Michael Freeman's Perfect Exposure > Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson?

[fjrabon]

I know understanding Exposure is the go to recommendation for noobs, but I actually found it to be one of the least helpful books amongst those I read, personally. When he tried to simplify, he said some things that were just flat out wrong (as has been pointed out here a number of times), other times he made relatively simple concepts sound really complicated. And other times he gave you a bunch of concepts, but no clear path for putting them all together.

Freeman's book, like all his books, IMHO, is just a masterpiece of teaching, by an excellent photographer who can really teach, and gives great visuals to illustrate his points for the more left and right brained amongst us.

He also manages to keep things simple, while also letting the budding photographer know all his or her choices. That's the other thing I think Understanding Exposure does too much, gives firm rules. Freeman gives you ways to think about exposure, and then tells you why you might break them sometimes. I know we have the saying "you have to know the rules to know how to break them" but Freeman explains what each of the 'rules' does, and why you might break them in certain cases, and what breaking them actually does. While astoundingly not confusing the novice reader.

If I were buying a gift for a young budding photographer, it'd be all his books. They're just so excellent. Simple, yet refined and not dumbed down. I think his books, combined with Kelby's for a few more nitty gritty tech-y things are the best out there.