Fil Hunter

Fil Hunter received a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a double major in Psychology and Religion (Religion being a social science at a U.S. state-supported university). However, his chief interest was photography, which occupied most of his time during his four years at the school.

Although Hunter had grown up in a photography tradition (his grandfather invented multi-lens printing and his father made his own camera to photograph his experiences as a U.S. Marine in WWII), his most influential mentor was Ross Scroggs, Sr., Director of Photography at UNC-CH.

Although Scroggs was an acclaimed photographic technology teacher and also handled lighting brilliantly, lighting was the only area he had difficulty teaching. Since Scroggs had taught everything else, Hunter set out to fill that gap. The book Light – Science and Magic, written with Paul Fuqua and Stephen Biver, is the result.

Hunter has also been the lead writer of The McGraw-Hill Photography Course and Illusion: The Art and Science of Photographic Special Effects.

He is married to Robin Reid, a portrait specialist who has done the official portraits of several high-ranking U.S. officials. He and Robin are now working together on a new book with an expected publication date of mid-2011.