Product Description

The continuation volume to the highly successful Basic Techniques of Photography: Book One, this profusely illustrated manual offers a contemporary guide to Ansel Adams' brilliant approach to creative photography.

Expanding on the fundamental principles of photography presented in Book One, this volume enables the committed amateur or student photographer to advance to higher levels of creative expression. Book Two offers essential chapters on exposure and development, including what is perhaps the clearest, most effective explanation of Ansel Adams' remarkable Zone System ever written.

Dr. Schaefer goes on to explain and demonstrate the most important approaches to printmaking for those interested in darkroom and digital work, including such alternative printing processes as cyanotypes, salt printing, platinum/palladium printing, and gum printing. The theory and practice of color photography and printing are explained, and a thorough introduction to digital imaging is featured--all illustrated by numerous examples of work by Ansel Adams and many other photographers. Basic Techniques of Photography: Book Two is a "must-have" for anyone who wants to improve their skills as an image-maker.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #262130 in Books
• Published on: 1998-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

About the Author
John P. Schaefer is the author of An Ansel Adams Guide: Basic Techniques of Photography (L,B, 1992), which is now in its sixth printing with over 70,000 copies sold to date, and an annual sale of over 7,000 copies. In 1975, as president of the University of Arizona, Schaefer was instrumental in founding the Center for Creative Photography, which houses the archives of Ansel Adams. Schaefer is the president of Research Corporation and a trustee of The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust.

Customer Reviews

Learning Basic Techniques
Well, it's a great book for basic techniques. I bought the 'Book 1' and was able to understand the second one, unless you know about photography, you don't need to read the first book.

The 'Book 2' is really the continuation of the first one, and so it continues on subjects like exposure, development and printing. I am disapointed by the chapter on exposure though. I was searching for a deeper understanding on the exposure notion. Still! Great book.

Riddled with errors but still worth the price.
I posted an in-depth review of this book previously but, for some reason, it did not show up here so I will try again. However, this time I will be more brief. This book is excellent but, like the other two books I have by Schaefer, it is riddled with technical errors. There's no excuse for that. The experienced photographer may catch most of the errors but the student probably won't and that could cause some real problems. The section on film testing, for example, has many serious errors.

I find it a bit irritating that Schaefer literally plagiarizes Ansels photography series of books. By that I mean, Schaeffer lifts whole pages, text, illustrations, etc. Some pages even have the same font styles as Ansel's books. If you took away what has been taken from Ansel's books, this book would be a lot slimmer. I have no idea why Schaefer doesn't simply speak for himself. It's fine to make references to Ansel's writings and photography but to copy it is another thing. But the one good thing about that is that the parts that are copied from Adams are at least correct.

This book has large sections on alternative processes. For someone really interested in those processes, the information doesn't have enough depth. However, it is a good overview of those techniques.

The sections on digital imaging are downright funny although that's not Schaeffer's fault. They are so out-of-date that the reader should get a good laugh from them. This book should have stuck with traditional photography because digital photography is changing so fast that it is more suited for periodicals.


If you use this book as a reference for film testing, etc., be very careful. There are so many errors that they can lead you seriously off the path. I have made so many corrections in my book that I might as well have written it myself. I cannot understand why Schaefer didn't have someone proof-read it. And some of the errors are glaring! But if you can identify the errors, you will find some very useful information. Just be careful. It can be very hard to spotin some cases and it could lead to costly mistakes.

All that said, I still think this book is a good addition to my photographic library especially since it is all marked up now with my corrections.

Nice book
I like this book very much because it explains different concepts and terminology in simple terms -- good for people who are trying to learn photography but not knowing much yet (like me). There are a lot of pictures in the book, so it isn't boring at all.

It also explains traditional photography very well, including cameras, darkroom etc. However, don't expect much from the technology section of the book since it is quite outdated, however it does give you a brief background with the technology though. (It's only a minor problem... anyway)

Recommended to those who are interested in photography.... also get Book 1 as well.