Product Description

This easy-to-use, inexpensive book introduces beginning picture takers and makers to the fundamentals of photography and suggests ways in which they might create photographs that have meaning. Oriented toward traditional 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. For people who don't know anything about photography and would like to learn, and for those who want to make better pictures than they already do.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #168496 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Customer Reviews

Very well done
I've found this book to be the most helpful both for novices and learning to take the more professional shots.

Detailed information, definitions and technical terms are not so overwhelming that it would dissuade the average novice, but at the same time, they are explained well enough to carry on a conversation at your local camera store.

Now I just have to sit down and read the whole thing and I will be truly enlightened, or at least exposed at the proper F-stop.

Good book, could use more focus
A fine intro primer on photographer, but I felt always on the edges of getting good information. Much better at technical stuff, skimps on the art of photography.

A Good Introduction
This book was recommended for an introductory photography class that I am taking. I think it does a good job introducing certain aspects of photography. As some who has been taking pictures for years in digital, it was good to learn some of the fundamentals of Photography which help to explain some things which help you to understand some of the mechanics of Photography a bit better.

I would say this book is a stepping stone. It gets your feet wet in a bunch of aspects of photography (and a bit to much time on film and film processing if you are shooting digital) but this would be a good gateway book to a more extensive study of aspects of Photography.

I am particular fond of this book as a first step, followed by a few other books:

Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera (Updated Edition)
Learning to See Creatively: Design, Color & Composition in Photography (Updated Edition)
Beyond Portraiture: Creative People Photography

What the "short course" spends a few brief pages on, these other books explore in much greater detail.

This is a good quick overview for a beginner or someone who needs a quick refresher course in Photography.