All in all a pretty straightforward book with a simple premise and a strong reinforcement. Bryan advocates using manual exposure mode to control the ambient light and manual flash exposure to get predictable results. The book shows many examples with descriptions of how he got the desired results. The provided examples not only reinforce the material but also provide inspiration. Because of the simple premise and lots of examples, this is a quick and fairly easy read.

I had to quit reading for a while right at the beginning though and make myself some tools that would let me get the most of the book. Unlike what the book assumes, my current flash (SB-600) does not do the manual calculations automatically! Well, it does not do them at all. And since I own two of them and am happy with them otherwise I did not think the book's price should be increased by the price of a new SB-700 or SB-900. I think I will not be alone in this boat and some words on how to use flashes without the automation would be nice. I spent a whole evening putting together an easy to use one-page chart that would give me the aperture / distance data while reflecting the flash power, ISO, and zoom head setting! I needed the flash manual for my unit and some Google research. Later, I shot a variety of combinations to check that my matrix properly worked. That alone was an interesting and fun exercise. However, what the manual alone had was not exactly usable, calculating everything based on guide numbers in the field would not be too practical. I plan to share more on this topic soon including the chart I created.

In a few spots the book has a few inaccuracies. It suggests adding a diffuser or a gel cuts about 1 stop of light and as such you had to move the light to about half the distance. I realize the two about words and even the 1 stop being just approximate, but reenforcing the square law of distance would mean that if a gel cuts 1 stop of light, you only need to move to just under 3/4 of the distance to double the light back up (need to move to 1 / √2 of the distance, i.e. 0.7 times the original distance).

Towards the end, the book mentions there is no exposure compensation button on the camera. I realize how that was meant (at least I think so) and the rest of the explanation wrapped around both the camera and the flash being in manual mode was right on and with great examples. However, for people still using automation a bit more, there is an exposure compensation button on the camera. For example, on the D200 it is right next to the shutter along with the mode selection. And unfortunately, it works in a rather confusing fashion, in my opinion, at least combined with TTL flash. Using this exposure compensation button, the overall exposure is impacted, ambient and flash! I do not like that behavior a bit. It is not easy to darken the ambient exposure without impacting flash. Once the main exposure compensation is adjusted towards underexposure, the flash exposure compensation has to be brought up in the reverse direction to maintain the proper flash exposure. That alone is a great reason to go manual to stay sane! Many times, I use the camera in manual mode to control ambient light and then keep the flash in TTL. I find it rather predictable. Unlike using automatic exposure that can be fooled by different darkness of the background, the flash is usually right on since by the time the light reaches the background, it is less meaningful for the overall exposure.

Have fun!