Drawer I · Shot recipes
Complete setups you can build at your own table: where the light goes, what bounces it, which props, what angle and which settings. Filter by the mood you want, the genre of your book or the gear you already own.
Showing all 6 recipes
Plate I
SampleThe gentlest light in the house: a window out of direct sun, an hour or two before sunset. Soft shadows, true color and a cover you can read. If you learn only one recipe, learn this one.
Plate II
SampleA flatlay for slow mornings, shot straight down, with diffused window light falling from the top of the frame. Calm and easy to repeat, which makes it a good backbone for a feed with a consistent look.
Plate III
SampleWarm candlelight on the cover, cool blue window light behind it. The two colors together are what make a candlelit photograph feel candlelit, and the window does half the work.
Plate IV
SampleSunlight broken up by leaves, falling across a book on a shelf or sill. It's the most alive light in the collection and it changes by the minute, so this recipe is mostly about working quickly.
Plate V
SampleA single hard light in a dark room, with almost everything else falling into shadow. Dramatic, controlled and possible at any hour, which is why thriller writers keep coming back to it.
Plate VI
SampleThe look of soft morning window light, made with one light and a large diffuser, so you can shoot at nine at night in December. For the author whose only free hours are evenings.
Reading a recipe
It's the order we build a scene in: light first, then the things that shape it, then everything else.
