My friend Don Giannatti, known to many in the photography world as Wizwow, has published a fantastic book called Lighting Essentials.
Don Giannatti has been a photographer for more than four decades. Starting with a desire to do fine art photography, he quickly made the jump into commercial. Over the decades he has owned studios in Phoenix, New York, Chicago and LA. A wide range of clients kept him shooting everything from studio product to fashion, beauty and travel.
Lighting Essentials: A Subject-Centric Approach for Digital Photographers
You may remember Don from my blog as he has been interviewed and written guest articles (including an Inspire in 300 article – what inspires Don in 300 words or less). Don has so much to share with the photography community and I was so happy to receive his book to learn more that is inside his head.
Don starts the book explaining that it is not a beginners book. Although he says that, I believe this book is one that all photographer need to read – that is, any getting into studio lighting indoors or outdoors. Lighting Essentials was written to make you think about light deeper, and clearly, to improve your photography.
In Lighting Essentials Don talks about:
The color of light
The size of light
Shadows and patterns
The distance of light
Lighting modifiers
Exposure when working with artificial light
and so much more.
In Lighting Essentials, you will not see lighting setup grids or templates. What you will see are Don’s stunning portraits and many behind the scenes photographs of the lighting setups. Don also explains the what, why and how throughout the book.
I highly recommend picking up Lighting Essentials: A Subject-Centric Approach for Digital Photographers by Don Giannatti to learn, include in your photography book library or as a gift for another photographer.
