Personally, I'm a digital photographer and videographer that has been perplexed by the whole lighting thing for years. I'm no pro if you're wondering. This is the third book that I've bought about lighting and the prior two books really didn't teach me anything at all (see my very bad review of the Lighting Cookbook). The authors of the other books are just spoon feeding you tips and diagrams without explaining the logic behind them. It's as if they don't want you to learn anything. Well, John Jackman doesn't just give you a fish, he teaches you to fish and once you finish this book you'll have enough knowledge of lighting to do just about anything and actually understand what you're doing and why.

I received this book in the mail about four days ago and already finished. I just couldn't stop reading it. Once I read the first few pages, I knew that I had bought the right book and I felt like I was actually learning something the whole time.

I'm a digital photographer and if you shoot digital with a prosumer camera, you should know that you can't use the same equipment that they use at your local studio. It's just not very compatible. So, I have to use continuous lighting like they do for video and film making. It has many advantages and is every bit as good. I do video too, so the lighting equipment can be used for both. Anyway, I've got this huge lighting catalog from B&H photo and it's got pretty much any kind of light and accessory that you could want. The only problem is that it doesn't explain what they are and how to use it. This book explains all of this and that's actually why I bought it in the first place. If it wasn't for the "look inside" feature here at amazon.com, I wouldn't have been able to tell what the book covered. So, after seeing the table of contents I bought it. Now when I flip through the catalog, I know what I'm looking at and what it does. Instead of just blindly buying something, I know exactly what I need for my purposes.

Unlike other books that claim to give you low to no budget solutions, this book actually has quite a few. Although much of the equipment mentioned is very expensive. Another one of my favorite things about this book is the glossary with plain language that's easy to read. Almost every term that I didn't know could be found in the back with a simple explanation.

My only complaint and it's really a non-complaint is the excruciatingly boring detail the author would go into when explaining the way our eyes work and some other things. I know that it is relevant and useful information and he means well, but I almost fell asleep through that part. The studio lighting chapter is pretty boring too unless you're going to be a gaffer for CNN. It shouldn't be skipped, but maybe skimmed through.

All in all, I knew this book would be good, but it exceeded my expectations. When they say "expert series" they mean it because this guy knows it all and doesn't mind making an expert out of you either. The great thing about this book is that it assumes that you don't really know anything like a "for dummies" book, but it's not insulting to your intelligence. The author doesn't try to keep you interested by telling stupid jokes or using childish examples. He isn't so full of himself that the book is about him or his work. The book is about lighting and he takes you from the very basics to the advanced Hollywood style lighting.

I'm sorry if this review was annoyingly over-positive, but I'm just very happy with it and I highly recommend it. I also recommend getting a lighting catelog from B&H Photo or some other place so you can see photos of all the lights and tools that are mentioned.

69 of 71 found the following review helpful:


Great Book!  Aug 23, 2002 By S. S. Fleet
Hey all,

I'm a long time worker in multimedia and the performing arts (with a theatrical education). I did a lot of theatrical lighting as slave labor back in college, but beyond that, most of my experience in film and video was from the acting side.

So before shooting my next short, I decided I needed a primer in film lighting. I bought Mr. Jackman's book about a week and a half ago and, well, for geeks like me, it was a real page turner.

Aside from the fact that I needed to covert all of my theater vocab (cables) to film vocab (stingers) I also found the perspective on DV film making to be dead on in this book.

This book starts out outlining the technical aspects of electrics and lighting. While not the most exciting for a lot of people (although I got excited and immediatly tested all of my wall sockets with my old fluke multimeter) these sections read quick and are a necessary setup for the rest of the book. After the technical aspects are discussed, the book goes in a direction which I genually appreciate.

Instead of treating DV and Video lighting like bad flat TV lighting, Mr. Jackman really goes out of his way to help all of us little guys with PD-150s and the like to light our DV dynamically and artistically. Often the book shows more thrifty workarounds for expensive concepts.

While this book isn't going to contain much new information for the experienced gaffer. It will definetly help any novice, new-comer, or, like me, semi-knowledged person increase their skills in the art of lighting.

Hopefully more people will read this book and less badly lit short films will infest the world. Then we can give all those die hard film guys a run for their money. To paraphase the book: The camera and medium are just tools, they don't think, we do.

...

16 of 16 found the following review helpful:


Truly Useful From Novice to Advanced  Oct 14, 2004 By John Matlock "Gunny"
I first became aware of what effect lighting has when I watched a critical review of Casablanca. While the movie was running, at this point the reviewer would point out how lighting accented Ingrid Bergman's cheeks. At that point he would point out how lighting drew your attention to Bergmand and Bogart while dark shadows in the background filled in the image but down played its importance.

Over time I began to learn more about lighting as I tried different things (generally photographing industrial equipment). I learned, slowly, that you put a light here to do this, and one over there to do that. I bought a few books on the subject, but I never tied it together.

Now here in one volume is the whole story. From types of lights, to where shadows should fall on a models face, from patterns in the room background to doing highlights where and how you want them. The back cover of the book says it's User Level is from Novice to Advanced. That's right. I think everyone will get something useful out of this book.

7 of 8 found the following review helpful:


EN-LIGHTNING  Dec 14, 2002 By Panagiotis Grigoreas
In the 1st Chapter of his book the author invites us to join him along for the journey in the lighting world of television and video with a promise that by the end of this journey i.e. of the book, we will be able to understand and create with the lights in our own digital frames.
I finished the book, it realy was a journey and Mr. Jackman kept his promise.
Thank you Mr.Jackman

7 of 8 found the following review helpful:


A Great Book! Get a Better Picture!  Aug 23, 2002 By S. S. Fleet
Hey all,

I'm a long time worker in multimedia and the performing arts (with a theatrical education). I did a lot of theatrical lighting as slave labor back in college, but beyond that, most of my experience in film and video was from the acting side.

So before shooting my next short, I decided I needed a primer in film lighting. I bought Mr. Jackman's book about a week and a half ago and, well, for geeks like me, it was a real page turner.

Aside from the fact that I needed to covert all of my theater vocab (cables) to film vocab (stingers) I also found the perspective on DV film making to be dead on in this book.

This book starts out outlining the technical aspects of electrics and lighting. While not the most exciting for a lot of people (although I got excited and immediatly tested all of my wall sockets with my old fluke multimeter) these sections read quick and are a necessary setup for the rest of the book. After the technical aspects are discussed, the book goes in a direction which I genually appreciate.

Instead of treating DV and Video lighting like bad flat TV lighting, Mr. Jackman really goes out of his way to help all of us little guys with PD-150s and the like to light our DV dynamically and artistically. Often the book shows more thrifty workarounds for expensive concepts.

While this book isn't going to contain much new information for the experienced gaffer. It will definetly help any novice, new-comer, or, like me, semi-knowledged person increase their skills in the art of lighting.

Hopefully more people will read this book and less badly lit short films will infest the world. Then we can give all those die hard film guys a run for their money. To paraphase the book: The camera and medium are just tools, they don't think, we do.

Finally, just to ram my point home: the book answered at least 8 of the top ten questions in the dv.com forum in great detail. It has links and addresses to all of the big lighting manufacturers as well as a pretty cool glossary in the back.

See all 21 customer reviews on Amazon.com