Must Have Photography Books

[SoulfulRecover]

I love books and have a few about photography/photographers but I would like to see what you all would recommend?

What are some must haves?

My most recent purchase is Gregory Heislers 50 Portraits.

 

[weepete]

The Digital Negative
The Digital Print
Light, Science and Magic
Adobe Photoshop CC (Classroom in a book)

Are pretty much my go to references. I think I have a lightroom book about somewhere too. The first two were a massive help when I was trying to get my head around post processing.

 

[jcdeboever]

I like Hedgcoe books but you're probably too advanced for them.

I am reading, studying, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Decisive Moment, it is pretty informative and extremely interesting. Fascinating images. Very challenging text and images for a noob like me.

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[Frank F.]

Fred Herzog the 2016 edition "Modern Color"

August Sander "People of the 20th century"


Several more Biographies and Monographies and exhibition catalogues. I have a wall full of these here.

 

[JoeW]

I'm looking over at my bookshelf which is 2 feet to the left of my chair. Here are a couple that jump out at me:
--Photo Nomad, DDD
--Food Photography & Lighting, Campbell
--The Photographer's Vision/Mind/Eye, Michael Freeman
--It's What I do, Lynsey Addario
--A Photojournalist's Field Guide, Stacy Pearsall
--The Hot Shoe Diaries, Joe McNally

There are a bunch of other books but those are the ones I keep going back to or have connected with me in one fashion or another.

 

[KmH]

Be sure you get the Adobe Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC for Photographers Classroom in a Book

I will also second:
The Digital Negative: Raw Image Processing in Lightroom, Camera Raw, and Photoshop (2nd Edition)
The Digital Print: Preparing Images in Lightroom and Photoshop for Printing
Light Science & Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting

and add:
Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Lightroom (2nd Edition)
Adobe Photoshop CC for Photographers: 2016 Edition - Version 2015.5
The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC / Lightroom 6 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers

 

[webestang64]

A little dated but "On Photography" by Susan Sontag is wonderful.

On Photography: Susan Sontag: 8601400953068: Amazon.com: Books

 

[DanOstergren]

I think that visual inspiration and reference is incredibly important and is very educational in terms of posing, lighting, color, style, editing, etc, and these are my favorite books for just that. As well, any issue of Surface Magazine featuring their annual "Avant Guardian" competition.

Michael Thompson: Portraits

Michael Thompson: Images

Lachapelle: Heaven to Hell

Robert Trachtenberg: Red Blooded American Male

Vogue: The Editor's Eye

Joyce Tenneson: Wise Women

Mario Testino: Private View

As far as instructional photography books go, I buy them and never read them; visual reference just works better for me. I did however read this book and found it incredibly useful in terms of educational content and visual reference, but as the title suggests it's best for photographing men.
Photographing Men by Jeff Rojas

 

[john.margetts]

My main go-to book is my 1950s Ilford Manual of Photography. Obviously, it contains nothing to do with digital photography but has chapters of optics, composition,light theory, exposure, representation of colours as tones, as well as many film only topics. I also have Camera Work (all the photographs published in Stieglitz's periodical) and Mastering Digital Black and White by Amadou Dialling.

I have other books but those are my main reference works.

 

[DriedStrawbery]

Thanks for sharing the various books.

Are there any that bridges the aspects of Art and photography?

Mainly focusing on the artistic aspects of how the image/art brings out the artist's intent, mood etc?


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[Ysarex]

My main go-to book is my 1950s Ilford Manual of Photography. Obviously, it contains nothing to do with digital photography but has chapters of optics, composition,light theory, exposure, representation of colours as tones, as well as many film only topics. I also have Camera Work (all the photographs published in Stieglitz's periodical) and Mastering Digital Black and White by Amadou Dialling.

I have other books but those are my main reference works.

The Ilford manual started to add in digital info with the 9th edition (2000) and more again with the 10th and current edition (2011).

Joe

 

[john.margetts]

My main go-to book is my 1950s Ilford Manual of Photography. Obviously, it contains nothing to do with digital photography but has chapters of optics, composition,light theory, exposure, representation of colours as tones, as well as many film only topics. I also have Camera Work (all the photographs published in Stieglitz's periodical) and Mastering Digital Black and White by Amadou Dialling.

I have other books but those are my main reference works.

The Ilford manual started to add in digital info with the 9th edition (2000) and more again with the 10th and current edition (2011).

Joe

Hadn't realised that it was still in production. I shall have to look up a more recent edition.

 

[click1911]

Years ago I bought the Time Life Library of Photography. Got it where they sent one volume every couple months so the cost did not kill me. Later I found, liked, and bought a couple of Alfred A. Blaker's books; "Handbook for Scientific Photography" and "Field Photography Beginning and Advanced Techniques".

 

[click1911]

And forgot that another great book is one on the camera you have. I had a couple simple point and shoot digital cameras but when I got into digital SLRs I went to a book store and looked at a couple books specific to the camera I had purchased. For me what I selected was David Busch's "Canon EOS REBEL T3i/600D Digital SLR Photography" book. For me these cameras are so complex compared to what I had used before (Nikon, Cannon, Pentax and Olympus 35mm SLRs) it was a worthwhile purchase.

 

[Frank F.]

And forgot that another great book is one on the camera you have. I had a couple simple point and shoot digital cameras but when I got into digital SLRs I went to a book store and looked at a couple books specific to the camera I had purchased. For me what I selected was David Busch's "Canon EOS REBEL T3i/600D Digital SLR Photography" book. For me these cameras are so complex compared to what I had used before (Nikon, Cannon, Pentax and Olympus 35mm SLRs) it was a worthwhile purchase.

Good idea. I bough the Tom Hogan book for my D500. Then I read the Chapter about the AF-System. After that I had the feeling I need liquid cooling for my brains and I am used to a lot having studied Physics and working as a science writer. Very complex system, only slightly logical. Not Tom's fault but Nikon's....