The Best Book on Photographic Lighting

I have read a number of books on photographic lighting. Many are merely like cookbooks that show you how to set up lights to photograph a number of specific situations. At least one that I read was so specialized that it was quite useless to anyone who wasn't already somewhat of an expert on photo lighting. One book, however, stands out as superior to all other photographic lighting books I have read: Light Science and Magic by Fil Hunter, Paul Fuqua, and Steven Biver.

This book teaches you the fundamental principals of light, how it behaves, and how to use these principals to solve just about any lighting problem you may encounter. For example, while some lighting books will show you how to emphasize the texture of a given subject with a specific lighting technique, Light Science and Magic shows you why a given technique that will emphasize texture in a light colored subject will not work with a dark colored subject, and points out why what works with light colored subjects is the worst possible way to light a dark colored subject.

By learning a relatively small number of fundamental principals, such as the characteristics and differences between diffuse reflection, ordinary direct reflection, and polarized direct reflection, the size of the light source relative to the subject, the various angles between the light and subject and between the camera and subject, you will be able to decide what kind of light is best to use and how best to position the light or lights. Instead of relying on a set of cookbook lighting set-ups that won't prepare you for every lighting problem you may encounter, Light Science and Magic will prepare you to solve just about any photographic lighting problem you may encounter.

The principals that you will learn in Light Science and Magic don't just apply to studio lights or electronic flash/speedlights. The same principals apply to sunlight, light from a blue sky, a cloudy sky, moonlight, or candle-light. Even if you never take a single picture using flash, and you use only available light, the principals that you will learn in the book will help you to make better photographs.

If you have only one book on photo lighting, Light Science and Magic is the  book to have.