Customer Reviews

Creating World-Class Photography: How Any Photographer Can Create Technically Flawless Photographs

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Ernst Wildi is a consummate professional who has a unique ability to teach through his writings and demonstrate fundamental concepts of art and photography. Wildi is admittedly a proponent of Hasselblad camera equipment, yet he goes to great pains to be as generic as possible in presenting his beliefs in techniques, equipment, and that's the point of the book. This book would benefit anyone contemplating serious photography, or those contemplating the plunge into medium format films and equipment. Anyone considering "thinking square" should buy this book. Wildi presents the comparisons of ideas in such a way as to challenge the reader to think and see differently. The reader can only guess what equipment and format was used, and the serious amateur will puzzle over the images and ask "how did he do that in 6x6?" Did he?

The diagrams and technical explanations are presented in a lucid way, and not baffling. The photographs are very well-done, but Wildi never disappoints from my experience! Yes, I'm a Wildi fan because his teaching style always pleases me and in a distant way, he has become a great reference even though I'm not currently a Hasselblad devotee. Wildi uses the camera system as a tool to create beautiful images, and this book reflects his craft and ideas!

This book's subtitle is: "How any photographer can take world-class photographs". A lofty goal, but unfortunately one that this book fails to deliver.

Amherst Media, the publisher of this book, seems to have a problem with their releases. They all have great titles, the kind to make you want to pick up the book, but they all seem to waffle when it comes to who's their target audience. Is it the housewife who just picked up her first point and shoot? Or the professional looking to improve their craft? In the end, the publisher tries to appeal to every spectrum and fails to satisfy anyone. This book is no exception.

So what's wrong? WAY too much filler, for one. Mediocre photos for another (this IS a book on achieving the ultimate image, after all... I guarantee you right now that your portfolio contains better images than most of the examples in this book).

Consider the chapter headings. Is this what you expect from a book with this title? Or rather one entitled, "So you've bought your first real camera":

Chapter One: Film or No Film?

Chapter Two: Films for the Ultimate Image Quality

Chapter Three: Selecting the Film Format

Chapter Four: Camera Features

Chapter Five: Camera Operation For Image Quality & Effects

Chapter Six: Lenses for Creating the Ultimate Sharpness

Chapter Seven: Effective Use of Lenses & Lens Controls

I could go on, but you get the idea. A basic photography book, rather poorly executed.

Pass on this one.

Ernst Wildi is a consummate photographer, loves Hasselblad and its native format, and any aspiring medium format photographer should read this book with an open mind. Wildi's work is exemplary. Most of his concepts are readily adaptable to any film format, so he focuses on equipment, films, prints and digital issues in a generic way. He is admittedly biased toward Hasselblad, yet the 6x6 format is so flexible, the concepts are presented in a comparative way and the reader has a difficult time determining which format is used. Beautiful! Wildi, therefore, tries to get the reader to open up to concepts and approaches to visual situations and "see" differently. In other words, ponder the possibilities! The author does cover various equipment necessities and many fundamentals of "how-to" deal with certain situations. This book does deal with certain technical issues in an understandable, yet technical way. The book is not thick, and has many, well-done pictures and diagrams. I will confess to being a Wildi fan. His writings and ideas have been an inspiration to me, and anyone contemplating an investment in "thinking square" will find his concepts educational, no matter the equipment used. Buy this book!

I like his book. I even like the man. I met him in person and he is very informative just like in his book. I like his style, his photos, knowledge, and his passion.

Thanks Ernst.

This is a nice book, it covers all the basics of photography that can help make you pictures photos and not just snapshots. However one warning, while the infomation is great, its presented in a very dry format. I found myself getting very sleepy while reading it at some points and I read a lot of photography books. However there are some neat idea in this book as well as some ideas that don't get covered in other photography books like how to take ultra-violet photos.