Picture Perfect Lighting: An Innovative Lighting System for Photographing People

Roberto Valenzuela is a photographer and educator who has a talent for identifying areas where photographers regularly hit roadblocks and a passion for developing clear and concise systems that allow photographers to break through those barriers and become better, more confident practitioners of their craft. His two previous books, Picture Perfect Practice and Picture Perfect Posing, shattered the mold of instructional photography books as they empowered readers to advance their composition and posing skills. Picture Perfect Lighting, the third book in the Picture Perfect series, brings that same spirit and approach to teaching lighting. With it, Roberto empowers photographers to embrace lighting as a source of creativity and expression in service of their vision for the image.

In Picture Perfect Lighting, Roberto has created a truly original system for understanding and controlling light in photography. After discussing the universal nature of light, Roberto introduces the five key behaviors of light, which are essential to understand in order to improve your knowledge of light. With those behaviors established, Roberto introduces his concept of “circumstantial light,” an ingenious way of examining and breaking down the light around you in any given situation. Providing a detailed analysis of circumstantial light, Roberto develops the top ten circumstantial light elements you need to know in order to fully harness the power of the light around you to create an image that is true to your vision.

But how will you know if the circumstantial light is enough? The final piece of the Picture Perfect Lighting system is Roberto’s “lighting benchmark test,” a brilliant method for determining the quality of the light in any given situation. It is with the lighting benchmark test that you will determine if and when you need to use “helper light,” the light that is needed or manipulated in order to “help” the circumstantial light so that your vision comes to life. Helper light is created with diffusers, reflectors, flashes, strobes, and light modifiers. Picture Perfect Lighting covers all of this in depth.

Don’t limit yourself to using only one kind of light, and don’t depend on Photoshop actions and plug-ins to create the “wow” factor in your images. That is the job of light. With Picture Perfect Lighting by your side, you will learn to master light. With that mastery, you will finally have the ability to create that true “wow” factor in camera—and in your photographs.