Customer Reviews

The Outdoor Photographer's Bible (Doubleday Outdoor Bibles)

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

 

 

"The Outdoor Photographer's Bible" is a sloppy, fundamentally flawed, and ill-conceived book. Any book that calls itself the "Bible" for a particular pursuit should be accurate, focused, and comprehensive. This book, however, fails on all three counts.

At a bare minimum, you would expect a "Bible" to be accurate. In Chapter Four, "Exposure", the author is unable to correctly define and use the term "stop", a basic concept in photography. He mis-defines a "stop" to be "a unit of measure that either doubles or halves a value", rather than using the correct definition, which is a unit that either doubles or halves the amount of light that reaches the film. As a result, he then states, "the difference between f/2.8 and f/5.6 is one stop". Increasing the lens opening from f/5.6 to f/2.8 will double its diameter, and quadruple its area. This change will actually increase the amount of light that reaches the film by four times, since it is the area of the lens opening, and not its diameter, that controls the amount of light admitted by the lens. In this instance, the shutter speed needs to be changed by two stops to maintain the proper exposure. In another example of muddled execution, the author presents a chart that shows half stops of f/3.5 and f/4 between full stops of f/2.8 and f/5.6. Shouldn't there only be one half stop between full stops? In a third example, a caption refers to the "sunny 16" rule in the chapter on exposure, where, in an unbelievable oversight, it is never addressed.

Secondly, a "Bible" should be focused. This book discusses the history of cameras and film. Why, exactly, is it important to an outdoor photographer that the first 35mm camera was designed in Germany in 1912 by Oskar Barnak? Why should an outdoor photographer know that glass negatives were made by coating a sheet of glass with an emulsion of egg whites containing suspended silver salts? Yet it is this type of information that the author is compelled to share with us. Focused is not a word that readily comes to mind to describe this book.

Finally, a "Bible" should be comprehensive. By failing to discuss the "sunny 16" rule, and how that can help an outdoor photographer confirm his meter readings and be sure that he's getting the picture he expects, this book has lost any claim to being comprehensive.

One gets the impression that this is a slapdash attempt to take a basic intro to photography book and recycle it into something that it was never intended to be. Many of the black and white photographs are of poor quality, and look to be much older than the book's copyright date of 1996. All in all, this is a poor excuse for a "Bible".

This book covers it primary subject (outdoor photography) pretty well. The thing I liked best (and what motivated me to write this) was the numerous tables and diagrams, especially related to basics like depth of field. For the very small investment, I'd rate this book as a very good investment for any serious ammeter.

In section 12, Celestial Photography, page 134, it is stated that the earth's shadow covers part of the moon most of the time. Wouldn't this be a lunar eclipse. I think the author needs to visit a planetatarium. Also, my book only has 160 pages, not 192.

The "Bible" is a good entry-level selection for the serious amateur. After shooting for over a year, I found several helpful "a-ha's" throughout the book. There are plenty of tables and numerous photos to illustrate the authors' explanations/techniques. It's a very easy-to-understand book and was quite helpful for someone who's just beginning to understand the basics of lighting & metering, composition, film selection, filters, etc. Another nice feature is that the book applies to those who are shooting on automatic or manual systems--i.e., it did not discriminate based on your skill level or the type of equipment you own. I'm glad to have this book in my collection.