#15 in Arts & photography books
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Reddit mentions of The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos
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Reddit mentions: 63
We found 63 Reddit mentions of The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos. Here are the top ones.
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- Awesome photography book!
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Read The Photographer's Eye. On the impact/price scale, it was probably the best thing I did for my photography.
Edit: Then go out and shoot of course :)
The most important thing that 99% percent of the photographers don't seem to know: if you want to make good photos consistently, learn the fundamentals.
Because a photo can be made in an instant, a lot of photographers work intuitively, without making any informed decisions about their pictures whatsoever. This is why a lot of photos taken without any training aren't appealing.
If you learn about composition, color, light, etc. like an illustrator or a painter does, you will be able to make repeatable successful photos. In the beginning, you shouldn't be overly concerned with sharpness, depth of field or your equipment. No, you should be concerned with how your photo looks at the most basic, fundamental level.
Since I started taking drawing lessons and reading books on color and composition this year, I feel way more confident about my photography. I make informed decisions that I know will work. I am able to analyze pictures that work for me, and I know why they work now. Thanks to drawing lessons, I can see a lot better, which is also a great help for retouching. I can think in terms of lines, shapes, forms, spaces, light, shadow. But the most important thing of all: I feel like I can reach the level of photography that I only could dream about last year, the high-end commercial automotive photography.
Some books that helped me a lot:
Believe me, you want fundamental knowledge to rely on, not a list of incoherent 'protips'. :-)
My triumvirate of intro photography texts:
Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson
The Photographer's Eye by Michael Freeman
Langford's Basic Photography by Michael Langford et al
This book is about composition. I'm a beginner and I've learned more (about composition) from this book than any other resource.
Bridging the Gap: Classical Art Designed for Photographers
This is a good video that I found through another comment on this sub.
But since you asked for a book, this one is pretty good: The Photographer's Eye
Have fun!
Most compositional arrangements are well-described in The photographer's eye. Hihgly recommended read.
I can heartily recommend Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. For the technics of your camera your manual is likely very useful.
Whilst I haven't read it myself, I've also heard very good things about The Photographer's Eye by Michael Freeman. There's another The Photographer's Eye by John Szarkowski that I gather is somewhat different, although this is the version I own myself and is a great book detailing style in photographs, but is probably not what you're looking for.
I'm with you. I learned a lot from The Photographer's Eye by Michael Freeman. There was a bit in there that I did intuitively, but it really opened my eyes.
Yes, I've been reading The Photographer's Eye for the last couple of weeks, and it has definitely helped me to look for certain things when composing an image.
The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos
Composition is arguably the single most important aspect to photography. If you can't compose a shot then no amount of expensive gear or lighting can make it look good. The above book is great... Not only does it have lots of photo examples, but there is swathes of text to read that really dives into the subject (sometimes a rarity in photography books). Amazon should let you preview some of it. It also goes into the basics of how to take a photo to capture a story or emotion, which is a skill you will develop for your entire photography career.
Look up the book “the photographers eye” by Michael Freeman. Its a book focused completely on composition. It has chapters dedicated to each element of composition such as balance, framing, contrast, figure and ground, etc. If photography was a language, then composition would be the grammar. It’s the rules of photography and you can look through portfolios and photo books as much as you want but it won’t matter if you can’t identify the rules being used.
https://www.amazon.com/Photographers-Eye-Composition-Design-Digital/dp/0240809343
Good job. Keep working on composition though.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Photographers-Eye-Composition-Digital/dp/0240809343
Adding links...
The Photographer's Eye is a great book to teach you how you should be looking at your subjects for taking photos. You can get the technical details about your camera or lightroom or whatever elsewhere, but this book teaches you what you should be looking for in your frame to begin with.
Learn composition. You have a compact camera so you already have the tool to take interesting photographs. I would start with a book like The Photographer's Eye to start learning about what makes certain photographs compelling and interesting. You can hit the photography section of the local library and just start looking at great photographs. As someone posted here couple weeks ago, "Buy books, not gear."
Later on, you may decide to buy a DSLR, but think carefully about what you need. A camera is a tool, nothing more. A great camera will open up new possibilities, but you still need knowledge and experience to convert those possibilities into good pictures. Since you brought up the classical music analogy, think of the camera like a piano. A grand Steinway can make beautiful music, but it cannot turn a novice into a concert pianist. Only hard work, training, experience, and knowledge can do that.
For inspiration, here is a great war photographer who uses only point-and-shoots.
Good luck and happy shooting!
http://www.amazon.com/Photographers-Eye-Composition-Design-Digital/dp/0240809343/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323655305&sr=8-1
I was looking for the same type of book and came across this. There is nothing about hardware specs in the book. I am 1/4 of the way through and have learned a lot about creating art.
My first real camera was a Pentax K1000. That brings back a lot of fond memories. I suggest you pick up a copy of Brian Peterson's Understanding Exposure to brush up on the technical bits, and Michael Freeman's The Photographer's Eye to learn a bit about composition.
The Photographer's Eye
http://www.amazon.com/The-Photographers-Eye-Composition-Digital/dp/0240809343/
You should pick up a book if you want to learn more about composition. I highly recommend The Photographer's Eye by Michael Freeman. http://www.amazon.com/The-Photographers-Eye-Composition-Digital/dp/0240809343
This is a really hard one to answer - like why some works of art are worth millions and others are essentially worthless.
I would recommend picking up a book like:
Learning to See Creatively (Peterson) or The Photographer's Eye (Freeman) for a crash course on the design elements that make photos interesting: leading lines, color, depth of field etc.
I personally enjoy this one when this question comes up. :)
You practice the artistic stuff the same way you practice the technical stuff. First of all, get a good book on the basics of photography (I recommend The Photographer's Eye). This will help you grasp the basics of composition, patterns, framing, contrast etc.
Then you practice. Have weekly assignments - first week you're working on compositions; second week you're working on patterns; third week you're working on perspective and angles... etc.
After a few months, you'll start doing these things subconsciously and you'll start experimenting with new stuff and expanding your artistic toolset.
Quasi-newbie myself with a similar rig (d5100):
This is hands down the best book I've read that's helped my photography skills. Its not a "camera" book, it's more of a "theory" book. It shows you the different parts of pictures that make photographs interesting.
Michael Freeman - "The Photographer's Eye"
http://www.amazon.com/Photographers-Eye-Composition-Design-Digital/dp/0240809343/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268435456&sr=8-3
Dude thanks for the proverb but I asked for book titles. I understand that I need to take more pictures, that wasn't even remotely in question. As an athlete I don't think reading a book on rugby tackling is going to make me the perfect tackler but it'll sure as hell help with the basics and knowing what to look for.
Similarly, if I know little to nothing about exposure, composition, and the basics of photography, continuing to take bad pictures will not help me as much as if I had actually read into these concepts and covered the fundamentals as to what I should be doing/prioritizing when taking a picture.
You don't go and just solve mathematical problems. You learn HOW to solve them (or at least build up a toolbox) then you go and practice solving them and using your tools until you've mastered that process.
And yes, your photography will improve through taking pictures, but to say that it will ONLY get better through photography? That's just incorrect. Reading a manual? I'll learn how to use my gear better. Better knowledge of gear? Better pictures. Knowing how exposure works? I'll know to crank up my shutter speed and change my aperture before I just resort to setting my ISO at 6400 and taking bright enough yet terribly grainy pictures. Knowing how to frame a picture or where to place the subject? That will make my photography more pleasing to the eye.
Going and taking a bunch of pictures will not inevitably make my picture quality as great as if I actually studied photography.
You don't tell someone who makes finger paintings to just keep painting. You show them what great art looks like, and maybe even teach them the basics. You don't say "eh, maybe if you do a couple thousand paintings you'll learn how to paint a beautiful landscape."
Just leave the cookie cutter answers that everyone gives when they don't want to be helpful in your head, and actually answer a question. If you have no answer, keep it to yourself.
The pretentious, non-helpful answers in this sub need to stop. Everybody knows that they need to take more pictures to get better. Help people when they ask questions.
OP- if you're looking for books I decided to look some up:
Understanding Exposure
The Photographer's Eye
These are both seen as great introduction books for beginners. From what I've read, the first will basically help you figure out what type of lighting and exposure settings you would want to get your desired look for a given scenario, whereas the second book will help you develop your creative abilities and understanding what makes a good picture.
Those might help out your photography a teeny bit, and you won't have to take a picture!
Probably the two books that helped me out the most:
Understanding Exposure
and
The Photographer's Eye
the photographer's eye
This Photographer's Eye or this?
There are two books of that title--this creates some confusion. You're probably speaking of the first one?
http://www.amazon.com/Photographers-Eye-Composition-Design-Digital/dp/0240809343
http://www.amazon.com/Photographers-Eye-John-Szarkowski/dp/087070527X
Have a look at this book, it was pretty useful for me:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Photographers-Eye-Composition-Digital/dp/0240809343
I can't comment on /u/tokyohoon's book, but I quite liked this one. Maybe /u/zerototeacher will show up and properly edumacate us.
The building on the left balances the picture. For one it frames the scene. Especially because it's relatively bland and uninteresting it guides the eyes back into the picture. Besides that, it is a similar facade as the beautifully lit building on the right. This gives the picture both symmetry and contrast as visual elements.
The image does adhere to the rule of thirds since all the lines are filled with interesting elements. Perhaps you've had trouble applying the rule of thirds because you've focused too much on the crossing points of the lines. The reason these four points are the most interesting ones for the rule of thirds, is because items on those points adhere to the rule twice.
If you want more background information on composition, I can recommend this book.
For myself, whenever I'm learning a new photography skill I do the following: As soon as I have taken the shot I'm after, I take at least five more where I play around with whatever element I'm practicing with. So for composition, I would take the shot I want. Then go look for alternative angles, other elements to in- or exclude, maybe a different foreground or background, whatever options are available at the time. After a while I start seeing the options beforehand and will be ready to incorporate it and move on to the next element to work on.
The Photographer's Eye by Michael Freeman
I havn't read many photography books but this one made a lot of sense to me, especially about the dynamics in the frame.
Well, yeah, but everywhere else is more expensive. If you think about it, an 8.5x11 full color book 100 pages long for 25 dollars isn't that bad. Personally I would stick with the soft cover because bringing the price up to 35 dollars is a pretty big jump in price. I think they might give discounts to places like Amazon so it would cost a little bit less than that.
Some comparisons:
30 dollars being sold for 20, 200 pages, same size
25 dollars being sold for 17, 225 pages, about the same size, B+W
Expose series(You can look through the entire book on that page)
The expose series is probably the closest to the sort of book we would be looking for, but it is done by professional artists so it would be moderately more expensive, but 70 dollars instead of 25 is a huge jump. I think it wouldn't be too bad, but I would also get at least a second and third opinion.
Books on composition. Start with this, move on to this and this, and when you feel you're ready for more advanced stuff get this.
The world is full of people who spend thousands of dollars and years of their lives taking technically perfect photos of their cat. Don't end up like them.
You mentioned you just started, so you're going to take so many crappy photos. But, that's part of the fun.
I bought this book years ago. I don't think of it as particularly good or insightful, but it just describes how to think about composing photos. You should seek a similar book out at your local library. Post more to photocritique as well!
Nice, I love that ur supportive of her interests :) If she's new to photography then you might want to consider buying her a book about the real heart of photography - composition
I like this book - https://www.amazon.com/Photographers-Eye-Composition-Design-Digital/dp/0240809343/
Through all the high priced lenses, cameras and other gear - if you've trained your eye to see pleasing images that skill transfers into every photo u ever take :)
You're welcome. I'm glad I was a bit of help.
Honestly, I'd probably go with a photography composition book if I were to pick one, however, I learned from many places. The one thing that every book on composition will tell you is that you can't really learn it by reading the book. What you can learn is the rules. Then you have to practice a lot! I would recommend finding subs that deal with photo critiques. I learned video composition through photography. I basically read everything I could get my hands on about composition (magizines, web articles and a few books) and then I spent an enormous amount of time looking at popular work and practicing with my own pictures. Eventually something clicked and I had my own idea (although not perfect) of what looked good.
The problem is that no one can just say, "These are the composition rules," and then you're set. It's a feeling you develop over time. You have to work at it.
You can learn the rules anywhere. Google is full of resources. The problem is when you learn one of these rules for the first time, it's hard to keep your own head, your own opinion and for a while it can be difficult to really know for yourself what you find beautiful. Is the rule working? Is this really beautiful? After you practice a rule to death, you'll start to get your eye back for what's good. You'll start to feel moments when you can break the rule outright, cheat just a bit or hot damn that rule was spot on.
If you're really into getting a book, I enjoyed this one, however, to each his own. I read every damn thing I could get my hands on and we all learn in different ways. Most of what I have learned has come from shooting shitty video and then trying to edit it. During every edit I've ever done, I've taken notes on what shots I've missed. I've also googled "Sexy BRoll" a lot.
I think the number one key isn't just blind practice but practice and critique. It helps a huge amount to look at pictures you took a month ago. You're more removed, you can see the comp better. Practice, practice practice. Never turn off your viewfinder, meaning look at everything in life as if you've got a viewfinder stuck to your eye. When watching TV, look at all the shots. Look at what they use for different reactions, different cuts. Practice ;)
PS edit: I started worse than you dude. I taught myself. I'm no master at this but I have worked my way up to some amazing jobs using video. Don't give up, fight for it and practice.
I'm in the process of reading Micheal Freeman's "The Photographer's Eye". It is completely fascinating, especially if you don't already know a ton about composition.
>Where can I go from here on an extremely constricted time schedule?
It's not going to be doable when time is of the essence.
I think you need to more carefully compose your shots. Most of those are shot at or near the minimum depth-of-field your lens will afford you but in all of them, there is way too much going on in the background none of which contributes in a good way. Ideally, an image has an element that leads your eye into the frame until it finds the main subject.
The eye then begins wandering around and the eye's path may follow very different routes. It might be zig-zagging through it or swirling around the center in an elliptic fashion but ultimately the eye should be led out of the image again. In traditional paintings, particularly in portraiture, you often find somewhere in the background something as obvious as a door or a window that serves as that exit.
Mind you, achieving the above is hard even for a very good painter but it's harder in photography because you have to make do with what you have in the scene and you can't freely rearrange or add items as you see fit. Somewhere I read about the five-seconds rule: Look through your viewfinder and when you think you are ready to take the shot, look for another five seconds to see if there are any obvious flaws in your composition or things that could be improved. Pay particular attention to the background where the most obvious blunders tend to occur.
If you are interested and have the patience, there is quite a bit of literature out there that strives to make you a better photographer. I often hear The Photographer's Eye getting recommended. I have no first-hand experience with it myself but I have no reason to believe that it isn't excellent. And looking at the preview, it seems to be dealing with all the right topics.
Something that I am currently reading (and I am sure the members of this subreddit are already getting tired of hearing me mention it again) is Pictorial Composition which only talks about composition in paintings. From what I have read so far I can tell it's going to be very tough to apply this to photography but at the very least it will make you aware of the many aspects that make a great a image.
> What exactly makes a good picture?
Composition. You can have perfect focus and exposure, as you do in these shots, but if you don't have composition the shots will be forgettable. I recommend reading The Photographer's Eye.
'Photographer's Eye' by Michael Freeman.
Even though it's mainly focused on photography, the composition rules stay the same.
In terms of constructive criticism, I must say that these photos are rather lacking..both composition and evocatively. I'd suggest you do some reading of The Photographer's Eye to improve your skills given that you have wonderful cameras that you are using.
https://www.amazon.com/Photographers-Eye-Composition-Design-Digital/dp/0240809343
The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos by Michael Freeman
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0240809343/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_8KNAxbY1X968F
Don't limit yourself to photography, there are many amazing painters. Thinking about it, maybe you should x-post to /r/art and similar subreddits.
In terms of books I've done a lot of research but found very little. A common recommendation for photographers is The Photographer's Eye by Michael Freeman which goes through all kind of lines, contrast, balance, etc. Other books I'm eyeing are Mastering Composition by Ian Roberts and Framed Ink by Marcos Mateu-Mestre. Unfortunately I haven't read any of them yet so I can't comment on the quality.
If you are really serious about it, consider getting a list of most recommended art / photography universities. Then use their websites to find courses and contact teachers personally, asking for (book) recommendations. Begin with one person at each university if they happen to forward your message since you don't want to come across as spam. Some universities even publish course literature on their website. I'd love to hear the responses if you go through with it.
I think you're looking for this book. Buy this one and Understanding Exposure, and you'll have all the books you ever need about photography. When you're finished with those two, read Strobist.com, and your photography education will be complete. After 5,000 photos, you'll start creating a few that you really like, and after about 10,000 more after that, you'll be taking photos that other people like. Have fun!
Edit: don't wait until you've read the books to start taking your 15,000 photos. Start today.
The photographer's eye.
Not bad for illustrating the basic "rules" of composition
I don't know how a purely aural medium can effectively convey a purely visual art form.
Instead, I think it would be a better idea to pick up some ebooks on composition, light or even painting to go through. Two books I would highly suggest are:
The Photographer's Eye
https://www.amazon.com/Photographers-Eye-Composition-Design-Digital/dp/0240809343
and
Learning to See Creatively
https://www.amazon.com/Learning-See-Creatively-Third-Composition/dp/1607748274
You've got a good eye for shots and it looks like you're willing to go to interesting places and get down at eye level with snakes and other various monsters (which is awesome.)
My main critique is that many of your photos need some compositional work. I saw a lot of bullseyed subjects, midline horizons, improper DOF, etc. Check out a book called The Photographers' Eye. It'll be a game changer for you. If you want something to start on tonight I'd suggest reading up on two things: a) The Rule of Thirds and b) Hyperfocal Focusing
Keep shooting!
Let's see, there was Understanding Exposure, which is especially helpful for people who have only ever shot digital b/c it explains so much of the basic functions of the camera that most people take per granted and can improve your pictures dramatically, another one of Peterson's books, Learning to See Creatively is also really good, I also like The Photographer's Eye. Another really good book if you're into B&W is Black & White: Photographic Printing Workshop, which was written for using enlargers in a darkroom but can equally be used with basic Photoshop technique, shows how to convert blah pictures into really amazing imagery using basic dodging and burning techniques. I'll post some examples of his later when I get home.
Well, I haven't read a lot of photography books, but two instructional/anecdotal books that have done a lot for me are The Photographer's Eye by Michael Freeman and The Hot Shoe Diaries by Joe McNally. None of them are strict, step-by-step instructables-style lectures, rather they cover various aspects of composition and technique. I'd say that the former one covers more of the basics if that's what you were looking for - it's kinda hard to help you when you don't provide any info apart from "photography books pls" ;)
And yeah, I am unable to recommend one photography book. I'd rather recommend two :D
The Photographer's Eye is something I picked up a while back, I felt like a lot of the information was helpful in one way or another. Used copies are pretty cheap too!
You probably have a smartphone which has a camera, right? You can start with that. Just take photos, read, watch videos, learn, take more photos, ask more questions, read more, take more photos, etc...
/r/PhotoClass2017
Book recommendations (these are excellent):
They are not free, but I watch these videos by the National Geographic master photographers. Also, try this book; it's a bit weighty but very helpful in understanding the parts of composition. A blog I read is Eric Kim Street Photography, helped me out with understanding the basics of composition.
I've been trying to improve my composition skills. I read [Michael Freeman's "The Photographer's Eye"] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Photographers-Eye-Composition-Digital/dp/0240809343/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331946138&sr=1-1) and it opened up whole new worlds for me. The problem is that when I go out in the field to shoot, I forget every damn bit of it (well almost).
I started to re-read it taking notes, but can't find the time to do it justice and end up with long gaps between sessions, and again, I forget stuff.
So now, I've typed all my notes into a document, and I'm going through each section, taking pictures that illustrate each point. I should end up with a nice photo journal. Hopefully the concepts will be driven more deeply into my pea-brain, and some of it might even stick.
It might take a while to get through it all, but hopefully it'll help me to grow as a photographer.
Have you considered some books instead of in-person classes? Obviously quite different from having an actual human look at and critique your work, but Understanding Exposure and The Photographer's Eye are two of my favorites for learning the fundamentals of how to make good and interesting pictures.
There are a lot of books on composition there, like The Photographer's Eye, by Freeman and The Art of Photography, by Barnbaum. I can recommend both of those, and they aren't terribly expensive on the used market. They are both going to give you way more than what you can read online. Barnbaum's book is more in depth and more focused on film photography, so that may be of more interest, although Freeman's book is not digital-specific (despite the subtitle).
The other approach, perhaps more intuitive, would be to study photos that you like and try and figure out why they work, why they strike your heart, and what is happening in them in terms of the placement of the subject in the frame, the lighting (what's lit and what isn't, what's high contrast, what's not), how your eye moves around the image, and what your eye rests upon. All that kind of stuff.
This is one of the foremost and comprehensive books on composition and design with a photo. Michael Freeman shows you principles, then an example photo and then why that photo works so well in achieving it.
He also shows pitfalls and common errors.
I owned an earlier version of his work, this new one incorporates digital.
Michael Freeman: The photographer's eye - Composition and design for better digital photos.
http://www.amazon.com/Photographers-Eye-Composition-Design-Digital/dp/0240809343/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1301813663&sr=8-1
Edit: Whoops... my eyes completely skipped the word "skate". Ack. I'll leave this here since it's still good advice in general.
Do this for a year, and then you'll be ready to really start studying the "rules" of photography. I recommend getting The Photographer's Eye as a good all-in-one crash course in photography.
Get Photoshop (or similar program) and learn Brightness/Contrast, Color Balance, Levels, and Curves. Shoot in RAW. Get addicted to expensive pro-quality lenses. Have fun. :)
I've recently taken up photography as a hobby. r/photography can be a little pretentious, but the resources linked on the side are generally pretty helpful.
Granted, there is a bit of a startup fee, whether that's buying a point and shoot with manual controls, a bridge camera, or springing for a full-blown DSLR. I started with a Panasonic DMC-LX5 which is a very, very good point and shoot, but I recently have been using my dad's Nikon D40x that he never uses since I felt increasingly silly looking into the screen instead of a viewfinder. Learning about exposure and being able to shoot in full-manual mode is incredibly rewarding.
To improve my photography, I plan to take a picture every day for at least 100 days. Having a guideline really helps motivate me to get out and shoot.
There are a lot of good books out there like the Tom Ang Digital Photography books, which are good technical information about exposure or The Photographer's Eye and its sequels for composition. Recently I've been reading The Passionate Photographer by Steve Simon, which is an incredible photo essay/photojournalism book that is my favorite photography book so far, and has inspired me to start taking more photojournalistic style pictures.
edit: fixed a link
Photography Changes Everything by Marvin Heiferman
EDIT: More:
Magnum Contact Sheets by Kristen Lubben
Photography: The Definitive Visual History by Tom Ang
Michael Kenna: Images of the Seventh Day
Raised by Wolves by Jim Goldberg
The Photography Book: 2nd Edition by Ian Jeffrey
The Photographer's Eye by John Szarkowski
The Photographer's Eye by Michael Freeman
The Photographer's Vision by Michael Freeman
Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson
I found this book really helpful advancing understanding on composition and content.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Photographers-Eye-Composition-Digital/dp/0240809343