Sunday 15 September 2013

Book ~ "The Better Photo Guide to Creative Digital Photography: Learn to Master Composition, Color, and Design" (2011) Jim Miotke and Kerry Drager

From Goodreads ~ Master composition and design to take your photos from okay to wow 

You already own the most important photography tool - your creative eye. With this book, you’ll learn how classic design and composition principles can be applied to a wide range of photographic situations to create images with impact. Jim Miotke and Kerry Drager, both veteran photographers and experienced instructors, share time-tested design guidelines, composition techniques, even tips on when to break the rules, that will transform the way you make photographs.

I have three cameras ... a Canon point-and-shoot that is usually in my purse, a Nikon D5100 DSLR along with some lenses, and a Nikon CoolPix (that's in between the two) that I use often.  Needless to say, I take a lot of pictures.  Gord and I took some classes last year to learn how to (1) use our cameras in other than auto mode and (2) take photographs, not just pictures.

I'm still an amateur and like reading photography books to see what professionals take pictures of and how they do it.I like taking pictures of landscapes so this book caught my eye.

The chapters in this book are:
  1. Getting started: going from ordinary to extraordinary
  2. The elements of design - lines, shapes, textures, colour, etc.
  3. Composing your photograph
  4. Depth & balance
  5. Photographing motion
  6. Pulling it all together

There is a glossary of terms and resources sections at the end of the book.

I liked this book.  It's good for the beginner who has been playing around with their camera and has a bit of an idea of how to do things ... I understood most of it and learned some new stuff.  I liked that there were lots of gorgeous pictures as examples along with the aperture, shutters speed. focal length, etc.

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