Customer Reviews

John Hedgecoe's Complete Guide To Photography: A Step-by-Step Course from the World's Best-Selling Photographer

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Some nice pictures, and reasonable information, but the Kodak Guide to 35mm photography does the job a lot better, with more detail and relevant pictures to demonstrate technical points. The Hedgecoe 'complete' guide probably isn't the best route to learning how to use your new SLR (or compact), nor to use your existing one better, although it might spur your creative thinking. The focus is on the picture rather than how to achieve it. The layout also struck me as a tad old-fashioned, perhaps because it hasn't been updated since 1990.

Being fairly new to photography myself, I was more than a little overwhelmed by the sheer number of photography books available. After carefully surveying the market and making a few trips to the local library, I began to notice that two styles of books seemed the favorites: Kodak's series of books and books authored by John Hedgecoe. After purchasing and reading books from both, I can tell you that you can't go wrong with either choice.

This book in particular I liked very much. John breaks the book into three sections. The first part is about the basics of photography: 1) how camera works (basic terms like aperature, f-stop and shutter speed) and 2) choosing and understanding the camera, lenses and flashes. The second part of the book is a series of projects you can do in order to learn to use your 35mm SLR. Each project provides details about how to acheive the desired shot. The book contained over 70 projects! Finally in the last section, the author provides some insight for you once you master the skills presented in the book.

While I must admit that the Kodak book on 35mm photography is just as good, you won't be disappointed with this purchase. The sheer volume of information, tips and advice are alone worth the price. If you take the time as I did to plow through the book, I know you will see amazing results. While I never intend to pursue photography from more than an amatuer sense, I feel after reading this book and applying the techniques that I now have skills to be quite proud of, not to mention good looking pictures.

I strongly recommend this book for beginners and intermediate SLR users. Once you finish this book, check out his other books on specific photography topics like photographing landscapes. All around this book is a solid buy.

Hedgecoe's book walks the reader through photographic topics, lab-style. The book consists of 73 projects, each one of which focuses on one element of effective photography: shape, composition, pattern, color, uses of color, over- and under-exposure, black-and-white, positioning subjects...using examples, short 'technical tips' and discussion, I found it easy to begin assembling my own "photography workbook" by doing the exercises. In less than a year I was doing work good enough to start entering amateur photography competitions---and REALLY enhancing my scrapbooking.

This is a good bock for people who want to start creating interesting different pictures. The artistic concepts are very well described, but there is a lack of technical information. Although sometimes the author mentions compact cameras, most features are not available in compact cameras - be careful! Excellent book for beginners with SLRs, who want to understand the artistic concepts and making experiments with a new camera. I have an APS compact and learned a lot, but many things I can't do!

Simply put, this book provides a workbook-type approach to learning photography. Not only did it provide useful background, but each "skill" has a section of explanation for use by the practicing student.

When I get better I'll need more, but right now it will take me a year to complete and master these useful, focused and achievable projects.

I am a beginner and wanted a book to explain what is involved in taking a good picture. I expected a technical manual to explain the corelation of shutter speed and aperture and good detail on lenses. This book seems to touch lightly on those and spends the rest of the time talking about great pictures rather than telling you how to do it. It is not a complete guide to using a SLR camera.

Hedgecoe explains the various basic techniques for a beginner in photography. He depicts "lessons" that work as examples in broadening the creativity of a photographer on the basic level. The explanations of various angles and use of depth of field help explain the technical aspects and limitations a camera and/or lens. Knowing such things allow the photographer to know how to create the compostion and image they desire. This book is well suited for the curious beginner who prefers a book to hands-on learning.

I am a beginner and really want to know more about what makes a good picture under various conditions. I felt this book fell short in explaining the technical details of aperture and shutter speed correlation. The section on lenses was very brief and general. Am I missing something about learning photography?