Langford's Basic Photography, Eighth Edition: The guide for serious photographers (Paperback)

by Michael Langford; Anna Fox; Richard Sawdon Smith (Author)
Key Phrases: direct viewfinder cameras, black silver image, fibre prints, Advanced Photography, Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Photoshop (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
The design of the series clearly reflects the aims and objectives of the authors in terms of format, visual appearance and organisation of the content. Readers are presented with easily accessible, no nonsense, how-things-happen, textbooks of key photographic skills.
Richard Sadler FRPS, MA --Richard Sadler FRPS, MA

Review
'The design of the series clearly reflects the aims and objectives of the authors in terms of format, visual appearance and organisation of the content. Readers are presented with easily accessible, no nonsense, how-things-happen, textbooks of key photographic skills.'
Richard Sadler FRPS, MA

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Focal Press; 8 edition (April 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0240520351
• ISBN-13: 978-0240520353
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #243,965 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great choice!, March 20, 2008

By	Igor Beletsky "Malilsh" (Philadelphia , PA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Great book! If you know a bit about photography and just need something to get you over the plateau of taking okay images to taking great pictures, this is the book! It explains everything from basics to advanced. I loved it. Explanations are in normal English at first but as you read on you develop a vocabulary that this book uses.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars no need in advertising, December 28, 2008

By	Alexander - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Needless to say it's a photographer technical bible. Every camera concept is explained to the bone.

4.0 out of 5 stars Great textbook, but a little dry..., June 24, 2009

By	Edward Oh "Ed" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm half way through this book right now and have found it useful and well written, if not the most intersting read.

The book is structured and written like a textbook for a class (I'd bet a decent amount of money that it actually is, I just can't say for sure), which means it's well structured and written, but not exactly a page-turner. I'm definitely learning a lot from the book, but I can't say I'm really enjoying the process (other than enjoying learning in general).

This is a pretty comprehensive look at photography, covering everything from the different kinds of cameras (including medium and large format, film and digital, etc.) to exposure, to composition, etc. It covers everything from a technical perspective, but as I mentioned earlier, has something to be desired from the "human" perspective in terms of enjoyment and inspiration.

Langford also has a more basic book available (Langford's Starting Photography, Fifth Edition: A guide to better pictures for digital and film camera users), but I reckon this book is simple enough for a reasonably well educated person with no prior experience in photography to understand. There's also an advanced book (Langford's Advanced Photography, Seventh Edition), but I can't speak to that since I would by no means consider myself an "Advanced" photographer.

I'd recommend this book for the technically oriented person looking to learn the fundamentals of photography and its theory in depth. I would not recommend this book to someone who just enjoys taking pictures for fun and wants to learn more about taking good pictures.

In summary, an excellent technical resource (basically a textbook), but quite dry.