Have you ever heard of Ugly’s Guide?

“Ugly’s?”
“The little yellow electrical book?”
“That little five dollar book with the electrical math in it?”

Ugly’s Guide to Electrical References is a little book, spiral comb bound, and is full of electrical formulae.  All manipulations of Ohm’s Law, for example, in a chart inside, and maniuplations of the Power Formula on the front.  When I’m teaching young designers and production electricians, this is a required text in introductory classes.

Pick this up at Amazon, it’s also a great stocking stuffer!  I’m also adding it to my Amazon Book Store, which you get to by clicking on “RECOMMENDED READING” at the top of JimOnLight (or clicking that link right there, obviously).

LEDs seem to be the theme this week, huh.

I wanted to pass along a great LED text about the history, specifications, and technical properties of LEDs and their components - E. Fred Schubert’s text, Light-Emitting Diodes is a good read for anyone interested in learning line detail about the diodes.  I recommend it.

A student asked me a few months ago to give a reference on a good, all-inclusive book about being a stage electrician.  I thought about it for a while, trying to rack my brain about which text would give a wide variety of thorough information regarding distribution, practices, etc - but still giving a good breadth of knowledge about the craft and art of what lighting technicians do.  Nothing beats hands-on education in our industry, especially with a field as highly specialized as ours.

After several texts’ worth of information, I finally decided on the Set Lighting Technician’s Handbook.  This is a text geared towards film and television lighting production, but the information on electrical distribution and practices in this book are second to none.  From phasing to fixtures, source types, histories, uses, practices - this is a great book if you’re looking to get into the lighting industry.

Check it out.  It’s a great book for reference or just plain education.