Michael Freeman's Perfect Exposure: The Professional's Guide to Capturing Perfect Digital Photographs [Paperback]

Michael Freeman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 31, 2009

Clear, direct and guaranteed, the perfect exposure method looks at the way professionals work, and lays out the decisions and sequences with absolute clarity, while incorporating the latest, powerful post-processing techniques. Chosing the exposure for a photograph is infinitely complex and one of photography's most absorbing paradoxes because it affects everything in the image and its effect on the viewer. Understanding how and why exposure works is essential, not only because it helps you to decide what is instinctively "right," but this book will give you confidence in that decision--an invaluable skill for every single photographer. Full of beautiful photographs taken by Michael Freeman, this book will arm you with the tools you need for perfect exposure of your photographs.

Michael Freeman is the author of the global bestseller, The Photographer's Eye.  Now published in sixteen languages, The Photographer's Eye continues to speak to photographers everywhere. Reaching 100,000 copies in print in the US alone, and 300,000+ worldwide, it shows how anyone can develop the ability to see and shoot great digital photographs.

Editorial Reviews

Review

* photographers amateur to advanced
* photography hobbyists who love gorgeous photos and Michael Freeman's work

From the Back Cover

Exposure is the deceptively simple concept at the very heart of photography. It has always been a subject of fascination to aspiring amateurs and professional photographers alike. Recent developments in digital technology have transformed the ways in which exposures can be manipulated, and this in turn has forced photographers to think about what they can achieve by understanding the variables of aperture, ISO and time.

In this book Michael Freeman takes you through this difficult and fast-moving area with a lucid and accessible method, using unique workflow illustrations, histograms, and clear, visual examples to explore the subtleties of the subject and enable you to shoot with confidence.

The attention to detail is given an extra angle via a Web-linked^TMinternet address that allows you to see subtle details discussed in the book using the full clarity of your computer screen.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Focal Press; 1 edition (March 31, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0240811712
• ISBN-13: 978-0240811710
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.5 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #110,072 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael Freeman, professional photographer and author, with more than 100 book titles to his credit, was born in England in 1945, took a Masters in geography at Brasenose College, Oxford University, and then worked in advertising in London for six years. He made the break from there in 1971 to travel up the Amazon with two secondhand cameras, and when Time-Life used many of the pictures extensively in the Amazon volume of their World's Wild Places series, including the cover, they encouraged him to begin a full-time photographic career.

Since then, working for editorial clients that include all the world's major magazines, and notably the Smithsonian Magazine (with which he has had a 30-year association, shooting more than 40 stories), Freeman's reputation has resulted in more than 100 books published. Of these, he is author as well as photographer, and they include more than 40 books on the practice of photography - for this photographic educational work he was awarded the Prix Louis Philippe Clerc by the French Ministry of Culture. He is also responsible for the distance-learning courses on photography at the UK's Open College of the Arts.

Freeman's books on photography have been translated into fifteen languages, and are available on other Amazon international sites.

They are supported for readers by a regularly updated site, http://thefreemanview.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars useful book for advanced amateurs but another "system" September 14, 2009

By Keith A. Monahan

Format:Paperback

I'd suggest this book for an advanced amateur photographer who is looking to really fine tune their exposure. It is definitely not for beginners -- there is not enough written about the basic mechanics of photography. I like the book's overall style, which often covers a concept in the two "facing" pages. I often only have enough time to read 5 or 6 pages --- and he gets his points across succinctly.

My major complaint is that the author starts off knocking "systems", like the Adams (and Archer) Zone System, and then proceeds to introduce his own system. He recognizes what he's doing, but justifies this by saying, "but many pros use this same method unconsciously" and "this method is based on experience and honed over years" (paraphrasing)

I feel a system is a system. It matters little to me who created it. I generally don't like these type of approaches.

The majority of the book describes the (12) different types of scenes, how to handle them, what to watch out for, and so on. There are plenty of good examples used to illustrate the point. If you distill his system down, it's basically a bunch of tips on how to handle tricky situations where the camera doesn't meter properly. Very useful.

The author clearly knows his subject material, and his tips throughout the book are useful.

The basic premise of the book is that you shouldn't trust your camera's meter because it can be fooled in a variety of situations. And he's right, but I've found the matrix metering of my Nikon D300 to be fantastic. My approach is to trust my meter, and compensate(using EC) when necessary. And use full manual when the situation demands it. By using RAW, you have a certain amount of exposure latitude that you can adjust later. If you know you are in tricky exposure territory, try bracketing for insurance.

While I won't be using his system, I did pick up plenty of useful tips throughout the book. Since it's an easy read, I'd recommend it for moderate to advanced amateurs. He tries to be camera- and editing software-agnostic during the book, so it's missing the minutiae of hands-on details that many beginners would really need.

49 of 53 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars First Intelligent Writing on Exposure in a Long Time May 1, 2009

By T. Campbell

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Freeman is one of the busiest and most versatile photographers going. He is constantly travelling the world from one assignment to the next and seems to be working simultaneously on the assignment de la semaine and on more than one book at at time: the next instructional book and probably a portfolio/thematic picture book. Either he has an outstanding team back in UK, or he is blessed with extraordinary energy. Maybe he has so much book writing time because of all the time he is in the air....

This is the most intelligent, systematic writing on photographic exposure I know of since the first two issues of Peterson's Photographic magazine in the late 1970s, when it started either as a bimonthly or a quarterly - I forget which. Those two issues carried long, detailed articles on the correct uses of reflective and incident meters in light, shade, and with gray cards. Nothing since has been as comprehensive and useful, until this book.

Freeman uses the capabilities of digital equipment as an integral part of his argument. The core of the book is his breaking the population of exposure situations into twelve categories - three groups with several types - that are easy to recognize in real shooting situations. The crux of this categorization is the histogram. He specifies what the specific characteristics are of each situation and what the most likely manipulations are that help a shooter evaluate and improve an image. I think his use of a "tonal matrix" is particularly interesting and has the potential to be useful, too, with color distribution to understand the abstract structure of an image. This section alone makes the book worth buying.

None of the other books on exposure currently in print is anywhere near so systematic. They tend to be aimed at beginning photographers and are generally presentations of pretty pictures and how the author/photographer used exposure for that image. The arrangement is generally of over/underexposing, movement, night shooting, and such topics.

I do have some concerns and wishes, though. There are a few instances where I could not quite see or understand the point of a set of illustrations and the captions. Too, I wish he would have spent a few more pages looking at exposure and specific hues/colors.

But the numbers of such instances are so few as not to threaten my judgment of the value of this book to any photographer of moderate to high sophistication. This will be a fine addition to his "Photographer's Eye" and "Color" as longstanding references. His approach is an obvious teaching method that I suspect will be taken up soon in many a class and workshop.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Getting Serious About Exposure September 12, 2009

By Sheryl L. Battin

Format:Paperback

This book is directed at digital photographers. He explains how digital and film photography have some differences as far as exposure. He goes into how a sensor works to capture light and he defines terms used to talk about exposure.

Freeman feels that there are 12 exposure situations divided among 3 groups. He explains these well using the idea of key tones.
Then he talks about "The Zone System". As invented by Ansel Adams, the zone system was for cameras using black and white film. But Michael Freeman feels that the idea of zones is a good one and adapts it to digital, color photography building on the use of key tones.

With all this, he then goes into using the exposure that will make the photo you see in your mind. Correct exposure is the exposure that takes you where you want to go not any particular correct or incorrect method. If you see flares in your mind, he explains those. Black and white? He shows how to get the exposure you need. Freeman includes high key exposure, low key exposure, and so forth. He enjoys making low key photos and covers it as well as I've seen anywhere.

Last, he covers post-processing. Now Michael Freeman wrote a book called Mastering HDR Photography so his views on the subject surprised me. He is not sure it is always wise to try to compress an hdr scene into low dynamic range medium such as a computer monitor or a print. He does think the technology will improve though. He does offer some good tips on processing but don't buy the book to learn to process photos.

I feel this is a good book if you are serious about learning about exposure.