Stoppees' Guide to Photography and Light

Stoppees' Guide to Photography and Light

by Brian Janet Stoppee
Released September 2012
Publisher(s): Focal Press
ISBN: 9781136100536

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Book description

Brian & Janet Stoppee have incorporated their decades of daily, hands-on expertise at image-making plus their leading seminars and one-on-one training into the most comprehensive guide to photographic lighting available!

It's impossible to be successful in photography without a mastery of light. It's the basis of all things photographic. The Stoppees welcome the reader into their professional world with a conversational tone that makes you feel as if you are a member of their team in pre-production planning, out on a shoot, or back at their studio, in post-production. They've packed the book with full color, vibrant images and lighting diagrams that make the technology easy to quickly understand. This compendium of professional know-how shows you how to both manipulate nature's light and create natural-looking illumination with artificial light sources. Whether you're a professional photographer, you use photography in your profession, or you just want your images to look more professional, this book is your resource to creating far superior digital images.

You'll gain a greater understanding of:
.Light's Properties
.Digital Exposure
.Optics
.Metering
.Color
.Pre-Production
.Adobe Camera Raw
.Scanning
.Light Modifying Tools
.Support Systems
.Daylight Fluorescent
.HMI
.Wireless Battery Flash
.Digital Studio Flash
.Digital Tablets
.Painter
.Professional Printing
...and much more, just like the world's top image-makers.

The Stoppees' darkroom is all digital, so without this guide to photography and light, you'll be left in the dark ages!

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Halftitle
  3. Title
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Contents
  7. 1. The Color of Light
    1. A Colorful Day of Sunlight
    2. The Temperature of Light
    3. The Year in Light
    4. Light’s Direction
    5. What Your Eye Sees
    6. How Your Brain Compensates
    7. Color’s Palette
    8. Neutral Density Gray
    9. Minimum Density: Super White
    10. Maximum Density: Blackest Black
    11. Angles of Incidence and Reflection
    12. What’s Seen… What’s Hidden
    13. Reflections
    14. Surfaces and Textures Everywhere
    15. Plenty of Highlights
    16. Plenty of Shadows
    17. Create a Highlight; Control a Shadow
    18. Brightness
    19. Tone
    20. Hue
    21. Contrast
    22. Vibrant, Saturated, and Muted Colors
    23. High-Key
    24. Low-Key
    25. Weather’s Light
  8. 2. Digital Exposure and Optics
    1. The Exposure Trinity
    2. Time, Sensitivity, and Volume
    3. The Time Factor
    4. Camera Movement, Shake, Image Stabilization
    5. Be a Tripod
    6. Freezing Action and Beautiful Blurs
    7. Extended Exposure
    8. Instead of Film Personality…
    9. …It’s All About the Sensor
    10. Sensitivity: The ISO Equivalent
    11. ISO in Action: Choose the Proper Speed
    12. Avoid Noise; Enjoy Grain
    13. Volume of Light
    14. The Numbers on the Lens
    15. What Lenses Do to Light
    16. The Letters on the Lens
    17. EV: Exposure Value
    18. Autoexposure Settings
    19. Camera Metering Methods
    20. Exposure Locks
    21. Exposure Compensation
    22. Bracketing Exposure
    23. Manual Through-the-Lens Metering
    24. Depth of Field Expressions
    25. Hyperfocal Distance = Maximizing Depth
    26. Visual Economy
    27. Equivalent Focal Length
    28. Fisheye to Ultra-Wide Views
    29. The Wide-Angle Perspective
    30. What’s Optically Normal?
    31. The “Fast” Lens
    32. The “Portrait” Lens
    33. Telephoto Compression
    34. The Ultra-Telephoto Eye
    35. Macro Vantage
    36. Bending Light, Bending Objects
    37. Balancing Light to White
    38. The Color Moods of White Balancing
    39. Bracketing Color
    40. Mired Shift
    41. Visualize Angles of View
    42. Light and Perspective
    43. Wide and Narrow Luminance Ranges
    44. Diffraction and Image Crispness
    45. Viewfinder Screens and Your Eye
    46. Area Modes
    47. Focus Modes and the Power of Manual
  9. 3. Measuring Light and Color
    1. Light Meter Skills
    2. Incident Readings
    3. Light Source Size and Distance
    4. The Inverse Square Law
    5. The Gray Card
    6. The Flash Meter
    7. Spot/Reflective Readings
    8. Volume/Time Priority Metering and EV
    9. Light Ratios for Multiple Light Sources
    10. Color Metering
  10. 4. Light, Color, and Use
    1. The End Use Determines Everything
    2. Color Models
    3. Color Gamuts and Working Spaces
    4. Color Depth
    5. File Format and the End Result
    6. Understand Image Size
    7. Upsampling and Downsampling
  11. 5. Preproduction Smarts
    1. Paper Planning and Tear Sheets
    2. Scouting and Electronic Planning
    3. Manage Memory on Location
    4. Data Storage and Backups
    5. Synchronize Color
    6. See All the Color
    7. Calibrate a Monitor
    8. Control Print Color
    9. On Location with Cameras
    10. On Location with Computers
    11. On Location with Lighting
    12. Location Responsibilities
  12. 6. Raw Files and Scanned Films
    1. Bridge: The Metadata
    2. The Raw File Advantage
    3. The Adobe Camera Raw Environment
    4. Histograms in Camera
    5. Histograms in Camera Raw
    6. White Balancing
    7. Temperature and Tint
    8. Tonality
    9. Recovery, Fill Light, and Blacks
    10. Clarity
    11. Vibrance and Saturation
    12. The Tone Curve
    13. Sharpening and Noise Reduction
    14. Converting Color to Grayscale
    15. Hue, Saturation, and Luminance
    16. Split Toning: Highlights and Shadows
    17. Lens Correction and Camera Calibration
    18. Film to Digital: Pro Scanning
    19. Scanning Tools
  13. 7. Ambient Light
    1. Early Morning
    2. Midday = Diffusion
    3. Gender-Specific Light
    4. Late Afternoon
    5. Silhouettes and Sunsets
    6. Candles and Firelight
    7. After Dark: Mixing Color Temperatures
  14. 8. Man-Made Modifiers
    1. Nature Modifies Light
    2. Reflect Light
    3. Diffusers
    4. Reflection and Diffusion Tools
    5. Flagging Light and Subtractive Reflectors
    6. The Framework of Scrims
    7. Fabrics, Road Rags, and Lighting Control Kit
    8. Tents
    9. Dots and Fingers
    10. Barn Doors and Snoots
    11. Grids and Spots
    12. What Umbrellas Do
    13. Multiple Umbrellas for Soft Light
    14. The New Umbrellas
    15. Light Bank Technology
    16. Speed Rings
    17. Light Bank Primer - Triolet
    18. The Big Bank
    19. When Smaller’s Better
    20. OctaPlus Banks
    21. Lanterns, Pancakes, and Skirts?
    22. Filter Basics
    23. Lighting Designer Color Tricks
    24. Diffusion Materials
    25. Reflection Materials
    26. Polarizers
    27. Color Correctors
    28. Blue and Green Screens
  15. 9. Creative Support and Safety
    1. Stand Requirements
    2. C Stands vs. Inclines
    3. Crate and Riser Systems
    4. Arm and Boom Solutions
    5. Weights and Bags
    6. Headers and Drop Downs
    7. Magic Fingers
    8. Grip Heads
    9. Mafers and Mathellinis
    10. Flexible Arms and Knuckle Heads
    11. MiniGrips
    12. Clamps, Pigeons, Ties, etc.
    13. The Right Tripod
    14. Weight and Location
    15. Tilting Column Wisdom
    16. The Quick Release Ball Head
    17. Off-Center Ball Head Control
  16. 10. Daylight Fluorescent
    1. Bright Lights, Low Wattage
    2. The Funny-Shaped Lamps
    3. The Total System
    4. Soft Box Simplicity
    5. Create Reflections: A Quick Starter
    6. Create Moonlight
  17. 11. HMI
    1. Why HMI?
    2. Controlling the Ballast
    3. The PAR
    4. That Hollywood Look
    5. The Optical Spot/Flood
    6. Detailing a Tabletop Shot
    7. The Projector and Gobos
    8. Projector Attachment and Mist Effects
  18. 12. Wireless Battery Flash
    1. What the Camera Does
    2. The Sophisticated Flash
    3. Bouncing and Fast Fill Flash
    4. Off-Camera Flash
    5. Control the Wireless Flash Studio
    6. The Macro Flash Tool Kit
    7. Revealing the Macro World
    8. On the Tabletop
  19. 13. Digital Studio Flash
    1. The System
    2. What’s a Watt-Second?
    3. Light Output in Digital Increments
    4. Sync Cables and Going Wireless
    5. Recycling Time vs. Power Output
    6. Manage Flash Duration
    7. Contrast Ratios
    8. Quartz Modeling Lamp
    9. The Flexible Bare Tube
    10. reflector Options
    11. The Slave Eye
    12. Copying Flat Art
    13. Monolight Simplicity
    14. One Light Source
    15. Panel Frames for Floods of Light
    16. Create Sunlight
    17. Glamour Lighting
    18. Multiple Umbrellas
    19. Multiple Light Banks
    20. Assisting Natural Light
    21. Slaving Background Rooms
    22. Location Safety
    23. Mixed Lighting effects
    24. Bouncing the Big Space
    25. Create Window effects with Cookies
  20. 14. Essential Tablet Tools
    1. The Tablet that Fits Your Needs
    2. Tablet Tools
    3. The Finger Wheel
    4. ExpressKeys and Touch Strips
    5. Make It Feel Right
    6. Program the ExpressKeys
    7. Adjust a Cintiq
  21. 15. Light of Painter
    1. Understand Traditional Media
    2. Chalk and Pastel
    3. Acrylic
    4. Oil Pastel
    5. Watercolor
    6. Photo Auto-Painting
  22. 16. Light and Exhibits
    1. Printer Drivers and Media
    2. ICC Profiles
    3. Control Ink; Interpret Your Vision
    4. Manage Ink
    5. The Black and White Gamut
    6. Matte and Gloss
    7. Velvet and Canvas
    8. Light and Print Longevity
  23. Appendix and Product Index
  24. Index
  25. Colophon

Product information

  • Title: Stoppees' Guide to Photography and Light
  • Author(s): Brian Janet Stoppee
  • Release date: September 2012
  • Publisher(s): Focal Press
  • ISBN: 9781136100536