This is a quiet book full of information, but bubbling with the kind of energy that is created when you realize you can do what you thought you couldn’t.

Lighting can be a daunting subject when you are dealing with all the technology and tools and toys that the modern photographer has at his/her fingertips. Add to that all the thrills of digital instant review and it can be quite the learning curve. And ‘fixing it in Photoshop” is just stupid when you can learn to do it right first.

Kirk Tuck, an Austin photographer who makes his living shooting for clients all over Texas and the southwest is one of the quiet shooters who can come in and get the shot. Whatever the circumstances. Whatever the location, pressures, challenges and pure crap that shooters have to deal with, Kirk gets the shot that the client wanted.

Sometimes this means a truck load of equipment and sometimes it means moving lean and mean with small strobes. Kirk does both, but the book is about how a minimal amount of gear can be all you need to get really professional shots.

He does this with both technical explanations and real world assignment reviews that let you right on to the set with him as he works with subjects in a variety of situations. His mix of talking tech and showing the work makes it come alive for the reader. It makes the book more like a seminar with a master than an assembly of chapters.

The first half of the book is a school of equipment and modifications that every shooter should know. It is the kind of common knowledge that allows professionals to speak to one another and be on the same page. Learning the tools and what they do will make your life so much simpler. Some of us took years to accumulate all this knowledge… Kirk gives it to you in about 50 pages. Tools explained and images to go along with the tools to show what he is talking about in a real world setting.

I had a couple of friends review the book as well. One is a budding shooter who is starting to make a name for himself in the industry and the other is a guy who has been shooting maybe even longer than me, if that is even possible. They both found the book extremely informative. The young shooter had only recently started working with strobes and had purchased some PW’s and a couple of speedlights a few months ago. He found the information “really easy to understand, and that made the book a quick read… and note taking was easy.”

Working with the speedlights more and more, he was finding the limitations a bit challenging without really knowing what to do about it. Remember, he didn’t have years of working with light under his belt to draw on. This is one of the places that Kirk’s book rocks. It is ready to deliver the information to a beginner in terms meant to make it more accessible, not mysterious and ‘magical’ like some others do.

My seasoned pro was really knocked out by the light that Kirk gets from some small lights and modifiers. Generally my old pro buddy carries tons of gear to even a small headshot assignment. After reading the book he has been working at taking less gear… some days more successfully than others, but it is a hard habit to break, ya know. “I was really amazed that the light quality from the SB’s was so nice. I had only thought of it for ‘grip’n grins’ on top of the camera” he told me. Now he has a few of them with triggers and some umbrellas as well. You may still catch him lighting a little insert shot with 2400WS packs turned way down, but recently he was very excited about a shoot he did totally with speedlights.

Personally my favorite part of the book is the second half where Kirk takes us on some assignments with him. Explaining not only the shot, but how the client views the images and what they want to get from the work is invaluable to a budding commercial shooter. It ain’t all glitz and glam… sometimes you just gotta get the shot the client wants you to get. And it has to be right.

Kirk shows you how to do many seemingly simple shots and explains the complexity behind them. This kind of stuff is what photographers need to do more of. Many shooters in smaller markets simply never had the opportunity to assist big time advertising shooters, so they missed the real world teaching moments that come at an assistant daily.

In the title graphic I call it Gear for the Brain. That is exactly what it is. It makes you think about the shot, and the client, and the subject and the finished image… all at the same time. The synergy between the minimalist lighting gear and how Kirk creates the shot with the subject is especially interesting. It isn’t just his gear, it is a whole approach to work that is easy to understand and model for your own work.

Now this is not a book for someone wanting to be ‘knocked out’ by extreme imagery. By Kirk’s own admission, this is workaday work for clients who need clean, well composed and lit images for their corporate work, advertising and PR needs. Kirk delivers what they need and want, and they reward him with more assignments.

Bottom line… if you are wanting a book that introduces you to the equipment in a way that is easy to understand, simple to follow and will open your eyes to the abilities of the speedlights tucked in your bag, this is it. Combining it with David Hobby’s excellent DVD set would be a powerful library of solid information that could transform the way you think about lighting. At least from a minimalist point of view. Your back may thank you for it someday.

See the book here.

– Don Giannatti