Customer Reviews

Photography

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

I purchased this book as my textbook for the Washington School of Photography in Bethesda, MD. The school uses this book from the intro classes all the way to the lighting class. This book is one of the best sources of general photographic knowledge compiled in one volume. All the chapters turned to be useful during my studies.

The pictures and illustrations are clear and to the point. The text is very readable and the technical content is perfect for self study. Even for those shooting digital, the chapter on film selection is very relevant as far as describing the concepts of ISO film speed and color balance. The chapters on darkroom film and print development give the best description I could find of the darkroom process. The lighting chapter is very good too. And the chapter on large format saved me countless hours in learning the camera movements.

If you need one book to describe all the photographic processes, this is The Book. I will continue to use this Photography 8th edition as my principal photography reference for years to come.

Sure this book has EVERYTHING you need to know about photography and how to develop things, but these people know NOTHING about layout design. I just don't know where to look, where to read, and what to do next. If I didn't have an instructor, I wouldn't know what to do with my camera. It is very hard to find what you need in this book, much less go through a chapter. For people wanting to learn about photography, may I suggest the much cheaper book by National Geographic? It has much more clearly defined chapters though it does not have as much information overall (for example, no information about how to develop film).

OK to be fair ... the price got the low stars. It is a nice book but I would never have bought it if it wasn't a required book for the photography class I took. I never used it and still managed an A in the class. It IS nice ... not totally digitally friendly, it's heavy on the film side but many of the concepts will translate to both. If you are new to SLR photography there is a better book to get ... it's called ... Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. It's also one fifth the price :o|

Photography, now in its eigth edition, is a great source for core photography information. As in the previous editions, the information about photography's beginnings and history is very well covered. The emphasis on film and film based cameras is alos very extensive.

My only real complaint about this book is its rather sparse discussion of digital photography. The authors could have gone so much deeper in the areas of digital cameras, digital imaging and working with digital files. As the most popular high school and college photography book, I believe it is a disservice to give such little treatment on digital photography. Also, there is vertually no mention of manipulation software programs like Adobe Photoshop. No serious photographer can still completely ignore this powerful manipulation tool. Students should be learning how to use this software and this is not the book to do that.

This seminal photographic guidebook, now in its eighth edition, should be basic reading for anyone planning to pursue photography as a career or hobby. Although it deals primarily with film photography, I think you'll find that a thorough grounding in the fundamentals will help you become a better, well-rounded photographer in the digital realm, too. Many of the photographic concepts covered here have been continued into digital photography, whether through digital camera features or by means of "digital darkroom" image editors like Photoshop. Start here, and you'll never regret it.

This textbook gets it - photographers are visual people. Accordingly, the pages are filled with detailed, high-quality photographs and illustrations. Additionally, the book covers the basics and advanced techniques, giving a nice range - it was useful to me from the first day I picked up a camera, and I still learn from it many (many, many) years later. It is pricey, especially for a paperback, but consider that you'd have to buy several books to cover the same information as this text, and even then it's my opinion that it wouldn't be as clear. No photography student (formal or self-taught) should be without this one.

I bought the 8th edition for under $20 after the 9th came out for six times that price. I wasn't willing to pay the current asking price, and I'm not convinced it's really worth it. Other books exist that cover this material entirely adequately for all but the PPA certification candidate, e.g. John Hedgecoe's manual of photography, which I bought almost 30 years ago and has been updated consistently. However, I'm pursuing the PPA certification and so thought I might as well have the "official" book.

All that said, it's good and complete on the technical stuff should you need that.