book review: Creative Flash Photography, by Tilo Gockel
Tilo Gockel (website: FotoPraxis), is a German photographer who some might remember from guest articles that has appeared on Tangents. His article on innovative product photography on a budget – Diver’s Chronograph, was particularly impressive when you compare the results with the home setup. You might also know Tilo from various impressive posts in the Strobist group on Facebook. Prolific and innovative.
The subtitle of this book is the best description of what you’d find inside: Great Lighting with Small Flashes: 40 Flash Workshops. Over the course of 290 pages, this book breaks down numerous techniques into digestible chunks – 40 chapters discussion subjects which range from portraits to product photography and macro photography.
What is particularly impressive me about Tilo’s work and this book – the variety in subjects.
The author concentrates on speedlights and affordable accessories. So the techniques are well within the reach of every photographer.
The material in the book is easily accessible – the techie stuff is also distributed in each chapter as Tips, Tricks and Notes. There are also side-bar articles and In-Depth notes within each Workshop chapter, where topics are discussed on their own. There are also notes on any Photoshop techniques he used in post-processing an image.
- Creative Flash Photography: Great Lighting with Small Flashes – Amazon (USA)
- Creative Flash Photography: Great Lighting with Small Flashes – Amazon (UK)
A short breakdown of some of the topics to show the extent of this book
– Portraits for Business Professionals
– Gobo projections using flash
– How to produce lots of light with multiple small flashes
– Using colored gels with flash
– Key shifting to produce punchy light
– Underwater shoot with a model
– Macro photography with flash
– Dark-field lighting to photograph coins
– Still Life with Bounce flash (and yes, the BFT gets a mention!)
– shooting for eBay, (incl how to create a reflection)
– Photos for Catalogs
– Photographing reflective subjects
– Simple and complex lighting setups for food photography
– High-speed flash – milk and chocolate splash
– Dark-field high-speed flash product photography
Summary
This is very much part of the appeal of this book – the author’s enthusiasm for photographing such diverse subjects. I highly recommend the book to anyone who wants to progress beyond the basics and stretch what they do. This is all within your reach!
Related articles
- Innovative product photography on a budget – Diver’s Chronograph, by Tilo Gockel
- Flash photography tips, by Tilo Gockel
- Tilo Gockel’s website: FotoPraxis
- Other photography book reviews
Transparency
As mentioned at the start, Tilo has been featured as a guest on Tangents. Also, one of the times I hung out with Tilo when he visited New York with a photographer friend, resulted in this post on Tangents: using interesting available light & white balance options. I have to mention this for transparency. I know the author. Nice guy. And I am impressed with his work … which beautifully illustrates this book. I should also mention that I bought my own copy of this book, because I had high expectations of Tilo in this regard.
Wow, thanks so much, Neil!
And if anyone wants to catch a glimpse, what exactly is going on in this book, just have a look at the photo gallery. https://www.flickr.com/photos/galllo/sets/72157646946976113/
All the best, — Tilo
Neil,
Thanks for the expert review. Have several of your books and I love them. Very informative. Just picked up Tilo’s book. In getting into it, found some very interesting information on page 16 & 17 about metering that I have never heard another photographer talk about or use. Tilo states that if you meter your light with a handheld meter and expose accordingly, it can cause issues rendering the subject too dark or too light ie: overexposing or underexposing. He states it is better to meter the reflected light off the subject. I have never tried this nor have I ever heard of someone doing this. I have never had any problems metering the light directly as it falls on the subject. Would be curious as to your thoughts on this. Also, if you do meter per Tilo, what would be the correct distance to hold the meter away from the subject so as to ensure a correct reading?
Thanks and look forward to your response…Rob
Hello Rob, well, this is quite easy, …. just have a look in the manual of your light meter, I think, this will explain that stuff. More details can be found e.g. here (see below), all the best Tilo
Thanks for review. I really love this book