A "Light" Read........

In my pursuit to improve my painting with light skills, I decided to purchase the "Painting with Light” book by Eric Curry, who in my opinion is one of the best at this genre of photography.

The book explains and details Lighting and Photoshop techniques for photographers who wish to improve their skills in this area of photography.

Eric included details of the equipment he uses, such as what lighting to use, as well as how he lit certain subjects, he also describes the use of low tech solutions such as painting poles with lights attached to light a scene from above. This enables him to produce an even light over a subject without creating hot spots.

Eric also recommends the use of mains powered lighting for larger projects of a few hours or more, however he also uses standard torches or flash lights such as a small AA Maglite for some scenes. It really depends on the scene and the complexity of the image your trying to produce.

What I like about the book is that he has also described how to recombine the images you take into a single photograph using Photoshop.

This is an important step in the production of the image and one that you need to get right to produce an image that you will be happy with. It’s not a step by step guide however, and some basic knowledge of Photoshop is required, but that is all that is needed.

Other useful information contained in the book is a few of his lighting plans. It seems that Eric has a plan in his head of how he is going to light the scene and that is put down on paper. This again is obviously important, as knowing what you want to get as a final image and producing the final image will depend greatly on how the scene is lit.

Also included in the book is a series of images of various photographs Eric has produced, showing how he has lit various portions or area.

This also enables you to understand what techniques are used to produce the final image.

Again it’s not a step by step guide but a series of illustrations meant to give you the tools you require to go out and try the technique.

All in all I am very pleased with my purchase, and believe that this book will give me a greater understanding of Eric’s painting with light technique, which in turn will hopefully enable me to produce better images.

Would I recommend this book to anyone interested in this genre of photography? Well the short answer is YES……

Packed full of information, pictures and instructions, as well as encouraging words, if your going to dip your toe into the world of light painting, there is no better place to start in my opinion.

A great “light” read……..

Eric Curry (2013). Painting with Light. Buffalo, NY: Amherst Media. p01-p159.