One of the most challenging and fun aspects of photography is lighting. It doesn't matter if your using natural light, artificial light, a combination of both or some other form of lighting getting the lighting right can make or break an image and unfortunately correcting poor lighting after the image is taken is often times not possible. Sure you can tweak the lighting, but if it is totally wrong you can't fix that. You have to fix the lighting and then reshoot the picture. Because this is not always possible especially when using all natural lighting it is best to know what you want, what you need to do to get it and to get the lighting right when you take the picture right from the start.

To help you do that there are several books on the subject but none of them seem to have the depth and coverage that Light Science & Magic; An Introduction to Photographic Lighting by Fil Hunter, Steven Biver and Paul Fuqua from Focal Press has.

This full color book is loaded with illustrations and sample photos so that can not only read about how lighting works, why it works, how to set it up and how to make the best of the lighting you can see it too. Light Science & Magic is easy to read, easy to understand and turns a complex and sometimes confusing subject in to something that anyone can use and understand.

Chapters:

Chapter 1: How to Learn Lighting
Chapter 2: Light: The Raw Material of Photography
Chapter 3: The Management of Reflection and the Family of Angles
Chapter 4: Surface Appearances
Chapter 5: Reveal Shape and Contour
Chapter 6: Metal
Chapter 7: The Case of the Disappearing Glass
Chapter 8: An Arsenal of Lights
Chapter 9: The Extremes
Chapter 10: Travel Light

There are a couple of chapters in this book that I found to be extremely interesting and would have made fine books on their own. The chapters of how to light and photograph metal subjects like old cars with chrome bumpers as well as the chapters on glass and shape and contour. All three of these chapters show you a lot of creative possibilities as well as how to avoid common problems, problems that an amateur may have but may not fully understand why they are getting the results they are and how to fix them.

This is an excellent book and one that everyone with a camera should have. From basic common sense lighting information to complex and advanced lighting it is all covered and done in a way everyone can understand and appreciate. There is more to taking pictures besides having a camera and pressing the shutter release button. Proper lighting and creative lighting can take a so-so picture and make it a work of art. This book will help you get the art.