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193 of 200 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Can Creativity be Taught?, May 9, 2003
Somewhere along the line between beginner and expert most photographers decide that they want to be more creative. It is to this audience that Brenda Tharp had addressed her work. But one question this book raises is whether you can teach someone to be creative. The author believes the answer is yes, although she acknowledges that it takes a lot of work on the part of the photographer. Tharp begins and ends the book by telling you that the secret to creativity is learning to see. But as you go through the book some of the chapters on subjects like light and composition and perspective sound remarkably similar to a lot of other photography books that are concerned with technique rather than creativity. Tharp's method is to give you a rule like "simplify" and then to tell you how to simplify. She does this well and the pictures that she uses certainly show her creativity, but it's hard to make the connection between these rules and developing our creativity. I wish she had spent more time on telling us how to see because I think she is on the right trail here. But if you speed down the highway too quickly you might miss it, which would be a shame. Assuming you can teach creativity, Tharp makes a decent try of it, providing the reader is willing to work at making the connections to seeing. There are many approaches to teaching how to be photographically creative. In "Fine Art Nature Photography: Advanced Techniques and the Creative Process" Tony Sweet presents us with a series of pictures and a narrative for each that explains what he was trying to achieve with the photograph and what techniques he used to achieve it. In "Creative Landscape Photography", Niall Benvie talks about the different subject matter one may encounter, like wilderness, and then talks about what that subject means to him and what techniques he uses to translate what he sees and feels into a photograph. And my favorite photography book, "Photography and the Art of Seeing" by Freeman Paterson, in a very touchy-feely work, provides a number of unusual exercises that are designed to teach a photographer how to see. None of these books actually teaches creativity (although for me, Paterson comes closest.) Instead they show creative work and the considerations that the authors had in creating that work. Whether any method works in developing creativity is an open question. If it can be developed, which authors' approach will work best will depend on the individual reader. A serious photographer will want to try them all until he or she finds one that works for him or her. Tharp's book is certainly one that ought to be examined in this difficult search.
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84 of 91 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Strong on Composition, Weak on Technical, April 22, 2006
If you are looking for a book to improve composition and develop you own style, this is a very good book with great example pictures. It talks a lot about methods you need to consider in making taking interesting picture that will give the "wow" effect. It includes discussion on techniques such as the rule of thirds (contrary to what another reviewer says), balance, and framing your pictures. The focus of the author is to get you to look for ways to create a mood, design a theme or tell a story with your pictures.
The book falls short with techniques. The books primary purpose in discribing technical aspects is to define what the equipment and settings will have on the picture results. It describes techniques such as the use of a wide angle or telephoto lense and the effects of the equipment on the picture, how to use light for more dramatic effects, shutter speed impacts, panning and focusing to emphasize a subject with the background out of focus to eliminate the clutter(this is called bokeh although not mentioned in the book). The book falls short in the technical area because it talks only about film, use of filters and developing film techniques. There are many techniques available for the digital photography that that can do a lot with the picture once loaded into the computer and use of filters for digial photography (some references say) can be reduced to a poloarized and UV filters. Changing ISO settings, adjusting white balance, and correcting light problems with software (versus using a neutral desity filter)are not discussed.
If you are looking to improve your picture composition and ideas to be more creative with your pictures, I recommend this book. If you are looking to understand technical terms, digital camera equipment, and software techniques to make adjustments to your pictures, this IS NOT the book for you.
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, brief, not unique, August 23, 2007
This book is worth buying for the inspiring photographs, although the text is a bit uneven, explanations are occasionally vague, and the content is rather similar to other books on creative photography.
I prefer John Shaw's Focus on Nature: The Creative Process Behind Making Great Photographs in the Field which is longer, more detailed and seems more articulate. However I own both books.
To take one example: Brenda Tharp recommends that plants be photographed from ground level, so that we are looking horizontally or slightly upward at the subject, which is separated from the background. John Shaw gives the same advice, but only as an option. He also demonstrates the possibilities for an image looking directly downward: a stunning masterful image of a green expanse of leaves contrasted with rich red flowers, seen from directly above like a carpet.
Brenda Tharp's book is more instructional, shorter, and perhaps a bit more dogmatic than John Shaw's. Which is best for you will depend on your own level of skill and awareness in photography. I suspect Brenda Tharp's book is based on a photography class/workshop - it has explicit lists of photographic exercises. It does help you focus on your photographic goals. The main message of the book is a good one ("What are you trying to say in this photograph?"). It's on my shelf and I refer to it occasionally.
It almost feels as if some of the detailed information has been held back from the book, so as not to devalue the content of classes/workshops. for example the author mentions that she has a checklist that she runs through when photographing a landscape, but she doesn't share the list with us.
I quibbled with some of the technical statements in this book, and some of the assertions about composition seem too fluffy (borrowed from art theory?). But it is quite stimulating all the same.
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