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.
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