Customer Reviews

Langford's Basic Photography, Eighth Edition: The guide for serious photographers

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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This is quite a detailed book on photography: it includes scientific information, photography theory, and information on equipment and technique. It's good fondational book--not for beginners, necessarily--although it could be read by beginners or used in a college course for beginners. You would just need to be a serious student or someone with a scientific slant if you're going to start with this book. It's particular good, though, for those who have some experience in photography and want to go back and fill in gaps in your knowledge, to understand underlying concepts. One interesting aspect, incidentally, is the explanations of various camera formats over the past century or so. I thought I would never finish at first, but I took it with me on a vacation in a particular hot zone and where there wasn't much to do but nap and read during the day. I read this book thoroughly over a ten day and came out feeling like a much stronger photographer as a result.

I'm half way through this book right now and have found it useful and well written, if not the most intersting read.

The book is structured and written like a textbook for a class (I'd bet a decent amount of money that it actually is, I just can't say for sure), which means it's well structured and written, but not exactly a page-turner. I'm definitely learning a lot from the book, but I can't say I'm really enjoying the process (other than enjoying learning in general).

This is a pretty comprehensive look at photography, covering everything from the different kinds of cameras (including medium and large format, film and digital, etc.) to exposure, to composition, etc. It covers everything from a technical perspective, but as I mentioned earlier, has something to be desired from the "human" perspective in terms of enjoyment and inspiration.

Langford also has a more basic book available (Langford's Starting Photography, Fifth Edition: A guide to better pictures for digital and film camera users), but I reckon this book is simple enough for a reasonably well educated person with no prior experience in photography to understand. There's also an advanced book (Langford's Advanced Photography, Seventh Edition), but I can't speak to that since I would by no means consider myself an "Advanced" photographer.

I'd recommend this book for the technically oriented person looking to learn the fundamentals of photography and its theory in depth. I would not recommend this book to someone who just enjoys taking pictures for fun and wants to learn more about taking good pictures.

In summary, an excellent technical resource (basically a textbook), but quite dry.

Great book! If you know a bit about photography and just need something to get you over the plateau of taking okay images to taking great pictures, this is the book! It explains everything from basics to advanced. I loved it. Explanations are in normal English at first but as you read on you develop a vocabulary that this book uses.

Needless to say it's a photographer technical bible. Every camera concept is explained to the bone.

The book arrived quickly, and in very good conditions.
It's a very good book to who wants to start doing something more with photography.

The book arived promptly and was in great condition!! Thanks for the great transaction and if given the chance I will by from you again!! Melissa