If you want to understand lighting – really understand it, prepare for many years of study. Or at least months and you might want to start with Nick Saglimbeni’s Nick Saglimbeni’s Mastering Lighting Volume 1 DVD Tutorial Series
Nick is a cinematic visual artist. He studied cinema at USC and accordingly, his approach to lighting is very different from the average stills photographer. This guy doesn’t mess around. If you want to see how to start from scratch MAKING light for your sessions, this is a great way to learn it from the inside out, the top to the bottom and everything in between.
If you can’t light, you can’t recreate your own ideas. This system is based on that notion. The overall approach includes:
- 3D Set Recreations: Experience professional shoots like never before: in first-person perspective. Each lighting setup is broken down to the simplest level to reveal how natural and artificial light sources are used within the scene.
- In-Depth Shot Composition Analysis: See how a final shot is composed in-camera, tackling step-by-step the variables that must be considered to make the vision a reality.
- Build Lighting Set-ups in Real Time: Watch a 360º view of Nick Saglimbeni’s actual photo shoots, learn how to breakdown and analyze your concept to choose the correct lighting.
- Master Professional Lighting Equipment: Work virtually with the lighting equipment that professionals use, learning when and where to use them.
- Perfect Post-Production Techniques: Watch Nick use his award-winning retouching techniques to finalize and perfect his shots in post.
- Set Yourself Apart: Master the important logistics of how to produce a successful shoot, including tips and tricks for managing a crew, working on location and collaborating with models.
Now if you’ve seen the promo materials for this tutorial you might have been put off. They are very, very slick. The high production values are a blessing but today, people seem to think of that stuff as TOO slick and might be tempted to discount the training material as all hype. I can understand that temptation but don’t give in to it.
Nick is the real deal. He’s doing things the camera club kids on the forums never dreamed of and if you want to set yourself apart, this training will help you do it.
I’ve seen most of the big names teach lighting and I’ve NEVER seen it taught this way. Showing shoots from start to finish, offering variations, there are lots of things to learn here.
The DVD comes with a bonus: Mastering Lighting includes Nick’s Lighting Journal where he discloses highly detailed lighting diagrams of all the shoots covered in the tutorial, allowing for more in-depth study. Also included are a glossary of terms that every professional must know.
The DVD works on Mac & PC and I highly recommend this to any photographer who wants to see how the big shots set up the big budget shoots. And don’t worry – you don’t need a big budget to learn these concepts.
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Filed under: Lighting, Photography, Reviews Tagged: lighting 
