Shaping Light: Use Light Modifiers to Create Amazing Studio and Location Photographs

While light is required to make a photograph, light alone is not enough. More often, it is the way the light has been modified and shaped that brings an image to life. In this book, Glenn Rand and Tim Meyer offer a comprehensive approach to the tools and techniques photographers can use to shape the light creating the style, energy, emotion, and feeling that make a photograph exceptional. Clear text is paired with ample before-and-after images and diagrams to make learning easy. Beginning with the physics of light, the authors show you how to predict light’s interaction with the surface of the subject/object you are photographing. Based on this, you can begin to make informed decisions about what kinds of modifiers will help you achieve the look you want. Using softboxes, umbrellas, masks, gels, reflectors, and more, you’ll learn to precisely control the light’s diffused edge and ratio for precise, flawless results. You will learn how to:
Understand the physics of light
Predict how light will interact with the surfaces being photographed
Shoot with diffused light and spectacular light
Use softboxes, banks, and other diffuse modifiers
Work with umbrellas of every shape and size
Refine the light with shapers, masks, and gels

Control the light radio
Adjust the light’s diffused edge
Selectively add light with reflectors and mirrors or subtract it with fingers and dots Photographs throughout