Which book to buy...

[Dghandour]

Just wondering which book you'd prefer. I am new to the digital photo world and would like some good reading material to go with my Canon.

Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby or Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson?

Appreciate your advise!

 

[UjaiDidida]

Hi there. I will only spend my money on my gears. Learning everything about photography costs me an internet connection and some practice.

 

[Torus34]

This topic has come up again and again on these pages. You might start by reading through the posts in:

Photography Books for Beginners Photography Forum

My own [very small] contribution to your question is the suggestion that you not neglect the composition side of the process while learning the technical.

 

[Overread]

Hi there. I will only spend my money on my gears. Learning everything about photography costs me an internet connection and some practice.

Learning online can work well, but it has downsides. The net is fantastic for smaller case studies and specific methods or theories; but its typically less good at stringing it all together into a process. Thus books often give a much more structured, much more formal and much easier to get the whole picture approach that gives you a working foundation.

From there you can use internet resources to aid you by filling in each part with more detail; or if not more detail just different approaches or ideas.

When you learn from the net alone you can end up missing out bits, sometimes little bits sometimes big; and sometimes they can cause you to have problems later on when picking up concepts.




Of the two remember that the Digital Photography book is 4 books in a series - I only ever read the first one; it was ideal for someone with no experience getting started; but one that you would quickly out-grow. Understanding Exposure is well recommended and whilst its dealing with one core subject area its a very critical one to photography and the book is likely to last you a lot longer.

 

[Designer]

Just wondering which book you'd prefer. I am new to the digital photo world and would like some good reading material to go with my Canon.

Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby or Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson?

Appreciate your advise!

I'm almost always immensely disappointed in the long run. Either the book is geared toward beginners only and I quickly "outgrow" it, or it is primarily a showcase of the author's own photographs. Either way, I soon regret the purchase.

What you want to find is a book that will continue to serve you well even as you gain knowledge and experience. Personally, I have not read either of those selections, but I've read excerpts and reviews, which admittedly is not the same thing, but I believe it helps me decide.

The best photography book I have ever owned is "The Craft of Photography" by David Vestal. It is all about shooting, processing, and printing using film, so it has lost its widespread appeal with the coming of digital imaging.

My advice then is to simply pick one, or perhaps 8 or 10 books, and just jump in. One way to cut your overall investment is to purchase the books used, or on closeout so you're not out a lot if you find the book doesn't serve you well.

Here is an older edition of "Understanding Exposure" at a substantially reduced price:

Understanding Exposure How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera Updated Edition Bryan Peterson 9780817463007 Amazon.com Books

If you only have to pay $0.31 for it, it will probably be worth it.

 

[Didereaux]

The first three Kelby books are worth getting when you are starting out, covers the Nikons, and Canons nicely, and are laid out in a way that makes them remarkably helpful. BUT only the first three, and ONLY used. There are lots of used ones on Amazon.

 

[soufiej]

Just wondering which book you'd prefer. I am new to the digital photo world and would like some good reading material to go with my Canon.

Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby or Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson?

Appreciate your advise!

Have to agree that buying books such as the two you've listed will only get you so far. Then you'll be wondering why you spent your money on a book which didn't really move your photography along. Though film/slide/digital photography all have their own quirks and techniques, I'm a bit less interested in any book which is strictly about "digital photography".

IMO if you are looking for the big picture, don't limit yourself to only one format or working style. Buy, if you must, a guide to seeing what you are wishing to capture as an image. If you are short on knowledge of composition, the rules for photography come largely from the painter/illustrator's world and have changed very little since the 1600's and the development of perspective in painting. If you wish to learn more about exposure, learn about classic chiaroscuro effects. In other words, don't learn how to make only a digital camera work.

Learn instead how to see in an artistic manner. Then devote serious time to learning how your camera operates in a way which will benefit your ideas.

I suppose a few photographers will disagree with this advice, particularly those who prefer to get their work done in post production. My opinion though is to capture the idea as completely as possible in the camera, which should give you less to correct or alter after the fact. I was originally trained as an illustrator and as a stage designer. I learned about photography long before Photoshop was even a glimmer in some software writer's mind. I never sat down at a drawing board with the idea I was going to erase something later. The same goes for my photography. While many "digital" photographers are more apt to create lighting effects in a computer, I tend to see (in my mind) how light and shadow is placed - or can be manipulated - before I compose the shot.

Largely, I would say most illustrators/painters find their answers in the museums and classic art books and then by simply doing what they want done. IMO, if you can't see it before you even pick up the camera, then you likely won't have it after the shutter clicks. You can learn the "rules" of composition just as you learn the relationship of aperture to shutter speed. However, if you only compose an image by the way rules dictate you should, you are, IMO, working backwards and your photographs will always indicate that.

Your camera can either assist or defeat you when it comes time to put your ideas to work. My advice, therefore, would be to come to as complete an education as possible with your camera's operation, its strengths and weaknesses, by studying your manual and using your equipment as frequently as possible. If you were to say you wanted to play a musical instrument, you would be asked to practice for "X" amount of time everyday. Playing for three or four hours only on the weekend will be a much less effective way to get the work ingrained in your mind and in your muscle memory.

You should be looking at possible images everyday, all day. You needn't have your camera in your hands to work at seeing what is possible about a subject. If your mind sees a pattern, a line, a negative space or a repetition, you should strive to be at the point with your equipment where you do not have to resort to reading your owner's manual in the field or fumbling around with settings to put your ideas to work. A lot of backwards engineering of other photographers' work is beneficial to this learning process. Rather than buying a book, buy a Sunday newspaper and make an attempt to understand how each image in the paper was constructed.

Save your money on buying books, head to your local library. Look at other people's work. Then go to work yourself.

 

[Overread]

Souf - I would not say I disagree with the overall thrust of your viewpoint, but I do disagree with the timing of it. I have always felt that whenever anyone approaches any artistic or creative medium the first and foremost thing they have to learn is how to use the tools. Doesn't matter what it is, the operator has to know how to use the tools and build up their own skill base whilst working with them.

From there they can then broaden their creative vision by taking those core skills and studying others creations. By building one's own skills you can more easily disassemble anothers work to see how it was put together ; but also when they get ideas from their inspiration they are able to put together a way to achieve the end result; and achieve it with a level of quality.

Ideas without foundation will only lead to problems and frustration. Inspiration without skill is dead easy and very frustrating for a person to have to deal with.




Of course in reality no person learns skill without inspiration and vis versa - people will learn both at the same time; but to different degrees. My advice is to focus on the core to start with; then worry about expansion and creativity more so.

 

[Derrel]

I think for beginners, the best books are the many written by John Hedgecoe. Hedgecoe was the first ever professor of photography at London's Royal College, and was a master teacher and educator. As overread mentioned, books have the ability to string together the many sub-parts of the arts,craft,and science of photography, to present a wide-ranging picture of the field.

Your camera's instruction manual can teach you how to run your camera. Hedgecoe's books all have hundreds and hundred of small illustrations, often four or five per sub-topic, with detailed notes or illustrations, which explain the many "secrets" of making effective pictures. He teaches how to see light, find light, and how to position the camera in relation to the light. He explains and shows how to use wide-angle lenses, telephoto lenses, and normal lenses. PHOTOGRAPHY has not changed much since the 1940's, it really has not. The exact tools used have changed, but the principles are still the same, only now we shoot to digital sensors most of the time, and not to film.Hedgecoe's many books are outstandingly illustrated guides. Not recipe books, but master-level teaching books designed to TEACH the art and craft; these are not books written in 2014, which assume that 90% of the important work is done in Lightroom or Photoshop.

I would reccommed ANY of his books over almost anything modern. Seriously.Amazon.com John Hedgecoe Books Biography Blog Audiobooks Kindle

 

[soufiej]

Souf - I would not say I disagree with the overall thrust of your viewpoint, but I do disagree with the timing of it. I have always felt that whenever anyone approaches any artistic or creative medium the first and foremost thing they have to learn is how to use the tools. Doesn't matter what it is, the operator has to know how to use the tools and build up their own skill base whilst working with them.

From there they can then broaden their creative vision by taking those core skills and studying others creations. By building one's own skills you can more easily disassemble anothers work to see how it was put together ; but also when they get ideas from their inspiration they are able to put together a way to achieve the end result; and achieve it with a level of quality.

Ideas without foundation will only lead to problems and frustration. Inspiration without skill is dead easy and very frustrating for a person to have to deal with.




Of course in reality no person learns skill without inspiration and vis versa - people will learn both at the same time; but to different degrees. My advice is to focus on the core to start with; then worry about expansion and creativity more so.

I don't necessarily disagree with your post. We all learn at different levels, at different speeds and at different times. It is the poor teacher, IMO, who insists all students must learn "this" way because that is how the instructor was taught. In my experience teaching various topics, a lot depends on the individual student and the level they are at when they come to me. Surely, a new student of guitar must be taught the basics of the instrument. At the same time, IMO, they need to know the "why" of the mechanics. They need to hear those why's put to use. Pressing down on fret #1 and then fret #3 and back again doesn't establish much in the student's mind. It only focuses on the simple mechanics of the deed. Until they can grasp why fret #1 is "this" and fret #3 is "that", I find they have limited imagination and their technique is holding them back even more. They do not require complex music theory any more than the newbie photographer needs in depth instruction in color theory. Most guitarists are taught what is termed "practical theory for guitar". In other words; what is an interval, what is a step and a half step, what is a scale and how is it created, how are chords created from a scale and so on. Then they are asked to put those things to work. To imagine what is possible, even if it is very little at first. When I instruct a player, I will tell them they need to stay with a single topic and not bounce from this to that. When I begin with a student and a camera, I often suggest the student begins in full auto mode to see how the camera sets a correct exposure. That is the "how". Now show me the "why". I find the same sort of advice useful when someone asks me a bit about photography or guitar. Here are the mechanics or the "how", here is the "why", now take those two things and create something for me no matter how simple it might be. What I do ask though is that the student first "thinks". Don't try to take in everything and don't expect to master the format in two month's time. Think about what you are going to do right now.

I try to start though with an understanding of who I am teaching. Most students of any subject I have taught will fall into one of two broad categories; the person who comes to the subject with an interest in what they have experienced or the person who is bouncing from thing to thing, hobby to hobby just because that is their personality. There are, of course, variations on this but those two categories seem to fit a lot of adult students. The latter type student doesn't get very far into the subject before they loose interest and move on. They don't need much insight into the subject and they bring little with them. The former has already found something of interest, probably with them since their youth, which makes them curious about music, photography, art in general and so on. For this type of student I almost always begin with the instructions to open their mind to what has come before. I ask them to open their experiences to styles and players they have not already heard or photographers'/painters' work they have never seen. My wish is to create a broader base from which they can operate. To fill their mind with what is possible. Once the base has been established, then we can narrow and refine their work.

Photography is, IMO a technical skill. On its face, there is no artistic ability which comes from owning a camera. No more certainly than buying a Martin guitar makes you a great player. Only the ideas of the operator take a camera from being a simple tool into being a tool used for artistic expression. Therefore, it's the ability to see how others have performed which provides the student further ideas to how they might approach a subject. If they have never seen a photo taken from an unusual angle, they are late to think they can do so. If the student guitarist has never heard an arpeggiated chord or a pentatonic scale, they won't fully understand how they can use either.

With that information their idea then informs their technique.

The two cannot be completely separated from each other beyond the fact one can be performed without a camera, a guitar, a paint brush, etc in your hand. IMO it is this "silent practice" which sets the ideas in the student's mind most effectively and truly puts their creative spirit in motion.

 

[KmH]

Just wondering which book you'd prefer. I am new to the digital photo world and would like some good reading material to go with my Canon.

Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby or Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson?

Appreciate your advise!

Both.

 

[TCampbell]

Wow! Where did this conversation go.

Let me get back on the rails...

The Bryan Peterson book... "Understanding Exposure" is a single volume book. The Kelby series is... well... a series of books. Kelby is now up to 5 volumes I think... but the first few cover the basics.

I've been shooting for years (long before these books existed). But I did pick up Peterson's book to evaluate. It really is a good beginner book. It doesn't use confusing language. Both authors understand they are trying to reach and teach beginners so they explain concepts in plain language as they introduce terminology.

I've had people claim they didn't like the Peterson book but LOVED the Kelby books and thought they were perfect... only to read opinions by others who had exactly the opposite experience. So their styles vary and some take to one more than the other. They're both good books.

As for everything else... yes, ultimately you should learn about things like composition and a number of other factors. But you need to START by learning "exposure". It's foundational to everything else.

While you do need to practice what you learn (or it won't really sink in), guided learning by accomplished photographers is certainly going to be faster than randomly trying to work things out for yourself.

The Peterson book is $18. volume 1 of the Kelby books is $20. Both good investments. Each installment in the Kelby series is about $20 and you can get the boxed "set" for about $63 (checking Amazon). So if you plan to get 3... you might as well just order the "set" of 5 for about the same price.

I am a bit surprised at those who refuse to pay a dime to learn something. My time is worth something. If I can read a book and learn in days or weeks something that I might otherwise learn in a very fragmented fashion with lots of gaps in my learning path and it'll take me months to years... I'd rather spend the $20 and learn it in days to weeks. ESPECIALLY considering all the blown shots you'll have as a result of not actually knowing how to do something. You can't just go back in time and re-make those moments so you can capture them again.

 

[spiralout462]

Hi there. I will only spend my money on my gears. Learning everything about photography costs me an internet connection and some practice.

That's just nuts! You sound like a 20 year old employee of mine. I enjoy things I can see, feel and touch. I actually take pictures with the intentions of printing photographs that I can album, hang on the fridge, frame or stick in a drawer. I think it is official, I am now getting old!

 

[rudimaes]

A good start is this free online e-book, that explains all the basics:
Creative Photography A Complete Online Book - Book Contents
Rudi

 

[kareen21]

A good start is this free online e-book, that explains all the basics:
Creative Photography A Complete Online Book - Book Contents
Rudi

That's a good info. We don't need buy some books that maybe you can found online. Thanks for the link.