Night Photography: Finding your way in the dark

Description

This book has both the technical detail required to make good night photos and reveals the deep love that the author has for the process. So many technical books offer good instruction but lack heart and soul, not Night Photography. The author's passion for the subject is evident on every page. The writing is top notch and most of the technical aspects of the subject are well detailed.

There are two basic approaches to night photography, considering the low light to be a technical problem to work around or finding the light an opportunity to do something different and special. Lance Keimig's book is strongly in the second camp. The subtitle is "Finding your way in the dark." It could just as easily be "Embrace the night." For addressing the first approach, look to Michael Freeman's book, "The Complete Guide to Night & Lowlight Digital Photography."

Specialty subjects like light painting, star trails and night HDR photography are covered. What you won't find is a thorough discussion of the use of flash. Many night photographers consider the addition of flash to be somehow impure, though the use of continuous lighting in light painting to be fine. Keimig never preaches against flash. He simply gives is very little coverage. That's fine. It's still a great book, though the use of flash can be a nice addition to night photos. However, that subject could easily be a book in itself.

There is some discussion of film based night photography, though the main thrust of the writing is directed towards digital capture. The focus of the book is on image capture and the special problems that photographing at night brings. There is basically no little on post processing of images. That's not a complaint, just an observation. All in all a nice addition to my library.