This is a most interesting book. After reading so much about the art of photography recently, I was looking forward to reading a more technical 'how to do it' book. The book has ten chapters and lighting is described as 'the language of photography ..... and like any language, has a grammar and vocabulary.' The tools in the book are described as being about the grammar and vocabulary of light. The book lists three key principles involved with working with light - the size of the light source, the three types of reflection (diffused, reflected and glare) and the family of angles. Some of the science of light I had already studied during school days and more recently doing the Colour assignment and reading Michael Freeman's "The Colour of Photography". The three most important qualities of any light source are brightness, colour and contrast. The most useful aspect of this book is that it gives practical guidance on photographing various subjects demanding different approaches. The two most interesting chapters I found to be the ones about metal and portraits. The authors state that there are about six subject areas that photographers are supposed to encounter as they learn lighting and photographing metal is one of the most challenging. The section on portraiture, called An Arsenal of Lights was the most interesting for me as many of the principles and lighting set ups I have learnt on lighting and portraiture courses I have done previously. The main problem with this book for me is that it is obviously written by authors who know their subject but it is very wordy, laboured and difficult to understand. Some of the terms used are very familiar in photography. Other ones such as 'the family of angles' will be new to many people and hard to follow. It's a strange description as a family indicates several diffent parts but the family of angles describes a angle range from x to y. I had to research on the internet to find an illustrated text that explained this more effectively and found other people who had been reading this book making similar critisms. Nevertheless, this was an interesting and informative book to read. It has greatly built on and enhanced my understanding the light and I shall be using it as a reference in the future, especially when I come to photograph some of the subjects covered such as glass, metal and liquids.