Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Digital Cameras & Shooting Techniques => Topic started by: BernardLanguillier on December 11, 2004, 03:16:00 am
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Hi there,
If you decide to buy a D70, which would probably be the wisest move if you are looking for an entry level DSLR, then I would highly recommend writting by Thom Hogan at www.bythom.com.
Regards,
Bernard
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The following are good all around books on the subject:
The Digital Photographers Handbook by Tom Ang - excellent photography and digital techniques book
The National Geographic Photography Field Guide by Peter Burien & Bob Caputo - good, practical photography techniques that you can use and based on what might be the high benchmark of popular photography.
Obviously there are lots and lots of other more specialist titles out there but I think you'll find these worth looking at. I've probably read an obscene number of tomes and the above two stand out as being neither too simplistic and broad enough for new converts to digest.
As mentioned, you'd do well to wander down to your local bookstore and take root for a couple of hours and skim through what's there. One thing I have noticed is that there are a lot of junk books with 'digital photography' in their title (the above excepted!) that seem to be written by authors who are general technology writers and not photographers.
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Check out this recently released book Guide to Digital Photography by Daniel Grotta and Sally Wiener Grotta. It is indepth without being overly complex and will get you off to a good start. Alternate title recommendation-Digital SLR Handbook by Rob Sheppard. Both books are excellent resources.
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Get the complete IDIOT'S Guide to Photography Like a Pro.
BlasR
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Thank you all for your advice, and please keep any ideas coming.
What I have been doing was going to my local Chapters (i'm lucky its a 5 minute walk) and just siting down and read some books, tho I've been doing it a little too much at random. What I think I will do is write down each one of the books you suggested and will try to read bits and pieces of all of them, before I pick a few.
Thanks once again, and keep the ideas coming.
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thank you, I think that's a very good idea, just I'll have to forget what I have read already.
Pleaseif there are any other ideas about books let me know.
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Rather than any specific book recommendations, I'll share what proved to be a generally good learning experience for me. First, read several books about the technical, mechanical aspects of taking well exposed, well focused photos in various situations. Practice with your equipment so you know it very well. Second, read several books on composition and lighting, especially in your chosen area, such as landscapes. Practice the techniques described in the books. Even if you want to break the rules and develop your own style, knowing the classic guidelines and techniques will help you achieve the results that you desire. For example, capturing a three dimensional look in a two dimensional print is a skill that has to be developed. Knowing the classic guidelines and techniques will give you an enormous head start rather than just trial and error. Third, closely examine and study as many books of photographs, and as many prints in galleries and museums, as you can, especially those in your chosen area. Learn how the pros make their photographs and why they compose their photograhps as they do. Note the different styles, and what you like and don't like about each style and each photograph. This third step will really help you put the things you learn in the first two steps into action and results. You can also view countless photos on web sites, but seek out the web sites of real top notch pros. There is a huge amount of poor or downright bad stuff on the web. In any event, viewing photos on the web, at least for me, is far inferior to looking at high quality books of photographs and orders of magnatude inferior to looking at actual exhibition quality prints in a reputable gallery or museum. For books, public and university libraries can be a great source, especially if you travel much, since most libraries tend to house books with photographs of their region. In any event, view as many great photos in your chosen area as feasible. My last piece of advice, but not book related, is to shoot digital or slides, not negative film, as you learn. You can't really see exactly what you are doing with negative film since the printing process has such an enormous affect on what you actually see. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with negative film, just that it's not well suited to learning.
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Could someone please recommend to me some photography books. I have a little bit of basic knowledge about cameras and how they work, but I know nothing anout techniques of taking shots and editing them. I plan on getting a digital SLR, so a digital photography book would be preferable. Thank you all for your help.
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As a beginners guide I quite like John Hedgecoe's 'The new manual of photography' from Dorling Kindersley press (ISBN0751337374) this was updated in 2003 and is fairly current with digital technology. It covers all the basics from equipment selection, lighting, composition, post processing and has plenty of photographic examples.
Moving beyond that, there is a series of books by Micheal Freeman called the Digital Photography Expert Series from Ilex Press (www.ilex-press.com). These go into a bit more depth on any particular subject and cover topics such as 'Light and Lighting', 'Close up photography', 'Landscape and Nature', etc...The one I have 'Photographing People', covers basic equipment, field technique and also post processing in photoshop which is useful for hints and tips specific to the subject.
The above books concentrate a little more on what I would call practical composition - i.e. not too heavy on the theory and more weighted to what you see. For a bit of a more theoretically based compositional treatise (and sorry that it is in French, I don't know if there is an English equivalent), you could try Le Langue De L'Image by Rene Bouillot Et Bernard Martinez. I am sure, though that there are plenty of other 'formal composition' books out on the market if you want to get into rule bound compositional photography.
Another approach to composition takes a more spiritual form. Whilst this is not a beginners book, it does lead to a slightly more advanced approach to taking photographs once the basics are learnt. The 'Tao of Photography' by Phillipe Gross and SI Shapiro, relates the inner self/eye to the art of taking photography and how to raise the process to a more spiritual level by learning to See beyond Seeing.
Hopefully this provides a couple of ideas. I would suggest that you hang out in a physical (i.e. bricks and mortar) bookshop for a couple of hours just reading through a couple of books until you find one with a style that you are comfortable with.
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If you want a great book that covers mostly landscape composition, I'd recommend "Learning To See Creatively" (How to compose Great Photographs), by Bryan Peterson. This book has about 142 pages, half/half as far as print verses images is concerned, and is loaded with tons of great ideas for composing mostly landscapes, some architecture, some people, city-scapes, bridges,etc. ISBN 0-8174-4177-8 and sells for about 30 bucks canadian. However, nothing about digital though.
jules
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This one isn't digital, but I would buy John Shaw's Nature Photography Field Guide. This is a great book, that lays out the basics and takes you into advanced concepts. It is a very fun read.
http://www.johnshawphoto.com/books.htm (http://www.johnshawphoto.com/books.htm)
He also has an e-book about editing photos with Photoshop, but I haven't read it. It is suppose to be good.
I have all his other books, and everyone of them is excellent.
Bryan
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Try "The Art of Photographing Nature" by Martha Hill and Art Wolfe.
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I agree with Bryan, I have read everything (at least in the early years of serious photography 1999) I could get my hands on. John shaws seminar series on video tape was the best of the bunch. Actually after watching his exposure video I said "I get it" it was that good.
He has quite a few books but the videos are the simplest (for me at least) to grasp
Read everything you can and then put into practice
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I second the recommendations for John Shaw's books, they are a good balance between basic exposure and focusing techniques for Nature and Landscape subjects.
In another category, there lots of books that will act as sources of inspiration, depending on your favorite subjects. I love the raw beauty of most of Salgado's work, and the use of colour and lighting in Steve McCurry's photos (especially his work in the Far East).
If I were you, I would avoid, for the moment, books on "digital photography", these are just ways of luring beginners to think that Photoshop will actually improve you photographic vision. Learn proper exposure techniques, the basics of pleasing compositions, and shoot a lot to see what suits your style. Develop your style and vision first, then use Photoshop (or any other) to fine tune your results. It is just one more tool you will have available, but it is no panacea for bad photos.
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Why not take a continueing education course? I took one at one point with my significant other. She wanted to learn how to shoot with her SLR, so we both took the class as a couple thing. The class only ran $35 or $40 each, and it was a blast.
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I will try to get into a course, but time and availability will be a problem, but I'll see what I can do.
Thank you for your advice dmerger, I think that i will try to do something like that to improve.
Would someone be able to give me a list of some pro landscape and nature photographers, so that i know who to look for. Thank you.
Stefan