Comments about Mark Wallace DVD: Studio Lighting Essentials for Portrait Photography by Mark Wallace:

"Studio Lighting Essentials for Portrait Photography" by Mark Wallace is a collection of understandable and simple tutorials on studio lighting, starting with what is available and what is needed. This presentation only covers studio lighting equipment, not speed-lights (get the Nikon DVD for speed-lights). Mark Wallace presents material clearly and simply, explaining the why and how of each action, and generally alludes to the fact that there are many combinations of equipment setup and that creativity is up to you, i.e. Mark is not holding your hand for every lighting setup, he is merely pointing you in the right direction. Of course it's impossible to cover everything, but this is a start. One if the things not covered, and rightly so, is matching the quality of lighting and lighting setup to the personality of your subject. That's a topic on its own. How good is this DVD? Well, that depends on your expertise and understanding of why different people do things maybe differently you. I think it's a little overpriced, but it's good material certainly for the beginner and a good refresher for the experienced. While Mark only seems to use one brand (Profoto) the same principles apply to other brands. Actually, the other brands of lighting do need to include the main features of Profoto otherwise if its a pain to use then the desired effect will be more difficult to achieve.