Question regarding Peterson's "Understanding Exposure" book

[AMOMENT]

I'm reading "Understanding Exposure...I believe it is the 4th addition and was written in 1996. He speaks of some DSLR'S having aan auto-depth-of-field scale "with these cameras, you can autofocus your foreground, autofocus your background, and the camera will then beep only if your range od DOF is greater than the aperture choice can offer. If the camera should beep, chances are good that you're focusing on too close of a foreground, so move back and focus again." page 38. I know my nikon d3100 does not have one but I do have a DOF calculator on my phone. In the cameras that do have these, what exactly do you do to make this happen and if using autofocus then how do you focus on your foreground and background separately? Don't you need to select your AF point and determine where in your frame you are going to focus, determine the aperture and focal length to increase or decrease your DOF depending on how much you want in focus, and the rest is done automatically? In other words, when using your autofocus system you can be in control of selecting which AF point to use and therefore where in the frame your focus is and you can adjust your aperture and focal length to determine how shallow deep your DOF IS? You have to know where your focus is going to fall no? In the cameras he is describing, it seems very different. Can someone elaborate?

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Just use your DoF Preview button, it's much easier.

 

[tirediron]

I wish I could... I've never heard of that, and like you, I'm not entirely sure how that would work...

 

[2WheelPhoto]

Just use your DoF Preview button, it's much easier.

^^^^that!

 

[KmH]

What matters is how your camera works.

If that feature isn't described in your camera's user's manual, what Bryan says is moot.

My 'Revised Edition' of Understanding Exposure has a 2004 © date. The first consumer grade DSLR (Fuji Finepix S1 Pro) went on sale in 2000.

 

[joel28]

Oy vey...that book again...

Anything wrong with this book?

 

[nmoody]

Oy vey...that book again...

Anything wrong with this book?

The book is really great for getting an understanding, but for specifics on camera's its a bit lacking

 

[Ysarex]

Oy vey...that book again...

Anything wrong with this book?

Yep, skip the parts where he's wrong.

Joe

 

[belial]

The book is really great for getting an understanding, but for specifics on camera's its a bit lacking

Not to mention Brian gets a lot of things downright wrong especially when it comes to digital specific as he was a film purist for a long time. You really start to see this if you read understanding digital photography where he mistakenly says that one should never shoot in jpeg because everytime the file is even just opened and closed It degrades. Or when he urges his students to always buy the most megapixels as it always leads to a better image. On general exposure concepts Brian is great but take anything else with a grain of salt

 

[Overread]

On general exposure concepts Brian is great but take anything else with a grain of salt

Like all lessons one needs to read everything with a pinch of salt.

Most of the complaints against the book are not agains the book itself, but the style of the advice (which is always open for debate from any learning source) or they are concerned about the more common parlance he uses instead of the more correct and strict terminology. However on that last score the terminology he uses is the general words most are going to come into contact with in photography groups, clubs, forums, chats ect... I might not be scientifically correct and might clash with more advanced course material; but its more than enough suitable wording and outlining for beginners to understand and put to good use.

Those that want to go further can, and will find that there are slips of advice that gloss over technicalities or use slightly common usage of working (eg he refers to exposure instead of exposure value - however look around the forums here and see how many ask about or talk about exposure value when talking about photos and exposures).

 

[AMOMENT]

Thanks =) I took out the book from the library because many people on here suggested it.

 

[LizardKing]

I think it's a great book for a beginner, like me. But even myself found a couple of comments that sounded pretty strange when I read them and the found to be different than he said... but as people said here, leave aside those technical/digital things and focus on the way he talks and explains exposure... that's what's important in the book, I think.

Since we're in the subject, and I know this questions has been done several times before (even by myself) but everytime you ask it, you get new responses
Any books to recommend on this matter? (Exposure mostly, and the use of filters)

Thanks!

@AMOMENT: Sorry to re-use your thread to ask this, but I thought since we're on the subject, it could be helpful to all of us

Regards,
LizardKing

 

[TCampbell]

Just use your DoF Preview button, it's much easier.

Ordinarily that would be the best way to validate the focused area. But, on a D3100... it occurs to me that this particular body doesn't actually have a DoF preview button. Given that you can shoot and chimp the photo, I suppose a DoF preview isn't quite as critical as it was in the days of film (when you couldn't be sure until the film was developed.) Still... it's a very handy function to have.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Just use your DoF Preview button, it's much easier.

Ordinarily that would be the best way to validate the focused area. But, on a D3100... it occurs to me that this particular body doesn't actually have a DoF preview button. Given that you can shoot and chimp the photo, I suppose a DoF preview isn't quite as critical as it was in the days of film (when you couldn't be sure until the film was developed.) Still... it's a very handy function to have.

Well, then that makes two of us giving advice for features her camera doesn't have.