Still Life and Special Effects Photography: A Guide to Professional Lighting Techniques

Studio-based still life photography is amongst the most challenging of subjects for the photographer. It's a genre which demands a high level of compositional skill and a mastery of lighting techniques. Here, over 40 professional still life photographers share their secrets and reveal the precise lighting arrangements behind some of their most successful shots. By copying some of these tried and tested setups novices to the studio will be able to create great lighting with the minimum of effort. More experienced photographers can benefit, by adapting the setups for their own needs - and of course there's always a few new tricks worth borrowing.
Once the basics have been mastered, readers can move on to the second section of the book, which explains how to create convincing, studio-based special effects. Everything from mounting a light on a revolving set, to projecting an image onto a subject to change its appearance, to creating the effect of a starlit sky is explained in an easy to follow way. Montage, superimposition, room sets and digital imaging effects are just a few of the techniques covered - along, of course, with the lighting set-up for each image.