50 Lighting Setups for Portrait Photographers: Easy-to-Follow Lighting Designs and Diagrams Buy Now

I echo many of the complaints here that this book is not fifty case studies in any detail. While there are diagrams there is nothing that explains why Begleiter chose that lighting design or why it worked. In fact many of the "case studies" use exactly the same lighting set up with no explanation other than they resulted in good photos. It's up to the reader to examine the photos and speculate how the lighting contributed to their success. After a while I got the feeling that even Begleiter himself doesn't know why certain light designs had worked so well and would rather talk about his subjects and how he posed them. Fun info but certainly not the information the title would lead you to believe you would get.

Begleiter admits that the introductory section is too brief, so he recommends you purchase his OTHER book "The Portrait Book: A Guide for Photographers" if you want to know more about fundamental lighting design. OK, maybe one plug for another book is not that bad, but in one "case study" he took an infrared photo that was so ugly that the publication chose the natural light photo instead. Why did he include this unpublished photo? Only to plug his OTHER book on color infrared photography.

This self-promotion along with the lack of useful lighting information makes this book seem more like a professional photographer's diary than an "Easy-to-Follow" lighting design guide.Get more detail about 50 Lighting Setups for Portrait Photographers: Easy-to-Follow Lighting Designs and Diagrams.