewed in Germany on October 22, 2007
Verified Purchase
Dieses Lehrbuch ist seit vielen Jahren erhältlich und wurde jetzt für die dritte Augabe nochmals überarbeitet und an die aktuellen Entwicklungen angepasst. Zudem wird es jetzt endlich auf hochwertigem Papier und in Farbe gedruckt.
Das geniale an Light, Science & Magic ist, dass es dem Leser keine fertigen Lösungsvorschläge für vorgegebene Lichtsituationen bietet, sondern dass es das notwendige Hintergrundwissen vermittelt, so dass man nach Lektüre des Buchs jede erdenkliche Situation mit Hilfe des erworbenen Wissens selbst meistern kann.
Diese Lehrmethode ist auf jeden Fall dem viel zu häufig vorhandenen ich-zeige-euch-was-ihr-machen-sollt-sage-euch-aber-nicht-warum-Ansatz vieler ander Lehrbücher vorzuziehen.
Light Science & Magic erkärt, was Licht überhaupt ist, wie es sich verhält und wie es durch verschiedene Einflussfaktoren (Materialoberfläche, Größe der Lichtquelle, Entfernung vom Objekt, usw.) verändert wird und wie dies wiederum durch den Fotografen genutzt/beeinflusst werden kann.
Es werden Prinzipien vermittelt, die sich auf alle Lichtsituationen anwenden lassen. Der Leser wird dazu angeregt, anhand der vermittelten Prinzipien selbst kreativ mit dem Licht umzugehen.

Leider ist keine deutsche Übersetzung vorhanden. Gute Englischkenntnisse sollten also vorhanden sein.

Meiner Meinung nach schlicht und ergreifend das beste Buch über die fotografische Beleuchtung, egal ob mit Kunst- oder natürlichem Licht.
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Kim L
5.0 out of 5 stars just brilliant
Reviewed in Canada on September 7, 2013
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Teaches you so many things. How to shoot and light almost any kind of product. How to shoot white on white and black on black. Tone of drawings and sample photos, and it covers the science of lighting as thoroughly as I have ever read. If you like to shoot static objects -- and especially products -- this book is a must own. Accept no substitutes.
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