Outdoor Photography Masterclass [Paperback]

Niall Benvie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 7, 2010

Want to capture the glory of a sweeping meadow or an old oak tree at sunset? Learn how, in just three days, with Outdoor Photography Masterclass! Day one begins with a technical overview, from sharpness and calibration to workflow and digital options. Next, exercise those new-found skills right in the field. Finally, helpful tips guide photographers through finishing effects and the final presentation. Niall Benvie makes the seminar easy to follow, and examples of his own work provide inspiration.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Professional photographer Niall Benvie is a founding fellow of the International League of Conversation Photographers. He has already written several books as well as numerous magazine articles on the skills and enjoyment to be found within outdoor photography.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Photographers' Institute Press (September 7, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1861086792
• ISBN-13: 978-1861086792
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 8.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #778,128 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Welcome Back, August 27, 2010

By 

Conrad J. Obregon (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Outdoor Photography Masterclass (Paperback)

It's been almost ten years since Niall Benvie released a book. I've always thought of him as the thinking person's outdoor photographer, more concerned with vision than technique. Now, at last, he has written a book for the digital age, "Outdoor Photography Master Class".

The book takes a strange form, as if it were a three-day long workshop. (Occasionally it seemed as if it might have been taken from a transcript of such a workshop.) Each of the chapters is on a different subject, often unrelated, from simple matters, like using the histogram to determine the right exposure, to esoteric subjects, like whether nature photography is art. There is no consistent development of a single theme other than the broad subject of outdoor photography. Many of the chapters, which may have been derived from articles, are more thought provoking about the nature of photography than they are about technique, although some, like the article on what Benvie calls the field studio (a method of shooting in the field with artificial backgrounds and lighting), are about technique in the service of vision.

The skill levels to which these subjects will appeal varies. The chapter on the development module in Lightroom is so elementary that it will at most simply be a refresher for those just getting into the software. The chapter entitled "How shall we critique outdoor photography" may be useful and thought provoking for the more advanced outdoor photographer.

Benvie is a bit of an iconoclast, suggesting, for example, that in the age of fast, low noise ISO's there is less need for tripods. He also appears to be almost distant from some technical aspects of post processing as when he states that the contact sheet facility once found in Photoshop is no longer available (it's available for Photoshop CS5 as a downloadable optional plug-in) or when he fails to make the distinction between input and output sharpening, so brilliantly articulated in Lightroom.

Although the book is nicely illustrated, many of the screen shots of Photoshop and Lightroom screens are so small as to be almost useless, and often the accompanying description is too cursory.

Yet despite my criticism's, for the outdoor photographer who has gone beyond the fundamentals, many of the articles will prove provocative enough to make the reader reexamine the way he or she is working and perhaps even try some changes in their photographic process.