Understanding Exposure -- book sucks

[pbelarge]

Well if everyone would just stick to Ken Rockwell's site, and not bother reading all these books, then the world would be full of much better photographers.

Just what the world needs, much better photographers...

 

[reznap]

Sarcasm is a wonderful thing.

I'm much better at picking up on it in spoken vs. written words. /shrug

 

[cfusionpm]

But his videos are so awesome!

YouTube - Creative Macro Photography with Bryan Peterson

Orange slice against Blue paper?!?!?! HERESY!

 

[12sndsgood]

Someone that I know said the book says to set your WB to Cloudy and it works all the time... WTF? really? Does it REALLY say that?

Here's the quote: "I prefer my images warm. And that brings me to my one white balance setting. As is always the case, I leave my white balance set to Cloudy."

But this is fine because he goes on and appropriately explains what he's doing and why -- not a problem. His explanation is understandable and acceptable. My problem is with statements in the book offered as fact that are wrong, or facts identified and incorrectly explained.

Joe

did he offer up the pieces you have problems with as being fact and being absolutes? or did maybe he just not go into more detail on the subject explaining things more to your liking. maybe he decided when writing the book that he would go into the general guidelines of the whole 1/3 3/4 deapth issue in a very basic way and he felt for his readers and this book that he didnt want to get too in deapth with the subject and risk confusing the reader.

 

[jake337]

It's just a starter book, like the ones people get with their D5000's and whatnot. You can also just learn by what the camera does

 

[Robin Usagani]

Thats it.. im growing out my hair.

 

[bazooka]

He reminds me of a used car salesman. That aside, I liked the video.

 

[Bram]

Then why don't you write a book? Become famous, rich, and a great "author". ???

 

[DVC Mike]

I recommend reading Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson.

I agree. It's a great book for people learning photography.

 

[usayit]

stop reading.... use the tools you got to shoot and experiment with different exposures and light. Heck... it's easier now than ever since you can instantly see the results of subtle changes during the experimentation.

 

[subscuck]

stop reading.... use the tools you got to shoot and experiment with different exposures and light. Heck... it's easier now than ever since you can instantly see the results of subtle changes during the experimentation.

While I mostly agree with this, many people, myself included, need points of reference, base lines, etc., when learning any new skill. Books like Peterson's supply these. I also regularly recommend any and all books by Kelby. For the pro or advanced ammy, there's not a whole lot there. For the total noob or person just starting to put it all together, Kelby's books are great. There are also people on teh internets who dislike Kelby. Easily 80% of what I can do with Photoshop is thanks to Kelby, the other 20% is from other books/forums/people I know/playing around with it. I guess what I'm trying to say is, the learning curve is steeper for some than others. Books written for the former will generally disappoint the latter. You have to find the tools that fit your location on the learning curve.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

To stop reading books is about the stoopidest thing I ever heard.

 

[kundalini]

I have a tendency to read my users/owners manual first.

This is a BS thread started by someone who just wants to stir the $h1tpot with a paddle. For beginners, the book Understanding Exposure is a damn good start. The analogies brought up in the OP are suspect to begin with. There certainly can be omissions at this level, WTF do you expect from a beginners book?

 

[usayit]

My point was that any of these instructional books are about the technical parts of Taking a photo.... better photography comes from practice and experimentation . Obviously the book isn't the right level of reading for the OP.

Just like buying a nice camera doesn't making you a better photographer neither does reading a book


sheesh ... yes. the tpf has ceased to amaze me,

 

[magkelly]

I found Peterson's books and video to be very useful. In his defense he says his "rules" are suggestions and that he feels they are meant to be broken. That's just how he works sometimes, against what you're supposed to do. It works for him, obviously.

In his books he talks a lot about being technically perfect versus being artistically creative. About making the choice to be imperfect basically. For what it's worth I sometimes agree with that approach, though not always. Some of his suggestions are a bit unorthodox, but I've found a few of them produce results that are interesting in actual practice.

Don't know Rockwell so I'm not going to comment there. Kelby I like, but more so to read than watch. His videos, the ones he actually does tend to be on the boring side sometimes, I think. I admittedly sometimes find them a bit hard to watch regardless of the validity of the information presented.

Peterson's actually not trying to be technically perfect.

To his credit he often says so.