Lighting

All Photos © 2004, Peter K. Burian, All Rights Reserved

"This excerpt was taken from Mastering Digital Photography and Imaging © 2003, SYBEX Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved."

Flash has come a long way from the old days when photographers were required to make complex calculations to get a good flash exposure. Almost all digital cameras...

Photography is all about capturing the effects of light on people, places, and things. Pro photographers are usually entrusted by their clients to find the beautiful light and capture it, or create that light where needed. For photographers like me...

It should come as no surprise to you to discover that there are few--maybe no--real secrets in photography. Instead, what you find are informed opinions based on experience blended with some stylistic preferences. The recipe for producing...

In most cases when we talk to climbers who photograph or photographers who climb, we start out by asking which came first, the climbing or the photography. About 75 percent answer the former. Then we ask why they climb. The answer is usually some variation of "it's a thrill." And then, why they photograph, which brings a variation of "to capture the...

On-camera flash is convenient and very fast to use, but it’s not a flattering type of light. It’s a flat type of lighting with seemingly no depth, it creates unattractive shadows, and any surface that has sheen to it will reflect the light back into the lens.

The imaginative, dramatic photographs of Alexis Cuarezma showcase the skills of an imaginative master of dramatic lighting.

Taking good close-up pictures of most any small subject a foot or less away from the lens is relatively easy these days, what with the macro-focusing capability found on some zoom lenses. That's no problem when you use available light. But what happens when you want or need to add auxiliary light to the scene? The tiny flash built into many current SLR cameras is designed to...