How to Shoot Great Photographs Using Electronic Flash

It was really refreshing to read about the authors fears of flash that he has had for 30 years. Now I think I have much more confidence approaching my photography with the knowledge I have gained from this book.

Love this book - I keep it handy for reading when I need to brush up on my skills. I don't like flash so I found this book helpful and keep in my family room for brushing up as I still haven't mastered this part of my hobby as I would like to. Well thought out and clear instructions - didn't bore me to death.

I really like this book, it teachs me things that i didn't know about flash photography, but really important things.
Most of the flash photos you take are ugly, with white light in the subjects and then black shadows. Well, this books explain why happen this and how to use the flash and camera to solve this.
I'm happy with the book.

As with all of Peterson's photography books, "Understanding Flash Photography" is a joy. He makes a very complex subject easy for both the novice and advanced photographer to understand. I give it ten stars out of five.

I've been shooting with flahses for several years, mostly resulting in the average fill flash type of photography. Bryan Peterson's book has unleashed a whole new view of flash photography forme, I am taking my flash off the camera more and using it as a "miniature sun" and getting some fun and creative results.

This book should be the manual that comes with the SB 900. If you have both
then you can do exactly like Mr. Peterson does. I have the SB 600 and there
is no examples of that. The SB 600 does not allow setting the aperture or distance like
the 800 or 900. A page or two on this would have been great. There is a web site
in the book with video on how to set other flash models in manual mode but the
site does not come up?

This book's title should have been "Understanding NIKON Flash Photography". I have honestly not finished the book yet, but it is really frustrating that all of the examples of setting flash manually are based on the Nikon system. I am extremely new to strobe lighting, and perhaps I missed this in my Canon Speedlite 430EX II manual, but there doesn't seem to be an easy way to just manually input the f-stop I'm using on my camera when my speedlite is off-camera and not in E-TTL II mode. I understand the author uses Nikon and it is what he is familiar with, but the title of the book leads one to believe that the lessons will be applicable to all Flashes.
I will certainly amend this review as soon as I run across the information in the book that shows me how to to set my Canon Speedlite, and any other Strobe I might happen to own, for a correct manual off-camera exposure. If someone has already found this information, I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know.

Having bought and loved most of Bryan Peterson's other photography books, I pre-ordered this one! Should have saved my money and used it toward purchasing an SB-900 because that's what you need to duplicate any of the techniques in this book! And if you already have an SB-900 (or similar flash) then you prolly don't need this book because the flash is already telling you everything that Peterson will.

I discovered Bryan Peterson from the videos he makes for Adorama TV. In all of the videos he demonstrates how to achieve good results in ordinary situations without resorting to expensive layouts such as a professional studio. In this book he takes just the same approach. The book works through a whole variety of scenarios where he uses flash to obtain some great photographs. In each case he tells you all the camera and flash settings he used and also tells you exactly why he chose those settings. In the vast majority of cases he uses just one flash gun although on a few occasions he uses a second flash.

In each case he shows a smaller photo taken without the benefit of flash and a larger image showing the improved picture taken with flash. There are also many photos showing the actual set up that he used.

The book is really easy to read and understand and has taught me more about flash photography than I ever knew before. Previously, I've always used flash in full automatic mode and have never been really happy with the results. Thanks to Bryan Peterson I now know better. A highly recommended book.

I just bought my Speed Light 910 without knowing anything about flash photography. Once I looked into the Manual of Speed light, I was tremendously shocked. I could not make much sense from the information in the manual and I thought, learning flash photography would be really hard. Then, I purchased this book and now I am getting hope. This book is so well written for the beginners that, I am really getting more and more confidence. But if there is anyone who is like me, bought Nikon Speed Light first before learning flash photography, I would suggest to get The Nikon Creative Lighting System: Using the SB-600, SB-700, SB-800, SB-900, SB-910, and R1C1 Flashes along with this book. Brian Peterson really knows how to teach. He teaches from the root concept. I like that. For example, In this book, he started teaching the Flash directly from Manual Mode. I did not try other Flash Photography books so, I cant compare this book with other similar title books, but what I think, this book should be good enough for me not to bother about trying other similar title books.

Bryan Peterson teaches you how to get good images and how to be creative and have fun with flash photography. Now there have been some who have criticized him for horsing around with the camera and creating some crazy images. But that's what I like about him. I feel that there's a time to be seroius and get images as "pro" as you can. And there's a time to have pure fun with photography and see what you can create. And yes he uses a Nikon SB-900 and gives you specifics on that particular model. But when you learn how to operate every function on your flash, you can apply that info to the gear that you have. I'd recommend a tutorial on your particular flash gear then get this book.

I have really enjoyed Bryan Peterson's books in the past. But this one is not one of them. He doesn't discuss any lighting techniques like bouncing, using light light modifiers (softboxes, gels), nothing about strobes, umbrellas. I was really looking forward to the book, but this one has been, sadly, very disappointing. I would have given it more stars if the pictures were amazing. However, his shots with flash didn't inspire me at all. In most cases I actually preferred the ones without flash for the mood it conveyed. The ones with flash seemed too harsh to me, not a good job of balancing ambient and flash.

I went to our library yesterday night and picked up some photography books. I got this book about flash photography

I went through the whole book. Frankly I am not impressed by his photos taken with the speedlites. The photos he considers to be good don't look that good to me. Most of his portraits have that shiny skin look, reminding me that it was taken with a flash. IMHO photos worthy to be printed in a book should be pretty good.

Also, he also seldom mentions diffusers or such. Maybe he needs more than tissue paper [which he suggests at one point] Why not use diffusers?

Most of the book is dedicated to calculating exposure mathematically. I'm not sure who has time to do so many manual calculations when you are in, say, a fast moving birthday party type situation.

Glady's negative review is spot on if you wanna read more about this book.

Bryan Peterson has a fantastic way how to explain the complexity of photography in an enjoyable and easy way. You can follow the ideas behind how flash works, how can be used and mainly how to shoot creatively!
The explanations are useful enough to keep your attention, and the example images make you motivated to try the techniques immediately!
Just another fantastic book!
As Bryan always says "You keep shotting", and please let's keep reading!!! Because is the must!!!

What a great book, I knew using flash was difficult, I knew I had to read a book on how to do it, this book explains it all, it's one of the very few thechnical books I have read from cover to cover Peter explains it in a way that you instantly get and the examples and how to produce the pictures or pictures like that are very telling. If you want to learn about using Flash this is the book to get.

I loved all the examples and how each picture was itself a smalls story. Guides to technique as well some theory behind how it all works was well mixed together. Some part get a bit repetitive and sometimes corny, but overall I feel this really helped me understand flash photography better

I was taking a photography class and asked about buying a macro lens. A couple of people recommended this book. I used the "Look Inside" feature and decided to buy it. It was just what I needed. It gave advice on what equipment to get for what types of closeups and discusses prices. I think this will save me money by helping me avoid mistakes. It also shows the types of photography that can be done with the equipment. I highly recommend it to those who are trying to decide what equipment they need to buy for taking various types of closeup photos.

What a great book, I knew using flash was difficult, I knew I had to read a book on how to do it, this book explains it all, it's one of the very few thechnical books I have read from cover to cover Peter explains it in a way that you instantly get and the examples and how to produce the pictures or pictures like that are very telling. If you want to learn about using Flash this is the book to get.

I loved all the examples and how each picture was itself a smalls story. Guides to technique as well some theory behind how it all works was well mixed together. Some part get a bit repetitive and sometimes corny, but overall I feel this really helped me understand flash photography better

I was taking a photography class and asked about buying a macro lens. A couple of people recommended this book. I used the "Look Inside" feature and decided to buy it. It was just what I needed. It gave advice on what equipment to get for what types of closeups and discusses prices. I think this will save me money by helping me avoid mistakes. It also shows the types of photography that can be done with the equipment. I highly recommend it to those who are trying to decide what equipment they need to buy for taking various types of closeup photos.