It has been a while since I wrote a book review, I haven't stopped reading, just stopped writing.
I have to say that this is one of the best books I have read on the subject of photography, it is not a casual nor easy read, but the information contained inside is invaluable. I have read it from cover to cover, but this is probably not the best way to approach this volume. It is in essence a cook book for lighting, providing recipes for lighting virtually all types of object and situations. Starting very simply with a single light and perhaps a reflector it deals with solid objects, discussing how to light different surfaces, depending upon their reflectivity and light absorption properties. It moves onto a very comprehensive study of lighting the human face, working from a single light through to 4 or more lights. It then works through a number of "impossible" situations.
I cannot say that one read is sufficient for this book, however, having read through it I now know where to go back for detailed information on lighting any object. It has proven exceptionally useful in this 6th chapter of AoP, on which I am currently working. A particularly interesting item for me was the fact that using a polarizing filter can dramatically change the property of reflection from certain surfaces; I had never thought to use a polarizer in the studio.
My only warning for those reading this book is that it could prove to be very expensive. I recently purchased a low cost studio lighting kit, with 2 400J lighting heads and soft-boxes, after reading this book I now realize that I should have double this (Ideally and assuming I had the space to store and deploy it properly. Anyway, a great book and very useful reference for the future.
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