Product Description

Arguably the best book yet written for those wishing to pursue photography seriously, Basic Techniques of Photography, Book 1 has been completely revised and updated in order to keep pace with fast-moving technological advances in the field. The revised edition includes more than fifty new illustrations, offering still greater clarity in presenting Ansel Adams legendary approach to photography.

Since its publication in 1992, The Ansel Adams Guide: Basic Techniques of Photography, Book 1 has sold more than 100,000 copies and is used in many introductory photography courses. This revised edition offers new information on: -variable-contrast papers -digital cameras and view cameras -the Advance Photo System

Book 1 is organized to present the principles of black-and-white and color photography to a broad range of photographersfrom the serious beginner to the advanced amateur. It draws extensively on the philosophy and techniques of Ansel Adams, the best-known writer/teacher of photography of all time, and is profusely illustrated with Adams own work as well as that of other photographers. Adams technical writings were famously difficult to understand. However, in Book 1, John Schaefer skillfully interprets Adams words, theories, and art as a foundation for a more clearly written, understandable, and actively up-to-date guide to creative photography.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37232 in Books
• Published on: 1999-04-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

About the Author
John P. Schaefer is an active photographer and the author of Basic Techniques of Photography, Book 2. In 1975, as president of the University of Arizona, he was instrumental in founding the Center for Creative Photography, which houses the archives of Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and many other outstanding photographers. Schaefer was a student, collaborator, and close friend of Ansel Adams and is currently the president of Research Corporation and a Trustee of The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust.

Customer Reviews

Great book ON Adams, not BY Adams.
Although I loved this book, and knew what I was buying, Amazon's attribution of this book to Ansel Adams is misleading. This is a book about Ansel Adams' technique, and his zone system in particular. It's not a book by Adams. If you want Adams' own take on the basic techniques of photography, check out his three books: The Camera, The Negative, The Print, as well as his book of case studies, The Making of 40 Photographs. It takes a lot of nerve to write a book like this when Adams has already done a bang up job of it himself. Surprisingly, Schaefer's effort doesn't pale in comparison to the master's own. Plus you have the advantage of a single book rather than Adams' three. Schaefer provides an excellent guide to Ansel Adams' zone technique, with great illustrations. And despite a bit more attention paid to color photography than in Adams' own books, it still seems like an afterthought.

This book uses a good blend of instructional methods.
This book is an excellent choice for beginning photographers as well as more seasoned photographers who wish to review the basics. This book covers a wide variety of techniques, as well as providing information about the history of photography, cameras, and film. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in taking up black-and-white or color photography as a hobby or as a career.

*whew*
This book has everything, and then some. It will take you from not knowing anything to being a quasi-expert in a fairly short amount of time.

That said, it is pretty dry. Very textbookish in form, the book is difficult to read straight through. This is made more palatable by the extreme depth that the book goes into for each topic that it discusses.

Starting with the differences in photo gear, the author leads the reader through selecting a first camera to selecting a lens to selecting a film and finally the development of the negative and print. The book is exhausting in its depth and breadth.

Much time was spent on Adams' Zone system and its usefulness in taking beautiful photographs. This focus throughout the book really drove home the importance of exposure.

The pictures used in the book are fantastic and the personal accounts of some photos by Adams himself are very interesting.

The only thing that I felt was skimped on was the process of selecting a shot. Adams was a large-format photographer so he wasn't able to make the hundreds of shots of a scene that a 35mm photographer could make, so it was important for him to select his shots carefully. More text space devoted to Adams' method or instinct for finding shots would have been the final piece of information that would have made this a complete guide to photography.

It wasn't easy reading, but I learned a lot and was able to immediately use the information in the book to improve my own photography.