Any good basic teach yourself photography books?

[speaceman]

Sergey, or anyone else, do you know of any "photos for dummies" or basic "teach yourself to shoot photos" (using manual settings) books out there?

Any that someone would recommend as being easy to use and understand?

I'd prefer a book that had progressive instructions, starting out with the basics of photography and then moving on to teaching move advanced skills.

Nothing super technical though.

Anyway, I'd like to start start fiddling with the manual settings on my digi camera, but I don't think I'm ready (or have the time) to sign up for a photography class.

Thanks in advance.

[TObject]

I think one of the best photography writers is John Shaw. I particularly enjoyed his Closeups in Nature book.

John's books on Amazon:

John Shaw's Nature Photography Field Guide
John Shaw's Closeups in Nature
John Shaw's Landscape Photography
John Shaw's Business of Nature Photography
John Shaw's Focus on Nature: The Creative Process Behind Making Great Photographs in the Field


Search link

[Jeff Weston]

Sergey,

What was the website that you pointed me to? I believe it was run by a guy named Rick something or other? Whichever site it was, it was helpful for me with my digital SLR.

[TObject]

Originally posted by Jeff Weston
Sergey,

What was the website that you pointed me to? I believe it was run by a guy named Rick something or other? Whichever site it was, it was helpful for me with my digital SLR.

Ken Rockwell, perhaps? Actually, I don't really like many of the things he has to say, but his heart is in the right place and he is not afraid to share his opinions:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/

[speaceman]

Thanks Sergey,

I'm not sure if those books are quite what I had in mind, but I'll check them out.

[Jeff Weston]

That's the guy Sergey. Gee, I was real close.

For a novice like me, his sight was really helpful.

[TObject]

Shalom,

I just ordered the Nature Photography Field Guide book. I have a feeling this is exactly the kind of book you can benefit from. But I haven?t read that particular one yet, so I am going to read it and see if I like it.

I reckon you want a book that tells you in a few words what secret settings there are on your camera to take better pictures. But it doesn?t work like that, for the most part. Photography is as much art (and maybe even more so) as much it is a technical discipline.

I think the pictures you posted earlier are very good.

There is always more to learn. You camera?s user?s manual should be more than enough to teach you how to turn on different modes and settings. ?How? is easy, but ?why? is often difficult and subject to interpretation.

You can learn more about ?why? from your own experience, from studying works of other photographers, and from books, online forums, magazine articles, classes too of-course. May favorite way to lean ?why? is by just by going shooting and trying things out with my camera.

For the long time, the answer to the question ?How can I improve my picture taking?? was often, ?Go buy more film.? With advent of digital photography it is now so much cheaper and easier to experiment; we are truly lucky in this regard.

[TObject]

Well, I finished reading John Shaw's Nature Photography Field Guide book.

This is an excellent book, and I highly recommend it to anyone who would like to start using manual exposure. The book was first written in the 80's, and then rewritten and published in the year 2000. The book is not about digital cameras; it is about general photographic principals, and it is about film. But the fundamentals are the same.

[BillSchmill]

I've been thinking about this subject for a while but haven't gotten around to investigating.

What about something like this?

The Digital Photgraphy Book

Here's an excerpt from the editorial review,

"This entire book is written with a brilliant premise, and here?s how Scott describes it: "If you and I were out on a shoot, and you asked me, 'Hey, how do I get this flower to be in focus, but I want the background out of focus?' I wouldn't stand there and give you a lecture about aperture, exposure, and depth of field. In real life, I'd just say, 'Get out your telephoto lens, set your f/stop to f/2.8, focus on the flower, and fire away.' You d say, 'OK,' and you'd get the shot. That's what this book is all about."

I think I might buy it. I'll let you know if it was any good.

[Britain]

One of the best books is your camera manual. You would be suprised what the AF data points handle. Those are the red dots which you see through the view finder ( If you have a high end camera .. Reference to Canon)

I was in San Diego at a funeral. One of my dads friends passed on. Lots of trees and shadows. All of the pictures I took looking into the shadows came out dark ( .raw format)

The AF at least with canon averages the exposure based on the AF Data. Ya theres a option to use one point and only use an area around that for exposure.

I'm a weekend shooter and everyday I lean something new.

Erik has the same camera, earlier model and it is really different then mine!