Creative Photoshop Lighting Techniques gives you the know-how you need over 43 in-depth examples.

There?s no limit to what the Photoshop enthusiast can achieve ? as long as they know how.

This exceptional step-by-step guide to every aspect of lighting and associated effects extends user expertise way beyond the manual.

Photo-specific examples encompass every specialized area, from enhancing backgrounds to the delicate treatment of shadows or shading.

It elevates Photoshop to a completely new and exciting level ? all with easy-to-follow pictorial sequences, minimal technical jargon and hundreds of visually inspiring examples.

An inspirational and practical guide to creating stunning photographic lighting effects

Amateur and professional alike will benefit from the hints, secrets and tips

Easy-to-follow, step-by-step tutorials help to get straight to the creativity

Barry Huggins developed his skills during the early Internet years when he saw the medium as a golden opportunity to marry his passion for art, photography, design and creativity with the new emerging technologies.

He now has his own training and consultancy company in London, Matrix Training, where he specializes in graphics and multimedia applications for both the Internet and print. He has also taught photography and advanced Photoshop

Interesting techniques but instructions lacking
There are a number of interesting techniques that you can try here but I found the instructions to be lacking. You would get through some of the steps only to find that the book doesn’t explain how to do certain adjustments. Could be a bit more descriptive. I found this disappointing.

Great
This book has great step by step instructions, really easy to follow. With pictures to help you along the way!

2nd Edition! - What did you update Barry?
I went through both the 1st and 2nd editions and all of the text is the same and the example photos are all the same (some of the screen shots and pictures print better and some worse in the 2nd edition). The only differences are in the appenidix dealing with shortcuts!

I think the author (and publisher) have done a grave disservice to their customers by claiming this is an update!

What will you do for the Photoshop CS3 update?

Good techniques but lacks photos to help you practice
Overall, this book shows a lot of neat tricks into special effects. The downfall of this, is there are absolutely no pictures the consumer can practice on. This book is suited for intermediate, and not novice. The step by step instructions can be confusing if you don’t know where the tools are located. In addition, some of the pictures are next to each other, and it would be helpful if the step by step instruction labeled which picture belonged to each step; this causes confusion. I believe that teaching should be hands on. It would really be nice if the CD with pics were included so the person reading could follow it more clearly.

If this book had a CD, then I would give it 5 stars, but it doesn’t.
the techniques shown are suited for those specific pics.

If you are a beginner or novice, I do not recommend this book. I have 10 years experience as a graphic design, and although I understand what the author is saying and writing, there are some areas that are confusing and not detailed enough.

Save your money and learn to light...
Looking at the images in this book is akin to watching a bad magician at work: the secret "moves" are anything but. Some of the effects like fire and smoke are obviously fake. Others, like casting shadows from blinds and plants are less so, but still "feel" wrong in the way the shadows often have the wrong density and falloff, or fail to follow the curves and shapes of foreground objects.

If you’re serious about your photography, I’d advise getting a good book on lighting by someone like Barrister, and learn to light for real. Many of the "effects" presented in the book can be done in seconds with some rudimentary equipment and a little practice.... or you can spend hours in PS "perfecting" an image that, like the magician’s tricks, fools no one but himself.

Missing Images
I like to go through a book and follow the techniques exactly. Then I go back and try with my own photos. Only problem here is that not all the photo’s in the book are available for download. This is the main reason I give this book 1 star. I tried to search the internet for similar images just like the ones in the book, but got frustrated after a couple of hours. Now my book just sits on the shelf. I tried emailing the publisher and the website where the images are at. No one has replied to me.

Why I did not buy the book
I saw this book in a bookstore. It looked interesting. I thought it would be a good tutorial to have but there was no CD with the images to practice on. There was not even a link to a site where the images could be downloaded. Not very practical.

Just now, I found out in a couple of reviews below this one that pictures can actually be downloaded at http://www.web-linked.com/PhotoLightingTech/uk/index.html

I downloaded one image. Such poor resolution and tiny size with a huge water mark right across it. I could never practice on this type of image.

So, first no mention of images download or CD anywhere in the book. Second, if by chance or a miracle, you manage to find them, they are unusable. To me that is adding insult to injury.

Why would I buy such a book when its author/publisher don’t care about the user/reader?

Techniques
This is a great book for those who have some experiance in photoshop & want to sharpen your skills. I picked up on some stuff I haden’t gotten from school when I got my BA at art school. A must have for Photoshopers.

Very good: But they skimped.
First off, if you are a seasoned PS user who understands light and color theory and color correction then you are probably not going to get much out of this book. If however, you are new to PS or still in the long learning process than you most likely will benefit from this book. It covers a wide range of lighting techniques that can be used to create just about any effect you need to.

There are two cons to this book however. The first being that a few of the effects could have been done better. For example; In one image the smoke and steam look like they were in fact painted into the image instead of being very light and wispy. But overall the effects are very well done and clearly explained. This leads us to con number two...the explanations. Yes I said they are clear. But read on.

The explanations, though clearly written, are sans digital file. I would have gladly paid another $5-$10 for the book if they had included a CD with all the images used in the examples. On the one hand the files are available at http://www.web-linked.com/PhotoLightingTech/uk/index.html but they do not even mention this in the book. But then the problem there is not all of the files are available for download. Most of them are but not all of them. To make matters worse they are low res images with a copyright mark in the middle of the image. So I find the publishers process very confusing.

At any rate this is still a good book for any PS user looking to push their skills further.

Not Just for Photographers
I purchased this book, because I recently delved into creating 3D digital art scenes and tweaking the lighting during the postwork phase in photoshop is of the utmost importance but something I knew little about. This book helped me significantly by showing me how to do many things that I had wanted to do but couldn’t figure out how to do--such as adding light that flows through windows--the way light is cast on trees and other objects. And I love the part about moon reflections and creating night scenes. This book has been very valuable to me--has improved my work and helped me grow as a digital artist. I highly recommend this book. Truly, it’s not just for photographers but for anyone who does any kind of digital art.

Not a Bad Book, but...
This is not a bad book, but the downloaded images are of very low quality. It is difficult to see the before-and-after effect with such as low quality images.

I like the section on Creating Reflection and Converting Overcast Days and Sunny Days, but the chapters on Light Sources and Using the Lighting Effect Filter is not very completed. You might be disappointed if you were a photographer like myself looking for a book on improving outdoor/studio lighting on the photos. The book caters more to a digital artist who like to create rather dramatic lighting effects. The techniques such as adding fire, thunderbolt, refraction, and neon colors might make photos look "fake" to photographers who are interested in making a more subtle lighting improvement to their photos.

All in all, it is a pretty good book for someone who is interested in learning special lighting effect. I will not hesistate to give the book a better rating if the downloaded images are of higher quality.

An educational and interesting read with one irritating flaw
I will explain in simple terms the benefits and the single greatest shortcoming of Barry Huggins’ book.

The Pros:

This book explains in detail the concepts of the varying sources and types of light.

It contains many thought-provoking tutorials, each of which explains how to render a specific lighting effect using Adobe Photoshop.

Each tutorial features a plethora of illustrative diagrams that show the original digital photograph, the final transformed photograph, and the various states of the photograph in between the two states. It frequently provides diagrams of how to edit Photostop’s layer blending options and filters.

It is written in an easy-to-read, easy-to-follow format.

The Con:

The book is not accompanied by a CD-ROM that contains the digital photography that is employed in the book’s tutorials. While this is an annoying inconvenience, all of the digital photography can be downloaded at no cost from the Ilex Press website (http://www.web-linked.com/PhotoLightingTech/uk/index.html). It is unfortunate that so many readers do not realize that these images are available online.

It is also important to note that this book was written for the users of Photoshop CS. While it is possible to complete many of the book’s tutorials with older versions of the software, a number of layer blending modes (and their options) and a few filters that are described in the book are only available in the latest release of Photoshop.

A library Must Have!
This is an easy to read, easy to follow creative book. The examples given should give the reader thought provoking ideals for other projects. I would have given it 5 stars if it had included a companion CD with source files.

Dramatically Altering Photographs
Lighting, like say the rays from the sun coming through a dark cloud, can be the most dramatic part of a photograph. But what if the sun isn’t cooperating? Photoshop can take an ordinary photograph and make it into an outstanding picture.

Photoshop has literally changed the way professional photography is done. Now half the work, perhaps more, is done at the computer. When a particular type of image is sought, the basic source picture can be modified in ways that only a short time ago were unimaginable. In this book Barry Huggins has concentrated on using lighting techniques possible with Photoshop to add highlights, shadows, heat waves, reflections, dust, fire and more to literally create an image that might be impossible to generate any other way.

In each case the starting image is modified, and the detailed steps necessary are done one step at a time to produce the modified picture. Mr. Huggins shows how to do things with Photoshop that I couldn’t even have imagined.

Creative Photoshop Lighting Techniques
Creative Photoshop Lighting Techniques
ISBN 1-904705-23-5

Barry Huggins
ILEX

Review by John Shaw, Timeless Digital Imaging

One of the most powerful and useful techniques that Photoshop has to offer is the ability to change lighting. This subject, however, is one of the most neglected amongst Photoshop books I have reviewed.

Well, here is a book that changes all that. This new publication by ILEX books concentrates solely on lighting techniques, packed with useful projects that will transform your photographs. The book discusses the various types and qualities of light, showing you how to create warm and cold hues, High and Low key images etc. It also includes a very useful chapter on using the Lighting Effects Filter and includes an explanation of its many settings, vital if you are to create a realistic lighting effect.

Each project is neatly covered in a chapter tackling a particular type of lighting. Examples include creating reflections on water, metal, glass etc, a chapter showing how to manipulate lighting and weather to make an overcast day appear sunny, create sunsets from daylight scenes including realistic rainbows and so on.

The layout is refreshingly easy to follow with minimum use of technical jargon and short step by step guides, accompanied by photographs and illustrations, showing the result of each manipulation of the picture. The projects are short and snappy, so you can work through different techniques quickly and efficiently.

A nice touch would have been an accompanying CD containing the photographs used in the various projects for you to practice with, as some techniques required a specific subject matter, which some people may not have in their collection e.g. a jet engine to show heat haze.

Overall a well presented and intuitive book, which allows you to experiment with new techniques in whatever order you choose. A must buy for every enthusiastic Photoshop user.

Highly Recommended

Creative Photoshop Lighting Techniques
Creative Photoshop Lighting Techniques
ISBN 1-904705-23-5

Barry Huggins

One of the most powerful and useful techniques that Photoshop has to offer is the ability to change lighting. This subject, however, is one of the most neglected amongst Photoshop books I have reviewed.

Well, here is a book that changes all that. This new publication by ILEX books concentrates solely on lighting techniques, packed with useful projects that will transform your photographs. The book discusses the various types and qualities of light, showing you how to create warm and cold hues, High and Low key images etc. It also includes a very useful chapter on using the Lighting Effects Filter and includes an explanation of its many settings, vital if you are to create a realistic lighting effect.

Each project is neatly covered in a chapter tackling a particular type of lighting. Examples include creating reflections on water, metal, glass etc, a chapter showing how to manipulate lighting and weather to make an overcast day appear sunny, create sunsets from daylight scenes including realistic rainbows and so on.

The layout is refreshingly easy to follow with minimum use of technical jargon and short step by step guides, accompanied by photographs and illustrations, showing the result of each manipulation of the picture. The projects are short and snappy, so you can work through different techniques quickly and efficiently.

A nice touch would have been an accompanying CD containing the photographs used in the various projects for you to practice with, as some techniques required a specific subject matter, which some people may not have in their collection e.g. a jet engine to show heat haze. P>Overall a well presented and intuitive book, which allows you to experiment with new techniques in whatever order you choose. A must buy for every enthusiastic Photoshop user.

Highly Recommended

Creative Photoshop Lighting Techniques
Creative Photoshop Lighting Techniques
ISBN 1-904705-23-5

Barry Huggins
ILEX

Review by John Shaw, Timeless Digital Imaging

One of the most powerful and useful techniques that Photoshop has to offer is the ability to change lighting. This subject, however, is one of the most neglected amongst Photoshop books I have reviewed.

Well, here is a book that changes all that. This new publication by ILEX books concentrates solely on lighting techniques, packed with useful projects that will transform your photographs. The book discusses the various types and qualities of light, showing you how to create warm and cold hues, High and Low key images etc. It also includes a very useful chapter on using the Lighting Effects Filter and includes an explanation of its many settings, vital if you are to create a realistic lighting effect.

Each project is neatly covered in a chapter tackling a particular type of lighting. Examples include creating reflections on water, metal, glass etc, a chapter showing how to manipulate lighting and weather to make an overcast day appear sunny, create sunsets from daylight scenes including realistic rainbows and so on.

The layout is refreshingly easy to follow with minimum use of technical jargon and short step by step guides, accompanied by photographs and illustrations, showing the result of each manipulation of the picture. The projects are short and snappy, so you can work through different techniques quickly and efficiently.

A nice touch would have been an accompanying CD containing the photographs used in the various projects for you to practice with, as some techniques required a specific subject matter, which some people may not have in their collection e.g. a jet engine to show heat haze.

Overall a well presented and intuitive book, which allows you to experiment with new techniques in whatever order you choose. A must buy for every enthusiastic Photoshop user.

Highly Recommended

Skip the walking, and just run with it!
I bought this, looking for something that was as inspiring, and as informative as some magazine tutorial articles I’ve read for people like me; imaginative, not happy with "ordinary" photos, and eager to run before I can walk.

Although not just for beginners, by any means, it did just that ...... inform, and instruct. It does this in easy to follow, tutorial style, chapters which can be dipped into for any given result. In no time at all, you will be enabling realistic but larger than life results, which draw the extraordinary from the ordinary and mundane.

As is often the case, ........... it’s (relatively) easy when you know how.

Buy it! You won’t be disappointed!

Skip the walking, and just run with it.