Customer Reviews

Capturing the Light: An Inspirational and Instructional Guide to Landscape Photography

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Here's a book of beautiful landscape photographs that also provides useful instruction to the advanced photographer.

The general layout is to present a full size landscape photograph on the right side of the fold and opposite some considerations of the photographer about taking the photograph followed by an annotated thumbnail with Watson's remarks about particular items with which he was concerned. Each photograph is also annotated with shooting data, including an element not usually encountered: waiting for the light.

And this is the main theme of the book: the landscape photographer should wait until the light is right. Waiting times varied from immediate to 5 days. Moreover, I suspect that if he hadn't wanted not to appear facetious he might have said five years, since he recounts going back to the same spot many times over a period of years to get the right light. A second theme is the importance of spending the time to select just the right view.

Watson's subjects are not the dramatic mountain landscapes of Art Wolfe. Instead they are far more subtle, showing textured fields and dappling sunlight and shadows. These pictures require lingering over for close examination. I would recommend that one not read the entire book at a single sitting but rather examine a few pictures and Watson's related commentary at a time. (An unattainable ideal might even be to have one of these pictures hanging on the wall to live with.) Watson includes a few pictures that he considers less than perfect, and his thoughts on how they could have been improved.

Other then the reported camera settings there is little of a technical nature either as to exposure and focusing or equipment. The one exception is that Watson uses filters and tells you whether a polarizer was at full. The thumbnails show exactly where the dividing line was placed when using a graduated neutral density filter

Although the book is organized into chapters, I can't say that this organization contributes to a comprehensive understanding. Instead each picture is its own little master class.

There are other books that use this same technique of analyzing a picture, like the excellent works of Tony Sweet. On the other hand, many of these books are just portfolios disguised as manuals. But I found Watson to be truly instructive as well as inspirational. Now, I only hope I can learn to be as patient as he is in capturing the light.

(As a side note, those looking for advanced landscape instruction but craving something with more intellectualizing and a less applied approach may be interested in "Landscape Within: Insights and Inspirations for Photographers" by David Ward.)

As previously stated, this book is made up of a series of landscape photos with facing-page notes on the experience behind the making of each.

The explanations are, by and large, quite well done. It's the photos themselves that are the problem. Whether the problem lies with some sort of reduction in color and contrast in the printing of this book, Watson's predeliction for using Fuji's subdued Provia emulsion rather that the more vivid Velvia favored by most landscape photographers, or simply the photographer's more laid-back artistic personality, many of these photos are so low-key as to be monotonous. Don't get me wrong -- when Watson is confronted with a highly-dramatic subject, like a stormy sky or a sunset, he is capable of creating images worth your time. But, all too often, his landscape photographs are blander than lukewarm cream of wheat. And some are frankly embarrassing (and not just because of his continual and VERY obvious use of graduated ND filters to make the top of the sky look darker and more "moody"). For example, why on earth would one include a banal and thoroughly uninteresting snapshot of a bus bench in front of a shoe store (page 115) in a book on landscape photography in the first place, let alone praise it, as Watson does, as "An Almost Timeless Image"...? Certainly, those drawn to the landscapes of photographers like Galen Rowell, Tim Fitzharris, or Watson's Brit contemporaries David Ward and Joe Cornish will find little to interest them in this collection of often-pedestrian images.

And that's a shame because, although Watson's text descriptions are worthwhile, they'd be much more so if the photographs they were describing were more deserving of concerted study. As a nature photographer, I would love to see a book whose images made me think "I wish I could take photos like that," and where I could then learn how the photographer achieved it. Sadly, this is not that book.

Quite a good book with very informative text and very well printed. The photography itself didnt blow me away but it is very interesting the thoughts behind the pictures and how long he waited for the shot etc.

Recommended.

I bought Capturing The Light unseen because photographer/writer Peter Watson's previous book, Light In The Landscape, is one of the most comprehensive and inspiring landscape photography books every published for serious photographers.

Capturing The Light is aimed at the same audience, with large pictures on right pages and short essays on that shot on left pages. Unlike Light On The Land, the left pages also include smaller versions of the right pages pictures with lines and detailed notes on elements of the composition and colour.

It's a nice approach for anyone with serious interest in landscape photography.

So what's the problem? First off, the pictures simply aren't as breathtaking as we know Watson is capable of. Perhaps that's because he reanges further afield from his U.K. home base to include North America. Those shots aren't his best and his one Canadian composition is amazingly uninspired.

Secondly, too many pictures in Capturing The Light are printed too light. It's one of the most distracting things you can do to a photography book. So distrating, in my humble opinion, that I'd rather have pictures printed too dark.

All this said, there's still plenty to appreciate in Capturing The Light. But if you have a limited budget, I suggest buying Light In The Landscape.

This book is a great resource for improving your landscape photography. Although it is not your typical recipe book, it provides solid tips and observations from the authors experiences about using the central element, light, to its full advantage. Its one of those books that you'll pull down from time to time, not to revisit some canned routines on specific situations, but to generate new ways of thinking about your approach to light and how to apply it in your own situations.

I found this book hidden away on a shelf in a general book store and frankly I'd never heard of Peter Watson before. I guess I'm what you might call an advanced amateur photographer and I'm familiar with the camera controls and the modes and aperture and speed settings. I have several other photography books in my collection on Composition, Black and White and other techniques and somehow, while they all have something to say and I can learn from them, there was something missing.

But after opening Capturing the Light and reading the first few pages, I literally saw the light. Watson has an easy conversational style of writing and matches that to the image at hand, explaining why he took the shot and how. He explains how he visualised the scene, had an idea of the light he wanted and then waited for that light. He might even have to come back the next day or wait several days but eventually he gets the shot. And it may not be the perfect shot either and he explains why. The small thumbnail image of each photo with the drawn comments are very helpful in seeing exactly what he was thinking in relation to different parts of the image and how the light affected them.

I've always been a bit of an opportunistic photographer... you see a scene, grab the camera and fire away hoping for a Stunner but more often than not, capturing an image that you fiddle with in software hoping to create something worthwhile. Sometimes it works. But only recently I had a location in mind and I knew that I wanted the sun to be in just the right place to bring out the best in the landscape. So I ended up waiting 6 hours for the right light. The result was indeed a Stunner and worth the wait. So, as I read Watson's book and how he waits for the right light, it really spoke to me and I knew what he was talking about. If you want to capture really stunning landscapes then you often have to wait until the light is right.

This book doesn't teach you about shutter speeds and camera controls and frankly I wasn't much interested in the technical details of the shot. But this book WILL get you thinking about your own images and how and when you take them. You will start thinking about the light, not just the composition, as important as that may be, but images of a scene with the same composition will look different according to the light. Get the light right and you may get that Stunner, get it wrong and it's just another landscape.

Some reviewers have said the images in the book are not that outstanding. That may be so, but imagine them if no thought had been given to the light. This book is not about showing off pretty photos as so many photography books are, it's about getting you to think about YOUR photography.

Capturing the Light is definitely at the top of my photography book collection.

When I bought this book I fear from unknown.
After I read cover to cover I suprised to how show simple and clear the landscape photography substance and illustrate it with superb photos...