By Christopher Grey
Amherst Media, Inc., $34.95, 128 pages
Check your local bookstore’s photography shelf. “Plethora” cannot describe the amount and variety of books available on the subject of image capture. Yet they are mostly redundant, rehashing, in slightly different form, the same ideas as the books propped up next to them.
Enter photographer Christopher Grey. In his book, Christopher Grey’s Vintage Lighting, Grey covers an exciting and fresh angle of photography, that of lighting techniques from the 1910s to the 1970s. Grey explains the signature lighting set ups of each decade in detail. He provides tips on props, wardrobe, background, poses and post-processing to further authentic the images. The photographs in the book are beautifully done and do a good job of illustrating Grey’s concepts.
As indicated in the title, the book is about lighting and readers should be familiar with photographic lighting equipment and concepts. This is not a beginner’s manual. That said the writing is conversational and easy to read, though occasionally mature in content and wordage. For portrait photographers, this book delivers highly specialized and novel instruction to provide that edge over competitors. It may also be of interest to historians, movie producers and theatre directors.
Reviewed by Andrea Klein
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