Customer Reviews

The New Manual of Photography

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"The New Manual of Photography" by John Hedgecoe is another winner in a long line of books that have made picture-taking more enjoyable, satisfying, and fruitful. Whether you are a total beginner interested in learning photography or an advanced amateur, John Hedgecoe's book will serve you well as a reference and learning tool.

John Hedgecoe is a renowned photographer recognized internationally for his photography skills, teaching ability, and writing style. Like all his books, "The New Manual of Photography" is profusely illustrated with photographs and drawings that give beginner and amateur photographers a clear, practical, and concise guide to better photographic techniques. What makes John Hedgecoe's books so great is that they are easy to read and follow. "The New Manual of Photography" does not target any one specialized field of photography, but it does give the reader an overall idea of what he or she can accomplish with their camera and equipment.

Hedgecoe's writing is practical, with a gift for making even some of the more complex photographic concepts seem simple to accomplish - it is amazing how much information he is able to store in a 399-page book. Hedgecoe covers everything a beginner needs to know to make his or her picture taking experience more enjoyable. This is a treasure trove for beginners who can jump right into topics such as what a camera is, the differences between film and digital cameras, the differences between SLRs, rangefinders, twin lens reflex, small, medium, and large format cameras, and so on. He then zooms in on using aperture and shutter speed settings, film, filters, flash, tripods. . . . Hedgecoe devotes a good number of pages to what I consider some of the most important aspects of photography: lighting, color, and composition.

Hedgecoe discusses natural and artificial light, changing light, white balance, and color temperature. Hedgecoe states that "[e]quipment and techniques . . . are just the beginning. It is the photographer that matters most of all". With this in mind, Hedgecoe writes about developing the creative eye - one of the most important aspects of photography after learning the fundamentals. He talks about looking at the subject from all angles, how to compose or frame the subject, how to control the lighting, background and foreground using depth of field to emphasize the subject, and much more.

Again, "The New Manual of Photography" is not meant to be an all-encompassing work on photography; it is, however, a very worthy book for beginners and advanced amateurs. It gives the reader a taste of just some of the many fields in photography like portraiture, nature, animal, still life, architecture and so forth - Hedgecoe even lays out the foundation for a well-equipped studio.

As all his books, John Hedgecoe`s, "The New Manual of Photography" is a worthy addition to anyone's photography book shelf.

John Hedgecoe is a great and thoroughly proven photography teacher. I have been shooting for many years now and relied on his books when I first got started. I still love going back to them to be inspired by the amazing breadth of his work. I can recommend this book to anyone looking to learn the basics of photography, and I also recommend it to anyone looking to take their photography in different directions.

I thought this book was great! I learned so much from it. It really made me understand all the things you need to take into account when taking a picture and it taught me what everything is. Most importantly, Hedgecoe did a really good job of explaining how ISO, Shutter speeds, and aperature affect your pictures. And he kept everything separated and didn't mix all the topics up together. Very nicely laided out and written without fluff and he kept to the point on each topic.

If you already own one of Hedgecoe's previous books, you will find lots of repetition in this one. However, this one is well organized and is a good reference book when you need to go back and read up on a particular topic.

If you don't already have a Hedgecoe book, THIS is the one to have. It is the best photography book on my bookshelf! Be careful to get the right one, many of his books are named very similarly.

I searched long and hard for a book that struck a balance between digital and traditional film, yet focused squarely on the aspects required to understand how a camera works in order take a great picture rather than spending time in the digital darkroom.

This book has delivered on both counts, and more.

Printed on beautifully thick and glossy paper, this book walks you page by page through all aspects of photography. Each page contains beautiful, full color photographs to illustrate the concepts being discussed on the page. Furthermore, each sample photograph details the focal length, f/stop and shutter speed used for the shot so you know exactly how the results were achieved.

If you're looking to move beyond point-and-shoot to take advantage of the creative aspects of your camera and willing to invest a little time to understand how your camera works, then I strongly recommend you grab this book. It is perfect for anyone looking to move from consumer to amateur, or from amateur to prosumer.

I am a bit disappointed in this book. I love John Hedgecoe and I think he writes well for the subject he talks about, but I felt that this book was the epitome of Jack of All Trades, Master of Nothing. It had a chapter devoted to everyting, and I mean EVERYTHING (e.g. industrial photography), but each topic generally only received only 1-2 pages worth. I think this might be a bit high level for beginners, but for the more experienced photographers we generally have already found our niches and would be better off buying a book that focuses on a smaller range of topics but in more detail.

This is a very well-rounded book as it covers a lot of material in 400 pages. Obviously no book is perfect, and no book can cover every single segment or topic of photography. However, this is as well-rounded as any other photography book I have seen.

The combination of text and (example/sample) pictures in almost every page is a big plus in this book.

It covers technical stuff (cameras, lenses, exposure, focusing, etc), has a chapter on digital/computer processing, a couple of chapters on film, and a chapter on more advanced topics, among other things.

But the majority of book covers various photography subjects ranging from two to four pages each. This includes a wide range of picture taking situations and techniques, such as sunsets, people, flash photography, travel and travelling, portraits, all the usual stuff you could think of and then dozens and dozens more. Each topic has both text and pictures and takes full advantage of the available space in each page.

And now for digital photographers/gadget geeks: Often the publication date does not mean as much as to when the book was written, but the cameras featured in the book are a tell-tale sign: Some of the cameras featured in the book are the Olympus E-20, Canon 1Ds (Mark I), Nikon 5700, Pentax Optio 450. This should give you a reference from a camera model perspective.

Conclusion: This is a great book for just about everyone interested in photography, whether it's a page by page instruction or quick reference for a particular picture taking situation. John Hedgecoe has written a number of very good photography books, so in general just about anything written by him will be good. But if you don't have any of his books, this is a very good one to start with!

The book is perfect for those who want to have an overall idea of photography techniques and troubleshooting. It's simple, very practical and has a great photo material to illustrate its content. I would highly recommend it.

Hedgecoe doesn't seem to have added much new knowledge to his previous editions of the Handbook of Photography. The photos and text are new, but at the same time, are pretty much the same.

If you have the older Knopf editions, stick with them. If you don't this book is still a good resource.

Book is old, yes, it's old. Photos are shot no later then early 80's. Besides they are 20-30 years old, almost all photos are shot with low speed Agfa slide film. It's not fair, is it? I mean how many of you (us) shoot with slide films?
Book tells about everything but too little information on each topic, one page fro each topic. Dedicating only two pages (out of 420) to exposure is not what good photography book gives you, does it? Whatever is given, is given from technical point of view, not an artistic approach.
Book can be useful for someone who's making first steps in photography. Book is for basic knowledge, ABC's or even DEF's of photography. I was looking something like PQR's - wrong pick. I have to admit there are one or two nifty tricks explained, but that's it. If you're advanced amateur (no talk about pros) forget about this book. If you're beginner pick it and after squeezing all juices of it, give it to someone else, like I gave it to my wife who resently took camera into her hands.
Good luck!