books on "still life" lighting?

[Jim Noel]

Learning to light is a matter of seeing and practicing.
Yes, look at a lot of images and try to imagine the lighting.
I have never seen a book which could do any more than show examples for one to copy. They will not teach you how to light anything in an original artistic manner, you will still have to practice.
Select 1, 3, or 5 objects you wish to photograph. Begin with a single light and do the best you can to get the objects looking good. Make a photograph each time you think it looks good, develop, print and analyze them.
Keep working with the single light until you can do a good job, then add a second light and repeat the process. After several sessions with 2 lights go to three. Don't overlook the tremendous advantage which can be gained with simple reflectors.
Like anything else worth accomplishing, the more you practice, the better you will get.

[Jim Noel]

I just saw the note about Dean Collins, probably the modern master of lighting. I once attended a demo in which he began with a single 5 watt bulb with no reflector. He built up from there.

[Dan Quan]

Dean Collins is awesome, and coupled with "Light, Science and Magic" it is almost an education in a couple of reads. But, some type of introduction to an even more basic concept of reflectivity, illuminance and luminance is really needed. "Basic 35mm Photo Guide" handles the recording starting point, but actually seeing the light needs an intro into the concept of reflectivity and incidence, and luminance and source, and a little practice.

[AF-ULF]

"Light Science and Magic" is the only lighting book you will ever need. It covers lighting principles, not recipes. Apply the principles to get the lighting you want.

[brian mcweeney]

Keep it simple.
The "size" of the light has to be relative to the size of the item you photograph.
In my experience, lighting is either an additive process or a subtractive one. You get yourself in trouble when you do both.
Always start with one light.
You can make it light, dark, contrasty, flat, warm, or cool.
That's it in a nutshell.

[Cletus]

Nice discussion about that topic , i have study that book , and concerned my friends , we have a moral lesson about that book it is based on the reality of a life.you can generate a lot of moral lesson about him life.

+1

[Kevin J. Kolosky]

I'd start out cheap. You don't need a book. All you need is a thing, a window, and maybe a frosted clear shower curtain to soften the light a bit, and later some sort of background if you don't want to use the walls of the room.

I think I would just start out by putting things by a north facing window. Look at them from one way, then look at them from the other way. Look at them early in the moring, look at them at noon, and closer to night. Look at them when they are close to the window and when they are further away. When the outside light is bright, and when it is flat.

Then after you get all of that looked at, go to the next stop by putting a reflector (could be just a piece of white paper) on the opposite side of the window. Move it closer and farther away, and in front and behind your subject.

Make notes of how the thing looks with the light one way and another way, with a reflector and without one.

I think seeing it with your own eyes will do a lot more for you than a book does.

[cjbroadbent]

No need for books. Just a web image search for Roland de la Porte, Chardin, Cotan. A single, natural source of light, one main subject with supporting elements making the most of the available chiaroscuro.