Mr. Harold Davis has authored more than a handful of books covering photography and photographic technique. Other recent works by this author include:
The Photoshop Darkroom: Creative Digital Post-Processing - an excellent and indispensable work,
Light & Exposure for Digital Photographers (Practical Artistry) as well as other works in his "Creative" series which include
Creative Composition: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques and
Creative Close-Ups: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques.
I have had the good fortune of seeing Harold's work on Flickr, following his BLOG and subsequently attending several of his workshops - including his Night Photography workshop. This book, Creative Night, is heavily illustrated with Harold's night work - most of it very compelling and spanning a variety of different styles. More on that in a moment.
As with Harold's other works, I am pleased to find a generous glossary and index.
Of course the focus of this work is 239 pages dedicated to a spectrum of approaches and important tips in taking and making compelling photography at night. Many people are surprised by the images that can be made at night including shots at night that look like they were taken in daylight. I consider myself an "advanced amateur" on Night Photography so I was eager to read this work.
The books starts well. The first 60 pages cover the most important aspects of taking photos at night including safety, camera considerations, lenses, focusing, and exposure. At page 60, Harold tackles one of the most challenging issues for budding night photographers: exposure. Knowing how to make sense of the exposure histogram is a very powerful principle. I would have preferred to see some examples of images illustrated with their histograms to help understand the principle. A too brief discussion of Light Painting (using artificial light sources to illuminate the subject) starts, and ends on page 62. Thereafter a variety of night subjects are covered: Cityscapes, Buildings, Bridges, Industrial Areas, the Ocean, Clouds and Fog. Still more ideas include photographing the moon and using moonlight for illumination - and more. All sections are illustrated with Harold's own photographs. On page 156 Harold gives some simple tips about understanding the night sky and points the reader at an excellent reference section at the back of the book.
From page 176 to 183 Harold covers noise - not in a deep scholarly way - but in a straightforward easy to understand tone and provides detailed Photoshop-ready instructions on how to selectively process out noise. Harold provides great details on processing here but truly his work
The Photoshop Darkroom: Creative Digital Post-Processing is what you want to get ALL the goods on improving and editing photos. The geek in me wanted to see a sidebar or deeper discussion on noise and while Mr. Davis points out noise caused by heating of the sensor, he doesn't mention the noise created by the ambient temperature. (Lower temperatures produce lower noise overall, but also usually lower battery life)
At page 184 Harold begins coverage of my favorite night photography subject: Star Trails. Star Trail photography requires much more than minutes of exposure and always works better with some foreknowledge and pre-planning. Many people are fascinated by the arcs that that stars trace out in the night sky due to the rotation of the earth. One of the best tools to produce compelling star trail images is a technique called "stacking". A copious amount of explanation is provided and includes both reference material for software available over the internet as well as a detailed description of how to use Photoshop to produce results.
The last few sections of the work include using a programmable timer (intervalometer), a great internet resource section and the Glossary and Index I mentioned earlier.
One feature of the book I had not really expected was the many different ideas for night photography. If you have an inkling to tackle night photography but are not sure where to start - you will undoubtedly find something interesting to start with here - even if your efforts are not as inspiring as Mr. Davis's own work.
