Customer Reviews

The Making of Landscape Photographs: A Practical Guide to the Art and Techniques

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4 star:		(2)
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2 star:		(1)
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Charlie Waite is my favorite landscape photographer. Galen Rowell, John Shaw, and Art Wolfe to name a few usually does little to nothing for me. But when I look at Charlie Waite, I'm spellbound. I picked this book up again recently and again it is sooo inspirational. Excellent. I like the tone Charlie Waite writes in as well.

The book consists of 150 color photographs, all of which are 6x6 pictures (Hasselblad). Most pictures have not been cropped, so if you have strong distaste against the square format you're going to miss out ;) This is by no means a medium format photography book, though. Other than the fact that the pictures are taken with a medium format camera, everything in this book is about the picture itself.

The contents are:
- Introduction: A Frame of Mind
- The Arrangement of Parts
- Simplicity
- Right Time, Right Place
- Lenses
- Movement and Exposure
- Manipulating the Image
- The Play of Light
- Colour in its Place
- Sky and the Landscape
- Water and the Landscape
- Buildings and the Landscape
- The Big View
- The Intimacies of the Landscape
- The Final Shape

The format of the book is one picture per page, some text about the picture and composition and a "Points to Watch" box. There is also a box for each picture giving the technical data, but don't let that fool you into thinking that this is a technical book. It's a book that shows pictures and what the photographer thinks about each one. It's not a book that will take you step-by-step through anything.

Charlie Waite is based in UK, so most of the photographs are from Europe.

Also see my review of Charlie Waite's "Seeing Landscapes" which is not too different from this book, but different enough to be worth having too.

I would highly recommend _The Making of Landscape Photographs_. The book is comprised of 150 photographs, each one with discussion of what makes the image work (or not work; he's generous in showing things that didn't work out). Watie discusses both composition and technical details, but he relates the tech side to the artisitic success: "Only a polarising filter has been used to deepend the richness of the sky and to bring out the beautiful wispiness of the clouds, as an effective contrast with the hard-edged shapes of the village below them."

The photographs are beautifully printed. Waite uses a 6x6 (square format) camera. One quibble: in some cases the book prints a square image across a two-page spread. It's a nice effect, with full bleeds on three sides, but it makes it hard to take in the full image across the gutter. It's a minor point. Overall, the book is both beautiful to look at and extremely useful to any photographer who wants to improve his landscape photography.

In this book Charlie Waite,world's leading Landscape photographer has beautifully illustrated various aspects of Landscape Photography. This book is a class apart from other contemporary books on the subject, in the sense that it is not only confined to the mechanical details of technical information. Rather, it guides the reader through a visual journey of carefully selected photographs and helps to develop a poetic eye towards the most beautiful and difficult subject of photography, the landscape. Charlie has been generous enough with the detailed technical details of each photograph. Especially helpful are his Points to watch, golden tips, acquired in years of dedication, passed on from a maestro to his students. The photographs are exquisite, sometimes transcending beyond photographs into the world of fine art painting. This book is for anyone who has slightest interest in Landscape Photography. Let me conclude after concurring with "The Independent": Charlie has put the soul back into Landscape Photography.

I keep coming back to this book to look at and be inspired by the beautiful images. Charlie Waite is a master, not nearly well enough known in this country (USA ... Waite is UK- based).

The technical information is very interesting, particularly Waite's analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of his own photographs, why he decided on a particular crop, why he made a particular filter choice, etc.

But, it's the photographs themselves that are most compelling. Whenever I am seeking inspiration, I refer back to this book.

The photographs are all in color, all 6x6 medium format (Hasselblad), all landscape (Waite includes buildings and other man-made objects as well as animals in his landscape definition and the photos are all the better for it), and all "formally" composed, many with a very painterly quality.

I see that the book is currently unavailable. I'm so glad I already own it. If I didn't, this is one book that I would search for used.

This book has helped me immeasurably in deciding how to take certain photographs. His advice on the use of light and framing of the photographs is excellent. If you've been seriously into landscapes for a while, this probably won't have anything new for you aside maybe from some inspiration. If you are just starting out or unsure of your work in anyway, this book is a great reference. Either way, a well-written book with beautiful photographs in it.

I have this book since around 4 years, and I always refer back to it. The notes are simple and straight to the point, and the photos are excellent. Full photographic details are there for each shot (aperture, shutter, film iso, lenses...).

This book is a must for every serious Landscape photographer.

Although much of the content in this book can be found in many other books on landscape photography, this book is better than most other such books. The images are very good, the writing is to the point, and the format and organization of the book make it easy to read and find information. It's worth a look.

This is one of the better books on photography that I have read. As one other reviewer wrote, one of my favorite things about the book is where Charlie makes recommendations about things that could have improved in the pictures...he suggests certain cropping that might help, or certain items that could have been left out of a picture to improve it. Equally helpful are the little touches that he mentions that really "make" a picture. He'll suggest covering up a small section of the picture with your hand, and he's right...without the highlight here or the rock there, the picture isn't as strong. It helped me think a little differently about the importance of seemingly minor things in the composition.
One other small thing I like is that he includes not just the focal length of the lenses used in each picture, but also the types of filters used, shutter speed and aperture.
I really enjoyed reading this book, and look forward to reading more of his others.

This is a great great photography book. No matter how many times you read it you will keep learning from this great photographer.
The pictures are superb and the explanations are well written and easily understood. Another feature of the book is its honesty. When the author feels that the picture could be improved he tells you so. This is a rarity in these types of books. I have recently purchased Charlie Waites book Seeing Creatively which is also superb. I just cannot get enough of his books and I wish the older Books were available for purchase, but alas they seem hard to get hold of.

I bought this book some years ago, and I have read it intermittently. I reread it this weekend, more carefully than before. It is a book that is beautifully designed and printed. Waite's teaching is given gently, partly by very good example and partly by suggestions and hints. His qualities of patience and persistence come over well.

If you want to take good landscape photographs this book is well worth reading for ideas and examples.