Professional Techniques for Black & White Digital Photography [Paperback]

Patrick Rice (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2005

This professional guidebook provides tips to create technically correct and highly marketable digital black-and-white photographs. Designed to instruct professional and experienced amateur photographers, this highly visual format features 100 landscape, portrait, and wedding images from 20 leading digital imaging experts. Advice is included for utilizing professional digital effects, selecting an appropriate SLR camera, and managing difficulties and rewards associated with creating high-end black-and-white digital images.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Chapters guide you through composition, workflow, filters, and digital effects, as well as printing techniques."  —PCPhoto

"Rice's arguments for the power of black and white over color will give you much to think about."  —Technical Communication Online

About the Author

Patrick Rice is an award-winning photographer and the author of Infrared Wedding Photography and The Professional Photographer's Guide to Success in Print Competition. He lives in North Olmstead, Ohio.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Amherst Media, Inc. (February 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584281499
• ISBN-13: 978-1584281498
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,459,416 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I have found the review process on Amazon.com to be very helpful and I want to return the favor. I plan to methodically review as many of the books in my collection as I can so that I may be able to help others. I prefer to write reviews that are short and to the point. In a few words, you will know if I like the book or not. I will not stear you wrong. I especially enjoy it when I am the first person to review a book.

Professional Biography:

Patrick Rice is an award winning photographer from Ohio. He holds the Master of Photography and Photographic Craftsmen degrees from the Professional Photographers of America as well as the Accolade of Lifetime Photographic Excellence degree from Wedding and Portrait Photographers International.He lectures extensively throughout the United Sates on a variety of photographic topics and is co-author of the book "Infrared Wedding Photography: Techniques and Images in Black and White", and the author of "Digital Infrared Photography: Professional Techniques and Images", "Professional Techniques for Black and White Digital Photography", "Digital Portrait Photography of Teens and Seniors", "Success in Print Competition for Professional Photographers" and "Professional Digital Imaging for Wedding and Portrait Photographers".

In 2000, Mr. Rice received the Leadership Award from the International Photographic Council. The ceremony honored the top five photographers in the world and was held at the United Nations in New York city.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book on digital b/w photography-lots of ideas as well, March 9, 2005

By 

Patrick Holt "txdragon" (San Antonio, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Professional Techniques for Black & White Digital Photography (Paperback)

This is a very good book indeed. Basically it covers the concepts you need to know in order to capture good color images on your digital camera that can then later be converted to black and white. It further goes on to explain and suggest all the various options open to you to make this photo marketable and or a work of art. While I don't agree 100% with everything said, I am on board for 95%. The provided photos are great and inspiring and the book address both manual ways in photoshop to convert to B/w (besides just clicking greyscale or desaturate) as well as the plugins available out there. Having said this,be aware that this is a very photoshop centric book too.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Save your money: It's simplistic and uninformative, April 11, 2006

By 

C. J. Fraser "cjfraser" (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Professional Techniques for Black & White Digital Photography (Paperback)

In my opinion, the publisher and author of this book are guilty of bait and switch tactics. For a book entitled, *Professional Techniques* for Black & White Photography, it is a huge disappointment.

The book is a general introduction to digital photography targeted at readers who are beginners to photography. Almost the entire content of the book is on the level of a very simple magazine article written for non-specialists. For instance, there are sections on the rule of thirds, on avoiding dividing the frame in the middle, and so on. Only a handful of very simple techniques are presented, such as how to convert an image to grayscale and then use curves to adjust the contrast. The entire discussion of the channel mixer takes up only a few lines -- this in a supposedly "professional" book on B&W technique. There is nothing in here that any slightly experienced amateur digital photographer does not already know.

From the title of the book and the glowing reader reviews, I expected detailed, technical discussions of how to handle the challenges involved in producing fine-art-quality digital B&W work. Nothing in the book even approaches that. (Michael Freeman's Mastering Black and White Digital Photography has plenty of this sort of content, though his exposition is not particularly clear or well organized.)

I'm appalled at the audacity of the publisher and author and wish I could get my money back.

I don't understand the grounds for the positive reviews posted here. I can only imagine they were written by friends or associates of the author.

Postscript: Sure enough, I checked out the first few of the positive reviews below, and they are obviously all fake. Each reviewer has reviewed all and only the books by Patrick Rice and one other person and given them all high marks. Wish I'd looked before.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Photography, February 17, 2006

By 

Gerard (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Professional Techniques for Black & White Digital Photography (Paperback)

This book has great photographs, which is why I bought it. The poses and lighting are very helpful. Although the author stated he creates his digital photos in color, his black & white conversions look as good as any B&W film pictures I have seen.

This is a worthwhile book on digital black & white