Captured By the Light: The Essential Guide to Creating Extraordinary Wedding Photography (Voices That Matter Series)

Interesting, beautiful design, well written, but limited usefulness

I'm a part-time wedding photographer who has shot 100+ weddings. Just thumbing through this book, with its gorgeous photos and intelligent presentation, I knew I had to buy it. After reading it, I felt I had gotten a half-dozen or so useful techniques - well worth the purchase price. However, the book is based on about three premises: you have a high-ISO capable DSLR (he only covers Canon's line), you have a well-trained assistant to put a backlight behind your subjects, and you only photograph the weddings of beautiful people at stunning locations. This is not to denigrate the book at all -- if it helps you shoot like David Ziser you will have benefited tremendously. But if you're a solo photographer shooting with average equipment you might find it less than useful. Still, it's great to aspire to shoot like this and as such the book is photographically inspirational.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Helpful and insightful guide to basic wedding photography

A more contemporary view in to wedding photography, than cutting edge. Insight into equipment and lenses used is a plus.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

One of the best wedding photography books I have read

David is truly a master at lighting and composition in creating wonderful wedding images. In this book he describes in detail how to create these wonderful images through the use of proper lighting and composition technigues. He teaches lighting applied from on camera, off camera and natural lighting sources, allowing you to get wonderful images no matter what the natural lighting situation is. Each lesson is clearly explained, step by step, to give you clear instructions on how he uses each concept. If you apply what he teaches in this book, you will definitely take your wedding photography to the next level. This book is a must read for all wedding photographers, no matter what level they are working at.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Really informative. More for intermediate photographers that are wanting to further their lighting experience and expertise.

I like this book. I refer it from time to time even though I have already read it from front to back.

A great book so long as you can look past one thing

David Ziser does a great job of explaining how he shoots, what he looks for, what he shoots with (and why). His photos are wonderful.

But one thing that will nag at many of you is the page of pages of photos where he casually mentions how his assistant helped light this shot or that.

I don't know about you, but I've never had an assistant at my wedding shoots. It's just me. And while some of the things he talks about can certainly be done with a fixed light location, others simply can't.

If you can get past that, this is a well-written, easy to read experience. Sort of like Scott Kelby's photography (not Photoshop) books, but with more detail and background.

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