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Top Five Photography Books?
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The question came up lately about my top five photography books. Any top five listing will depend on a variety of factors:
1. The selection of books that the reviewer has read and is able to use for comparisons.
I know that there are good books out there that I haven?t encountered yet. This includes a book on Channels by Scott Kelby which is now high on my shopping list.2. The skill level of the reviewer ? beginner, intermediate or advanced ? as different books will help at different times
There are books that we value for a time but grow out of as we become more advanced.3. The reviewer?s special interests within the field of photography
There are great books on film darkroom techniques, but they?ll never make my top five listing, or even my top fifty listing, as I have never worked with film.So, in view of all that, anyone?s top five list is somewhat subjective and needs to be regarded as such.
Here?s my list:
1. Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson [Beginner-Intermediate]
2. Learning to See Creatively by Bryan Peterson [Beginner-Intermediate]
After a photographer has got basic familiarity with their camera these are the next two books to buy. They help accelerate a photographer from beginner to intermediate levels. Exposure discusses the concept of six technically correct exposures but only one creatively correct exposure. It describes the situations where one exposure combination, for creativity reasons, is to be preferred to another. Simple stuff perhaps, but worth its weight in gold for the beginner wanting to improve fast.
Composition discusses all the main factors of composition and, perhaps more importantly, their trade offs. This includes focal point, lines, patterns, colour balance and much more. A photographer will make good progress if he/she understands composition and is able to apply it to taking the shots and as self-critique of the images. These two books, but especially the second one, are a great help with that. They?re the two most useful books on camera skills that I have – clearly and persuasively written and brilliantly illustrated with good photos.
[Note: These books were also recommended in another thread which antifuse opened, and I should really have posted an echo there.]3. Photoshop CS2 for Photographers by Martin Evening [Intermediate]
This is that one-book reference that every Photoshop CS2 user should have. It is written by a leading photographer who has had to find solutions for scores of image-manipulation problems. This book covers all the main stuff and does it well.4. Master Lighting Guide by Christopher Grey [Intermediate]
This is the best book I have found on studio lighting techniques. In winter, when I do more studio work, this book is rarely off my desk. After a short section on lighting and light modifiers, it goes on to cover just about every variation of portrait lighting imaginable ? loop lighting, closed-loop lighting, Rembrant lighting, etc; they?re all there. It is almost an encyclopaedia of studio lighting techniques. I?d nearly venture to say that, unless the photographer is already a seasoned pro, this book should be part of every photographer?s studio kit.5. Photoshop Masking and Compositing by Katrin Eismann [Intermediate-Advanced]
This book is for more advanced Photoshop users. It covers a vast number of masking and selection techniques and their applications. Then a later section discusses the whole concept of composite photos ? ie subjects, or a subject and background, from two or more photographs merged into one image. Many photographers try this at some time or other, but the results look dead obvious. The problem begins because they don?t shoot the original photos at similar focal lengths and perspectives, and then their Photoshop skills in this area aren?t quite strong enough to, literally, complete the picture. This book addresses the whole range of techniques needed to produce convincing composite images.I?ve struggled to keep travel photography books out of this list as I regard them as slightly too subjective to include in a top five listing. I?d add, though, that if I were asked about favourite coffee-table books it would be volumes one and two of
Visions of Wanderlust by Paul Morrison and Lyn Hughes
Visions of Wanderlust Vol 2 by Lyn Hughes and Piers Pickard
The Wanderlust magazine has an annual competition to find the best travel photograph of the year. These books are collections of shortlisted photos from a period of 3-4 years each. The photography is fantastic and instructive, in that it shows which types of photos do well in such competitions. All the photographers are amateurs.Hope this is of some help to someone. Anyone else got a top five list?
Excellent thread Bertie, and many thanks for starting it. From my own point of view, as a beginner like so many others on the forum, this should prove and invaluable resource for anyone with a desire to learn more about the craft and improve their photographic skills. Hopefully some of the more experienced photographers here will contribute to this thread their own personal favourites. Excepting experience, there is no more useful learning tool than a book.
Keep them coming
Regards
Rob. 8)
Thanks Rob and Carl
I wonder at times if anyone gets any real value out of the reviews I write so your feedback was appreciated. I’ll add a few more from time to time.
Bertie,
I have heard Bryan Peterson’s name mentioned so many times. I will have to get one of those books next time I am in Easons.
Cheers.Here’s my top five list. No mini reviews provided though. Just folllow the links to the Amazon.co.uk page for that title to find out more (except for the first book, which seems to have become somewhat of a collectors item, judging by the price quoted on Amazon’s New and Used list – ?169.99 :o )
1. The Dark Summer – Bob Carlos Clarke
2. Patrick Demarchelier – Patrick Demarchelier
5. Photoshop Restoration and Retouching – Katrin Eismann
6. Master Lighting Guide for Portrait Photographers – Christopher Grey
Oh dear, that’s six titles :wink: Sorry – just felt I couldn’t leave any of these out!
One other favourite of mine isn’t realy a photography book as such, but more a travel book really. It’s a book I found in the section of a bookshops where they have all the picture books of Ireland. Most of these are really kitsch and quite appalling really and probably only appeal to the tourists visiting Ireland. But this one stood out and I had to have it – Ireland: Your Only Place by Jan Morris and Paul Wakefield. It was the first time I’d seen the photography of Paul Wakefield and to be honest, I don’t understand why he isn’t better know than he is. He’s definitely as good as Joe Cornish and Charlie Waite (some of who’s books I also have and they are very good too).
Bertie, I’m ordering your first two recomendations from play.com without further ado!
paperdoll wrote:
Bertie, I’m ordering your first two recomendations from play.com without further ado!
Hmm, on play.com I see only one of the 2 books Bertie mentioned.
4 results if you search for the author… ‘understanding exposure’ isn’t there (another one called ‘understanding digital photography’ is… crucial difference maybe, so thought I’d better mention it in case you’d ordered the wrong thing paperdoll!)
ISBNs would be handy for future book reviews, people :)
edit:
Understanding Exposure is 0817463003 (confirm/deny Bertie, if this isn’t the latest version you’re referring to?) – Amazon linkDo you have an ISBN for the other one Bertie? Cannot find it on Amazon or Play…
Hi Everyone
Hi Everyone
Thanks for the comments and continued discussion in the thread.The ISBNs for the first two books are:
1. Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson ISBN 0817463003
2. Learning to See Creatively by Bryan Peterson ISBN 0817441816
… and for beginners, many of the exercises he outlines in both books are well worth doing.Thorsten
Interesting that Christopher Grey’s book makes your list too and that you also list another book by Katrin Eismann. As far as I know the book I listed and the one you listed are the only two books she has written. But they’re good.You mention Charlie Waite. He has written one book that annoyed me so much thet I nearly wrote a review with a negative rating on it for amazon.co.uk. The title is something like “Seeing in Black and White”. That’s a subject I’d really like info on. It so happened that I saw the book in a second-hand bookshop just before I had gotten around to buying it from amazon.co.uk. The title is a total red herring. The book is little more than a coffee table collection of his black and white landscapes. There is little or nothing in it that will instruct the reader on how to visualise scenes in black and white prior to shooting them. (Rant over! :-) )
davenewt wrote:
Do you have an ISBN for the other one Bertie? Cannot find it on Amazon or Play…
Strange, I had no problem finding it on Amazon UK, even without an ISBN number.
Incidentally, if you can’t find a book on Amazon UK, try Amazon.com; even if you CAN find the book on Amazon UK, it’s worth checking Amazon.com. I’ve found in the past that there are occassions when Amazon.com are cheaper than Amazon UK for the same books. And shipping isn’t as expensive as you might think.
Thorsten wrote:
davenewt wrote:
Do you have an ISBN for the other one Bertie? Cannot find it on Amazon or Play…
Strange, I had no problem finding it on Amazon UK, even without an ISBN number
Odd, thanks Thorsten.
Just bought the last copy of Understanding Exposure in Hodges Figgis on Friday! “Learning to See Creatively” is in the post… :D
My list would be the ones I find most useful as reference books which I may need to refer to from time to time.
(1) Adobe Photoshop CS2 for Photographers by Martin Evening
(2) How to cheat in Photoshop by Steve Caplin
(3) Wedding and Studio Photography the Professional Way by Jonathan Hilton
(4) The Portrait Photographers Guide to Posing by Bill Hurter
(5) Photoshop CS2 Workflow by Tim GreyThought I’d resurrect this post given that its almost Xmas and most of us will be looking
to buy ourselves some photography books :)Don’t forget you can buy from amazon via the Bookshop too ;)
I’m off to get that Chrisopher Grey book to start with.
Master Lighting Guide by Christopher GreyMark
The two best books I’ve read on photography are ‘Creative Landscape Photography’ by Niall Benvie and ‘Landscape Within’ by David Ward, both are pretty contemporary. I dont really read much about photoshop, if I need to be able to do something I’ll seek out the method. I think books about masters of art, in lanscape, portraiture, sculpture etc will contain the most important basics from which to pave your own way, most photography books I’ve come across deal with pretty superficial stuff, great if you want to be a clone of past masters but not big on encouraging progressive approaches.
A bit of a plug I know.. but I hear that there is a high quality coffee table hardback book of images due out before Christmas :D
It’s aimed at the rare book market and something tells me it will be rarer indeed if you can pick up an unsigned copy.
raw : https://www.photographyireland.net/viewtopic.php?t=236&start=150
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