Free lighting e-book

Donation left at AllForHorses, will add a review on Amazon once I've had a chance to start reading the book.
 
Hi Garry @Garry Edwards

Just a quick aside note ~ ref Wallace Heaton - you mentioned working for them in your opening introduction.....................mention of that company was a real blast from the past for me, my brother and I went often to their Earls Court branch to buy kit (during the mid 1960's [scratches head?]

It was where I got my EXA 1a with waistlevel viewfinder.....I never could afford the pentaprism. The manager (or at least as I think he was the manager, whose name escapes me) was as I recall an ex WW2 tank commander. Oh, sad to say I threw my last Blue Book away decades ago....I should have kept one of them!
 
Box Brownie said:
Hi Garry @Garry Edwards

Just a quick aside note ~ ref Wallace Heaton - you mentioned working for them in your opening introduction.....................mention of that company was a real blast from the past for me, my brother and I went often to their Earls Court branch to buy kit (during the mid 1960's [scratches head?]

It was where I got my EXA 1a with waistlevel viewfinder.....I never could afford the pentaprism. The manager (or at least as I think he was the manager, whose name escapes me) was as I recall an ex WW2 tank commander. Oh, sad to say I threw my last Blue Book away decades ago....I should have kept one of them!
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Yes, the old EXA, I remember it well, a cutdown version of the Exakta. Personally I bought the Edixaflex, a cutdown version of the Edixa Reflex, for some reason I still remember that it cost me £44.6.11d, which was about 9 weeks wages at the time:)
This again was with the waist level finder, for the same reason as you. Using it in portrait mode was 'fun' and made me appreciate the Rolleicord that Wallace Heatons supplied me with for outdoor shots!
f/2.8 Steinheil lens, no automation, no stopdown preset, not even click stops, so had to focus wide open, then look at the lens and stop it down, then recompose on a screen that was often too dark to see - a lot of modern photographers simply don't realise how hard it was then.
I don't think that I ever went to the Earls Court Branch, I was at the main shop at 127 New Bond Street, on the front counter. A customer came in, he had been saving for months to buy his first camera and asked me whether he should get the Ilford Sportsman. Then (as now) I was too honest or too thick to be diplomatic and I told him that we called it the Ilford film tearing machine and that he should buy the Voitlander Vito A instead, which was a great camera and which cost exactly the same. The manager, a Mr. Mills, overhead this and sacked me on the spot, he told me to go to the 5th floor to get my cards.

Whilst I was waiting, one of the directors, the famous W.D. Emmanuel walked in and asked me why I was there. I told him, he said that he could not interfere with Mr. Mills' department but as it happened he had a vacancy in the commercial photography department if I wanted it - this was the absolute pinnacle, and I should have had to work there for another 4 years to reach that dizzy height.

Wallace Heaton was a terrible employer in terms of wages and conditions, but they were good to me. Mr Emmanuel enrolled me onto the C&G course (WH sponsored it and he wrote the textbooks for it) and later sponsored me on my degree course, the first ever photographer that they did this for.
 
Garry Edwards said:
Yes, the old EXA, I remember it well, a cutdown version of the Exakta. Personally I bought the Edixaflex, a cutdown version of the Edixa Reflex, for some reason I still remember that it cost me £44.6.11d, which was about 9 weeks wages at the time:)
This again was with the waist level finder, for the same reason as you. Using it in portrait mode was 'fun' and made me appreciate the Rolleicord that Wallace Heatons supplied me with for outdoor shots!
f/2.8 Steinheil lens, no automation, no stopdown preset, not even click stops, so had to focus wide open, then look at the lens and stop it down, then recompose on a screen that was often too dark to see - a lot of modern photographers simply don't realise how hard it was then.
I don't think that I ever went to the Earls Court Branch, I was at the main shop at 127 New Bond Street, on the front counter. A customer came in, he had been saving for months to buy his first camera and asked me whether he should get the Ilford Sportsman. Then (as now) I was too honest or too thick to be diplomatic and I told him that we called it the Ilford film tearing machine and that he should buy the Voitlander Vito A instead, which was a great camera and which cost exactly the same. The manager, a Mr. Mills, overhead this and sacked me on the spot, he told me to go to the 5th floor to get my cards.

Whilst I was waiting, one of the directors, the famous W.D. Emmanuel walked in and asked me why I was there. I told him, he said that he could not interfere with Mr. Mills' department but as it happened he had a vacancy in the commercial photography department if I wanted it - this was the absolute pinnacle, and I should have had to work there for another 4 years to reach that dizzy height.

Wallace Heaton was a terrible employer in terms of wages and conditions, but they were good to me. Mr Emmanuel enrolled me onto the C&G course (WH sponsored it and he wrote the textbooks for it) and later sponsored me on my degree course, the first ever photographer that they did this for.
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Right man, right circumstances and right good landing on your feet with the boss :) "Fortune favours the honest......" or words to that effect :)

PS my EXA1a and indeed the EXA 500 my brother bought were both second-hand...............I think it was at that same time I bought new a small Sekonic meter to go with it :)
 
Thanks Garry. I've had a good look through and left an Amazon review. The review is pending so should appear shortly.
 
Thanks for the E-book Garry. Just started reading. Can it be true there is no table of content?
 
soeren said:
Thanks for the E-book Garry. Just started reading. Can it be true there is no table of content?
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Well, it was created in Word, which according to Amazon is the right way to go, and I used "Heading 1" for chapter headings and "Heading 2) for the various projects. The Amazon software stripped out the chapter headings, so the table of contents dissapeared too. I will sort out this, and some other formatting problems, with the second edition. Trying to get it to survive the Amazon formatting is a bit of a pain.

And just to make life more difficult, it's 262 pages in the original A4 format, but 345 pages on Amazon, which makes it very difficult to allocate page numbers to the table of content.
 
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Going through it slowly Garry. Are you interested in critical feedback & editing comments?

My wife was an editor in her old life and she's made me very self-conscious of my own writing (which I then pass on to others through my pedantry).
 
Harlequin565 said:
Going through it slowly Garry. Are you interested in critical feedback & editing comments?

My wife was an editor in her old life and she's made me very self-conscious of my own writing (which I then pass on to others through my pedantry).
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Yes, I would appreciate that greatly.

I've had some help from a friend who is a linguist, but unfortunately he's had to put it on the back burner because he's suddenly flooded with work, so I thought it best to get it out there, assess whether or not it is likely to be successful and, if promising, produce a second, better edition.
The problem is that Amazon takes most of the money, so for the charity to gain any real benefit it needs to sell very well - which costs me quite a lot of money and which creates a catch 22 situation.

So, all help, and especially from people who have expertise in the subject, will be immensly helpful.
 
Well I'm going through it now. Up to page 88 so a way to go yet...

One thing that's striking me is that the information presented is really really useful, but it's not that well organised. You're talking about 800W/s on p63 but then explaining what that means on p66. This is where a good editor is required. You're the subject expert, they're the "book" expert and can take your knowledge and lay it out in a proper methodical way. All the information on p64-68 would be better at the beginning of the doc as this is beginner stuff (how to set your camera up etc).

My suggestion would be for you to either a) pay an editor to do the job for you or b) make a local appeal to your charity sponsors, or through a local social media source (Streetlife/Facebook?). I say local, because having someone you can physically sit down with will make the process go so much quicker. Also, the formatting needs a bit of work. The majority of e-readers are B&W so all your blue headings, red text and colour photos will be desaturated. Consider italics...

I've started a list of all these things. But like most people, time is limited and I'm doing an hour here & there where I can. If you want me to send through 100 pages at a time, I can, or you can wait till I'm done.
Sorry I can't be more help. Like I said, I love your writing style (and the humour) and it's clear you're a subject expert who has a lot to offer. I just think the document needs a lot of polish & organisation.
 
Gary,
I've read through the introduction section (what gear do you need) and the first 'tutorial' (tomatoes and pepper).
My initial comments are pretty much what you have already noted - it's missing overall formatting / chapter structure / headings, which does need to be resolved.
I also noted that the final image of the Tomatoes & Pepper appears to be much lower quality than the previous images.
Content wise, the only thing that you might consider adding is a 'pull back' shot - showing the whole setup - camera, subject, lights, etc. - it's one thing that is often requested or included on a lot of posts in the Facebook Godox lighting group, so seems to be popular and does sometimes help understand exactly where things are.

Will continue to read through as I get the time.

Thanks again for the copy - hoping I'll get the chance to try some of the shots over the holiday :)
 
Harlequin565 said:
Well I'm going through it now. Up to page 88 so a way to go yet...

One thing that's striking me is that the information presented is really really useful, but it's not that well organised. You're talking about 800W/s on p63 but then explaining what that means on p66. This is where a good editor is required. You're the subject expert, they're the "book" expert and can take your knowledge and lay it out in a proper methodical way. All the information on p64-68 would be better at the beginning of the doc as this is beginner stuff (how to set your camera up etc).

My suggestion would be for you to either a) pay an editor to do the job for you or b) make a local appeal to your charity sponsors, or through a local social media source (Streetlife/Facebook?). I say local, because having someone you can physically sit down with will make the process go so much quicker. Also, the formatting needs a bit of work. The majority of e-readers are B&W so all your blue headings, red text and colour photos will be desaturated. Consider italics...

I've started a list of all these things. But like most people, time is limited and I'm doing an hour here & there where I can. If you want me to send through 100 pages at a time, I can, or you can wait till I'm done.
Sorry I can't be more help. Like I said, I love your writing style (and the humour) and it's clear you're a subject expert who has a lot to offer. I just think the document needs a lot of polish & organisation.
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Thanks. I accept your points and value your input. If it suits you, it might be better to wait until you've managed to work your way through to the end.. There will certainly be a second, improved edition, I just need to make sure that publishing an update won't lose the reviews - of which there are just two so far - but once I'm ready to submit the update I will try to talk to someone at Amazon. They have a good 'help' system, but language and communication can be difficult. . .
Faldrax said:
Gary,
I've read through the introduction section (what gear do you need) and the first 'tutorial' (tomatoes and pepper).
My initial comments are pretty much what you have already noted - it's missing overall formatting / chapter structure / headings, which does need to be resolved.
I also noted that the final image of the Tomatoes & Pepper appears to be much lower quality than the previous images.
Content wise, the only thing that you might consider adding is a 'pull back' shot - showing the whole setup - camera, subject, lights, etc. - it's one thing that is often requested or included on a lot of posts in the Facebook Godox lighting group, so seems to be popular and does sometimes help understand exactly where things are.

Will continue to read through as I get the time.

Thanks again for the copy - hoping I'll get the chance to try some of the shots over the holiday :)
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I've included pull back shots where I can. The difficulty that I have (which is just me) is that I often get absorbed with the shoot and forget about the pull-backs until it's too late. Owen Lloyd had a good idea with his shots, he very helpfully used software to re-create the lighting arrangements, which I can also do.
I agree that the quality of the final shot in the diffused specular highlights project does look bad, Amazon slaps on extra charges based on book size/bandwidth and so I had to reduce image quality, otherwise we would end up with all of the money going to Amazon, but the final shot in that project shouldn't look worse than the others. Here it is.
specular_retouched.jpg
Graham W said:
This is why I bagged myself a free copy and donated straight to the cause...Just a thought. ;)
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Several people have donated, and I'm grateful for that, even though I didn't ask anyone to do so.
 
Graham W said:
This is why I bagged myself a free copy and donated straight to the cause...Just a thought. ;)
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superpippo said:
Hi Garry,
I have received my emailed copy.
Thank you
As with @Graham W , I will make a contribution. Although you did not mention it, a donation is only fair as we would have to pay Amazon for it if we wanted it and then only a small proportion would go to the charity.
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I can but agree with my fellow TP'ers above........................as I too intend to make a donation on the All For Horses website!
 
Thanks for the book Garry, I will try and read and review as soon as I have the time.
 
Garry Edwards said:
Several people have donated, and I'm grateful for that, even though I didn't ask anyone to do so.
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Well I hope you've learned your lesson, Garry. Months spent crafting a comprehensive guide to the topic that most confounds aspiring photographers, generously offering the value of a lifetime's hard-earned practical experience. All you had to do was post a link. :rolleyes:
 
I emailed you some feedback Garry. If you didn't receive it let me know and I'll bore everyone here...
 
superpippo said:
Hi Garry,
I have received my emailed copy.
Thank you
As with @Graham W , I will make a contribution. Although you did not mention it, a donation is only fair as we would have to pay Amazon for it if we wanted it and then only a small proportion would go to the charity.
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Be fair, there must be substantial overheads for Amazon to cover, tax for instance. :whistle:
 
khakoo said:
Be fair, there must be substantial overheads for Amazon to cover, tax for instance. :whistle:
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Good joke:)
But it gets better - or worse:)
I'm not selling it as an individual, the charity has been registered since 1990 and they are selling it. Amazon have the charity registration details so their software must know that charity income is tax exempt.. However, after deducting all of their charges, they then deduct another 30% off the bottom figure for "Tax" that isn't even payable.
I can't help wondering who this gets paid to.

There's nothing that can be done about it, they have a total monopoly in this market, they make the rules.
 
I downloaded the book and I have made a donation of more than the cost of the Amazon version to AllForHorses Garry. A quick look at it last night has whetted my appetite so I'll be getting stuck into it asap and will also leave a review on Amazon. Thanks again.
 
Garry Edwards said:
Good joke:)
But it gets better - or worse:)
I'm not selling it as an individual, the charity has been registered since 1990 and they are selling it. Amazon have the charity registration details so their software must know that charity income is tax exempt.. However, after deducting all of their charges, they then deduct another 30% off the bottom figure for "Tax" that isn't even payable.
I can't help wondering who this gets paid to.

There's nothing that can be done about it, they have a total monopoly in this market, they make the rules.
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I doubt fixing that particular 'bug' is high on Amazon's priorities to resolve, but in the meantime I'm sure they'll blame the software..
 
Garry Edwards said:
As per the title, this is my new e-book, Lighting Magic.

Copies are available free to TP members for the next week or so. Please drop me a PM with your email address and I'll email it to you.

You’ve guessed it, it’s about using and creating light. The book, which runs for 263 A4 pages (or a lot more Kindle pages), has been created mainly by me and with valuable contributions from other photographers, including @Michael Sewell and @Scooter, both of whom are members here.

Years ago, I created a whole series of e-books on lighting and they sold like hot cakes, but then the Internet changed things and people stopped buying information, believing that they could get everything they needed for free. That isn’t true of course, we all know that although there is some good stuff out there on the net, most of the free tutorials and videos are either deliberately deceptive and misleading rubbish designed to sell overpriced junk lighting accessories via “celebrity photographers” many of whom are best known for their selling skills, or are teasers designed to sell expensive video training courses.

In my own small way I’m trying to fight back against this by producing something based on real knowledge, real experience and real – i.e. not Photoshop faked - lighting. With luck, this book will be around for years after I’ve gone, and will provide a useful resource to new generations of photographers. Photography has been very good to me, it’s time to give something back.

Lighting Magic has just gone on sale on Amazon, priced at £4.99. All proceeds are going to All For Horses, www.allforhorses.org.uk a small horse rescue and re-homing charity that I support. I spend a lot of time volunteering there, doing mainly labouring and driving jobs, hopefully the income from the book will carry on being useful when I no longer am.

Regardless of whether it’s any good or not, Lighting Magic has to compete with a lot of other e-books on Amazon and it will only sell if we can get it right up there in the visibility list, and the best way of doing that is for a lot of people to post helpful, detailed reviews about it on Amazon.

Which is where we need your help – please read the book, and then help us to make it more visible on Amazon by writing as detailed and as useful a review as you can. Obviously it will help a lot if your review is positive but all reviews help.
This is the Amazon buying page, and you'll see where to click to post your review

Please don’t expect me to respond quickly to any queries. I’m on the farm a lot of the time, the Internet on North Yorkshire hill farms is… basic and for some reason doesn’t work at all on our two way radios:)
I did, at one point, have it nicely formatted but the Amazon software didn't like it. I will try to improve it in the next edition.

And finally, my thanks to @Marcel for his permission to start this thread.
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Very many thanks for emailing your book Garry, its much appreciated and very kind of you, and naturally I’ll leave the appropriate feedback as soon as I get a chance to have a read.(y)

George.
 
Donation left :)
 
Update (and this is also in my first post, which I have now edited.

The offer of the free e-book will end at 12 noon on Sunday 30th December - I feel that this gives plenty of time for active members of this forum to have requested a copy.
However, I will be at the farm from Monday 17th December and don't plan to return until Saturday 29th December, and because I'll be busy there and because the internet there is very poor (on a good day) I won't be able to respond to these requests until I'm back - don't think that you've been forgotten.

I will start work on editing the 2nd edition in the new year, and a copy of the new version will be then be sent to everyone who has left a review on Amazon. As the whole point of giving away the free copies is to gain Amazon reviews in return, I don't think that it is unreasonable to restrict copies of the latest version to those people who have helped in this way.
 
just left a review thank you very much sorry it's taken so long to do but it is totally appreciated.
 
Bummer !!!

Just seen this @Garry Edwards - so about 9 hours AFTER your deadline closed

In the spirit of Christmas here's my email address though - david@davidgoodierphotography.co.uk just in case you wish to send it :)

But as I appreciate you're in Yorkshire so you're a hard-ass so I won't be upset if you honour your deadline and tell me to FO :D

Happy farm days whatever bud :)

Dave
 
My e-book has changed (and hopefully improved quite a lot since sending out the original version).
These changes have resulted partly from helpful comments from readers, partly because it became clear that more than one version was needed - Amazon's software doesn't allow formatting or reasonable image quality, pdf software does - and partly because I've learned a bit more about the process..

Anyway, because of this I have now sent the current version to everyone who responded to this thread - nearly 200 people. Improvements will continue as the editing process still needs some work, but I feel that this version is worth both my time and yours.

The new version has replaced the previous one on Amazon, and I'm now working on the next stage, which is making the book available as a paperback. Because of Amazon's fees and charges, this will have to sell at a very high price - at least £24.99 plus postage - and I doubt whether many people will be prepared to pay that, but at least it offers an option, and makes the e-book look cheap.

And then, whilst "Lighting Magic" is away being professionally edited in preparation for its final version, I'll be starting another one. This one will be on product photography - a very big potential market - and will be about much more than the photography side, it will also be about online marketing of products, which is every bit as important as the photography/lighting.

My thanks to those who have left a review on Amazon, this is really helpful. If you haven't already done so, please do - the Amazon page is here https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07L2FWXGC
 
So you've emailed nearly 200 and you only have 14 reviews? C'mon folks!
 
Maybe a daft question - but do you want a raft of reviews immediately - or some now and some later?
 
cymruchris said:
Maybe a daft question - but do you want a raft of reviews immediately - or some now and some later?
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Good question - both really:)
Hopefully if there are enough reviews now the book will work its way much higher up the visibility list, more people will then buy it and hopefully some of them will leave reviews, which will keep the momentum going..
 
Garry Edwards said:
Good question - both really:)
Hopefully if there are enough reviews now the book will work its way much higher up the visibility list, more people will then buy it and hopefully some of them will leave reviews, which will keep the momentum going..
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Just thinking it might be better to get a slow, continuous rate of reviews - rather than 50 at the start and then 1 a month (I'm just plucking figures out of the air there). I'll happily leave a nice positive review - and can do it immediately or a week or two down the line... (I have a good memory)
 
Thanks Garry, not had the chance to read it yet, but donation made x
 
Hi,

I was away when you made this very generous offer of your ebook. I was going to purchase this via Amazon to support the Charity but after reading through this am I better getting a copy off you and making a donation to the charity so Amazon doesn't take a cut and the tax? All in favor of them not getting a cut?

Paul
 
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