Lighting for Photography

Lighting for Photography is a digital photography lighting tutorial by Li Xiaochang aimed at beginner-to-intermediate photography enthusiasts, with the subtitle "Digital Photography Expert Techniques." The book follows a step-by-step teaching approach, proceeding from foundations to practical work: the first half begins with the physical properties of light, introducing basic concepts such as light source, luminosity, light position, light quality, lighting ratio, and light pattern, and explaining how light affects a picture's color, light and shade, and atmosphere; it then explains metering and exposure principles, including how a camera calculates exposure, choosing metering modes, exposure compensation, and auto bracketing, and explains the use of equipment such as ISO, aperture and shutter, white balance, tripods, lens hoods, flash, reflectors, light meters, and polarizing filters. The second half moves into practical techniques, organized by themes including natural light, portraiture, available light, landscape, flowers, still life, night scenes, special lighting effects, and artificial light, using diagrams and cases to demonstrate lighting, light control, and exposure approaches in different situations, including specific procedures such as using window light for still life and determining the main light position and arranging fill lights in a studio. The book includes more than two hundred case images with shooting parameters and explanations, aiming to let readers understand lighting principles while reproducing the effects in their own photography. The book runs about 168 pages in 16mo format and is suitable as a self-study reader from beginner to intermediate level, and as a reference for photography training classes.