Books for/about - lighting

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Authors: Janet Lennox Moyer

ISBN: 0471451363
List Price: $95.00
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Summary: Landscape Lighting 101
The Landscape Lighting book, by Janet Moyer, provides both an academic and practical level of landscaping lighting knowledge. Another good book, if you can find it, is the Ortho's book of How to Design and Install Outdoor Lighting.

In comparison, the Ortho book has more colorful pictures and offers a very colorful education - I'd say, more or less at a good high school level. If you want more of college level introduction to landscape lighting - perhaps, to start a business or to broaden your knowledge, The Landscape Lighting book is the book for you.

Summary: The Art and Craft of Landscape Lighting
The second edition of Janet Lennox Moyer's THE LANDSCAPE LIGHTING BOOK is an absolute necessity for everybody who works in landscape lighting or who is seriously interested in creating their own garden lighting. Ms Moyer has greatly revised and expanded the color plates and Chapter 4, "The Design Process - Documenting and Installing Landscape Lighting" as well as writing an entirely new Chapter 5 "Follow-up Work - Record Documents and Project Maintenance." These changes and additions and the many other updates make the new edition well worth the purchase price.

First published in 1992, THE LANDSCAPE LIGHTING BOOK has served as the single and indispensable reference for the landscape lighting industry. It has offered all new landscape lighting practitioners guidance and provided an emerging industry the foundation necessary on which to build solid practice. While there is a wealth of other books that offer how-to help and publish pretty pictures, none of them even attempt to define and explain professional practice for the landscape lighting industry with Ms Moyer's authority and confidence.

THE LANDSCAPE LIGHTING BOOK is not an easy book to read but it is well worth the effort. Once you understand the theory behind the short cuts and rules-of-thumb that other how to books offer, you are free to create your own. With the freedom you gain when you understand and can apply those fundamental principals and concepts to your landscape lighting, you become like the cook who ignores the printed recipe and creates a masterpiece of culinary art.

Summary: expert opinion
Still the best book for the professional. Invaluable resource for architects, landscape architects and landscape lighting designers. Broad and deep with plenty of technical information. I purchased this book in 1992 and I bought it again today (an electrician friend "lost" my original copy). A second edition (if planned) should include better information about transformer regulation (the ability of a low voltage lighting transformer to maintain 12v under load) and voltage drop (the dreaded decrease in voltage through the main supply cable) which are presented as formulae rather than actual measurements. Great photographs mostly of large scale projects. This book should be in every outdoor lighting designer's library.

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Master Lighting Guide for Portrait Photographers

Publisher: Amherst Media
Authors: Christopher Grey

ISBN: 1584281251
List Price: $29.95
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Avg Cusomer Rating: 4
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Summary: Great Book
I have advanced in my photography skills a great deal from this book. My lighting has become just as artistic as the shots themselves. Alot of the ideas in the book are just fun to play around with to help create your own kinda lighting. A must read for those not to new but would like to make the next leap...

Summary: The Portrait Photog's Bible
If you are new to studio lighting techniques and want to know about where lights should be set up and what type of modifiers to use, then look no further than this amazing book. The word "Master" in the title is not commercial hyperbole, but an accurate description. For not only does author Christopher Grey (of shootsmarter.com) show and tell you the where and what, he demonstrates it for several different shooting styles: from both basic and classic portrait lighting to headshots, high- and low-key lighting, glamour, fashion, "Hollywood" and more, plus related techniques of photography. I'm just starting to learn about lighting myself, and find this book extremely helpful and informative. Highly recommended.

Summary: Very Informative Book
Easy to understand. Everything was explained in good detail. I liked the fact that it was for both film and digital photographers. The lighting diagrams were a tremendous help. I would highly recommend this book.

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	Residential Lighting: A Practical Guide Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Authors: Randall Whitehead
ISBN: 0471450553 List Price: $65.00 Amazon Price: $55.67 Usually ships in 24 hours Buy this book from amazon.com or from amazon.co.uk	Avg Cusomer Rating: 4 Reviews: Summary: Residential Lighting - A Practical Guide This is an excellent practical and technical book for learning about and designing lighting for a home. It's aimed at the professional, which I appreciate as an intern architect. Part of my job is to design sophisticated lighting schemes for custom homes, which takes a lot of experience and knowledge. This book has really helped me to pinpoint the different kinds of lighting needed for each space and how to place it and specify it in a professional way for the greatest effect. Most architects take years to learn this, but I'm getting a crash course by having this resource. It's not a fluffy coffee table book, it's a technical manual that teaches HOW to properly understand and design lighting for a residence. I highly recommend it. Summary: Excellent Resource This is the best book that I have seen on the topic. The practical advice is well balanced with technical information. A must-have for any Designer's Resouce Library. Summary: Lighting secrets revealed! As a designer, I can't say enough good things about Randall Whitehead's Residential Lighting, A Practical Guide. This is his follow up to his wonderful Lighting Up! A Practical Guide which has been a staple of the design community for seven years. All the best parts of the earlier book have been retained with the addition of more than 200 photos in both color and black & white. The chapters have really been packed with up-to-the-minute information about many of the new technologies that are now becoming the norm, such as light emitting diodes (LEDs). There are also a whole new series of enlightening sections in the back of the book with great tips on how to run a design business, how to get published and how to deal with clients. Randall's way of writing is very entertaining and I feel it has revitalized the often dry category of textbooks. His funny, casual method of doling out information really helps make this book a pleasure to read. His energy and humor is infectious as he lets readers in on the secrets and practices of good lighting for homes and gardens. What also sets this book apart from other texts on lighting is how he approaches the subject first from the aesthetic side then gradually lets the reader in on the technical reasons how lighting design works. This is an inspirational reference guide for all aspiring designers... as well as for established design professionals like me. Even savvy homeowners will latch onto this book as the insider's guide to the secrets of great lighting. Summary:

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Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technology, 5E

Publisher: Thomson Delmar Learning
Authors: Bill Whitman Bill Johnson John Tomczyck

ISBN: 1401837654
List Price: $104.95
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Avg Cusomer Rating: 5
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Summary: $25 Cheaper Than The College Book Store...
I had to have this book for some college classes I am taking. I first bought my copy at the College Book Store but ended up taking it back after I found it on Amazon for about $25-$30 cheaper after shipping and tax!

Summary: HVAC in Laymans terms!
This book is excellent! I knew NOTHING about this industry until I decided to take a class. This book lays it all out in such a way that technical issues have been easy to understand.
Also, the price for this book at my college was $115.00!! EVEN with shipping it was LESSS than $100.00 through Amazon and I got the book in 2 days!

Summary: Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technology, 5E Initial review
I've only read the first 120 pages of this book, and found it very easy reading and very thorough in the subject matter covered so far. The text and illustrations are excellent in making this information understandable.

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Digital Lighting and Rendering (2nd Edition)

Publisher: New Riders Press
Authors: Jeremy Birn

ISBN: 0321316312
List Price: $50.00
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Summary: Required Reading Indeed
As above, i've just finished reading the book cover to cover whilst lighting and (waiting for) renders at work and was thoroughly impressed. It covers an incredible range of topics from the very basics of lighting theory (which we can all use a reminder of every now and then!) through to some more complex ideas and concepts.

With the associated website (3drender.com) where there are numerous lighting challenges to download and particiapte in (the author himself critiques the work!) this will certainly improve your skills and also just give you a bit of nudge into looking at the world through the eyes of a 3D lighting artist.

Don't mistake me, this is not a specific piece of training material, but it is an invaluable source of reference, from the tables covering some suggested RGB values for lights to various physical properties as well. It really should be required reading for anyone vaguely interested in the lighting end of the 3D pipeline, and even for seasoned professionals it is great to have everything in one very well constructed, well written, and easy to navigate book.

Highly recommended.

Summary: Terrific, the best book I've read on the topic!
This book is amazing! It opened my eyes to so many things about lighting and rendering it's as if I've had a full course in lighting design, one in rendering, and some cinematography and color theory along the way. The best part is the way it keeps giving you new ideas, from other ways to add colors with different lights to tricks you can do in compositing.

The book is brilliantly simple, clear easy-to-understand writing throughout, even when describing very technical subjects like Polynomial Texture Mapping the author manages to keep the text readable, relevant, and useful, and he has lots of good pictures of things (renders, screenshots, diagrams, and photographic examples), to help pin down issues like the specific things to look for in adjusting subsurface scattering skin shaders. I've read the book cover to cover ~ and I'm going to be keeping it around my desk for years as a reference as well!

Most of the book is not software-specific, especially in terms of lighting techniques or creating texture maps the advice will work for anyone. The book only mentions 3D Studio Max (what I use) once in a while, and only has a few screenshots of settings in Max (along with lots of references to Maya, Renderman, Mental Ray et cetera) but still the whole book was completely useful to me, actually more useful because of its content than most of the software-specific books they keep cranking out with 3D Studio Max in the title.

The lighting challenge scenes are great, you have to download them yourself (there's no CD with the book...) but it's absolutely amazing that the author himself looked at my work and gave me feedback (spot-on feedback too!) when I posted my test render on the discussion forum. I'd have bought 10 books if it I had to, to get direct interaction with a top lighting expert working at Pixar! This book deserves more than 5 stars to reflect the amazingly generous author whose support goes above and beyond just writing a terrific book.

Kudos and Congratulations for such a great book, Mr. Birn!

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	Interior Lighting, Fourth Edition Publisher: Wiley Authors: Gary Gordon
ISBN: 047144118X List Price: $85.00 Amazon Price: $68.42 Usually ships in 24 hours Buy this book from amazon.com or from amazon.co.uk	Avg Cusomer Rating: 2 Reviews: Summary: Not Good Introductory Textbook Material This is a required book for an introductory lighting class I'm taking. Since we are solely relying on this book and it isn't supplemented with lecture material, I find that, without familiarity with lighting terminology and concepts, it is very difficult to understand -- very cryptic with the seemingly overused language of the field. While the author may be very knowledgeable, I feel the book is not very well written and the target audience is, perhaps, not intended to be, essentially, the layman. I don't find the organization of ideas and concepts to be clearly laid out or communicated well and, as they unfold, and I come to understand what the author is trying to say, wonder why it was made so difficult -- is that all he means, geesh and why didn't he tell me that earlier. It would be easier to understand the general concept of things first, even in plain English perhaps, and then go on to a more technical description to learn the language of the field and get the details. Just seems to make simple things very complicated, especially with the language, flow of ideas, and phrasing. I also find a lot of the graphic figures and photo examples need some clarification or more details. A picture's supposed to be worth a thousand words, not be cryptic and time-consuming to understand. Sorry, I would not recommend this for students who are not primed first. Especially the younger ones. Summary: Great teacher While I was studying Interior Design at Parsons a number of years ago, I had Gary Gordon as a Lighting Design Instructor. He was by far one the best teachers that I had. He is very knowledgeable and has the unique ability to easily communicate the many aspects of both design and lighting. I highly recommend any publication he has authored. Summary: Very good book for novices. The book begins with an inspirational and somewhat simplistic insight into lighting design. Simply as a study of lighting contrasts. While this is a very important aspect of LD, it is by far one of many concepts a professional must use. The book refers to many technical aspects of lighting without giving any "meat" or more in depth information, which I would have enjoyed. If you are new to LD or are an architect or engineer who has little experience with lighting, it is a very good lauching point. If you are technically knowledgable about lighting and want some inspiration, read chapter 1 and the last chapter on Design for concepts Summary:

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Modern Refrigeration and Air Conditioning (Modern Refrigeration and Air Conditioning)

Publisher: Goodheart-Wilcox Publisher
Authors: Andrew D. Althouse Carl H. Turnquist Alfred F. Bracciano

ISBN: 1590702808
List Price: $72.00
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Summary: Great
This book was in great shape and received it good time. I was real happy with the book and service. Thank you

Summary: I never recieved it due to KATRINA...
...I never recieved this item due to the FLOODS in New Orleans...I am sure I'll get it some time, LOL.

Summary: Modern Refrigeration Resource
Thanks to the length of time this book has been available and the frequent revisions to the copyright, it continues to get bigger and better as time goes on.

My bookshelf has at least 5 of those revisions that frequently get utilized . Each revision builds upon the prior publication and expands on the detail they provide.

This publication represents an established reference standard for the HVAC/R Industry. It is especially valuable because of the extent of the different technical topics presented within its covers.

Some have tried to copy the format and the content but still fail to match its quality and level of professionalism.

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Digital Photography Expert: Light and Lighting: The Definitive Guide for Serious Digital Photographers (A Lark Photography Book)

Publisher: Lark Books
Authors: Michael Freeman

ISBN: 1579905269
List Price: $19.95
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Summary: A superb work on the subject of Lighting...and Light
A very tight, concise, easy to understand yet very well established book. Lark Books have a nice series on photography and should be taken seriously.

A wonderful overview of both Studio and Natural lighting. Something of a Masterwork really.

Congratulations to Michael Freeman and Lark Photograghy!

Summary: Excellent introduction to lighting
Very basic, not quite enough detail, but still an excellent introduction to lighting for beginners. You should start here, learn the basics, and then explore other resources to improve your skills.

Summary: Michael Freeman's Close-Up Photography
Michael Freeman is the author of the "Digital Photography Expert" series. Previous books in this series are "The Complete Guide to Digital Photography" and "Nature and Landscape Photography." As the third book in this series, "Close-Up Photography" is, of course, geared especially to the digital photographer.
"Close-Up Photography" is both a how-to book and a reference book for photographers interested in close up images. As the principles of close-up techniques are similar regardless of the camera type, I think this book would be almost as useful to film users as to digital photographers.
Freeman goes into detail about the focus, lighting, and backgrounds of subjects in macrophotography, issues that are common to film and digital users alike. The remainder of the book is divided between still life setups and natural settings. He supplies how-to techniques for photographing several specific items, such as shiny objects, food, liquids, coins, stamps, jewelry, plants, aquaria, shells, and gems.
Freeman writes in such a way that even a novice photographer could comprehend his techniques and principles. Yet at the same time, there is information for the more advanced photographer. The author neither talks down to nor talks over the head of the reader. He explains many elementary things, so the reader is not necessarily expected to be sophisticated. In general, Freeman's writing style is very readable and understandable, even by a non-techie like me.
Freeman utilizes many photographs to illustrate his text. The substantial captions provide much useful information. In addition, there are illustrations showing photographic setups, so the reader can easily see how to duplicate the techniques.
Finally, Freeman has a useful index, which adds to the value of the book for me. I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in photographing objects closely. I would refer to it from time to time.

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