Customer Reviews

The Art of Color Photography

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I recently made the switch to digital cameras from film cameras for many reasons. I found once I did that a large amount of the photography books out there were only applicable to traditional film cameras. Not so with this book. While there IS material in this book for traditional film photography the main focus of the book is how to take color pictures. The author divides the subject into separate sections which I have typed out below. Within each section are the related topics which contain detailed discussions for properly photographing the kind of subject matter the topic is concerned with. The book contains a nice introduction to the topic of color in the beginning and then moves into the subject matter discussions by topic. Each topic contains excellent color photographs that act as samples to both inspire and teach you how to take good color photographs. I REALLY liked this book. I highly recommend it to photographers of all levels.

Sections in this book: [1.] What is Color? (7 topics) 16pp. [2.] Working with Color (7 topics) 14 pp. [3.] Picture Composition (14 topics) 32 pp. [4.] Moods of Natural Light (18 topics) 38 pp. [5.] Using Artificial Light (4 topics) 8 pp. [6.] Subject Lighting (8 topics) 30 pp. [7.] Materials and Techniques (6 topics) 14 pp. [8.] Equipment and Darkroom (10 topics) 20 pp.

An excellent book on various types of subjects for colour photography. Almost every picture, from the sweeping landscape to the subtle close-up are of excellent quality. You get heaps of practical advice on how to make the most of colour in your photographs, and Hedgecoe takes you through the theory of colour and light, composition and technical information as well. The advice you get from this book not only takes your photography one, but several steps further. It boosts your creative thinking, gives you a lot of valuable information, and inspires you to go right out and take those great photos! Top marks!

A Perfect book for people looking for colourful pictures. Ideal for amatures, and semi-pro. It has a great deal of information available, and rich in ideas for photographic techniques. Has various chapters dealing with different types of photography. Uses plain good comprehensive English. I highly recomend it to all Photography 'lovers'.

I got this book by reading all of the "5-star" reviews on this page. I had totally forgotten that I had another book by this author and my dissatisfaction with that one had led me to seak another color photography book. My problem with this book was that the author did not really give me an opportunity to learn from him. There are three basic issues for me.

There is no discription of how the photographer took the shots (i.e., film type and speed, lens and camera description, apperture and shutter speed, filter used) and what the photographer did in the darkroom (exposure, special effects, etc). His atristic talent is unquestionable, but it is also irreplicable. His techniques, though, could have saved a lot of time and effort for an amature photographer.

Moreover, his discourse colors in the beginning of the book gives a short perspective on optical physics, but I find it insufficient and at times inaccurate. Here is an example. The author describes how heating of an iron bar emits Infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV) radiation and he uses three points of temperature 1,000 degrees Kelvin, 3,000 degrees Kelvin and 6,000 degrees Kelvin. Well, an iron bar at 1000K will indeed be a bar (i.e., a solid), but at 3,000K it will not -- it will cease to be a bar and change into liquid.(The the melting point of pure iron is about 1,810 K). At 6,000 K, "the bar" will turn into plasma. The idea of making physics understanble is good but the simplification should make sense.

Finaly, this book is about the author's photographs, his portfolio so to speak. It should not have been titled "John Hedgecoe's The Art of Color Photography", but "John Hedgecoe's Color Photography Art" because of its inadequate instructional content.

Overall, I would not recommend spending money on his book if you seek to learn. If you want to enjoy and wonder, go ahead and buy it, just as you would buy a photo rendition of, say, an art collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. ...Or, for a real enjoyment, find Hedgecoe's exhibition and go see that live. You will get a much greater aesthetic satisfaction there.