Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Beginner's Questions => Topic started by: tuanhuylink on June 03, 2017, 05:09:29 am

Title: Favorite textbooks
Post by: tuanhuylink on June 03, 2017, 05:09:29 am
Just curious if anyone who has an academic photography course has any favorite textbooks they have used in their course work. I am looking for this kind of info (as opposed to commercial "idiot" guides), and suppose others might be too. Any names?

Thanks,
Title: Re: Favorite textbooks
Post by: Jeffrey Saldinger on June 06, 2017, 09:09:53 pm
In my reading of your post, the categories “academic” and “commercial idiot guides” do not make clear what aspect(s) of photography you would like to learn about, for example technical vs. historical vs. critical, or analog vs. digital, or street photography vs. medical/technical.  One could go on here...

Perhaps refining the description of your interests would help would-be respondents.

And I might add that two of the “...for Dummies” books (which might or might not be what you have in mind in using the category “commercial idiot guides”) helped me a lot as I was starting to learn one thing or another over the past several years and I still go back to them occasionally for something new I need or for something I don’t recall, having forgotten it after not using it for some time.

Good luck with your search.
Title: Re: Favorite textbooks
Post by: scyth on June 06, 2017, 09:36:06 pm
Quote from: tuanhuylink on June 03, 2017, 05:09:29 am
Just curious if anyone who has an academic photography course has any favorite textbooks they have used in their course work. I am looking for this kind of info (as opposed to commercial "idiot" guides), and suppose others might be too. Any names?

Thanks,

at a level like these :

Wyszecki & Stiles, Color Science: Concepts and Methods, Quantitative Data and Formulae
Hunt, Measuring Colour
Boynton, Human Color Vision
Fairchild, Color Appearance Models

as far removed from idiots as possible  :o

Title: Re: Favorite textbooks
Post by: Littlefield on July 01, 2017, 11:15:11 pm
Buy this and read it. Better than most books.


https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Exposure-Fourth-Photographs-Camera/dp/1607748509/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
Title: Re: Favorite textbooks
Post by: Kevin Raber on July 02, 2017, 07:47:02 am
There are s many books, so many videos.  First I would search this site.  There are 5500 articles on just about everything imaginable regarding photography.  I would also suggest looking at Jeff Schewe's material.  Some of the best out there.  You can find them on his Amazon Page   https://www.amazon.com/Jeff-Schewe/e/B001I9Q7XG/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1498995786&sr=1-2-ent .  Then LuLa also has a large video section with hours of great content.

Hope that helps.
Title: Re: Favorite textbooks
Post by: TommyWeir on July 02, 2017, 08:46:45 am
As I read the OP's intention it's not for technical books...

I've found the following valuable in various ways...
- Looking at Photographs - Szwarkowski  on reading images
- The Photographer's Eye - Michael Freeman  on composition
- The Photographer's Playbook - Fulford and Halpern  on strategies
- Photography, a Cultural History - Mary Warner Marien  on the wider history and cultural aspects
Title: Re: Favorite textbooks
Post by: farbschlurf on July 03, 2017, 06:15:15 am
I found Stephen Shores "The Nature of Photographs" (Phaidon) a book that makes me think in different ways, for a long time, though it might be not what one expects.
Title: Re: Favorite textbooks
Post by: TommyWeir on July 03, 2017, 07:37:27 am
Quote from: farbschlurf on July 03, 2017, 06:15:15 am
Stephen Shores "The Nature of Photographs"

+1
Title: Re: Favorite textbooks
Post by: elliot_n on July 03, 2017, 08:12:25 am
'Why photography matters as art as never before' - Michael Fried
'Photography is magic' - Charlotte Cotton
Title: Re: Favorite textbooks
Post by: Peter McLennan on July 03, 2017, 09:34:31 am
Focal Press
'Basic Photography': Langford
'Advanced Photography': Langford

Both volumes predate digital photography.