Review: Home Studio Photography ebook

I love using flash off-camera in the Strobist style. Many photos can be improved with off-camera light, and many kinds of photos can only be done with flashes. Unfortunately for an amateur or a student, the cost of buying one or more flashes, and the equipment to fire them off the camera may be all the budget can bear. Controlling and diffusing the light is essential to get the most out of your lighting gear, but modifiers can be expensive. The DIY Photography ebook Home Studio Photography is an answer to this problem!

This book is a collection of posts from the DIYP blog, original content and organised resources that are a valuable addition to the virtual bookshelf of all but the richest and most experienced of photographers. Within are clearly illustrated step-by-step instructions to make some of the most useful and most used light modifiers in a home studio. Even pros can find useful tips to quickly and cheaply make modifiers in a pinch, or just to save some money. I’ve made and used some of these myself!

The instructions are clear, the photographs of every step of the process make it easy to follow, and the layout is clean and attractive to look at (The book is laid out by my wife Naomi Creek – just because I’m biased doesn’t mean I’m wrong! :) ) In fact, the photos do such a great job, I found myself skimming the text a lot of the time.

The book doesn’t claim to be a guide on how to light your photos; that would be asking too much of it. Most light modifier projects in the book have example photos showing you the effect it has on the light, however, I felt that the book lacked a bit of context. What we have is a series of great projects, with simple result photos, but nothing to tie it all together. The book’s title is “Home Studio Photography”. I think the book would have benefited from an over-arching project of building your studio, explaining what kind of modifiers you need and why. In this context the reader would understand why they need a soft box. This would be reinforced if the book finished off with a chapter showing several more examples of studio shoots explaining the use of the modifiers; as it is, only two are given. I also would have liked to see something written about the studio itself: how much space you need, how to convert or prepare a space for photographic use and how to store all your nifty new DIY modifiers, for example.

Having said that, I think this is a fantastic book, and most of the DIY modifiers you will make from these instructions can be used anywhere you get your flashes out, not just in your home studio. Every flash photographer needs modifiers, and every photographer would rather save money if they can (to buy that new lens!). As such, I recommend this book to every photographer.

Special Offer!

Right now DIYP have a special offer available: You can purchase the ebook (regular price $19.85USD) with the highly acclaimed Trade Secret Strobist Cards (regular price $24.95USD) together for $29.95USD +S&H. These 24 cards show you a beautifully lit photo, and explain with lighting diagrams how they were taken. One of my minor criticisms of the DIYP ebook was that it didn’t have enough examples, so this special deal is a perfect match! In my opinion, I think this option should be available to all purchasers beyond the special offer. One can wish anyway! :)