[shuttertalk]

I'm always fascinated at how the professional photographers do it, and how their images appear so... you know, professional. This blog article by a professional photo assistant who as "worked with some of the top photographers on the west coast" aims to deconstruct and explain the lighting setups behind some famous and memorable images.

I went a little crazy this week and went on a personal mission to research the lighting setups and creation of popular images of today. It is something I love to do in general, so I completely lost myself in the project. Not only did I unearth some of the most breathtaking lighting setups of undeniably amazing photographs, but I was also pleased to find that some of my favorite images were very simply shot. Since this blog has been born, I couldn’t wait to share some of the results. In this blog entry I’ll take you through and compare various lighting techniques of Annie Leibovitz, Patrick Ecclesine, Jill Greenberg, Dave Hill and Martin Schoeller.

It's a really good read - very in-depth with lots of diagrams and explanations for inspiration.
http://madphotoassistant.wordpress.com/2...ing-title/