Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35088 in Books
• Published on: 2006-12-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 252 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781933952062
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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About the Author

Customer Reviews

Creating beautiful images
Mastering Landscape Photography is a masterful work by Alain Briot. In this volume Alain presents the result of years of experience and deep thinking about how to visualize, create, present and even market fine-art landscape photographs.

If you are looking for a book to tell you how to use your digital camera or how to use Photoshop to create images, this is not the book for you. However, if want to learn the art of creating beautiful landscape images and expressing how you feel about and perceive a landscape location, this book is a must have. Alain will take you through all the steps of image creation from visualizing, composing, exposure, lens selection, and creation of a portfolio, to marketing your images.

Alain has a very straightforward way of explaining things. You will find that Alain has no secrets and is very open about the creation of his work. He has obviously given a large amount of thought to the process of image creation over the years. His initial training as an artist in Paris has given him a unique perspective into creating beautiful landscape photographs which he shares in this book.

In addition to the writings on each topic, the book is beautifully illustrated with many of his photographs which are used to illustrate the points that he makes.

Highly recommended for anyone who wants to achieve better results from their photographic endeavors.

Five stars for the information, another five for the photos!
Besides his eye for breathtaking composition, Alain has a real talent for instruction. He writes passionately about landscape photography, without the pretense that anything other than hard work and readily attainable knowledge led to his creations. This book has a real easy read and a solid "you can do it" feel to it. It makes you want to get up and start taking more photos!

Keep in mind: this is not a book on how to create photos from a technical standpoint, not a book offering a series of technical rules to follow to compose a scene well. There's advice on how one MIGHT approach a shot, some possible techniques to improve the interest of a scene, and some examples on how Alain himself has done this. But the crux of this book is its assertion that artists must find their own style, their own way of composing that matches their personality and philosophy, and that any photographer, no matter how "amateur," can become an artist. And that's precisely what endears it. I consider this an essential companion to the more technical primers on photography, such as Tom Ang's great books on Digital Photography. The technical works will teach you how to shoot a scene. This book helps you learn for yourself what the scene is, when to shoot it for the best effect, and why you shoot it in the first place.

A refreshing perspective that may change your life
I own probably 40 books on photography. All were well researched before purchase, so all are good books. Of the 40, 10 were very valuable, 10 more were worth reading, the the other half were not. This is the first that I read cover to cover in just a couple of days. Some mentioned there is not a lot of information in the book. Well, it's not filled with tips and tricks and specifics of how to use a tool or camera. It's more a book on how to approach and think about fine art photography, than how to do it. Meaning you will learn what directions to head in, and be given exercises that if you do them, will help get you there. There is a lot of information about subjects many gloss over, and that lead to a lot of thought and introspection. At least it did for me. Some will say the book is too simple. To me, the simplicity is it's strength. The messages are clear. I took away the sense these are the right concepts to think about to be better at this craft.

Briot makes the point that even in todays apparently saturated market (my words, not his), there is room for hard work, quality, and a clear focus to lead to a successfull business. If that's where you want to go. He makes the point that no matter what you do, to do it well will be a lot of hard work. That's just the way it is. So if that's the case, why not work hard at something you love or really want to do? Rather than work hard at something that will pay you to do what you love in your 'spare time'. I've learned the spare time usually doesn't happen. I've read these words before, as I'm sure you have. But this author makes the point in a way I, at least, related to more than any other author. There are whole books about that one subject, actually. But Alain spends a good chapter on it, in the context of a book on how to approach being a fine art photographer. So that chapter was long enough to say something meaningful, but not so long you lost interest and forgot what the message was about in the end. Each chapter fits that mold. Long enough to convey exactly his message. And no longer. That's why the book held my interest to the end.

Those are not the only insights I got from the book. There were many. They're just the ones I believe will be most important over time for me personally. Many will say "that was obvious, you just didn't get it". That's true of just about anything you want to discuss. Some have already gotten it. Some will get it now. Some may never get it. The measure, to me, is how effectively this book conveys concepts to me that are clear, and that I can take away how I can use them in my own life or work. This book more than any other, gave me a lot of that kind of insight. And most of what he says applies to any endeavor, so whether you're a photographer or not, you'll get something from this book. Possibly I was just ready for his message. It doesn't matter. This book did it for me.

So I have to thank Alain Briot for his insight, and for taking the time to write a book that conveys it clearly and deeply. His writing and his photographs are both examples of how deeply he cares about what he does. They're also clear examples of what dedication to a few things you choose to care about deeply can bring.