Photography [Paperback]

Barbara London (Author), John Upton (Author), Jim Stone (Author), Ken Kobré (Author), Betsy Brill (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0131896091 | ISBN-13: 978-0131896093 | Publication Date: April 19, 2004 | Edition: 8th

For introductory and advanced courses in Photography. This best-selling introductory photography text teaches students how to use the medium confidently and effectively by emphasizing both technique and visual awareness. Comprehensive in scope, this book-features superb instructional illustrations and examples in its clear presentation of both black and white and color photography. London offers extensive coverage of digital imaging and the latest technological developments, such as Web page design and formatting photos on CD-ROMs.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Why is this the #1 photography text year after year? Because no other source does so much so well.

The eighth edition of Photography teaches the skills you need to use the medium confidently and effectively, emphasizing both technique and visual awareness. It features: ,/P>

Complete coverage. What you need to know about black-and-white and color photography, plus special techniques such as lighting, close-up photography, and more. Digital imaging. Two updated chapters on digital imaging reflect cutting-edge technology. An emphasis on seeing photographically. Includes not only technical information, but also insight about flaw to make your pictures better. The text gives special attention to the visual choices photographers make about elements such as sharpness, tonality, and cropping. An easy-to-follow format. Each topic is discussed on a set of facing pages using photos, drawings, text, and captions.

New to this edition:

• Revised and updated digital-imaging chapters.
• Two new Photographer at Work profiles expand this popular coverage of contemporary photography.
• Updated coverage of color photography reflects changes in this dynamic field arid brings the text into the 21st century.
• Striking new fine-art images representing a range of photographic styles.

Unique FREE online study resoiurce...The Companion Website
www.prenhall.com/london For Students

• Interactive simulations and demonstrations that help you understand photo and lab processes.
• Chapter objectives that help you organize the key concepts for each chapter.
• Quizzes with multiple-choice, true/false, and fill-in questions that give you instant feedback and scores. A built-in e-mail routing option lets you forward quizzes to your instructor.
• Useful web links for each chapter as well as an online glossary.

For Instructors

• The Art Central section includes teaching resources from the Instructor's Manual with lecture hints, class activities, and mare, coordinated to each chapter. This module is accessible through a password provided by your local Prentice Hall representative.
• The Syllabus Manager is an easy way to create and post your syllabus online.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

More than a million copies of Photography are now in print. Many people who have used this book have become professional photographers or photography instructors, or are continuing to pursue their personal interest in photography. Whatever your interest in photography, this book is designed to teach the skills that you will need to use the medium confidently and effectively.

The emphasis of this edition continues to be in two major areas—technique and visual awareness.

The technical material helps you learn how to control the photographic process, or as Ansel Adams put it, to "understand the way that the lens 'sees' and the film 'sees.'" Equally important, this book can help you see by showing you the choices that other photographers have made and that you can make when you raise a camera to your eye.

Clarity and convenience have always been a focus of this book. In this edition even more effort has been made to organize and format information into an easy guide for beginning photographers and a quick reference for those with experience.

• The easy-to-use format has been maintained, with every two facing pages completing a single idea, skill, or technique.
• Boldfaced topic sentences outline the text on every page.
• "More About. . ." boxes on many pages cross-reference related topics in other parts of the book.

The general organization of technical information has been maintained, with updates for this new edition.

• General photographic techniques are covered completely in Chapters 1-8: camera, lens, film, exposure, developing and printing black-and-white film, and mounting.
• Chapters 10 and 11 expand and update information on digital imaging, focusing on the information that beginning students need to know.
• Chapters 9, 12, 13, 14, and 15 cover color photography, lighting, special techniques (such as making cyanotypes), view camera use, and a specialized method of exposure and development—the Zone System.
• Throughout the book, changes have been made to meet the needs of students using more digital imaging.
• A fully illustrated Troubleshooting Appendix, beginning on page 400, groups together technical problems, their causes, and ways to prevent them.

Improving visual awareness is a major emphasis of the book. Many demonstration photographs make topics easy to understand. Throughout the book you will find hundreds of illustrations by the best photographers showing how they have put to use various technical concepts. See for example:

• The photographs illustrating lens focal length on pages 45, 47, and 49, or how one photographer uses electronic flash plus available light on page 285.
• Photographer at Work pages throughout the book feature interviews with photographers who have developed successful careers in everything from sports photography (pages 90-91) to an integration of digital imaging with documentary photography (pages 252-253).
• Chapter 16, Seeing Photographs (pages 340-365), deals with composition, tonality, sharpness, and other visual elements that will help you make better pictures yourself, and see other people's photographs with a more sophisticated eye.
• Chapter 17 (pages 366-399) surveys the history of photography so that you can place today's photography—and your own—in a historical context.

New to the Eighth Edition

• Chapters 10 and 11 expand and update information on digital imaging.
• Two new Photographer at Work profiles continue the coverage of coverage of contemporary photography (158-159, 252-253).
• Many new fine art photographs illustrate technical concepts and help students develop visual awareness.

We are pleased to offer a Companion Website. Please visit the site at http://prenhall.com/london. This free online study resource contains many features, including:

• Simulations and demonstrations of various photographic processes
• A study guide
• Chat rooms
• Links to other photography e-sites
• An electronic instructor's manual. Please contact your Prentice Hall representative for a password. An integrated student lab manual/journal is also available.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 8th edition (April 19, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0131896091
• ISBN-13: 978-0131896093
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 10.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #30,654 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #20 in Books > Arts & Photography > Museum Exhibition Catalogs
  • #27 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography > Collections, Catalogues & Exhibitions
  • #63 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography > Reference

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A rehashing of dated material equals a declining value in the digital world, November 23, 2008

By 

A. S. Donnelly (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Photography (Paperback)

This book at one time was a must have resource, but more and more it is becoming "long in the tooth" in the digital world. Sure some material is still valid to both digital and film photography, but the books value as a resource does not live up to the lofty price tag for a new addition.

I had originally owned the 6th Edition as a course book. Recently a photography group in which I participate decided to do a focus discussion on the book. I purchased the 8th edition and found very minimal differences between the 8th and 6th. Save yourself money and don't bother with the 9th and latest version as you can get bargains on older versions in which the major differences may be which photos are used as demonstrations of a point.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars excellent intro to photography, April 2, 2006

By 

Fu Li Chao "montaigne my lord" (los angeles, ca) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Photography (Paperback)

Back in the good old days of film photography, I used to constantly refered back this book for inspiration and guidance. This book contained many interesting and thought provoking examples of some of the masters at work and enabled readers to understand some basic "photographic rules" and how they should be applied. For example, on photographing people, the authors asked you that you should NOT ask them to "hold it" to avoid your subject looking "unnatural" by using a fast shutter speed such as 1/60 second or faster. The accompaning photography of a professional had his mother posing for him with very natural pose undoubtly used the described techniques. Anohter photo showing subjects looking away from the camera competely at ease and seeming never were aware bing filmed was used to illustrate to set the camera's control before shooting. I have personally used this rule thousands of time to photography my son. Due to circumstace (ie the energenic nature and unpredictablity of his fast moving feet), good photos were almost always obtained when I was ready to shoot BEFORE my subject (one and half year old son) were least expected and ready. In addition, I have learned more about exposure, film speed, dark room work, film perservation, and many aspects of photography from this book. As a matter of fact, I learned traditional darkroom work (yes the kind you use chemicals and enlarger) using this book. I do believe that this is not a photograpy-for-dummpy sort of book but rather a serious attempt to introduce a reader to see the wide possiblities of photography and tons of examples and "whys" of a good photograph. Why did the photographer chose to include that background? Why the photograper chose to have the subject turn slightly to the left? Why was the subject seemed distorted and her arms seemed longer than her body? Why the skier was mostly covered by snow and you can hardly see his face? Why the photographer decided not to focus the subject perfectly? I think this is an inexpensive investment for your improvement to take better pictures and no doubt you will be richly rewarded just like me. Cheers and Happy shooting!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Photography" It covers it all., January 21, 2007

By 

Mary Ellen Hosmer (Cape Coral, FL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Photography (Paperback)

This is the most extensive book I have seen on Photography; it covers ever aspect. If you're serious about learning photography this is the book for you. At first I thought it was expensive, but it is well worth the money!

If you take the information in this book and put it into practice, you will have what it takes to be a good photographer; even developing an eye. Through the photographs used to illustrate the lesson, two things are accomplished; easier to understand the concepts and developing the eye to see the way the lens sees.