Customer Reviews

Perfect Exposure (Jim Zuckerman's Secrets to Great Photographs)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an interesting book with some of the most beautiful photography imaginable. Zuckerman is clearly a master photographer and the books meets its goal of teaching photographers how to achieve "perfect exposure."

For each chapter, there is an introductory text that is brief and concise and most of the teaching is actually done through the caption text of numerous gorgeous photographs. Zuckerman guides one through the obligatory discourse on the weaknesses of automatic metering and then into various situations that a photographer may find him or herself.

Throughout the book, Zuckerman discusses his approach to obtaining exposure. And, there in lies the major weakness of the book - the approach is his. Although a very sound and effective approach, Zuckerman's "secret" is the reliance of a handheld meter. In the end, the book can become little more than a repetition of the idea that if you use a handheld meter, you can obtain good exposure.

This is in sharp contrast to Bryan Peterson's "Understand Exposure" which actually teaches the reader the principles of exposure and how to use those principles to obtain good exposure REGARDLESS of the equipment being used.

This book, however, has two saving graces: 1) the photography is amazing and does give great examples on how to deal with various exposure situations, and 2) the chapter on finding medium grey in various situations. The first provides the inspiration and the second provides information that is rare to find in books on exposure.

Overall a decent book that one would not regret purchasing; however, I would recommend purchasing it along with Peterson's "Understanding Exposure" rather than as a stand alone text on exposure.

Zuckerman, an educated master photographer, takes an unassuming, non-technical, pragmatic approach to show readers how to achieve the perfect photographic exposure on film in capturing an image. As such, this book is aimed primarily at film-camera audience although the same principle applies equally to digital camera. There is no discussion on the topic of print development exposure and all brilliant and superb colour outdoor nature and travel photographs used as illustrations were captured with his favorite medium-format SLR camera, a Mamiya RZ 67-II (you can check this out at http://www.mamiya.com/assets/zuckerman/RZ67. Exposure with studio lighting is not covered in this book.

Having explained how and when a built-in TTL (through-the-Lens) reflected light meter (by definition) in an SLR camera may fail, Zuckerman jumps straight to the important concept of a "middle tone" (mid-tone or medium gray or 18% gray) upon which such TTL light meters, and for that matter, all light meters, is based in obtaining a "normal" exposure, as opposed to a "correct" or what the author terms as "perfect" exposure. This is definitely not a unique approach of Zuckerman, as some may imagine. It is just common sense exposure based on how the meter works when factory-set once you understand how the 18% gray relates to exposure measurement. This is followed by a judicious survey of the classic situations in which one finds difficulty in obtaining such as a correct exposure. If at all, there is a single rule-of-thumb, Zuckerman makes it clear that if you choose to meter exposure based on a "mid-tone" of a colour, everything else will fall into place (and that's Zuckerman's secret!). This is the Holy Grail one should seek as far as exposure is concerned! Getting to this even when there is little or no mid-tone is the topic of chapter 3.

In a nutshell, when you get an exposure reading from your camera's built-in light meter, often, depending on the lighting situation, you are only getting a "normal" exposure (based on the idea that the camera is exposing your subject at this middle-gray) instead of getting a correct exposure, which is what you want as a photographer! Hence, when you try to obtain an automatic exposure for tricky situations like black subject on a dark background (examples are a plenty in Zuckerman's book), the built-in exposure meter will fail as it tries to interpret a normal exposure of this by assuming a middle-gray. Consequently, you get an over-exposure in such situation and get a gray instead of black subject. Those situations that present metering problem are covered as individual topics in their respective chapters in this book (high contrast, backlight, indoor architecture, low light of extreme situations when correct exposure is more an art than a science, etc).

While it is intuitive to illustrate the concept of "middle gray" as being a series of gray ranging from black to white, doing this within the context of colour photography presents even a challenge to the author. The author did, however, make a good attempt by illustrating the location of a "mid-tone colour" in many of his colour illustrations. However, readers (especially novice photographers) will often be left with the question of what exactly constitutes a mid-tone of a series of colours of a photographic subject. It would have been great if only Zuckerman could show his chosen "mid-tone colour" for each and everyone of his colour illustrations in this book.

As a Pro, the author relies heavily on off-camera light meters (notably the Sekonic L-508) that incorporate both an incident as well as a reflected light meter in capturing almost all of the photos used in the book. Beside stating the importance and the use of incident light meter and a high-end reflected light meter (one-degree spot reading), Zuckerman does provide way in which one can perform the same precision light reading using a standard 35mm SLR on a spot-metering mode (if this metering mode is available on your particular camera model). As the spot reading angle is a function of the focal length of the lens being used, Zuckerman shows that with a telephoto lens focused on a chosen mid-tone of a subject, one can achieve the reading that rivals a precision reflected meter!

The author does not advocate the practice of bracketing an exposure or over- or under-exposure by a stop or two! Hence, there is no discussion of "zone system" exposure. Interested readers are advised to check out titles on this topic, including Les Meehan's "Creative Exposure Control" (Collin and Brown, 2001) and Bahman Farzad's "The Confused Photographer's Guide to Correct Photographic Exposure and the Simplfied Zone System" (3rd edition, 2001)which, among others, also explains the concept of 18% gray in details.

While correct or perfect exposure is important, photographic composition is an equally important skill to acquire on your path to great photography. Readers are advised to check out titles on this topic, one of which, "Photos with IMPACT" (David & Charles, 2003) by Tom Mackie is well worth your effort and money.

Overall, this book is both informative and accessible to photographers in general and novice in particular. It is filled with pages and pages of the author's enthusiasm for his subject of nature photography. This simple approach of identifying a photo-exposure situation and search for its mid-tone may not be shared by all photography enthusiasts, but the bottom line is: If you can capture great photos with such an approach, why not? You can always learn those technical details later. About the only caveat one has of this book is that this approach may take some degree of creativity out of your photography.

All the pictures in this book are stunning, beautiful, and have perfect exposures. My issue with this book is that the author stresses that, in order to get a perfect exposure, one would need to find either a middle tone with a TTL spot meter, or use an incident meter to get a correct reading of the light source. Unfortunately, not all scenes have a middle tone, nor do all photographers have or need an incident meter.
One example in the book, on page 61, is a classic snow scene. There is no middle tone to be found in the picture, so the author uses an incident meter. Why can't the author simply aim the built-in TTL meter at the snow, and add 2 1/2 stops to get the snow to be pure white? In another set of pictures in pages 44 and 45, the author took exposures according to both the incident meter and the TTL meter, becuase the 2 readings did not agree. Well, can't one just trust one meter and bracket the shots?
Quite a few of these so called "exposure" books fall short on being flexible, straightfoward, and comprehensible. Hence the "secrets" the authors tried to convey still remain secrets to me.
4 pages (pages 24 to 27) in John Shaw's Nature Photography Field Guide totally unlock the secrets of exposure. Mr. Shaw's 5-stop tonality chart, which is somewhat based on the Zone system, allows one to use any tone for a correct exposure with the built-in TTL spot meter. This practical knowledge, with enough practice, give us photographers confidence in our cameras and our own ability to metering, and frees us from carrying an extra incident meter to a snowy mountain or other no-middle-tone places.
Again, the pictures are truely awesome and inspiring. It's just I did not get any feel for the 'secrets' after reading cover to cover.

Ok first off, lets get this out of the way, The photos alone more then make this book worth its price. But this isn't a picture book, it is quite possibly one the most well written and to the point books on exposure out there. The author deals with exposure, not your camera, or its features, but on capturing the right amount of light. Regardless of the equipment your using. This was of great use to me, as all the digital photography books out there, worry to much about the digital part and not enough about the photography part.
This book will explain to you the things you need to consider in order to achieve proper exposure and give you some quick tips and finding that all important 18% grey point.
He also weighs in on the concepts of bracketing as well as the exposure rules of thumb. In a sense slaying those sacred cows and tell you ways to get the exposure right for that particular event instead of taking bracketed shots and hoping to get a good one out of the 3.

People, if you have any doubts about exposure with your camera, please read this book. I always had doubts, have read other books that are excellent for exposure, but you know what this is the FINEST book I have read that really does tell you how to find exposure on those difficult exposure. It is so easy to read and you grasp Zuckerman's teaching so fast. WOW
I use to have doubts on my exposure in photography, I bought the book, have read it 3 times in one week, now it is a reference book to check if required. To date have not checked. It is not a big book, but crammed with what YOU need to get perfect exposures. Good Luck, you will land up with a smile on your face

Jim Zuckerman's book keeps what it promisses: It's about exposures. No excurses into composition or ethics etc. Especially tricky light situations (Macro, flash, snow etc.) are well explained.
There's remarkably little text but a lot of well explained photos. Even though Zuckerman starts the chapter about exposure in snow with the words "This is the chapter you've been waiting for..." it was another chapter I finally found in this book (after reading many others)... and I've been waiting for: "How to find medium grey". A chapter with a lot of very helpfull examples where to find 18% grey-tones in colors and especially in nature. Where other books only refer to grey cards or your palm's skin tone, Zuckerman actually shows pretty well where to meter e.g. a sunset. This is far more helpfull than any aparture or shutter speed information in the caption of a photo (which I do not understand as helpfull at all, since I won't be in exact the same situation as the photographer and I'll only see the photo but not the real light situation at the spot!).
One drawback (which might be a plus for others) for me and what led me to only a 3 star rating was that Zuckerman's secret of correct exposure seems to lie in the frequent use of a hendheld external light meter, in many cases (especially in the snow situations) used as an incident meter. He explaines very well how to turn the meter with respect to the camera in order to achieve different effects and so on. Unfortunately I don't own a handheld meter (and do not intend to do so) and even though I can reproduce the reflective metering with my TTL system, it fails with incident readings. As I said, for those who own a handheld meter it will be a great help in its detailed examples and a higher rating of the book might be considered.
However, there's a lot to learn from Zuckerman's explanations. For those who would like more text I still recommend John Shaw's Nature Photography Field Guide which IMHO is still the best introduction in serious amateur photography on the market.

This book, in my opinion, is the fastest and the most simple introduction into understanding of the exposure. Very clearly explained and pictures with author's comments just help so much to understand the author's way of working with exposure. I went to a book store to check highly recommended book of Bryan Peterson "Understanding Exposure". After reading several chapters I understood that the book is good but not as good as a lot of people wer saying. The main drawback of that book is inability to express the basic rules of exposure estimation clearly. That leaves a photographer-beginner with a vague feeling - like - ok, I read it, but what should be my first steps? I am not an experienced photographer and according to Bryan's book there are too many situations and the author leaves too many open doors for a beginner like me (that' good for more advanced amateur photographer, but too confusing for a person like me, who is just starting photography). Opposite - Jim explains it so clearly, giving just a few simple rules, allowing to go and start shooting using those rules and getting results which were not possible before reading the book. Also, I don't agree with one of the reviewers who was complaining about Jim's usage of incident metering. First, Jim almost always explains both situations - metering with the hand meter and metering with camera's meter. Second - it's always a probability that you can buy a hand meter. Having a hand meter will allow you to get much more precise exposure readings. Anyway, great book, I am glad I found it.

I read a lot of good reviews about

Jim is an amazing photographer. This book covers so many different shooting situations and he addresses the exposure problems that plague all photographers. He teaches how to find the proper exposure yourself and lists his camera settings with each photo. The variety of situations and his explanations of what he thinks about as he chooses his settings and sets up the shots give us great insights and a better understanding of how to make our own photos better. I am also taking a photoshop course from Jim through a Better Photo online course.
Oh, did I mention that the photos are incredible as well.

Barely a chapter in I determined that this book was not for me. Looking for instruction I was dissappointed to say the least when I found that this book was more informative of the photographer's talent with gadgets which we are to assume are needed based on what he writes. The photos are fantastic but if you are a digital photographer looking for instruction and not another book about how great the photographer is or about how some gadget is going to help you become a great photograper also, then pass on this book.

I think what makes this book a great book is because you know the photographer is passionate about his work, he wants to get it right the first time around, which is why he doesn't recommend bracketing. He doesn't bash in-camera TTL metering, he is just saying, if you, a serious photographer don't want to mess around or have to bracket your shots, get it as right as you can the first time around. He offers different ways of metering and suggests the ones that work best should be the ones you strive for.

So many factors go into a photograph such as composition, your lens, how it affects your picture, how you want it to affect your picture, the nature & temperature of the colors, ambient and fill-in lighting, aperture, speed, etc. If you don't think you need an external light meter, you probably don't, as long as you're happy spending a lot of time post-processing.

If you've never used a light meter before, are adamant about getting good exposures the first time around, and want to lessen your time in post-processing, you need to know this information. I am so happy I got a light meter, finally, it has meant the difference from an imbalanced inferior histogram to one that reaches effective tonality consistently.

For those things that have been left lacking, you can't learn everything from a book, and the author leaves room for you to move. After all, it's not just all about exposures, but it sure would help if you moved in the right direction to getting it right! Keep on shooting your photographs and learn about your own taste. That way you will strengthen your own opinions and teach someone else great photographic technique!