Product Description

This easy-to-use book introduces readers/students to the fundamentals of photography and suggests ways in which they might create photographs that have meaning. With a special focus on black and white photography, the book also explores digital techniques and web photography resources, equipment, cameras and camera accessories, the exposure and development of film, and the making and finishing of prints. All aspects of the process are explained and illustrated clearly in two-page spreads, each of which addresses a self-contained topic.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #198672 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

If you don't know anything about photography and would like to learn, or if you want to make better pictures than the ones you make now, A Short Course in Photography will help you. It presents in depth the basic techniques for black-and-white photography:

* How to get a good exposure
* How to adjust the focus, shutter speed, and aperture (the size of the lens opening) to produce the results you want
* How to develop film and make prints

Most of today's cameras incorporate automatic features, but that doesn't mean that they automatically produce the results you want. A Short Course in Photography devotes special attention to:

* Automatic focus and automatic exposure—what they do and, particularly, how to override them when it is better to adjust the camera manually

Some of the book's highlights include:

* Getting Started. If you are brand new to photography, this section will walk you through the first steps of selecting and loading film, focusing sharply, adjusting the exposure, and making your first pictures. See pages 4-9.
* Digital Imaging. In one sense, digital imaging is just another tool, but it is also an immensely powerful technique that is changing photography and that will empower those who know how to use it. See pages 152-157.
* Projects. These projects are designed to help you develop your technical and expressive skills. See, for example, page 128 or 173.
* Making Better Prints. Additional information about how to fine tune your prints by burning in and dodging (darkening or lightening selected areas), and by cropping the edges to concentrate attention on the portion of the scene you want. See pages 114-117.
* Types of lenses, types of film, lighting, filters

Photography is a subjective and personal undertaking. A Short Course in Photography emphasizes your choices in picture making:

* How to look at a scene in terms of the way the camera can record it
* How to select the shutter speed, point of view, or other elements that can make the difference between an ordinary snapshot and an exciting photograph
* Chapter 9, Seeing Like a Camera, explores your choices in selecting and adjusting the image, and covers how to photograph subjects such as people and landscapes
New to this edition are

* Using a Digital Camera. How to make photographs digitally from start to finish
* Up-to-date information on Health and Safety precautions in the darkroom
* Technical updates throughout
* Many new photographs and illustrations

This book is designed to make learning photography as easy as possible:

* Every two facing pages completes a single topic
* Detailed step-by-step instructions clarify each stage of extended procedures such as negative development and printing
* Boldfaced headings make subtopics easy to spot
* Numerous photographs and drawings illustrate each topic
Acknowledgments

Many people gave generously of their time and effort in the production of this book. Feedback from numerous instructors was a major help in confirming the basic direction of the book and in determining the new elements in this edition. At Prentice Hall, Kimberly Chastain and Bud Therien provided editorial support. Joe Scordato supervised the production of the book from manuscript to printer. Nancy Wells redesigned the book and helped make it even more user friendly. If, as you read the book or use it in your class, you have suggestions to make, please send them to Photography Editor, Prentice Hall, 1 Lake Street, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. They will be sincerely welcomed.

Jim Stone
Barbara London

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

If you don't know anything about photography and would like to learn, or if you want to make better pictures than the ones you make now, A Short Course in Photography will help you. It presents in depth the basic techniques for black-and-white photography:

• How to get a good exposure
• How to adjust the focus, shutter speed, and aperture (the size of the lens opening) to produce the results you want
• How to develop film and make prints

Most of today's cameras incorporate automatic features, but that doesn't mean that they automatically produce the results you want. A Short Course in Photography devotes special attention to:

• Automatic focus and automatic exposure—what they do and, particularly, how to override them when it is better to adjust the camera manually

Some of the book's highlights include:

• Getting Started. If you are brand new to photography, this section will walk you through the first steps of selecting and loading film, focusing sharply, adjusting the exposure, and making your first pictures. See pages 4-9.
• Digital Imaging. In one sense, digital imaging is just another tool, but it is also an immensely powerful technique that is changing photography and that will empower those who know how to use it. See pages 152-157.
• Projects. These projects are designed to help you develop your technical and expressive skills. See, for example, page 128 or 173.
• Making Better Prints. Additional information about how to fine tune your prints by burning in and dodging (darkening or lightening selected areas), and by cropping the edges to concentrate attention on the portion of the scene you want. See pages 114-117.
• Types of lenses, types of film, lighting, filters

Photography is a subjective and personal undertaking. A Short Course in Photography emphasizes your choices in picture making:

• How to look at a scene in terms of the way the camera can record it
• How to select the shutter speed, point of view, or other elements that can make the difference between an ordinary snapshot and an exciting photograph
• Chapter 9, Seeing Like a Camera, explores your choices in selecting and adjusting the image, and covers how to photograph subjects such as people and landscapes

New to this edition are

• Using a Digital Camera. How to make photographs digitally from start to finish
• Up-to-date information on Health and Safety precautions in the darkroom
• Technical updates throughout
• Many new photographs and illustrations

This book is designed to make learning photography as easy as possible:

• Every two facing pages completes a single topic
• Detailed step-by-step instructions clarify each stage of extended procedures such as negative development and printing
• Boldfaced headings make subtopics easy to spot
• Numerous photographs and drawings illustrate each topic

Acknowledgments

Many people gave generously of their time and effort in the production of this book. Feedback from numerous instructors was a major help in confirming the basic direction of the book and in determining the new elements in this edition. At Prentice Hall, Kimberly Chastain and Bud Therien provided editorial support. Joe Scordato supervised the production of the book from manuscript to printer. Nancy Wells redesigned the book and helped make it even more user friendly. If, as you read the book or use it in your class, you have suggestions to make, please send them to Photography Editor, Prentice Hall, 1 Lake Street, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. They will be sincerely welcomed.

Jim Stone
Barbara London

Customer Reviews

Lacks Information Regarding Digital Photography
I was required to purchase this book for a Photography class that I'm taking at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. The book contains useful information on the basic concepts of photography but lacks information about digital photography. The book does dedicate a chapter to digital photography but I was hoping to get a little bit more.
Overall this is a great book for a beginner like myself but I would look elsewhere if you want to delve a little deeper than the surface of digital photography.

Good introduction for beginners
I am a teacher of photography and have looked at a number of different photographic text books and this is one of the best I have seen for beginners. One of the strongest aspects of this book is its copious illustrations and photographic examples that reinforce the concepts it is putting forth. While no book is perfect, I challenge any of the critics of the book here to come up with a better text that is as easy to read and as clearly laid out as this book.

I would agree that this book does not have a lot of information about how to use a digital camera - most of the digital information is about editing and printing photographs. I can see that would be a problem for someone wanting to learn just from this book about how to use their specific digital camera, but to be fair digital cameras can be so different from one make or model to the next and with the rate of change of all things digital it is very challenging to set anything down in a published text that will really be true for every digital camera. I do have to supplement the information in this book with information about that, but this book does an excellent job of explaining all the basic technical information about how a camera works which is completely applicable to all cameras, digital or otherwise.

Students beware...
This was the required book for a beginning photography class I'm taking at my local junior college. It's a good book for a beginning photographer and explains all of the basics of a camera and its parts, how to take photos and how to develop them. It has one chapter somewhat dedicated to digital photography so if you really want to learn more about the digital aspect you will need to check out some other titles. Ok, now students beware...if you were required to get this book for your class and will be taking the online quizzes you will need an Access Code. If you're lucky and your school is generous then they will provide one to you. If you're not so lucky, like me, then be prepared to pay an additional $33+ from Prentice Hall just to get the code so you can access the quizzes...complete ripoff in my opinion. I don't know, maybe I'm just old school, but didn't taking tests in school use to be FREE??? The "greedy" fee from the publisher for the access code is the only reason for the lower rating, besides that the book is good.