I really enjoyed this ebook, Making Light by Piet Van Den Eynde. It feels to me like just the right ebook for me at the moment and I have torn through it eagerly in both anticipation of writing this review as well as wanting to apply what Piet has to say.
You see, I’m on a “no new gear!” kick these days as I really want to learn the craft of photography better and I’ve been finding that buying new gear has not been effective in satisfying this curiosity. Along these lines I recently thought to myself, “I really need to understand light better, both cognitively and intuitively.” And learning to use off camera flash is a great way to do that. After all, I’ll be fully responsible for the quantity, quality, and direction of the light so any mess-ups will be mine. Rectifying those mess-ups will teach me gobs and gobs about light.
And along comes this book.
Now let me get this straight. This is a gear-heavy book. After all, when we begin talking about taking the flash off the camera we begin talking gear: flash/strobe unit, trigger systems, modifyers, etc. Thankfully, I’ve got most of that stuff or can figure out how to use a bedsheet or translucent curtain to begin to modify things. But despite the emphasis on gear, Piet explains how to go about obtaining and working with a basic lighting setup. In fact, he even shows how he got his whole camera rig and lighting setup onto a bicycle(!) for a trip through Asia, and then shares some beautiful portraits taken on that trip.
That got me humble. That got me enthused and curious!
This book is packed with the information and examples you might need to begin making fantastic photographs using off camera flash. Piet is clearly a master teacher and is clearly creating the foundation with which readers can move forth and use off camera lighting to enhance the photographic craft. I’ve been to classes on this stuff, I’ve taken the Flashbus workshop when it roared through town last year, I’ve practiced and failed and practiced and failed. But now I have a resource that makes sense to me and I will revisit over and over.
Do you get the idea that I really liked this book? I did. Have at it! Don’t restrict yourself to being only an “available light” photographer simply because you don’t yet grasp using a flash well (like me!) Increase your craft and repertoire and join me, won’t you?
For the first five days only, if you use the promotional code LIGHT4 when you checkout, you can have the PDF version of Making Light for only $4 OR use the code LIGHT20 to get 20% off when you buy 5 or more PDF ebooks from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm PST August 21st, 2011.