Customer Reviews

The Confused Photographer's Guide to Photographic Exposure and the Simplified Zone System

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This guy isn't just trying to sell books or prove how talented he is. You can tell that the author is a teacher and has lots of experience helping people learn about exposure.

If you're a somewhat experienced photographer, you might find your eyes crossing for the first couple of chapters because of how boring and repetitious they are. The author doesn't want to leave anyone behind, so it's kind of a slow paced book. However, if you can make it through those chapters and read the whole book you will find yourself completely understanding photographic exposure. I've been taking pictures for years with some nice cameras and this is the first time I've ever felt comfortable and confident about the pictures I was taking.

Another thing that's awesome about this book is that it is perfect for digital camera users. Let me say this:

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK IF YOU USE A DIGITAL CAMERA. OTHER BOOKS LIKE "THE NEGATIVE" WHILE INFORMATIVE WILL JUST LEAVE YOU CONFUSED WHEN IT COMES TO SHOOTING DIGITAL.

As far as I know this is the only book on photographic exposure that's very well suited for digital photography.

Another thing that I really like about this book is that the author is a teacher and has a lot of experience teaching the subject matter to his students. He probably knows from teaching what people find confusing and how to best explain it to them. You'll be reading along and something may seem a little confusing. Well, before you have a chance to rack your brain about it, the author addresses it and puts it into laymen's terms. Sometimes he explains the same concept two or three different ways.

One last comment on the book. I also appreciated the fact that he threw in lots of extra stuff that wasn't really necessary like different ways to figure out exposure under different circumstances without an exposure meter or a spot meter. He covers lighting, moonlight, and even fireworks. He even helped me understand why the Ansel Adams approach to the Zone System didn't really work with my digital camera. I've used my camera like ten times as much since reading this book.

I noticed a couple of poor reviews right before I started writing this one. It seems that some people find it to be a little too simple. Remember, this is not an advanced book. The words "simplified" and "confused" in the title might have tipped you off! If you already understand the zone system, how to use your cameras spot meter, and how to use a light meter to get good exposures, then this book is definitely not for you. However, if you're afraid to put your camera on manual mode and aren't quite sure how to get a good exposure with your camera, then this is the book for you.

I read the reveiws here, and I was a little worried about the ones that say this book is confusing.
If you're looking for a simple cook-book that tells you how to use aperture to blur the background and that 'composition is very important' so yes, this is not the book you're looking for.
BUT, if you are looking for a book to help you take good pictures, this is a must have.

First understand what you're looking for:
If you bought your digital camera and want to take better pictures and you don't know about aperture or exposure or you feel more confortable using it in "Auto mode", you should buy "Understanding Exposure", really good book.
If you want to really understand how to take better pictures, you're willing to make excercises, and go over 200 pages without looking at a color photograph of a sunset or an old man, this is a VERY good book.
Everyone wants to be an astronaut and see the earth from space, but nobody wants to study mathematics and physics.
If you want better pictures, there's a thousand books out there, some of them very good.

But if you really want to study photography and achieve the best pictures, and really take the time to do it, begin by buying this book, it's not complicated. You may want to see it this way: it's no more complicated than learning what you must know in order to take a really good picture.

My advice is: First read then buy. If you understand you're not buying a book of 100 colorfull sunsets and girls with soap bubbles, you'll learn a lot. If you don't, please don't post a message saying the book is confusing.

If you rely on the camera to find the exposure for you, or you tend to use the automatic modes, or if you have a feeling there's something the photographers you admire do that you're not doing... you NEED read Mr. Farzad's books!

I started off trying to figure out what it was that the photographers I admire were doing that I was missing, and discovered his website. Immediately, I knew that here was an example of a photographer whose work I really admired.

When the box of books arrived, I was surprised how heavy it was. I kind of expected the books to be of a lot less substance than they were. These aren't booklets, as has been the case when I bought some "books" on photography in the past. These are full sized and well made books, and they are full of exactly the information you need to figure out how to expose pretty much anything correctly.

When I first learned what the technique was and began to understand it, I must say it was a little scary to disregard the camera's reccomendations. Then, after a bit of experimentation, I started realizing that I actually could get the same sort of gorgeous exposures that Mr. Farzad was getting. Now, I feel confident that I can expose correctly for pretty much anything. I almost never use the exposures recommended by the camera, and I almost never use automatic modes anymore. I'm also getting some very positive comments since I started applying these techniques. And after a little practice, I know exactly what adjustments to make simply at a glance at the subject!

Mr. Farzad is very obviously a teacher. The books do not assume you know anything about the subject, so they begin at the beginning. That, coupled with the proper teaching techniques (repetition, approaching the concept from multiple directions, and working to get people with different learning styles to understand) can make the books a bit slow to read if you are already familiar with some of the basics. However if you stick with it, you'll end up like me, confident and achieving much better photographic results! I truely believe that nobody can be a top notch photographer without applying this knowledge.

There have been other reviews that said that if you buy one book, you shouldn't buy the other. I disagree. While the spotmetering book does share some information with the zone system book, there is enough different information that I personally was glad to have them both. Also, I disagree with the reviewer who said that these techniques do not apply to other films besides slide film. On the contrary, there are explanations for all films, color negative, bw negative, slide and digital! Remember, there is sometimes a difference between "correct exposure" and "desired exposure".

After learning this, I have achieved a whole new dimension of skill. With these books, a decent lens and some practice, you too can be producing fantastic photography!

then this is the book for you. Most people will find the book quite repetitious and rather basic in parts, but if you read it cover to cover, you will understand how to correctly expose an image, no matter how much difficulty you may have had in the past grasping the concepts of exposure.

One key thing to note -- the book is written for photographers who shoot slide film. The author has added a few "digital footnotes," but it is still a book about correctly exposing slide film.

First off....if you buy this book skip Dr. Farzad's other book on "On Camera Spotmetering". This book includes the latter. In fact many pages in the Zone System book are simply lifted from the Spotmetering book (or is it the other way around?). Either way the Zone System book is a more thorough review of the exposure techniques and not that much more complicated that the on camera spotmetering book. In fact I find both books very easy to understand. Any beginning photographer should read this book. The book does have some minor typo errors and is only in black and white print (appropriately enough I think since camera light meters see everything in shades of grey...no color is involved) but it explains the subject well. It is repitious though and I often lose my patience with author as he repeats the same points over and over again. However, if you consider who the target audience is (artists are not very technically inclined....and would be terrified by involved theory) Dr. Farzad is right on track. Still as an engineer I am not used to this level of repition in the texts I read. It requires a little patience but the photographer is well rewarded with a better appreciation and understanding of how to take good photographs.

I can honestly say that anyone who has ever looked through a camera's viewfinder can benefit from this book. Bahman Fazard takes an otherwise confusing aspect of photography and put it in a format that anyone can understand. Like most amateur photographers, I viewed EXPOSURE as the "Rocket Science" of photography. The more I read on the subject the more confused I became. "The Confused Photographer's Guide to Photographic Exposure and the Simplified Zone System" by Bahman Fazard has taken the mystery out of obtaining the correct exposure. This book is a MUST for all photographers striving to be a little better.

Bahman's book is worth every penny, and then some!

It is simple, easy to understand, and accounts for very light reading. I didn't need a phD to understand the mechanics of exposure, nor had difficulty understanding the Zone System. I found other books quite daunting.

What I found most helpful were the illustrations that accompanied the sections being discussed -- it has been proven that illustrations help people retain more information rather than words... and Bahman has used this medium to get his learning points across very well.

So, if you've been wanting to get better pictures (and not spending a bundle on film) get the book. I have been taking better pictures in the last couple of weeks... and while I'm still learning!

One other thing, Bahman, unlike some authors, is accessible, and does spend time anwering e-mails!

Not really the zone system, but more adjusting what you meter is showing as 18% gray. (Ex.= If a person takes a picture of snow, one should open up the apeture or decrease the shutter speed a full two stops to get a natural white. If no compensation takes place, the snow will look gray (hense 18% gray)). One of the first things an amateur photographer needs to understand is how the camera's meter takes light readings. The book goes over some of this, but in a different way. Also, he completely leaves out how to compensate when using flash. His suggestions only work with slide film and maybe a little with digital photography. If you use this system with negative film, the lab will over-expose it every time. I've also noticed my digital camera over-exposes some subjects if I use this system. A better book in my opinion is "Understanding Exposure", by Bryan Peterson. I have referred to Bryan's book many times and keep it in my library of Photo books.

I was familiar with the Zone System, which is used to draw out more detail in a photograph. In fact, you can find a fantastic description of the process on Wikipedia.

In a print system where you have a white paper that turns black when exposed to light, you expose for the dark parts and use dark room processes to get the light parts.

In a digital system, things are reversed because you have a black starting point that turns white when exposed to light. As such, one exposes for the lighter elements and use digital software to post-process the darker areas.

Things become a little confusing though when you are trying to remember what you're trying to do and you realize your meter isn't giving you the reading you want.

Meters expose to 18% grey. Humans, for some reason, perceive this amount as 50%. That is, if you see black and you see white, what you'd call 50% grey in the middle would actually be reflecting only 18% of the light falling on it. Weird, I know. Anyhow...

Anything you point your camera's meter at, it will try to adjust the tone as 18% grey. As such, you first have to learn to see the tone independent of color. This book teaches you how by showing numerous examples along side of extremes.

Once you're pointing your camera's meter at the right place for the zone system to work, you then have to compensate for your meter not knowing you did that. Once again, the book gives plenty of examples, shows all combinations possible, and teaches you several ways to think about the problem so that you know whether you need to expose more or less and by how much.

To top it off, not all camera models work the same way with notation. For instance, if your camera says +2, does that mean that you are adding two stops to what the meter is reading? Or, are you indicating that the meter is two stops more than what you want? The answer is that it depends based upon your camera, and that's covered too.

Once you've got all the mechanics worked out, the book then covers the zone system and works into more advanced applications of it, and then touches on the artistic aspects.

There's lots of big pictures on sparse pages to specifically reduce confusion and deliberately designed not to overwhelm the reader with details that aren't needed for that example. Conversely, during discussion moments, complete coverage of the topic is provided in a very approachable manner.

Two thumbs up for the author of this book. I wish other authors would cover subject matters as clearly and coherently.

I have long been trying not only to understand this wonderful technique but also apply it. Mr. Farzad has given me the secret keys to understanding the zone system in his unique style of teaching. For the first time, I now am more confident in my picture taking skills and no longer just take "average" photographs. I am now a work in progress thanks to this book. A MUST read for anyone serious about going to the next level.